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Canada - Germany


Reza

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I had a lot of time to ponder the match today and, the more I thought about it, the more pissed off I am that Holger put Dasovic in this match at all.

I remember an article from one of the Vancouver papers that Winnipeg Fury posted on the old board about Dasovic's new role with the Whitecaps and recall Dasovic saying he was glad to have been switched to defence because his knees could no longer take 90 minutes of running in midfield. If Dasovic's knees can't take 90 minutes in midfield at the A-league level any more, what the hell was he doing playing 90 minutes in midfield for Canada against Germany? I give Dasovic a lot of credit for sucking it up and playing and doing his best under the circumstances. However, Dasovic should never start in midfield for Canada again. Sub into midfield late in a match to defend a lead? Sure. Start at the back? Maybe, if we're really hard up for players. Start in midfield? Never, never, never again.

Mike D

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quote:Originally posted by Gian-Luca

Well, Kicker's ratings clearly leave something to be desired when it comes to the rating of Dasovic above Imhof (one "f" in his name, by the way) and equal with Nash (who set up the goal & converted nearly all of his passes & was instrumental in every scoring chance we had, barring De Guzman's late strike). Neither had a great game in midfield, but I don't recall Imhof giving the ball away at every available opportunity that way Nick unfortunately did - for that reason alone Nick has to get a lower mark than Imhof on the day.

Well, given that Kicker gave Rau a 3.5 and he scored a goal and Nash disappeared for large portions of the game (Didn't MC2 sub in for him?). I can't quibble with a four for Nash. I thought he was weak in helping out on the right side defensively as well. As for Dasovic, he made a lot of blunders, 2 or 3 really bad passes, some missed tackles, etc. etc. but he was involved in the play and he made some good tackles as well. Frankly I gave Pizzolitto higher marks than Dasovic and Imhof but, working on the assumption that being active and doing some good things warrants some credit too, I don't have a real big problem with Dasovic being rated higher than Imhoff or Fenwick.

In a World full of caterpillars it takes balls to be a butterfly.

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quote:Originally posted by Gian-Luca

Oh, and having re-watched the match I would agree with you that Hastings wasn't as bad as I originally thought. But I still think we need to look at Jazic there, as well as Pozniak or even Klukowski (as I'm pretty well sold on Tam as right back).

We are may have a pleasant problem for the Gold Cup in midfield - a "too much depth" problem! We should have De Guzman, Stalteri, Nsaliwa, Nash, Imhof, Brennan, Klukowski, Bent, Jazic, Hutchison available - who do we leave out? I think moving Jazic & Nsaliwa to the back four (our weakest area nowadays) is part of the answer.

I think the midfield is looknig strong as well, provided everybody is healthy. Add Aguiar to the mix and it is a pleasnat situation indeed. I think Nsaliwa is a right back more than a right wingback and have been advocating this for some time now. Use Bent as cover. Jazic at left back as you say, as Brennan is more of an attacker than a defender. Hasting is decent enough to take spot starting duty but Klukowski would seem the logical second (perhaps first, never seen Ante play) choice when Jazic is absent. I would really love to see Klukowski get some time as a centre full, however. I think that he would do real well in this position and would add some depth to the DeVos, Menesez duo - obviouly something we sorely lack if McKenna is going to play up front. I haven't seen Reda save for one Lynx game on the tube and would hesitate to use Pizzolitto against any one who can break dow our defence...I thought this was his only failing - the ability to figure out how to defend productively when his partenr broke down. But clearly, we drop off the chart after De Vos and Menezes.

In a World full of caterpillars it takes balls to be a butterfly.

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Just

Just caught up with what's been said here since the game. I thought while watching that it was bizarre that Holger did not use his subs much earlier to counter Germany's fresh legs at half-time. Until then Canada were in the game but once Neuville and the other new men appeared there was only going to be one result. Yes, the guys on the bench might not be going to the Gold Cup if other players rejoin the squad, but if I had travelled from, say, Vancouver to Germany without seeing any action I would have been upset - and rightly so.

I thought Stalteri was clearly Canada's best player, followed by De Guzman. Those two were as good as their German counterparts, which was no surprise given that they play in the Bundesliga. They also showed that they were fit enough to keep going for 90 minutes at that level, which was clearly not the case with some of the Canadians who play their club football at a lower level.

I don't think Canada's defence let themselves down too badly. Yes, they were exposed at times but you have to remember who they were playing against. Pizzolitto handled the huge step-up from playing in the A-League to playing against a top international side pretty well, I thought, until he tired. Fenwick made some mistakes but did some good defensive work too. Onstad looks more solid than Hirschfeld.

McKenna's goal was well-taken but he really doesn't look like an international striker. His first touch, with head or foot, is often dreadful. But he sure is hard to play against and is thus worth his place.

I saw between 20 and 30 Canadian flags in the stadium. There were several in the block behind the net McKenna scored in, while high in the corner at the other end there was a group all wearing the same gear - white shirts and red trousers - who had several Canadian flags. Maybe Canadian servicemen/women or a sports team? There were also a couple of flags in the stand below the press seats. But not all the flags belonged to Canadians: there were some being worn or carried by young German fans, including two on my train back to Hannover after the game.

Rupert

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i am not a huge mckenna fan. he is a version 2.0 of that bald guy who played all over europe. finished his career in sweden by scoring a tonne of goals and saving his club side from relegation. he signed on for the remaining matches or something. i don't even remember his name. but, he was useless. he played for the 86ers for a while. then he retired to become a physio and is attending school in san jose. damn, what's useless' name? mckenna is a nother - albeit, more talented overall. i prefer we play de rosario and radzinski up front. speed, speed, speed. we need it against the caribbeans and south americans. we will still easily dominate in the air without mckenna. easily. it's part and parcel of the canadian/british game. good in the air.

overall, holger was a disgrace. MORE SUBS. even if they don't have the talent. they had the desire and the fitness to keep running.

our defense was solid, but naive. ala manchester united v. real madrid (aka ronaldo). it'll be far improved if we ever get de vos back!!

our midfield will be just fine in the gold cup. especially with the additions of bent, jazic, and brennan. we'll be brilliant.

i expect nothing less than a third place finish. the true litmus test will be against costa rica. we will get no worse than a draw.

we will score more than three goals in this years tournament.

call up pesch, please holger, call up pesch! with de rosario, we NEED him.

there ain't gonna be any middle any more.

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quote:Originally posted by Gian-Luca

I don't recall Imhof giving the ball away at every available opportunity that way Nick unfortunately did - for that reason alone Nick has to get a lower mark than Imhof on the day.

To give the ball away you need to win it first. Unfortunately Imhof didn't do that too often Sunday. I like Imhof he's one of my favourites, but he wasn't very good Sunday and that has nothing to do with how often Gerry said his name. Early in the first he had some moments, some nice first touches to keep a move alive and he repelled the Germans a bit by forcing them back by being in good position. That being said he didn't dispossess anyone very often and when Frier and Hinkel were running down our throats it was Imhof and Dasovic who were struggling to stop them.

I didn't think Imhof was the worst player on the pitch, but I didn't think he any better than Dasovic.

Not a big deal mind, he's had off days before, he'll rebound and he usually does the business. I still have faith in him.

I agree we need DeRosario and Radzinski together as much as possible. It encourages us to play the ball to feet and with DeRosario and DeGuzman able to hold the ball up with their feet that will allow our backs to get forward, something we're going to need if we're playing a 4-4-2. With McKenna we tend to look for little flicks and there seems to be too much space between our midfield and our front line. If either of those two are out, I'd like to see McKenna get a look. He's done nothing but score for us and that can't be overlooked.

We have a nice pool of players coming together. I'm feeling much more optimistic now than I was a few months ago. Of course, we're not getting any results to show for it, which is the scary thing.

cheers,

matthew

The secret of life is to find moments of levity and grace in what is, ultimately, a tragedy. Watching Canadian soccer is good practice for this.

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quote:Originally posted by matthew

To give the ball away you need to win it first.

cheers,

matthew

I don't know about that, on Sunday Dasovic seemed to prove otherwise. :D

Well a lot of things can happen, when you're walking down the street, and it never fails to amaze me, the people that I meet. They all say "See you later" and I just answer "How? How will you see me later, when you can't see me now?" - Kevin Ayers, The Confessions of Dr. Dream & Other Stories (1974)

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I am not going to get into the debate about who played worse. I will say, however, that the best three players on the pitch were Stalteri, deGuzman, and Nsaliwa (not counting Onstadt)after finally watching the first half(I had seen the second half earlier). I feel they were all significantly better than others on the pitch (reserving Judgement on Mckenna for the moment).

I have a MPG file of the game on my computer and I want to look more closely at the passing. My initial observation is that the accuracy of passing by those three was much better. As well, I thought Nsaliwa was playing his mark much tighter than other defenders.

Want to look again but I thought Hastings was kicking the ball away a lot rather than playing it out.

And I have to agree with those who thought that deGuzman showed some unbelievable dribbling skill. He could be our best player in a year. Stalteri was the leader on the field on Sunday.

Onstadt did well but would like to look further.

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The file is huge (currently 1.35 gb) I will talk to my technogeek son and see if I can have it compressed further.. and then I will see what I can do..

quote:Originally posted by Mimglow

Canick Oranje, any chance of you making that file available on KAZAA?

Mimglow, Ottawa

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Where are the weapons of mass destruction?

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