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The new season started with an OT win against Belgium. If this is our new way of playing (winning in OT), I will take it. ;)
Yesterday's game was just a first warm up run for our outside players. It was nice, but they have to bring it on a weekly basis.
Our first two opponents are set. We play at home against Russia and than visit Austria.
The russian team has a wide range of players. Like us, they have three 200k+ guys. We have the home court advantage, but like always, enthusiasm 5 can be quite evil.
Austria has its prime behind it. Julian Kröll, one of the best SFs in this game, had already some downs. And if he plays, what I expect, it could be his last run with the NT.

On friday I will check our team, see what happens with the russian players and set a first line up. After saturday's game I will fix it and than we will head into the new season. Hopefully without injuries...

Game 1: Sweden 101 - Russia 92

The first game was at home and Russia came for a visit. Smol, perfect gentleman and fantastic host in one person, eleminated S5 SF Sadretdinov after 6:46 minutes and at the beginning of q2 Smol kicked the second SF out. Unfortunately both fouls were flagrants, so Smol had to leave the game too.
With Smols leave I expected a shift in our game. Away from the hero ball of Smol and more to the passing game of Säfen-Martinsson. Gustavsson stepped up and was our main assist contributer. His passing training starts to pay of.
During the game we had some runs, but Russia managed to close the gap. Thanks to our rebound game and defense we managed to hold them of. Twice, Commando Säfen started a run and pulled us away. Westerlund had a terrible offense game. Lagehall was better, but still away from his MVP season. So there is some space to improve during the next weeks.
Martinsson made a great game. He still struggles with his 3pt, but this will be solved until the end of this season. After Smol's dismissal he hold his ground and brought some important free throw shooting. And this brings me to our main problem from yesterday's game: 18-33 FW... that is horrible. We gave away 15 possible points. One of the main reasons is the game shape. So I hope from next week on, we will shoot better. Yesterday it was enough, but there will be games where we will need every point we can get.

To sum up, good game, great win. Let's keep rolling

Wait a minute. Do I know Martinsson? I have to go check now...

Indeed I do.
Peter must have been nervous to sub in so early for awesome Smol.
Well done lad!

Game 2: Sweden 99 - Austria 112

Yesterday's game was quite strange. We were guests in Austria and the host put more effort into the game. But this was no surprise after last week. After q3 we were only at -4 and everything was still possible.
And than the game took a strange turn. Gustavsson was 11-16 FG after the first three quarters. And went for 1-10 FG in the last quarter. It was, like a total breakdown. The reason is that he played 47 minutes and his stamina was at a low point. But he had a substitute and the engine ignored the pattern! All other switches worked, only his was ignored.
Smol went for 2-7 FG during q1-3 and was for me a little disappointment. Okay, his opponent was Kröll, but still I expected more. A -24 for the whole game is also a heavy impact. Lövlind as his back up was far better on this end.
Hammarstrand's 2-13 FG are the next heavy blow. Despite his exellent passing, it looks like he was trapped by the bad OD of his opponent and took one shot after another. Or the OD was so good, that he couldn't pass...

The next six games are set now.

3) @ Algeria

4) vs. Puerto Rico

5) vs. Jamaica

6) @ Wales

7) vs. Uruguay

8) @ Barbados

This season's draw looks good. If we have no injury problems and the game shape is high, we should finish the first round with 7:1. Uruguay is the strongest opponent, but luckily we play at home.

Game 3: Sweden 76 - Algeria 64

It was a much harder game than expected. I had the feeling, our guys tried everything to play bad.
Comparing both teams, it was a clear game. Higher skills, higher DMI, deeper team. Everything was in our favour. And than the turnover game started. One turnover after another, one missed shot after another. Westerlund was hold by two much weaker opponents to a disastrous game. He and Birgersson were outrebounded by a second division player. A 37 y/o guard overcame our OD and scored 14 points in 6 minutes! It feels like a bad joke from the game engine. It doesn't matter that Algeria played a 3-2 zone. Säfen and the others have enough PA to overpower an opponent like Algeria. But it was such a hard game. Our luck, that Algeria didn't crunsh us. We wouldn't have survived it.

I really hope, that this was the bad game for this season and from next week on, we can roll upwards. In the end, only the 7:1 matters.
On the positive side: our game shape was at some positions already perfect. Great effort here and please keep it up.

Great training update!
The minutes were almost everywhere perfect, a couple of important ups were achieved and the team looks better and better.

Sweden 128 - Puerto Rico 50

Our guys had an easy evening. They beat Puerto Rico with a margin of +78 points. Tjäderborg was unstoppable and finished with 28 points in 18 minutes. Birgersson and Smol contributed both a double double and the others crused along.

Thanks to our win, we improved to 14th rank and surpassed some of our competitors. With the game against Jamaica next Monday, we could even move further up. Let's keep the game shape high and win some more games ;)

Really? Again Säfen?
If we are lucky he will miss only one NT game. Against Uruguay he should be back for sure.

Last edited by Nachtmahr at 5/16/2018 3:10:39 AM

At least it wasn´t me this time!!!

Last season, after Säfen got injured against my team in the season opener, karma kicked in and the rest of my season got totally wrecked by injuries and odd occurances. But that's what you get for taking out the superstar of any team.