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Nik Ledgerwood


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Julian is in Ottawa to continue his career with the Canadian program to make one last push for the World Cup.  That is a beautiful thing and I couldn't care less about anything else.  At 34, you gotta think about travel and recovery more than anything. Given his performances for us, he made the right choice.  

Best not to speculate about his family situation, but obviously nothing can be perfect for an aging Canadian footballer.  These guys make huge sacrifices to achieve their dreams, our dreams.  

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Here's an article on the Ledgerwood signing that has a pretty damning quote towards the Canadian MLS clubs and Canadian talent. This coming from someone who could provide value to an MLS club:

And it’s a league that’s been good to Canadians; both Edmonton and Ottawa promote Canadian talent.”

Ledgerwood says the opportunities Canadian players get in Ottawa and Edmonton simply don’t happen with the Canada-based MLS sides.

“It’s always been that way with MLS clubs in Canada. There could be opportunities for Canadians in MLS but it just doesn’t happen. But it’s a league that’s linked with U.S.”

http://the11.ca/2016/01/12/i-want-to-be-part-of-alberta-soccer-of-canadian-soccer-moving-forward-ledgerwood-signs-with-fc-Edmonton/

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1 hour ago, shermanator said:

Here's an article on the Ledgerwood signing that has a pretty damning quote towards the Canadian MLS clubs and Canadian talent. This coming from someone who could provide value to an MLS club:

 

 

http://the11.ca/2016/01/12/i-want-to-be-part-of-alberta-soccer-of-canadian-soccer-moving-forward-ledgerwood-signs-with-fc-Edmonton/

I have to hope that this trend changes once the teams are able to get their own products developed. I can see why they have concerns with a lot of the older guys but it is very unfortunate

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Opportunities for Canadians do not happen in MLS???

Here is the list of players with most appearances for Toronto FC. It sure looks like Canadians get a lot of playing time there.

# Name Nation Career MLS MLS Cup CC CCL Total
1 Ashtone Morgan 23px-Flag_of_Canada.svg.png Canada 2011– 88 0 9 17 114
2 Stefan Frei 16px-Flag_of_Switzerland.svg.png  Switzerland 2009–13 82 0 11 6 99
3 Dwayne De Rosario 23px-Flag_of_Canada.svg.png Canada 2009–11, 14 76 0 12 10 98
4= Jim Brennan 23px-Flag_of_Canada.svg.png Canada 2007–10 84 0 7 2 93
4= Julian de Guzman 23px-Flag_of_Canada.svg.png Canada 2009–12 65 0 10 18 93
4= Doneil Henry 23px-Flag_of_Canada.svg.png Canada 2010–14 70 0 12 11 93
7 Richard Eckersley 23px-Flag_of_England.svg.png England 2011–13 72 0 7 13 92
8 Jonathan Osorio 23px-Flag_of_Canada.svg.png Canada 2013– 84 1 6 0 91
9 Carl Robinson 23px-Flag_of_Wales_2.svg.png Wales 2007–10 74 0 8 2 84
10 Chad Barrett 23px-Flag_of_the_United_States.svg.png United States 2008–10 65 0

7

6 78

 

 

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You cant use TFC as an example.  They change the entire lineup almost every year.  The merry go round there is ridiculous.  new coaches new Gms all the time and wholesale roster changes.  They hold onto the CDNs a little longer so the fans dont go apesh#t over no CDN players.  At most I think at most TFC had 3 regulars at one time, with a few bit player/youngsters.  Impact and VWC havnt hit a highwater mark for CDNs over 2CDN starters, plus a few more roster fillers.  Everyone is hoping (including Ledgerwood) we see more CDN content on the CDN teams, MLS and NASL included.  

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1 hour ago, Bison44 said:

You cant use TFC as an example.  They change the entire lineup almost every year.  The merry go round there is ridiculous.  new coaches new Gms all the time and wholesale roster changes.  They hold onto the CDNs a little longer so the fans dont go apesh#t over no CDN players.  At most I think at most TFC had 3 regulars at one time, with a few bit player/youngsters.  Impact and VWC havnt hit a highwater mark for CDNs over 2CDN starters, plus a few more roster fillers.  Everyone is hoping (including Ledgerwood) we see more CDN content on the CDN teams, MLS and NASL included.  

Exactly right.  TFC always has 1-2 Canadians* that play regularly (featured in that list of most appearances) but if you were to do a breakdown of appearances by nationality Canada would be far behind the US for TFC.  Americans and other internationals are constantly rotated in/out and feature regularly than the average Canadian on a TFC roster.  

*Maybe generous... Osorio was really the only Canadian to play regularly last season.  2009 was the best Canadian year for TFC when we had Serioux, JDG, DeRo, Brennan and Attakora altogether at one point... that was also one of our better years in the table despite the collapse away to NYRB.

Edited by Keegan
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2 hours ago, shermanator said:

On the subject of Canadians not having opportunities in MLS, should we believe the opinion of a current national team player, or the opinion of a guy sitting on his computer?

I get the point but personally, I'm not a fan of that kind of argument. It's like saying that you can't critic Justin Trudeau if you have not been a prime minister before. However, I can't believe people think that 2-3 Canadians par game, for Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, is enough to conclude there's a lot of opportunities for Canadians in MLS.  It must be that they love their clubs too much that they will defend MLS no matter what.

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5 minutes ago, rob.notenboom said:

I've been told that he is being looked at by FCE as a DM. 

From the Sandor article on the11.ca

"While Ledgerwood has played fullback many times for the Canadian national team, it looks as if FCE will utilize him as a holding midfielder, where he generally spends his time as a professional. But, Ledgerwood offers versatility to the club. It also needs to be said that right back Eddie Edward also came in and did a good job at the holding midfield spot late in the 2015 season.

“When I became interim head coach of the Canadian national team I had the chance to get to know Nik that little bit better,” FC Edmonton coach Colin Miller was quoted in a release issued by the club. “He was one that was so reliable and we will look at him to be a central midfield player for us. Nik will give us experience, he will give us tenacity and he will raise the bar in terms of the level of professionalism.”

Kind of interesting that Ledgerwood plays DM for club and gets converted to fullback for CMNT, while Edward usually plays fullback but gets converted to DM when the need arises. The piece that FCE needs more is a good midfielder playing as a #6 that can break up plays from the other team. Sort of like what Hlavaty used to do but minus the tendency to commit stupid fouls and yap too much to the officials. 

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15 minutes ago, canucklefan said:

I get the point but personally, I'm not a fan of that kind of argument. It's like saying that you can't critic Justin Trudeau if you have not been a prime minister before. However, I can't believe people think that 2-3 Canadians par game, for Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, is enough to conclude there's a lot of opportunities for Canadians in MLS.  It must be that they love their clubs too much that they will defend MLS no matter what.

When the argument that there are no opportunities on Canadian MLS clubs comes first hand from a current national team member, who I imagine has experienced this first hand (why else would he say that otherwise), to discredit that statement with a Wiki screenprint of a bunch of Canadians that have played for TFC is not an accurate rebuttal. However, if that is the path we are going down, I could counter with the following:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver_Whitecaps_FC#Most_appearances

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Impact#Most_appearances

LOOK AT ALL THE CANADIANS! Oh..wait...

Anyways, It looks like we're on the same page with Nik on this subject.

Edited by shermanator
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On January 13, 2016 at 5:06 PM, jedinathan said:

For people looking for an FCEd Ledgerwood kit: the club has responded on Twitter to me and will be making them. Just have to call and ask for it done (I assume there will be an extra charge for it, but the jerseys are cheap last I checked). 

780-700-2600

I called and asked about it and was told they could not do this :(

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I'm happy for Nik and glad to have him mentor the younger players on FCE. His comments about opportunities for Canadian players are interesting:

" Ledgerwood says the opportunities Canadian players get in Ottawa and Edmonton simply don’t happen with the Canada-based MLS sides. "

That happens for a variety of reasons. NASL is a lower level so more Canadian players can play there. Any player capable of playing in MLS could also (work permit willing) play in Europe's lower leagues for more money. The salary cap does factor in.

The lack of domestic status on the US based teams also is a factor  (Hello Garber, any time now would be fine with me to fix that glaring inequity). Read Kyle Porter's comments on it:

http://the11.ca/2016/01/14/porter-happy-to-leave-free-agent-fc-behind-as-he-joins-the-ottawa-fury/

Recently the NASL team's have averaged about 25% Canadian content and MLS have been in single digits. So there are more opportunities at a lower level. No surprise there.

“ It’s always been that way with MLS clubs in Canada. There could be opportunities for Canadians in MLS but it just doesn’t happen. ”

I would disagree with that statement. As others have pointed out TFC 2009 was CMNT-lite. There were lots of Canadians on the team. So it hasn't always been that way. That is simply a fact.

I would be interested in Nik's view of what can be done to fix these issues.

http://the11.ca/2015/10/26/quintessentially-canadian-power-rankings-mls-season-endnasl-1-week-to-go/

Edited by TRM
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3 hours ago, jedinathan said:

For a random player? That's pretty strange. I've heard from multiple people that they can. I don't really NEED one. Actually prefer the blank to being tied to one player.

Not just a random player, but for Ledgerwood that was discussed on Twitter. Said he'd call back if they can do it. Heard nothing back.

Anyone know who to talk to about this?

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2 hours ago, OnkelDal said:

Not just a random player, but for Ledgerwood that was discussed on Twitter. Said he'd call back if they can do it. Heard nothing back.

Anyone know who to talk to about this?

Don't know man, but I do know that the club contacted me (as the Loyal Co) directly on twitter, and said to call that number and ask for the kit. I've heard from a few others here that they got on a list.

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  • 1 month later...

Ledgerwood had some pretty damning things to say about the lack of opportunities for Canadian players in MLS specifically in a recent interview:

But, even though Ledgerwood was able to essentially land his dream job, the chance to play soccer close to home and family, it’s not an option that presents itself to many Canadians toiling in Europe.

“The surprising part is that for a Canadian to come back to Canada, it’s still extremely hard,” said Ledgerwood. “That’s pretty sad at the end of the day. Anybody trying to get into an MLS team in Canada or into an NASL team in Canada, it’s not just a showing-up-and-saying-you’re-here kind of thing. There’s a lot of work that goes into it. You still have to be on top of your game and be better than the players still here. At the end of the day, it’s not just about having that Canadian passport that allows you to play in Canada.

“I know lots of guys who would love to play in Canada. But the Canadian teams, unfortunately, we’re still not at the point where we support our Canadian players like we should. I say that more towards MLS teams, because I know the NASL teams in Canada do support the Canadian players. But, at the end of the day, just because you’re Canadian doesn’t mean you can play for a Canadian team.”

“I got lucky that things worked out really well with Edmonton and it was a team that I wanted to go to, to come home.”

http://the11.ca/2016/03/01/fces-ledgerwood-says-that-his-alberta-return-still-hasnt-sunk-in-yet/

Anddddddd discuss!

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  • 7 months later...

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