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Legendary Slovenian footballer Sebastijan Cimirotić, was not only known for his proficient dribling skills, but also for his disoriented statements. A few noble examples are: "My knee hurts on my leg", "I would like to thank my parents, especially my mom and my dad", and "I'm often self-critical, especially to myself". Our game against Russia can be summarized with one of such his statements: "That night was not our day". We lost 124-113 (72455).

We started a game with our common lineup: Lundell, Fyhrhult, Andersson, Bokholt and Dallius. Except... I can only guess I got distracted during holidays and confused Tobias Bokholt with Petter Börjesson , who should play on PF. What can I say... There are no excuses

Although Bokholt on PF made some sense offensively, our defense was greatly compromised, and I'm afraid that was the main reason for a loss, which could have been a nice upset victory over higher ranked opponent. We started the game quite well, mostly we were leveled with Russians in the first quarter, and even managed to secure a minimum lead 30-28 after the first twelve minutes.

In the second quarter, our pace even improved, three pointers from Fyhrhult and Bokholt yielded an eight point lead. Afterwards, Russians managed to come back, but we stayed in front until the last three minutes of the first half. These were the dark times, Russians went 14-0 on us, and took a lead by 9. Result was 67-60 after half time.

A few encouraging minutes in the beginning of the second half were quickly forgoten when Georgy Rankov scored over Bokholt for 80-68, breaking the psychological 10 point difference barrier. We managed to get back below, but didn't manage to completely close the gap, and after three quarters, the result was 92-82.

During the last twelve minutes, we struggled to make a come back, and we were quite close. Three minutes to go, Frank Jonasson scored for 105-98, and one attack later, Finn Egghal made both free throws for 107-100. But Russians were merciless with their attacks, and we just couldn't come any closer. When Abram Umarov scored both free throws for 116-107 less than one minute to go, it was more or less clear, that we won't turn the score, although Lasse Lundell managed to score a three pointer for 116-110. Afterwards, our desperate attempts were not successfull, and we had to congratulate Russians for their victory.

What can I say... That stupid mystake of mine could have been the decisive thing in this game and this really sucks. We still have many games to play, so nothing is over yet. We face two strongest teams in the group next, first Belgium, than Poland. Hoping for a miracle

Tried to join the discord channel, but says the invite is invalid or has expired?

https://discord.gg/xZNmX6jdX7

This one should work now

Last Monday we faced Belgium (72460). The match can be summarized as "close, yet far". Belgium proved to be a stronger opponent, and even our efforts with higher attitude were not enough.

We started the last week with somewhat mediocre game shape, especially our big men had noticeable problems. Still, our starting lineup remained almost the same, with Lundell, Giltorp, Fyhrhult, Börjesson and Dallius on the starting five. Despite our higher attitude, Belgians quickly took control of the game. After five minutes, Rodolphe Cox throwed down a "powerful two-handed dunk in the crowd", and the score was already 11-3. We couldn't turn the tie of the game, and the difference between the two teams increased slowly but steadily. The maximum was reached right at the end of the quarter, when the score was 28-15.

We demonstrated a better performance in the second quarter, although never managed to get particularly close. Tobias Bokholt brought us back within 10 points (48-39), but a strong finish of Belgians distanced them even two points further at the half-time (58-43).

It seemed that the match was decided soon after the start of the second half. After two minutes, Chris Desmet scored for +20 (66-46), and soon afterwards, the difference was already +25 for Belgians. Their superiority ended a few minutes before the end of the quarter, but it seemed, that they just stepped off the gas, and steadily controlled the game.

However, soon after the beginning of the last quarter, the Belgian coach started calling timeouts in panic, although the match seemed to be over. Always a good sign for the opponent (us). Indeed, our attack started performing much better, first Giltorp scored for 103-84, a few minutes later Fyrhult made a three pointer for 109-95 with five minutes remaining. A minute later Bokholt scored another one for 109-98, and another minute later, Lundell got us back in the game (111-102). Although time was running out, our hopes were still high when Markus Andersson scored a three pointer for 113-107 90 seconds to go. Unfortunately, Belgians managed to get back to +8, and even if Lundell once again got us closer, we didn't really manage to break the barrier. A few desperate three point attempts were succesfull, but Belgian players reliably scored their free throws.

At the end, the final result 127-119 gives a much more optimistic image of the game than some in-between scores. In any case, we have to admit that we are quite far from the level of Belgian NT - at the moment. But the goal is to come closer.

Today we face Poland, a game, where our hopes of victory are minimal. Later comes dangerous Scotland - they beat Switzerland in the last round quite surprisingly with lesser attitude, and finally Portugal, which still remains in the competition for 2nd place after their win against Russia. However, Poland and Belgium seem to have the best cards at the moment.

Two different games in the last two weeks:

Previous Monday we faced Poland, which turned out to be much stronger opponent, as expected (also due to higher entusiasm and better game shape) (72463). As for the first match against Wales, not much to say about the game, since the winner was decided before the half time. Even though our defense was somewhat decent, thanks to 2-3 zone and inside prediction, our attack was completely sterile. Once again patient offense turned out to be very bad, but for the lack of other options, we used it with desire to loose less than with higher paced tactics. Probably it would still be better if we played something else, but it wouldn't make much of a difference.

This Monday we faced Scotland (72467). I anticipated their all-in attack (meaning their crunch time), since their last game is against Poland. They have shown some very good games recently, being a strong opponent against Portugal, and beating Switzerland, so we had to be careful. The game was somewhat chaotic. Our starting lineup was Gilltorp, Egghall, Fyhrhult, Börjesson and young rookie Matthias Nilsson. First six or seven minutes were more or less even, but then we took the initiative, and managed to get to +10 by the end of the quarter.

However, in the second quarter Scotland managed to get closer, the closest score was 42-40. Luckily, we finished the first half stronger, setting the result to 49-42. In the second half we again got to +10, and it seemed, that the game stabilized. We were in front 78-66 after the third quarter, and even lead 95-76 five minutes to go. But, similarly as in our game against Belgium, Scottish players started to fly around the court, scoring three three pointers in less than a minute. When Peter Lyle scored another three for 98-92 1:30 to go, we were in a slight panic. Luckily, opponent never got any closer, and our guys were solid at the free throw line, so we managed to get back to a more secure lead. But the game indeed turned out to be quite difficult.

Our last game of the tournament will be against Portugal. They beat Poland this week, although they had to play crunch time in order to achieve this impressive win. So currently, Poland, Belgium and Portugal all have scores 5-1 and fight for the first two positions. Poland is not in danger, since they will beat Scotland easily, Belgium plays against Russia (who will most likely attack with a CT), and Portugal needs a win against us with their lower enthusiasm. So the game will be very decisive, we have an advantage in enthusiasm, and they have an advantage in quality. It would definitely be nice to conclude the championship with another victory

Sorry, my bad Then it is more or less settled

We finished this season's European championships with a defeat - Portugal proved to be a better team, and won in a close, yet not too close match (72471).

As with the last several matches, we missed a better game shape of our interior players, and were very limited offensively. Again, young Matthias Nilsson started along newcomerOla Gunnarsson, Frank Giltorp, Tommy Fyhrhult and Petter Börjesson. Also some other important players were not in a perfect shape so the future superstar Kristian Forsbratt got a chance to play his first competitive match for the NT.

Although our start was not encouraging, and Portugal managed to get a 17-8 lead, we strengthened our defense afterwards and managed to turn the score just by the end of the first Q (27-24). However, the second quarter was our worst one. After the first two minutes, we even managed to increase the lead by +7, but for the rest of the quarter, the score was 29-9 for Portuguese, who went on a break by a comfortable +13 lead.

In the third quarter, there wasn't much going on, the difference varied between 16 and 9 points. By the end, we managed to chip away one point and got to -12, which gave us some hope for the rest of the game. Bad start into the last Q quickly diminished some of that hope, as we were already behind by 20 after 2 minutes. After series of timeouts, we improved our offense, and partial score of 16-2 got us to 100-94 six minutes to go. Once again Portuguese got to +10 and were very reliable on the attack, so we could not get any closer than to 6 points difference.

So, similarly to the games with Russia and Belgium, we were close, yet still far. At the end, this is an average, quickly-to-be-forgotten result, where we beat all teams which should be beaten, and didn't beat any better team. Especially I regret my mistake for the game against Russia, that one was on me, and it went downhill from there on.

Nevertheless, it is the first season, and I hope we will build a stronger team in the following seasons. I will present future prospects in the later post. For now, it is enough to say, that there are some very talented players among 25 yr olds and younger. Unfortunately, we are very, very limited with interior players, which will bother us for many more seasons. Luckily we will be able to rely on the likes of Börjesson and Dallius for a couple more seasons (therefore their GS is even more crucial), but this hole will hit us eventually. After two or three friendlies with "decent" enthusiasm, I will again scout the players and contact the owners with new guidelines. I am now better familiar with all potential NT players, so I hope me and the owners will optimize the training process.

As for the next season, only Tobias Bokholt is retireing from the NT scene, two players (Fyhrhult and Andersson) will reach the "skill dropping" age of 34, but they have enough quality to be a part of the team for at least a season, Fyhrhult probably much more.

Yesterday we managed to beat a decent Romanian NT, which shows that we can be competitive (73326). This time, we could count on some important players such as Dallius and Lundell, who turn out to be very decisive when it comes to our quality.

As mentioned earlier, the team for the next season will remain more or less the same. If I look through generations, I can conclude that each draft class produces on average one NT class player, which is of course not enough to fill the roster, so there are some other players along for the ride.

Generation 33: Since this generation will slowly decline, I can say that it is unfortunately one of the strongest. Not the deepest, since there are only two players, who are anywhere close, but Tommy Fyhrhult is by far our best player, and he really is an added value. He will probably play for two more seasons, and has a chance to get even higher in various Sweden NT statistics categories. Along with him, we also have Markus Andersson, his club teammate, who is also a well rounded player, and can be of high importance to us. Nevertheless, I expect him to play for only one more season, for another one, he would need much luck with skill drops.

Among 32 - year olds we only have Anders Strandblom. I am not very fond of him, so his predicted role is only minor, but he kept his GS high this season, so he got quite a lot of playing time. If we were really in trouble with our game shape, then maybe Andreas Karlsson would also be considered to play, but let's hope it won't come to this.

Generation 31 gives us two important interior players. Petter Börjesson stands out among our PF/C players, and we really cannot affort to miss him. Frank Jonasson is here because there is no one else, but this still means he is an important part of the team and we rely on his GS much more, than we rely on GS of some outside player, who is relatively much better. Then we also have Ola Gunnarsson, another player I don't appreciate much, but he has some attributes that make him appealing.

The lost generation 30, where there are no significant players, is succeded by generation 29, which again gives two important interior players. Håkan Dallius is, as mentioned at the beginning, crucial for our strength. Similarly to Jonasson, Jack Stjärna is here for the ride, but, again, we have difficult time without him. I also check Sabata Nkabinde, but it seems, he is a bit late to the party.

The most important28-year old is Frank Giltorp. Thanks to his proficient GS he got quite a lot of starting five appearances this season, although some other players are objectively better than him. But he is still safely within NT roster for many seasons. Niclas Kihlsjö seems to be just a tiny step behind the threshold, he can still catch the train, but it is not 100%.

Generation 27 is the first generation, which might be a bit influenced by myself, although not much. Finn Egghall already got a significant role in the team. Unfortunately, he is more or less finished as a player, and won't be able to progress much. Peter Rosstål is currently hardly even a role player, but can still progress with some training (currently on the market) and can become quite an important player with good care. Anders Matthiasson also has some additional training to do, but is still on the track. If he grinds two or three more seasons of training, he can quickly solidify his role in the team.

Generation 26 has Matthias Nilsson, who will be an important bridge between older and younger interior players. His further training is therefore very important. Erik Åhnström is a bit behind, but he can maybe still become good enough.

Later, I will also dwell into younger generations. Generation 25 already plays an important role, but I am out of space

Will be looking to sell my utopia future NT guards (at least the HOF should be guaranteed) if I find any BIG men to train for our NT! If anyone wants to know skills, you can message me