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Obinna

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Obinna last won the day on February 29

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  1. Not an expert as I have only seen him here and there with our youth teams, but I have liked what I have seen. I don't know if Beast is the word that comes to mind, but I will say he has a great combination of size, athleticism and technique, with a strong IQ and nice defensive instincts. He's very much a holding midfielder and doesn't shy away from the ball. He's the type where everything seems to go through him.
  2. I don't see how you can say that (for Canada). On what grounds? That he hasn't gotten enough first team experience? He's played more pro minutes than Bombito, and you cannot say in good faith that Colorado are better than Hajduk Split. Furthermore, Bombito was ready to start in the Gold Cup for Canada before he was even a starter for Colorado. I know it was a weakened Canada, but still. And none of this is considering that he's playing for Croatia's U21 team, that's not nothing. Eustaquio was playing for Portugal's U21 team right before he joined us. All of this is moot because he isn't playing for Canada, but I am just curious and intrigured by your resistance here? Tell me your thought process if you don't mind, I am genuinely curious and will respect and consider any well reasoned argument you present.
  3. You wrote what I was thinking and I hadn't even gotten through the entire highlight package from Peru DR. I saw enough in the first view minutes to draw the same conclusion that you did. Of course, it's one game and it's highlights, but Peru are last in WCQ for a reason. It's probably a good thing we have to play them in the 2nd match and not Chile.
  4. The fact we are even debating how Sigur could possibly fit into the Croatian team suggests he is good enough for Canada. Nobody in the Gravan thread is seriously debating if he could possibly get into the Croatian team.
  5. All very fair and having just watched those France Chile highlights @Gian-Luca posted I did reconsider my take, but I think I will keep my high expectations for this team for the reasons I stated, and emphasize that we are not favorites here, despite having a few high end players. These teams we will face have their own high end players, even if they are less herelded or long in the tooth. Alexi Sanchez (for example) can still cause trouble, as can Eduardo Vargas (remember him from the TFC vs Tigres clashes?), even though both are near the end of their careers. That Osorio guy for Chile seems to be a real player too. We have to be at our very best (which we haven't been) to go through in this group, but we have enough that it's possible, so we should expect our team to do what's possible, which is advance (if that makes sense).
  6. I agree with this as well. The OS guys seemed more pessimistic than I expected. I do expect this team to get out of the group, which is something none of them (besides Wheeler I guess) were willing to say. I get the arguments of why we should expect less, but we collectively need to start expecting more, imo. No disrespect to Peru or Chile, but these teams seem beatable to me. We should back ourselves. If we fail we fail, it happens, but let's lift the bar a bit. Maybe everyone is ultra cautious after the World Cup exit after 2 games? If we lose to Argentina (likely) and Peru (possible), we are eliminated again, after just two games. Maybe people are drawing comparisons between the WC group stage (toughest team first, do or die in match 2)?
  7. This. He's good as gone and it's just a matter of time. I predict he will be officially gone before the World Cup.
  8. Fully agree and would just add that I doubt it's as simple as Croatia U21 vs Canada senior team, because he's on track to play for the Croatian senior team. So possibly his thought process is Canada senior team now versus Croatian senior team later. Would Eustaquio have committed to Canada if he were on the Portuguese senior team list during his U21 days? I find that hard to believe. Again, I haven't seen him play, but all signs point to him being good enough to play for Canada right now and possibly start if we are missing Johnston and Laryea. We'd be fortunate to plug that hole with a young U21 Croatian player starting regularly for Hajduk Split. Again, I don't watch them, but they are very likely better than the average MLS team, and we have holes right now at RB and CM, two positions he plays in.
  9. Forgive me if this was previously posted. I will share it here for discussion sake: https://www.croatiaweek.com/dual-citizenship-dilemma-talented-niko-sigur-chooses-croatia/ The statement makes it very clear he wants to play for Croatia, both now and in the future, but it seems like Canada was in consideration. I don't see him abandoning Croatia right now, but yet the statement from him doesn't seem to necessarily slam the door shut on Canada either, more like he's simply excited about Croatia, and why not? They are a top soccer nation in every respect, they seem to really value him, and he was on the list for the Euros. For me this is a massive loss for Canada, very unfortunate. I was skimming his wiki page and see he was on Vaughn Azzurri "C" team at some point, back in his York days. Seems like he was slept on at every level in Canada, or maybe his development exploded once he got to Europe, maybe it's both? Would be amazing having him in our midfield at Copa America, but isn't happening. I almost feel like Koleosho is more realistic, sadly.
  10. I still don't think he plays for us but I hope we are seriously pushing for this guy. He's eligible for a switch ahead of Copa America, right? I like what @Bigandy is saying about the RB and CM possibilities. I haven't seen him play, but I imagine he could walk into our midfield as that 3rd guy ahead of Choniere and Ahmed. Yes, Croatian league isn't the best, but he's a starter on a team with a TM value of 56.5M euros and he's listed as a DM - and he's 20 years old. In MLS terms they'd be the 3rd most valuable team, just ahead of the Sounders and only behind Atlanta and Inter Miami I think we'd be crazy not to offer this guy a spot on the team and a starting role at that.
  11. This is what I want to see as well, be it Millar or Tajon as that inverted winger, with Davies making overlapping runs. Like Millar, I think Tajon is best cutting in from the left, so I think one of these guys (Tajon or Liam) has to play on the right. Maybe we go Tajon on the right, because he can drop into that fullback spot in certain phases of the game. And they can both swap wings like Davies and Tajon often do. Either way I think it's the way to go with Millar and Tajon starting. And I am not saying this just to patronize you, I genuinely think Millar is the better choice for being a starter over Shaff because I think he's overall a more rounded and better player at the moment, even with Jacob improving a lot of aspects of his game, which I am thrilled about. Furthermore, Shaff has proved to be a real impact sub, so he's a proven weapon off the bench. For me Liam has shown more ability to play in combination with the other high level players in our team. This has always stood out to me. I have no doubt he can play at the speed of our other starters in high level games, because I have seen it already, but I still have some doubts with Shaff in that regard. Shaff for me is better suited for when the game gets stretched in the later stages, where sharp interplay is less important, if that makes sense. Use him for his speed and directness and propensity for late goals. Both should make the Copa squad in my eyes.
  12. Right. Can't believe I mixed that up. Yeah, Ecuador can top the group for sure. They'd be a more interesting test for us, possibly a harder team to face. They'd have the advantage in the stands, not so much as Mexico though. 6 in one, half dozen in the other? Which one would you prefer to face?
  13. Same here, but I still feel they'll get the job done. Jamaica have very dangerous players, but Mexico has handled them in the last few encounters, and I don't trust the Jamaicans over 3 games to get more points than Mexico. Venezuela are the wild card for me. I used to watch them a LOT in the Juan Arango era, pretty much every match of the 2014 cycle (GF at the time was Venezuelan), but that was a few cycles ago now. Some of the players are the same (Rondon, Rincon), and I am familar with some of the MLS players they have currently, but I cannot say I watch them now a days. I do understand they are off to a hot start in WCQ, but *checks wiki page* they are winless in 4 at the moment, including a narrow 2-1 loss to Italy, but a goaless draw against Guatemala in Houston. In short, I don't trust Venezuela to get more points than Mexico. The other team is Bolivia, who may frusturate teams but won't finish ahead of Mexico. So that's my reasoning, anyway. As unimpressed as I am with Mexico, and as much as they could slip up, I don't think they will.
  14. @Olympique_de_Marseille I think I misinterpreted that. Sounds like Colombia is likely to play Bolivia, not us.
  15. I think Bolivia would be nice. Another Copa team and one we could/should beat, so possibly a confidence boost ahead of Argentina. @Olympique_de_Marseille if we play Bolivia do you expect it would be on this side of the pond? Maybe a send off match at BMO?
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