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What’s the Strategy for Success?

June 3rd, 2006 | By: WC Bob | 5 Comments »

I’ve had a few hours to digest the loss to Turkey and I’ve been thinking a bit about how Angola should play during the World Cup. The games against Turkey and Argentina have shown that our defense is prone to breakdowns and that our midfield might not be capable of controlling the run of play.

So what should we do in the World Cup to overcome these weaknesses?

One option would be to bunker in and try to play 10 men behind the ball. This might help our backline, but it also takes away some of our strengths including our speed in the attack. I don’t expect to see this strategy unless we happen to get the first goal and have the last 20 minutes of the game to kill.

Another option would be to throw caution to the wind and attack like crazy. We would play like we did in the second half of the Turkey match and hope that we can score more goals than we let in. By pushing forward in the midfield, we’d be leaving our defense susceptible to attacks from our opponents. I don’t see this working very well either.

In the end I think our best plan of attack would be to play a standard 4-4-2. But in this formation we need a defensive midfielder to lend his support to the backline. We could have someone play a stopper type role with his sole job to disrupt the other team’s attack. While the focus would be on defense, out of this formation we could still formulate counterattacks and use our speed on the wings to our advantage.

What do you think? Is the 4-4-2 our best formation? 3-5-1? 4-3-3? What do we need to do to overcome our weaknesses to have success?

Tags: Angola, formations, strategy

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Comments

By anthony | June 3rd, 2006 at 4:51 am

what about 3-5-2, having a player as a man maker in the midfield

Posted from Australia

By Andre | June 3rd, 2006 at 8:02 am

4-4-2 is the best formation for our team. We do need a solid defensive midfielder for it to be very effective. Against Turkey, we should have played more defensive after the first half since we had the lead. We would still have chances to score because Turkey would look to score goals.

Posted from United Kingdom

By DonDadda | June 3rd, 2006 at 10:10 am

Guys.. first, let’s just think about the game against Turkey. Coach started at 4-5-1 with the following lineup:
1. Pereira Joao Ricardo GK
3. Joao Jamba D
5. Carlos Kali D
7. Paulo Figueiredo MF
8. Andre Macanga MF
10. Fabrice Akwa F
11. Andre Mateus MF
14. Antonio Mendonca MF
17. Jose Ze Kalanga MF
20. Manuel Loco D
21. Luis Delgado D

Then he sub’d Edson for Figueiredo (at 61′), and Love for Akwa (at 66′). (No Mantorras yet at this point). Then he sub’d Mario (a goalkeeper) for Andre Makanga (a Midfielder)… so at some point we played with two goalkeepers (???).. then later on (at 81′) Mantorras (F) and Marcos Airosa (D) came in for Mateus (MF) and Mendonca (MF). So in the second half we ended up playing 6(incl. Mario??)-2-2.

What the F?

So far 4-5-1 seems to work fine in the beginning, as long as Akwa’s legs can take it. It worked fine for us in the game against Turkey. But Coach has to be able to sense and adapt. We have to be quick to adjust to 4-4-2 to strengthen the offense when the one man gets tired, while maintaining the integrity of the MF and the D. We have to continue to put pressure on the opponents defense, to prevent an all out attack; we will not survive otherwise.

Mantorras has to come in sooner.

Posted from United States

By Kiko | June 4th, 2006 at 8:05 am

I noticed that too. What was Goncalves trying to achieve by playing Goalkeeper Mario in midfield? Mantorras has to start for us to have a chance to score early!

Posted from United Kingdom

By Joka | June 4th, 2006 at 8:14 pm

I think if they play man to man… Angola can be a force… they should follow the players and not the ball… thats what I see…

One Angola

Posted from United States

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