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The game was within one point (up or down) until the last minute, despite a couple of 3 pointers in a row that could have killed us. It's disappointing that 2 games didn't go our way, I'm sure Gully is more disappointed than we are. You need a bit of luck sometimes. Now it's extremely difficult to qualify, but never say never, Estonia nearly beat Finland today, so it's reasonable to expect they will be a very tough opponent both for us and Lithuania.

I'll keep training Innes for his poor shooting... it's his major weakness for sure ;)

Honestly to have the only 2 games we have lost for a total of 5 points difference, it is harsh that we have come so close. I'll get back to the grindstone and see what I can do to pull my boys up by the bootstraps and hone them even further. If Tata capitalises on my PF's weak shooting this week then I'll be able to round them off without the tournament competitive games to worry about.

HAPLESS ENGLISH HUMILIATED BY FLYING FINNS
Regardless of how we played, or what I might have done differently today, Finland are obviously a very good team. Far better than the teams we faced at the same stage in the last Euros. Though our game shape wasn't quite as good this week, I suspect the Finns are better than Lithuania as well.

Things were going against us from the very start. Finland raced to an early lead, barely missing a shot. A start that was to be repeated in the second half. In the second quarter we seemed to play better for much of it, though they were stronger than us by the end of the half.

The twelve point lead didn't look like ever being overturned and especially when the third quarter started like the first we did look in trouble. In fact the third quarter ended up being our worst, with us ending it being 24 behind. Something we're just not used to.

We did get a little respectability back by reducing the deficit to 20 in the 4th but frankly it didn't help a lot. We were embarrassed tonight, and frankly, well and truly exposed.

I have to say, though we had a mathematical chance of qualifying before today, it required us to overcome a huge deficit in points difference, so it was never very likely.

I did say at the beginning of the season that a repeat of two seasons ago would certainly be a failure. We haven't qualified, we can still do better than the last Euros, but this is still a failure.

The stats make fairly unpleasant reading but for what its worth, Innes and Simpson top scored with 16, Innes led assists with 7, narrowly topping Sharpling's 6, and Simpson and MacAusland had the most rebounds, with 7 each. Not many but there weren't an awful lot of missed shots.

Their passing blew us out of this game. Our defense didn't look good enough, which obviously makes Estonia's effort last week against them very interesting. Estonia guessed both GDPs and that indicates they thought they were clear underdogs and that the game shouldn't have been close. It might be a fluke or it might be the different tactics used, but despite a similar number of assists they did contain the Finnish frontline which had a field day against us.

In any case they are ranked #6 in the world for a reason: I doubt we can upset a team like this without bringing our best men in top form and win the tactical battle. This was always the least likely win in the group.

Hopefully we can close on a high with a win over Estonia!

Last edited by Lemonshine at 12/1/2014 2:54:36 PM

Their flow was higher than ours. Not quite a whole rating above. The same with their inside shooting, and both defensive ratings. We had an edge on rebounding, but it didn't matter because they didn't give us a lot of opportunities to rebound.

You mention gdp, which I'm sure everyone is looking at, and saying, well, obviously they were going to use LI. Next week's game, to them, would seem to be even more important than the one against us. I don't feel it is obvious that they were going to use LI, in advance of the game, when it possibly rules out its use next week. Of course, perhaps Finland think its obvious Lithuania will guess LI so they used it against us instead. Perhaps I should have seen that but we're not at a very confusing level of thinking.

Last week, Finland's game shape was very different to this week. I mentioned during the game last week that I wished we were playing Finland then. And our game shape was lower than last week.

Our LI was not obious. I had several different toughts about our tactic. It changed few times at weekend, so it was kind of right thing to do, not to guess our tactics. But, at the end we still used that LI...

Heads up guys, you did what you could.

Cheers!

I don't think we can fault Gully here, Finland are a superb team with extremely well trained players, to see their SF's hold off marshall and their PF's and C's hold off our inside as well as they did is testimony to their strength. We have now maybe 2 or 3 players with ok game shape capable of being part of a team that would have given them a run for their money, they have a whole team of players with high total stats.

I would really love to see those of us keen to train players NT capable come around a table and work on a 2 year strategy (8 season). I would love to see us do what Finland have managed to do, with about 15-20 managers committed to training quality players and working together, they have crafted an incredible squad that made our boys look like amateurs.

Let's all play our part in crafting the national team and maybe just maybe we can be celebrating success one day.

Personally, I think the right thing was done not using GDP as if it was wrong then that was us done. Not guessing allowed us a shot at testing Finland and as Vecx said they played a fantastic game and held off three of the nations best players.
Looking forward, I think it shows that we can compete with teams higher ranked than us and that England as a community is on the up and if continued in the way its being managed at the minute, we'll be up there fighting for the Euros. Credit to all managers for there hard work this season, pity some of the star players GS were not what we wanted but we have to the positives out of the games.

And gully, you've made some tough calls this year and been excellent with the team you have had each week due to the absences of key players, great credit to you and everyone involved within the community.

The injuries to Palit and Madelin and the poor shape of Singh certainly haven't helped us this season.

Your right there, hopefully next season we can stay injury free and have a good consolation tournament.

Palit hasn't been injured, but two of his team mates have, one of them twice. I think thats correct, it could even be more. So its fair to blame injuries for his absence too, rather than blaming his luckless manager.

I would really love to see those of us keen to train players NT capable come around a table and work on a 2 year strategy (8 season)

I'd love to see this but there's a couple of problems I see with it. It requires those people to put their team's interests second to the NT. I don't think most people want to do it.

The other problem is getting hold of the right trainees. I've tried to convince people its in their own interests to train or sell their rookies, its still not happening. I'm not even sure posting in every league in England has made a bit of difference.

I'd suggest putting together the best training minds in England to help those people who have trainees, whether they be NT/u21 or raggyarse rovers standard, to train them to their maximum, but I feel we'd just have the same problems I've already mentioned.