So in case others are interested, here are the stats I put together:
Age-AI-Age17-AI17-Age22-AI22
Canada 29.43 352.71 27.94 354.82 27.00 338.45
USA 30 339.51 28.06 336.06 27.41 320.86
Ukraine 29.66 333.29 27.88 332.12 27.18 317.18
Ireland 28.40 323.86 28.65 337.82 27.41 321.36
Estonia 29.20 320.43 26.71 322.71 25.95 307.64
Australia 29.14 314.97 28 314.18 27.18 300
Total roster is a little better than Ukraine for second best, while AI17 and AI22 is roughly tied for 2nd best.
Ireland, Estonia, and Australia are top heavy with the most sub-300 players at the bottom of their rosters. USA only has three (the goalies), Canada has 1, Ukraine only 3, Estonia 6, and Ireland + Australia have 8 each.
It is gonna be an interesting group and as we saw last time everything can happen, when Denmark promoted just ahead of Estonia! Canada was on paper a clearly better team back then as well, but the real question is, has the canadian manager learned from his mistakes last time around?
Canada really should win the group and Australia seems to be the weakest link, but after that it is impossible to predict where the rest will finish, as the differences arent that great. Estonia might look abit weak on paper, but they have nasty line chemistry and a fantastic manager, so they are always dangerous.
Personally I have a crucial game versus Italy tommorow, followed by a scary Latvia team and an almost as nasty challenge in Russia, so it is very much uphill! Especially since we have a very young spuad, not by choice, but simply because we have no suited veteran depth whatsoever this time around! On the plus side if we survive this time, things will look pretty good next campaign at least, so there is alot stake actually
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It has been fun to take a national team in shambles and basically rebuild the pipeline all the way down to 21 year olds, so I can get the players and line chemistry in the future I desire! Obviously I have had tons of help from various managers and especially the U20 Coach, but I have unique overview of the relevant danish players! I had expected alot of resistance, when dealing with distribution issues etc, but I found that pretty much every single manager has followed my guidelines fairly well, so that has been a huge help!
I really dont feel that the team is "mine" untill the next WC, as the changes made will be in full effect at that point and the older players still have a bit "off" distribution in my world.
I didn't realize your goalie was so good. I think he's and 83 or 84 rating. I expected a dog fight.
