the fact that he though of this plan (very daring plan, and the chances for him to pull it off where slim) and executed his part of it, i find that worth giving him credit for it.
and their is also something else. Germany was the strongest from the beginning, that is something everyone will agree on. if you looked at the second spot, their were 3 teams ( 4 if we take Cyprus into account) that could have won that spot. for Cyprus, they needed everything to go right ( and in BB it hardly ever goes right, still it's worth a try). they needed to win their games, and hope for us to lose to eachother.
the misstep was that he didn't count on having a fight with the remaining teams...
that said, i find he deserves the credit for trying to pull it off. he'll atleast have won 1 spot on the rankings, and if he's lucky, he might end up 3rd in our division.
what Joe has learn this season, is what it means to be seen as the team to beat for the second position. Geramny was first, and if you look at the rankings, Belgium should be just behind Germany in terms of strengh in the team. yet we weren't. and the others saw that aswell.
it unlikely that we'll be the highest ranked NT team in a round robin pool, but we might be ranked second again, and be seen again as the team to beat. i hope that Joe ( or whoever succeeds him if he were to stop with the NT) will remember this lesson. what it means to be seen as the team to beat. i am not sure if the results of some games would have been different, but out of each game (and each season), you got to remember the good points and the bad points. and take them on with you to the next game ( and next season). you got to work on them.
ofcourse, i would have prefered to see Belgium without a loss at this point. cause then we would be qualified at this stage, and the remaining game, we could have used as a game to try out something new...
but as i said, things rarely go as you would like them to go, or as you had planned them. that is what makes this game so much fun, cause it's unpredictable. no matter what the odds are, you can win a game. i recall BoD getting beaten in the cup by a 4th division team(!) a few seasons ago. i've seen BoD make an incredible comeback in B3 this season, to win the game.
and if LoD can do it, why wouldn't our NT be able to beat Germany? if we lose, so be it. our NT won the games against Danmark and England, with GS of players, that were far from ideal. Joe has done whatever he could under the circumstances, and he's done a great job untill now.
even if Joe loses the game against Germany, and we end up being 3rd (or 4th), even then, i wouldn't have wanted anyone else as NT coach. Joe has shown us that he dares to make decisions everyone else wouldn't have made. and to be honest, i still believe in Joe. he has nothing to prove anymore. he's a great coach, and his proven that to everyone already.
if you compare the salary of the NT teams we played against, then you'll see that the Belgian NT team is one of the few that doesn't have one or plural 100k+ centres. yet he's given us ( however small it may be) a chance to qualify. that second place is still ours and it will remain ours until next week monday. what happenes monday, we don't know that yet, but let's have faith in Joe. he has given us a shot to qualify, so let's see if that one shot will be enough.
cause unlike Danmark, we don't have to take their game into account. if we can keep the goal difference in the game against Germany really close, then Danmark will need to trash England to win. and what if we were to win? then the game of Danmark doesn't even matter anymore.
our game, will be decisif for who gets that second spot. not the game between England and Danmark...
so everyone here should tune in monday, and come and see the game against Germany. come and have a look at our NT team, and be proud of what Joe has accomplished.
Rev