Clash-of-clans – What does this icon mean in Clash of Clans

Clash of Clans syncs almost in real time, but it doesn't tell you that you have disconnected from the game the moment you disconnect from the game. Starting at the disconnection time, Clash of Clans will attempt to reconnect. If it doesn't connect in a specific period of time, it will give you the error message. If you exit the game before re-connection, it wont save the changes. You may disconnect from Clash of Clans but still have a stable connection to your Wi-Fi or data. Before exiting the game, I always find a multiplayer match (because that requires a connection to Clash of Clans) then exit the game to ensure that my changes have been saved

There's no way to manually choose your opponent or skip opponents, the system will detect all clans matching your clans requirements and choose one of them. So if you're lucky you'll maybe be playing against the mentioned clan, although the chance is close to zero.

If you could choose your opponents there would probably be people abusing the system and boosting (Create 2 clans, let one clan win, then the other etc.)