World

It was actually quite an entertaining match, lots of attacking play, how Moor doesn't mark Wondo twice given his goal scoring record is beyond me! Laryea was a real bright spot, I also thought Fraser did quite well and would like to see more of him in a more natural position for him, he positioned himself well and made some real nice passes, Morgan was steady in the LB position his experience really shows, a little unlucky as the cross for the 2nd goal looked like it went through his legs! Besides a lovely flick on that helped set up the goal I didn't think Jozy was very good at all, yes he was isolated, just like Hamilton has been playing as a lone striker, Delgado ran tons as usual without much end product, a nice pass for the goal however! Mistakes in the Center Back position continue to plague this team, I don't see this getting better with the players that are available!

And as expected, he is there! http://www.thefa.com/news/2019/may/26/england-u21s-squad-named-for-euros-270519

Pozuelo and Osorio were the bigger losses than Bradley - Morrow was non existent as an attacker in left midfield, it is just not his position. I don’t think Altidore has an attempt on goal the whole game as no Pozuelo to feed him properly- Delgado (who seems to miss glorious scoring chances every time we play a game against this coach) and DeLeon not up to snuff there. Should have started Chapman in one of those spots

The move was supposedly about to happen, but then he returned to Colo Colo from his previous loan and started getting playing time

Well I will attempt to do some Canadian minute tallies for us! Starting with, shockingly, PFC... Not counting Blasco/McCurdy and I am counting Macnaughton, as he is CNT eligible PFC- 3,492 League (698/game). 1,518 in CC . HFX- 1,844 League (461/game). 1,077 in CC. Cavalry- 3,515 League (703/game). 1,553 in CC. York 9- 2,916 League (729/game). 1,441 in CC. FC Edmonton- 1,457 League (486/game). Forge FC- 3,714 League (619/game).  Valour FC- 3, 896 League (779/game). A few obvious tiers here... Valour, Cavalry, York, and PFC are doing a wonderful job of playing many Canadians. They are basically averaging 8ish Canadians playing a full 90 each game (obviously it works out a little differently with substitutions and such. Forge is also doing very well and are avergaing having just under 7 Canadians play a full 90 each game.  Halifax and Edmonton are in the obvious bottom tier. They are still giving Canadians meaningful professional minutes when compared to our previous state of nothing! But you would like to see it be higher.     

Leaving York 9 aside for now where the announced numbers are clearly a lot higher than actual attendance so far making their discussion somewhat pointless, it will be interesting to see what happens in the better weather months. I was checking out an old North York Rockets program from 30 years ago last night and their 1989 regular season ran from May 28 to Sept 10 with Sunday evening kick-offs predominating. The conventional wisdom in the past in Canadian pro soccer was definitely to go for weekends and the warm weather months when a soccer crowd skewed very heavily towards recent immigrants and the stadiums available tended to be bleacher seating with no roof. The only problem with that strategy is that a lot of people try to get out of town on weekends when the weather's good especially on long weekends in the summer. The CFL seems to favour the fall after Labour Day more on attendance because their demographic has historically tended to head out to the cottage, etc.

Soccer players have free agency at the end of their contract under FIFA rules, so the parallels with the NHL are far from exact. Think Pacific appear to have done that in part because they spent more than they probably should have on a trio of older ex-CMNT players, who are living off past reputation at this stage of their career, and it limited their options on filling out the rest of their roster.

@Corazon Thanks for the update - it seems to me that we have more Canadians playing this year than we did last year at the same time. Importantly, for me, is also the fact that the top 5 in player minutes are solid CNT contributors (and not over the hill players on the decline) and the next 5 (and 11-15) include some exciting young prospects. And kudos to TFC for playing 5 Canadians the other night - we're getting there.

Hard to imagine a 22 year old who is starting to see first team minutes with Chilean giants Colo Colo go directly to the CPL.  It would be a huge pick up for CPL if it did come to fruition.

The Serie A season has come to a close and Atalanta have finished in 3rd place. This is their highest ever finish in their 112 year history and will be their first time playing in the best European competition. In this world of modern football where money so often equals success, it is so nice to see a story like this. This isn't a wealthy owner coming in and taking a forgotten team to new heights. This is just a smart project and great coaching combining to overcome so many obstacles that small teams face.  8 years ago they were in Serie B. 5 seasons ago they avoided relegation on the last day of the Serie A season. Historically a team that has finished in the lower half of the table, they have placed 4th, 7th and now 3rd in the last 3 seasons. They have done this while regularly selling many of their best young players: Kessie, Caldara, Conti, Gagliardini, Cristante, Spinazolla. 13 games unbeaten in the league to end the season with all of the pressure on their shoulders to achieve this historic result. Being able to overcome the disappointment of losing the Coppa Italia final, which would have been their first trophy in something like 6 decades! This fairy tale won't last forever. The economics of the sport will catch up to them eventually. But I am so happy for their supporters.