Good evening Slovenia,

Our penultimate World Cup qualifying game against Germany ended in defeat, not surprisingly, but a much better performance overall, 24-49, compared to our previous meeting which ended up as a total battering (63-17). Being able to stop them scoring as freely and to score an addition TD is a plus for me, so I hope you can see that the team are trying.

If only the game was played in the second half, we'd have won that particular battle, after what could only be described as a written off first half, or the team forgot where they were, only realising they were supposed to be playing upon consumption of the half time orange slices provided by the teams sponsor.

It is unfortunate that some of our play has not yielded the results that we are capable of, but there is a sense of optimism that once things click we can cause a few surprises amongst our rivals going forwards.

Keeping the positive vibes going:

Ivo Vesel made his international debut and took 4 catches for 51 yards, maintaining his club form at the top level.
Davor Klopcic earned is 1st cap at centre, making 2 tackles to gently ruffle the German's armpits, bringing with him his top quality club form.
Saso Mlakar took over the kicking responsibilities from Albert Vesel, albeit not the punting duties, on his debut and performed admirably getting good distance and making 1/2 field goals.
We also had a few players making only their 2nd appearance for the national team and none of them let the side down.

There will be a time when some of the 40+ year olds will need to be replaced and without sufficient replacements readily available it may make turning this team into serial winners a bit of time, so please have patience as the transition from the old guard to the new takes place. Thanks for your support

We conclude this World Cup qualifying campaign against the Czech Republic at home, where I hope we can salvage some pride and put all the hard work together and come away with a morale boosting victory.

Come on Slovenia