Yallop Comments at Edmonton Press Conference

[beachesl]

REVISED REPORT

I attended today's conference in Edmonton. I spoke personally to Yallop both before and after the panel conference. I have tried as much as possible to set out his correct words which I noted down in a notebook as he made them.

During the short panel conference presentation, Yallop pretty well gave the same boilerplate found in the media for the last two weeks. It was his comments before and in the scrums, and informally at lunch afterwards that were the most interesting.

CONFERENCE

:The players used to dread going to Central America,

now they " are keenly looking forward to going".

:One of the reasons he came to Edmonton was to "reacquaint" himself with Commonwealth this afternoon, before flying hoem to Vancouver tonight.

:He said that he liked the idea of playing in Edmonton, because "large, enthusiastic and knowledegable crowds make a difference in the results."

POST-CONFERNCE SCRUMS

:Can't compare himself with Holger, as he wasn't around, and "what's gone on before is no concern to him".

:Asked about the chances of making Germany, He would not predict, but said "Why not Canada", and that "it would be a good job to make the final six, and after that we'll see." He said Mexico, and especially the USA (whom he says are clearly the best and most consistent in the region now"), are pretty powerful, but that Canada are rapidly improving and will be competitive when and if they make the final six.

:When asked about the low FIFA rankings, he said he "didn't care".

:Asked about predicting the outcome of the semi-final group, he said that most observers list the results from top to bottom: CR, Honduras, Guatemala, and Canada at the bottom. However, he says he likes to think that they "can flip the list over with Canada at the top". He also said that although Costa Rica is oftne considered the strongest, both Honduras and Guatemalla have strengths, and mentioned he thought Ruiz was an "absolutly amazing player".

:Hirschfeld is "a technically amazing player" but "he needs to find a club and play a lot more games". But, he wants to play him.

:When asked by a reporter about Chris Lemire of the Av's, Frank said that he is especially interested in him, and will get him to BC in July. He has seen him play in the Av's match in Vancouver, and wants to see him play again before July.

:When asked by the CBC reporter what it felt like to coach a team that "hammered" Belize, he laughed and said "it felt good after the first 40 minutes, but I was wondering before we scored that first goal".

When asked about the differences with coaching a club wth a regular schedule and the country, he said that "keeping up the contact was the biggest challenge".

:He discreetly sidestepped pointed questions about Holger from local reporters wanting some controversial soundbites. Again and again reiterated the postive attitudes of the players and their new sense of belief while avoiding any reference to the difficulties preceeding him. He said "Basically, I don't know Holger that well."

:Agreed with one of the reporters who asked him if an express part of his job description was to make overtures to players who stopped playing for Canada, mentioning the extensive travelling around Europe and North Amreica and contact by phone and email, "keeping them informed and in the loop".

:Asked by a reporters about the "Hargreaves loss" and the "need' for a "Poster Boy" ("an equivalent of Kara lang" in one reporter's words). He refused to name anybody that might fill that role in the team, saying that he just wanted players who could play well together and sppeak on the pitch. He said that the camraderie was most important in making the players think "Why not Canada?". He didn't respond to the Hargreaves questions, other than to say that he was "ecstatic" about the quality of the players he had.

:When asked about getting players to play for Canada, he said the key was "to get them to commit younger". He brought out the example of Johnathan Guzman, and that he phoned him and said "Your brother committed to Canada, and it would be great if you could too."

: Of course, the local reporters asked him if he remembered playing in the Brazil match in 1994, and he grinned and said "like it was yesterday". "It was a great experience, I am looking forward to going back to Commonwealth again this afternoon because of it".

He said that the strong performance against Brazil gave the team hope when they were feeling disconsolate about not making the WC nextdoor in the US when they thought they should of, hope which they carried forward to perform well in the Qualifying for 1998, when "it just got away from us on the last hurdle".

:I asked him about concerns of many that, although in the past the defense was the strongest part of the team, the defense was now one of the weak spots and maybe not sufficiently strong enough to handle the stronger Central American teams. He specifically pointed to the strong defensive showings against Wales and San Jose, and said he was happy abut how they were coming together. He said that the whole team had to play defensively "stretched", and that we can't just have a "run-and-gun" game.

:Asked lengthy questions about Peschosolido and Radzinski (these were radio jocks trying to sound knowledgeable, so they did most of the talking) he said it has worked out great, he is "glad they are back" and he is one of the most fortunate coaches around for goal scoring options. He said he is very familiar with DeRosario, of course, and made pains to point out that he was maturing and that "other players in the region don't like playing against him".

: I asked Yallop about possible rapprochement with Aguiar (Yallop did not seem to find the topic uncomfortable, and most of the local reporters looked blank when I mentioned FA) because a sizeble portion of Voyageurs still felt he was needed for a tough back midfield, and he said, "Yes, he has my email address, I told him he can contact me whenever he wants. He made his decision pretty clear though". He said he would "never close the doors on anybody". He said he felt that he wasn't in the mix for the Belize series, but was allowing to move him in for later matches before "Fernando made his decision".

:He said his goal was to develop an efficient "conveyor belt" in getting the players to return regularly to Canada, "as they need to play in Canada more".

:I asked Yallop if he had any comments about the Voyageurs in the East stand at Kingston, and he said "Yeah, that was really great, I'm looking forward to more of that from you guys, the players really need it and appreciate it".

LUNCH (About ten of us mulled around the buffet table for about 20 minutes)

:I engaged Yallop in a discussion of the challenges of getting the team together for training for the Central American dates, and the arrangements for them when there. He said that he will hopefully be using the "Evergreen" (?) facility in Fort Lauderdale, Florida (the same palce he used in January), as a staging area for the October match in Honduras and the November match in Guatemala to meet and train for a short while before flying on together to the host sites from there. He said that the rule of thumb was to arrive there 2 days before the match so that the players could be as familiarized with the area and the stadia as much as possible. I asked him about the hotels there, he smiled, and said that he would have them checked out, but that FIFA were now pretty touchy about the hosts and the hotels they put the players in now. He also said that he would have the hotels and stadia checked out beforehand by his own people so that the players would know what to expect. He also said, laughing, that he's "not going to make any extra trips down there".

:He mentioned that Bruce Twamley got back from Central America yesterday after managing the difficult effort of making both the Honduras and Guatemala home games of the last round, and would be getting extensive reports of that. He also said that he had connections in San Jose (Calif) that were good at getting tapes of televised matches from Central America, so is confident of having a lot of video of the semi opponents matches to review with the coaches and the players.

:He is strongly looking at "2 or 3 players" on each of the A-League Canadian teams, and hopes to have them in BC in July for the Hearts/Milwall tournament. Specifically mentioned that he wanted two particular goalkeepers from the A-League there (did not mention names, but I got the impression in later conversations about the A-League that they were Sutton and Franks).

Note: The local CBC TV crew made arrangments to follow Yallop and his assistant Sean Fleming around Commonwealth later this afternoon. Maybe CBC will be showing this around the country.

[Polish_LYNX_Fan]

any word on who they A-leauge players are ???

Who do u think should go from each Canadain team

Vancouver Whitecaps

Toronto Lynx

Calgary Mustangs

Edmonton Aviators

Montreal Impact

There is some decent talent and it good to see Yallop searching for a diamond in teh rough maybe that LYNX chant " ALI FOR CANADA!!!" will one day come true hehehe

[ditty]

Haven't seen a ton of Lemire lately but on what I have seen he is almost one of the last players I would select for the national team. Speed: yes, Talent: absolutely. Has it amounted to anything at this stage: not really. He's a player Yallop should definitely keep an eye on but I don't think he has come close to earning a cap, even if it is a "B" one.

I don't think anyone in Calgary springs to mind. I would have said Nick Zuniga last year but he hasn't been a regular in Niendorf's side so far this year.

[beachesl]

Well, I asked him if he would like to share the names of any of the other players, and he said he would rather not, as he was still making the decision. He said that he is awaiting further reports from the coaching staff of all the teams and hopes to see more A-league matches before over the next few weeks. He says he regularly talks to the A-league coaches not just about their own players, but rival players as well. He did specifically say that he was calling two A-league Goalkeeperss. He would not say who, but I got the impression they were Sutton and Franks.

[Guest Jeffery S.]

Sounds great to me. Something a lot of you have been calling for for years, a B team. Also sets up a situation where the players raise their ambitions as they will see that good club performance will have other kinds of dividends.

Could anyone offhand analyze how this call-up will affect club games, including anticipating a two to three day camp beforehand?

[bettermirror]

a B team is brilliant. it gives our coaching staff a great chance to not only evaluate our B players but our regional rivals as our north american (less european too) players are more likely to play a mid season friendly against caribbean etc countries than say our top euro players would be.

gives our coaches a great chance to scout these teams - also puts these other teams in a position of underestimating our full first team nats!

[snake]

vancouver-mike franks,carlo corazzin,john sulentic

calgary-

edmonton-chris lemire,lopresti,

toronto-ali gerba(ngon),andres arango

montreal-sutton,mauro biello,adam braz

MLS-PDL

josh simpson-

EUROPE

oliver occean-rob friend-

wild card picks-steve kindel,jason jordon,eduardo sebrango,tam nsaliwa

[Guest Ed]

No players from the "HOTTEST" A-League team???????

[snake]

quote:Originally posted by Ed

No players from the "HOTTEST" A-League team???????

what nationality is lutz?

[Guest Ed]

Irish I think. From the Donegal Pfannenstiel's.

[bettermirror]

since it's in vancouver think we'll see menezes? what about reda? pizzolito is my guy i think he'll bring from the a-league. jordan, sulentic and of corazzin and dasovic from the caps i think.

what european players you think we'll see?

[Massive Attack]

Caan and Brillant(sp?) should be there as well.

[Metro]

Great report, beachesl. Thanks a lot.

[Ryan Keay]

On the Lynx side of things, the first player you have to pick is Edgar Bartolomeu.. Ali also deserves strong consideration. After that there are a handful of guys who might squeak on the squad. And don't forget Robbie Aristodemo in Seattle[8D].

[Free kick]

quote:Originally posted by snake

vancouver-mike franks,carlo corazzin,john sulentic

calgary-

edmonton-chris lemire,lopresti,

toronto-ali gerba(ngon),andres arango

montreal-sutton,mauro biello,adam braz

MLS-PDL

josh simpson-

EUROPE

oliver occean-rob friend-

wild card picks-steve kindel,jason jordon,eduardo sebrango,tam nsaliwa

One cannot pick Biello over Sandro Grande. Sebrango, I believe, still has eligibilities issues given that he was capped by Cuba. Adam Braz is injured and out for the season is he not? From the Lynx, I would agree with picking Bartholomew, Gerba (Ngon) and possibly Arrango. Even if Arrango hasn't played in many Lynx games I saw, I will consder him on the strenght of his performance versus Spain at the U20.

You have to also consider Sutton and Zagar. Then possibly Ditulio who looked good at the U20 WC. I will not speak for those on the other Cnd squads because I have not seen enough of them.

[sstackho]

beachesl, great report. Thanks for taking the time and effort.

[Winnipeg Fury]

Good job beachesl ! Glad to see you got your media pass. Did you tell them you were with the Voyageurs ?

[JayWay]

Thanks Beachesl, that was interesting stuff.

[beachesl]

Thanks guys.

Yes, I told them I was a contributor to the Voyageurs, and that gave me a lot of credibility, especially with Yallop.

It was a honour to spend so much time talking to Yallop and his assistant Sean Fleming. They are truly gentlemen, and treat people with respect. Most of the media were very respectful towards me as well, and were respectful in terms of my time for questions.

[strobe_z]

I LOVE the bit about Aguiar... I can JUST see the Edmonton press guys going "who the heck is that??". Beautiful. I'm curious if Gene Principe was there? I always thought he was "just another hockey guy" until he did the play by play for the Finland match. He was great and seemed a LOT more knowledgable than the usual goofs they get to fill in for Gerry.

note: I just saw the 2 seconds Global "Sportsnight" did on the press conference. Says something that the only video Global could come up with was some ancient(?) footage of us against the British Virgin Islands... [:I]

[Bertuzzi44]

from Vancouver:

Freddie Valente, now the Whitecaps captain, impressed me a the few games I saw last season.

I get the impression Jordan is a little bit of a streaky scorer.

I guess Corrazin is always a safe bet

[David C.]

Although Ali Gerba and Edgar Bartholomeu are probably shoe-ins for the B-squad, I would not include Arango. He may have played well in the U-20 Championship but seems miles away from being a star at the men's level and is currently a fringe player, being slowly eased into the Lynx lineup.

If we needed solid defensemen, I would take Joe Mattachione and Tyler Hughes in a heartbeat over Arango. When moved back to defense (where I think they play best), from their usual midfield positions, they have been very, very solid.

Serioux has improved dramatically, since being moved to defensive midfielder. Need to see more, before making a call on him though.

[SeanKeay]

4 Lynx players i would choose

1. Edgar B

2. Ali G

3. Serioux, he needs to be freed from the lynx and move somewhere else. I think if challanged he can play at a high level

4. Theo... ooops i mean umm THEO

[argh1]

Hey , bro don't be asking questions we the fans want answers to. Then like all the reporters will be doin' it.

Good job mon.

Chi'laxin with the heavies.......puttin' on the feed bag with the power people. Our very own insider .......way kewl dude.

[Guest Jeffery S.]

I too am impressed by your work beachesl, some good questions and good to see Yallop forthcoming.

If we are going to designate or trust Voyageurs to do our "press" work we should maybe comply by having an article on the front page every time and not just a post. If you are press you should be doing press work in line with the profession (I speak as someone who does cultural journalism upon occasion) and then can do whatever you want with the bits and pieces that are left over.