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Canada B vs Millwall


nolando

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Defenders Gabriel Gervais and Nevio Pizzolitto, offensive midfielder Mauro Biello and goalkeeper Greg Sutton will join the Canadian national team, Saturday, in time for international matches to be played in Vancouver, Monday and Wednesday. The national squad will face Scottish team Hearts and English club Millwall.

Gervais and Sutton will be back with the Impact on Tuesday, in time for Wednesday’s home game against the Syracuse Salty Dogs.

Does this honestly mean that we will be down two guys for the Millwall match? And playing with only one keeper?

There will be some tired legs out there on Wednesday if this is the case. Kind of stupid to risk injury and not throw in a couple more prospects to fill out the ranks. Pity we couldn't fly Brillant and Cann in to have a peek at them Wednesday. Maybe I'm just feeling spoiled from watching so many of our great young prospects play in Vancouver.

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I would bet that Reda will start, and personally I would like to see Tony play at least another half. Frank said that everyone would play 90 minutes so I think we'll see a lot of Team Munchkin Madness out there -da Serpa, Dunfield, Peters- man are those guys short! As for the keeper situation, I haven't seen many pre-season games in recent years. Do sides really play with only one keeper? Maybe against Abbotsford or the God Squad at Trinity, but it seems risky to me for Wednesday, because I have a feeling this game might heat up a bit given the "below Conference" quote from Wise and the fact that Millwall by all accounts stunk it up in the first match. Will Canada be like the Canucks and have a UBC boy in the stands in the case of emergency?

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Sheffield United under current manager Neil Warnock has often dressed one keeper in order to have more outfield options.

No Canada game is truly meaningless from my perspective either, but on the scale of importance for national team matches this is not a World Cup qualifier that we need to be overly concerned about not having a back-up keeper for.

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quote:No Canada game is truly meaningless from my perspective either, but on the scale of importance for national team matches this is not a World Cup qualifier that we need to be overly concerned about not having a back-up keeper for.

I know. Just wanted to point out that I don't know how I could have dealt with those Hearts supporters had Canada lost. I truly hope there is a larger Canadian presence for Wednesday nights game.

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Guest Jeffery S.

I definitely think we should ask someone to come in as sub keeper. All you need is for the ref (and from what I see that last for the Hearts game was from the States, not local, maybe will repeat) to red card your keeper on a takedown inside or hand outside the box and you've screwed up the entire match for the fans if he insists he should go off. You can't beg an international ref to not follow the rules of the game just because you did not plan for it.

Maybe they should ask that former Caps keeper who was at the PCSL Allstar match vs. Millwall, Sandhu is it?

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Actually, according to the VMSL website Steve London was in goal for the VMSL all stars. London was a backup keeper to Didar Sandhu for the Whitecaps in 2001, playing in 4 games. Same year that Lars Hirschfeld appeared in 4 games for the Caps. Either one of them could backup for Canada, or better yet since Mike Franks can't get into the Vancouver lineup because he's not Portugese, have him as a backup.

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Just back from SFU where I happened across the Nats practicing after my class. The atmosphere was very relaxed, almost like a family picnic. Carlo was there alongside his two young boys kicking around balls. Many of the guys cam over very respectfully to shake hands and say hello to him, including Tony.

Had a nice chat was Serioux who was very well-spoken, polite and humble. He didn't seem to know anything about us (The Voyageurs) but was happy to chat anyways after I congratulated him on the game. He said that he was hopeful that he could crack the team for Guatemala and that the coach kept telling him what a great game he had. He told me that Tony had pulled a hamstring and was the only injury from the first game. Serioux said that Tony was doubtful for Millwall and it definitely looked to me that he was out as he didn't kick a single ball when I was there. Also mentioned that Frank had not outright told anybody they were starting on the bench.

Simpson was singled out near the end of practice and was pulled aside to have a chat with Frank, sitting on the grass together. I really think they are moulding this kid into something special and everyone seemed to think highly of him. He even reminded me of a young Carlo the way he moved around the pitch, confident and with a certain degree of authority, and a buttload of potential.

The critics who are worried that this camp is more of a Frankie's Kids Club may be on to something. Of course if we win tomorrow and go on past winter to the next round of qualifying, his relaxed and inclusive approach will win more support. God forbid that's not the case, for I think that will be seen as his demise.

Overheard the staff talking a lot about Bernier and talking about the Scandinavian Leagues, but didn't catch any details. Also heard the staff mention at the very end that they were looking for tapes of Honduras' qualifiers (any of us have them?), so they can't be too far ahead in the scouting.

Anyways, that's all from sunny Vancouver. See some of you at the game tomorrow.

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I was also at the SFU practice today.

I spoke to Tony Menezes for several minutes as well as to Josh Simpson and Marco Reda. All 3 were very pleased to be at the camp, and all three spoke highly of Yallop.

Menezes hurt his hamstring on Monday and is out for the Milwall game. He spoke enthusiastically of China, and mentioned that Asian football is growing very quickly. He is pleased to back in the national team picture, and mentioned only that there wee "differences of opinion" between himseland Osieck when he was in Germany for the match last year. He was very happy that a bunch of young or otherwise uncapped guys could meld so well so quickly and he thoughtthat Canada did play well on Monday v Hearts. In his opinion, Simpson was easily the man of the match. Menezes also thought that Gervais played really well and he praised young Jamie Peters for doing well off the bench.

Reda was also pleased to be in the camp. He was polite, well spoken.He enjoys playing in Norway. He has faced Occean in Norway, and he thinks that Occean is a very goodplayer for sure.

Josh Simpson was a kid in a candy store, still thrilled about the goal he got, and he is very thrilled to be in the squad.

As for the practice, it was quite low key. Yallop mostly watched, and he had long chats with Mauro Biello as well as Simpson. Mitchelran several drills, the last of which was a shooting drill. If you scored, after the drill had run for awhile, you could stop. He had 3 or 4 guys in there for several extra minutes trying to beat goalkeeping coach Paul Dolan. The guys were tired after the extra work. Mitchell praised guys for ggod work, but he also made corrections or gave a little stick to guys who made mistakes.

Theo Zagar looked OK in net. He made some very good saves as well as letting in a few. A relaxed atmospher for sure. Dasovic and Lyall added for Wednesday's match, but no word on a backup keeper.

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Hey Ian

Were you the lean, middle-aged guy in light grey or white with a camera or a walkie-talkie looking thing and talking to Tony when Carlo was there? If you were, that's funny because I was going to ask the guys on the board which CSA offical you were. I was sitting just off the track in a blue Japanese jersey.

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quote:Originally posted by nolando

Hey Ian

Were you the lean, middle-aged guy in light grey or white with a camera or a walkie-talkie looking thing and talking to Tony when Carlo was there? If you were, that's funny because I was going to ask the guys on the board which CSA offical you were. I was sitting just off the track in a blue Japanese jersey.

Hey, Nolando,

'Twas I. Middle aged???! Not I! I could have been out there with the guys just as Morgan was.

:D I saw you there, but had no clue who you were.

What did you think of the practice?

Cheers!

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