superwhitearmy Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 Wow I was doing some research on Hume playing for Canada, I didn't realise you had such a good site. Hume has been outstanding for Tranmere recently, ever since he came back from Qatar and became a father he's really started to do the business. His goal was a peach, most of the buildup to the game had all been about Swansea and Lee Trundle but Iain took all the headlines with a 25 yard screamer. When do Canada next have a International because we wouldn't want to lose him right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 Rumours of a friendly in March. World Cup Qualifers and a warm up in June the only thing currently scheduled. The New Canadian coach will try to lineup a few more friendlies in April & May but, time will tell as whether anything materializes. There will be a camp in Europe for Canadian players based in Europe sometime in March if the rumoured friendly materializes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superwhitearmy Posted February 16, 2004 Author Share Posted February 16, 2004 What are your chances for Germany, we all watched the U20's do well on tv before Christmas but don't know too much about the full side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachesl Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 Welcome superwhitearmy! I assume your name is a nickname for Tranmere supporters? When would the Second Division Promotion playoffs be, if Tranmere makes it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superwhitearmy Posted February 16, 2004 Author Share Posted February 16, 2004 We still have a chance of the play offs but we've drawn far too many games this season and need to start winning quickly if we are going to be up there. Usually they are in mid May. I'm more worried about any friendlies you have in March as we have a bit of a fixture pile up at the moment and still there's the cup to contend with. Yeah actually superwhitearmy sounds a little bit like a white extremist group, perhaps we should change it to occasionallysuperwhitearmy. Because we only play in white half the time and we are even less occasionally 'super'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 quote:Originally posted by superwhitearmy What are your chances for Germany, we all watched the U20's do well on tv before Christmas but don't know too much about the full side. The full national side has had its ups and downs in recent years. The past year was a rough one. We have some talent but not much depth. I think our chances for Germany in 2006 are decent enough, but we are not a lock, and some of the others on this board would disagree with me as to whether the chances qualify as "decent" . We are pretty excited about our new Coach (Frank Yallop) but he has only been around for a few months and as of yet has had littel chance to put his stamp on the team. Key players for the Full side are Radzinski (Everton), DeGuzman (Hannover 96), Stalteri (Weder Bremen), & DeVos (Wigan). Some other NT players from the Second Division are Jason Bent (Plymouth) and psuedo-Canadian Marc Bircham (QPR). Hume has probably worked his way to fourth on the Striker depth chart behind Radzinski, DeRosario (San Jose) and Peschisolido (Sheffield U). He is also in the mix for the midfield as well, although likely not a starter if the full team is there. Basically a squad player on the full team right now, but the way he is going, this will not be the case for long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superwhitearmy Posted February 16, 2004 Author Share Posted February 16, 2004 Is that the Frank Yallop that played for Ipswich, saw him play a few times over the years. Should be interesting on Tuesday, Hume comes up against Jason Bent as Tranmere play Plymouth. Personally I always think Hume looks better coming from midfield, but I suppose at a higher level you don't get the kind of space as in Division Two. He says he prefers it up front anyway. He's not really an 18 yard box player most of his goals have come from long distance and he doesn't really do tap ins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachesl Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 Better than the "Lily Whites"! I think that a fair estimation of Canada's chances to make it to Germany would be "moderate to good". The biggest problem is with the term you used: "the full side". We are so seldom able to get our best players on because of injuries (we don't have the depth of the Yanks) and because of availabilty of players due to most of the best playing in Europe (and UK ). We have a preliminary home-and-away WCQ series on the 13th and 20th of June with Belize, IF they are not suspended by FIFA. We should win that without much problem. The big problem will be the semi-final round starting on August 18 and finishing mid-November. It is a 4 nation Group , with only two advancing, which will probably have Costa Rica and Honduras, along with Guatemala if their current suspension is lifted by June. That will be VERY tough, especially the ties in Central America for obvious reasons. If we can advance to the six-nation "Hexagonal" Final from February to October, 2005, our chances would be very good, as relatively weak sides will be progressing from the semi groups with Mexico and US. If we reach third, we will automatically qualify. If we get fourth, likely, we play-off in mid-November 2005 with the fifth place Asian qualifier. Our defence needs to be stronger, our mid-field has some weak spots, but you have to like a strike force of Hume, Radzinski, Pescholido, and De Rosario! You've probably seen the other threads where we hope that Hume will be transferred to the Premier League so he won't have conflicts with the International calendar.... "bite your tongue", right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachesl Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 Yes, that Frank Yallop, who coached the San Jose Earthquakes to the MLS title 2 of the past 3 years. Also, an alternative English rock band called "The Frank Yallop Experience" was named after him. Did you know he was/is Canadian? Born in England, but moved to Canada as a boy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superwhitearmy Posted February 16, 2004 Author Share Posted February 16, 2004 Something really needs to be done about the International calender because it's not helping anybody when there is this much overlap. I see he missed out on the Olympic Qulaifiers which must be a blow. I've spoke to Iain a few times and he really enjoys his International trips and always seems to come back a bit fresher so we don't mind too much when he misses the odd game. But at the moment we have that many injuries that I don't think we can spare him. As for the Premier League......I don't think he's ready although Portsmouth have been showing some interest. Somebody said Palace have bid £400k but with a 2 month old baby I can't see him moving to London. Also Tranmere will get £300k in television money as we are 99% certain to be on tv in the next round, I think it would need a lot more money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachesl Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 The conflict thing is tough. Although FIFA rules say we can "force" him to come for Internationals (but not the Olympic matches), clubs can often get around it by putting pressure on the player. Hopefully there will be good cooperation between your club and our national team, as we will probably end up needing him a lot. This is one area where we hope Yallop will have an advantage over his diplomatically-challenged predecessor, Holger Osiek (Holger still has some champions here, especially in setting up the youth development). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachesl Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 Hume would have made a differnence to our Olympic qualifying, but probably would not have brought us the qualifying, as we were also missing some other goodies due to club conflicts, and, frankly, we stunk. It's a touchy issue here, but a minority of us see the non-qualifying as a mixed blessing as we have (hopefully) an important WCQ match on August 18, halfway through the Olympic tournament (which must seem like an event on Mars to the English). We just have to rationalize the whole club/country thing. Imagine if we had qualified, and the problems of getting our best under-23's and "Three Overagers" for August in Greece, and then for the WCQ's as well.....madness! Aty least we don't have to worry about the Confederations Cup nonsense! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Can. in UK Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 Hume is currently in third for the 'Player of the Round' competition on the FA web-site (TheFA.com), behind Tim Howard and Jose Reyes.... He needs your votes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonovision Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 That link doesn't work ... try this one: http://www.thefa.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matthew Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 What weaknesses in the midfield? Aguiar, Stalteri, Brennan, DeGuzman. Plus Bent, Imhof, Nsaliwa, Bircham, Hutchinson or Hume off the bench. To me that's the strength of the side. I'd say Hume is ahead of Pesch on the depth chart, he'd be a great spark off the bench. When are the FIFA dates in March? We'll obviously need them to hold any kind of Euro camp. I'm not too bothered with a friendly, I'm more interested in making sure Yallop has time to see all of the players at his disposal and get some training time in with them and teach his system of play. I agree that missing the Olympics may benefit us for WCQ, but it would have been a huge boost to the game. Not quite on par with a World Cup spot, but possibly as big at the U19 women got. Seriously. It was in a TV friendly time slot, few team sports going on. Look at the push basketball got after Sydney. I think baseball will benefit after Athens as well. I think our WCQ odds are tight. Guatemala are always a pain to play and they have more skill than usual. If Honduras hadn't had a bunch of injuries after their Copa America run (where they beat Brazil in the QF) and if they hadn't completely shat the bed in Trinidad, they would have been through ahead of Mexico. Now they have Bora Milutinovic which could be just what they need or a disaster. Costa Rica has a good team, but I don't have any faith in Steve Sampson as a manager. Still they've got to be favoured in our group. If we can get through that we better get to the World Cup. It gets a whole lot easier I would think (not that the Hex is ever easy). cheers, matthew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachesl Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 Well, from what I saw last year, the midfield never gelled, and control and delivery was a problem. Perhaps Hume can help with the delivery angle. The midfield bench you listed is real raw, and Hutchinson should perhaps play defence, where we really need help. The March International dates are March 30-31. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ed Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 Hume celebrating Saturday's game winning goal vs Swansea, courtesy of Betty's network: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marcl_19 Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 that player on the right looks a bit frightened of Hume...thats passion right there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gian-Luca Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 quote:Originally posted by matthew Costa Rica has a good team, but I don't have any faith in Steve Sampson as a manager. Still they've got to be favoured in our group. If we can get through that we better get to the World Cup. It gets a whole lot easier I would think (not that the Hex is ever easy). cheers, matthew That's the silly (if not ridiculous) part of the qualifying system over here - the margin for error increases the closer you get to the World Cup, and in this case, the semi-final round is more difficult & challenging than the final round. Hume will be a vital member of the Canadian squad (even if he isn't a first-choice starter), because he can put the ball in the back of the net, the area that has been our biggest weakness in qualifying each of the past two attempts. The addition of Hume & Radzinski will give us substantially more depth in terms of goal-scorers than we had at each of the past two qualifying attempts. Hume scoring from great distances is terrific, because we've not really had anybody that does that on a regular basis (or at all, come to think of it). Even if Hume is better coming from midfield and scoring from great distances that being a front-running target man/tap-in specialist, I can see him starting up front in Central America, particularly if Radzinski happens to be unavailable for any encounters down there. He would not be able to play as a lone striker, but in those countries I can picture the likes of Costa Rica, Honduras & Guatemala having more of the possession & Canada doing more defending & counter-attacking, and what better way to counter-attack than to have Hume collect the ball in midfield, run with it for a bit & blast it into the net (a la the match against Spain). Canada's top 4 strikers are all quick, relatively small, good with the ball at their feet, and just as good (in the case of Radzinski) or better (in the case of De Rosario & Pesch) at creating chances than they are at putting them away. Hume may be in the same camp as Radzinski in this respect (from what I've seen thus far). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matthew Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 quote:Originally posted by beachesl Well, from what I saw last year, the midfield never gelled, and control and delivery was a problem. Well considering we used a real mix bag in the midfield and I don't think we ever had more than two of our top mids in any one game, I don't think it's a big surprise our midfield wasn't great. Of course nothing has been great in the last year. I think we have enough veteran cover with Bent, Imhof and Birch or even Nash to get the job done, plus young guys emerging like Tam, Hume and Atiba. I don't think Atiba is quite ready to start (but let's not re-start that debate) and since he's going to play in the midfield for his club, I think we should expect him to be a midfielder for us intl-ly. Thanks for the dates. Anyone know if Sportsnet are going to show all of the FA cup QF? I really want to see Hume and Pesch play, but you know we're going to get ManU and the other EPL teams for sure and the fun lower div games have less priority. cheers, matthew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gian-Luca Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 quote:Originally posted by beachesl Well, from what I saw last year, the midfield never gelled, and control and delivery was a problem. Perhaps Hume can help with the delivery angle. The midfield bench you listed is real raw, and Hutchinson should perhaps play defence, where we really need help. Keep in mind that either Dasovic or Hastings (neither of whom would be expected to be midfield starters - and possibly not even on the bench - in qualifying) started in midfield for almost every match last year, while most of the players Matthew mentions were absent for nearly every match (and some for all). So our midfield in qualifying, if their's any justice, should be like night & day in comparison to what we used last year. Our midfield hasn't gelled like it should - but that's why we need some friendlies to allow them to do so (and I mean a proper first choice midfield). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 I think that one of Hume's greatest potential on the national team is his freekicks. We haven't had a decent freekick taker since (at least) 2000, when I started following. No more crappy Xausa ones!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 quote:Originally posted by Gian-Luca That's the silly (if not ridiculous) part of the qualifying system over here - the margin for error increases the closer you get to the World Cup, and in this case, the semi-final round is more difficult & challenging than the final round. Unless you are T & T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 With regards to the midfield, It would not surprise me to see 2 of Stalteri, Nsaliwa and Brennan playing fullback when we had the best 18 together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kclee Posted February 16, 2004 Share Posted February 16, 2004 quote:Originally posted by Daniel I think that one of Hume's greatest potential on the national team is his freekicks. We haven't had a decent freekick taker since (at least) 2000, when I started following. No more crappy Xausa ones!!!! The last good freekick taker was Dale Mitchell. I saw Hume score on 2 freekicks when he was 16 against Guatemala U20s. He strikes the ball with great force and can bend it (as we all know now). Canada needs to play the ball into the freekick area on the ground and play for them. Hume is bound to pot a few. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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