Dylan Hughes called up for Wales

[redhat]

Dylan's young. All the best to him, hope he decides for us later.

[Gian-Luca]

It doesn't look promising though. Unless he's just telling the Welsh press what they want to hear, it sounds like we are the last resort for him internationally, and frankly it is somewhat tiring and depressing to keep hearing this over and over with so many Canadian players.

I'm just glad that this news came at the same time as us qualifying for the 2007 WYC - less depressing that way.

[Moosehead]

quote:Originally posted by Ed

That's quite a stretch to accuse Hargreaves of 'using Canada'. He was absolutely gutted to be cut by Tony Taylor. From that time on, he had nothing to do with Canadian soccer (CSA in particular).

Apart from saying publicly on a national television on sportsnet that he was going to play for Canada.

[Andrew W]

I don't find the news depressing, I've moved on already. As far as I'm concerned we don't need to get into battles over players that are hedging about representing Canada. Like I've said before, let's move forward with the players that want the shirt.

If he turns out to be the next best thing, oh well! **** happens. BTW, did anyone suspect he was hedging when he turned down the U20 chance last year?

[Free kick]

quote:Originally posted by Andrew W

BTW, did anyone suspect he was hedging when he turned down the U20 chance last year?

I did find it odd at the time. But I was not aware of his Welsh roots. Had I known, it would have been more obvious. But again, as I mentioned earlier, the frustratng part is that he waited til the last minute to bail all the while training with the team and incurring expenses that were bourne by Canadian soccer. An honnest person would have stated from the start that he was hoping to play for Wales and declined all invitations. But showing up and making the team gave him some of the credentials needed to entice sides like Wales. That is what is very annoying, canadian soccer was used.

[Timotas]

This guy can **** himself, if he doesn't want to play for Canada, good for him, play for Wales. Canada has soo many up and coming players, that in a few years time we'll be smacking Wales, 3 goals to nil .

[beachesl]

On the other hand,we have to distinguish between the player that is wanted by Canada who decides not to play for his country if asked, and the player who is not wanted by Canada and decides to grab the experience to play at the international level with another country.

The Canadian player who tries in good faith to play for Canada but is told he is not needed should then be applauded, not criticized, for taking any other opportunity to take his football to the international level. There are several actual players in this category, and every one is a great Canadian even if he has to play for another country. We would ALL do this if we had a chance, even if our first choice would be Canada. There is nothing about being a Canadian that forces us to be eternal bridesmaids. Let's not let our distaste for OH's extreme actions cloud our fairness towards others.

[Ivan]

The other point that makes this "less depressing", is the fact that it now appears that players born outside Canada, but with Canadian roots, are looking to come here.

See Tomek Charowski, Will Johnson and Jason Devenish from previous threads. From the game reports Charowski appeared to have outplayed Hughes, but I obviously did not see the games and do not want to turn this into a pissing contest between who is coming and going.

Hughes is a great prospect who I hope stays, but if he jumps right onto the Welsh team it says alot for the depth of players we are producing here.

[Andrew W]

quote:Originally posted by beachesl

On the other hand,we have to distinguish between the player that is wanted by Canada who decides not to play for his country if asked, and the player who is not wanted by Canada and decides to grab the experience to play at the international level with another country.

The Canadian player who tries in good faith to play for Canada but is told he is not needed should then be applauded, not criticized, for taking any other opportunity to take his football to the international level. There are several actual players in this category, and every one is a great Canadian even if he has to play for another country. We would ALL do this if we had a chance, even if our first choice would be Canada. There is nothing about being a Canadian that forces us to be eternal bridesmaids. Let's not let our distaste for OH's extreme actions cloud our fairness towards others.

Hughes is wanted by Canada, thus his invitation to many camps (which he accepted) and the invitation to the U20 WC last year (which he declined).

[beachesl]

Yes, good points, but let's see whether what the actions of both he and the CSA are before rushing to judgement as to what his intentions are.

[mattbin]

I may have my facts wrong, but if I do remember them correctly then Dunfield was a far different situation.

Dunfield was being courted by both Canada and England. He committed to the England youth team for two years, and did not officially cap for England during that time. At the end of that commitment, he accounced that he was going to play for Canada, and won his first cap at the very first opportunity following that announcement.

I think the reason that Dunfield seemed, to some, to be "playing" Canada was that he did not say anything either way while he was playing for England. To me, that says something about his integrity. He agreed to play for England for a couple of years, and did so. It would have been unfair to England to say, at any point in that period, "I'll keep playing for you but I want to play for Canada". Instead he did what he said he'd do; when that was done, he announced his intentions and followed through on them.

To compare to OH -- OH said he wasn't sure, said he'd play for Canada, said he wasn't sure, and then capped for England without making an announcement either way.

Hughes has played for both teams and announced he's going to play for Wales; if that's the case, it's a reverse Dunfield and no harm done. Until he changes his tune, though, the CSA shouldn't waste any time or resources, or even long distance charges, on him. If you're playing for Wales you're Dylan Who and that's the end of it.

The only thing that I'm not sure about was this period of commitment that Dunfield had to England. I seem to remember there being something about a two-year commitment. Does anyone else remember this? Am I making it all up? Sometimes I do that.

Allez les Rouges,

M@

[Free kick]

Good point regarding Dunfield and the integrity issue. Your explanations seems to match my recollection of the facts. True, compared to Hughes, he didn't show up to camps and the split to avoid getting cap-tied. But still, he only chose Canada once he realized that becoming an international for England was not in the cards. Specifically, when he realized that he wasn't talented enough. That is the disturbing part. He came to realization some time after the U20 WCQ and before U20 finals in Argentina.

It comes down to players with unique situations because of their ancestry and birthright taking advantage of a situation that 99.9% of other footballers don't have. It still defeats the spirit of what international football is all about. Plus, if every other canadian player did the same, would we ever advance above the nineties in the fifa rankings?

[kelownaguy]

Take this for what it's worth guys... but living in Kelowna I used to know Rob Friend's sister Jill who is a hell of an athlete herself (volleyball player at U of Calgary and in the national team mix). When Dunfield first joined Canada he played on I believe the U20 or possibly U23 team with Rob about 3 years ago. When I had asked Jill about Dunfield joining Canada she said the CSA had given Dunfield a large sum of money to join the Canadian side and a lot of the players on that team were pretty pissed about it cause he was nothing special to begin with. Obviously info like this was not made public but most of the players know about it and some of them were sickened that a guy would need to be payed a large sum of money to choose to play for his country. I guess it turned out to be a smart move for Dunfield since he made a few extra bucks and would never have a chance with England now anyways, but it leaves quite a sour taste in my mouth and ever since then I am not a big Dunfield fan at all....

[kelownaguy]

although I'm sure there's a lot of people in this forum that wouldn't mind the CSA offering a large sum of money to the younger Deguzman to get him to put on a Canadian jersey. I would like to think that he'll pan out a little better then Dunfield did..

[Free kick]

quote:Originally posted by kelownaguy

Take this for what it's worth guys... but living in Kelowna I used to know Rob Friend's sister Jill who is a hell of an athlete herself (volleyball player at U of Calgary and in the national team mix). When Dunfield first joined Canada he played on I believe the U20 or possibly U23 team with Rob about 3 years ago. When I had asked Jill about Dunfield joining Canada she said the CSA had given Dunfield a large sum of money to join the Canadian side and a lot of the players on that team were pretty pissed about it cause he was nothing special to begin with. Obviously info like this was not made public but most of the players know about it and some of them were sickened that a guy would need to be payed a large sum of money to choose to play for his country.

That is very interesting to hear. What I had found dissapointing was that he was not part of the U20 WC qualifying games in Victoria whereby Julian deGuzman was made captain and we performed very well despite the fact that goals were not in huge supply. Then we showed up in Argentina and Dunfield was made captain instead. That team looked totaly clueless and disinterested. Maybe it was the opposition, but surely come on, how can we be 3-0 behind at the half against Iraq in the first game and be dominated to taht extent. Compare that to our most recent efforts in 2003.

People will point to Dunfield pass that lead to one of the very few goal scoring chanes we had in that tourny, but on the whole, I was expecting so much more from him given the hype aurounding him at the time. Granted, I thought that we had overrated our qualifying performance ( we did have home pitch advantage thus should have scored more) but I too found his play disappointing. As for the squad, maybe it wasn't that great, but its still hard to believe that they were that bad either.

[Gian-Luca]

Oppong was the original captain of the U20 team in Victoria, not De Guzman. IIRC, Oppong was standing in as captain for the then-injured Adam Braz (who ended up not playing in the qualifiers or the finals due to that injury).

[Guest Dave]

If the CSA paid off Dunfield, I doubt that either party would advertise the fact. Perhaps the payoff was just a false rumor which circulated among the U20s at the time. At this young age the players would likely be less suspicious of the veracity of such "facts".

[kelownaguy]

like I said Dave, take it for what its worth....It is coming straight from the mouth of one of the Friend family members so it's not like I'm just making this up and throwing it out there though. Lets be honest though, this stuff happens a lot behind the scenes that we don't hear about so it shouldn't be too shocking, especially given the fact Dunfield was a highly rated prospect at the time with some time in the England system.

[Guest Dave]

I'm not doubting you in the least, KelownaGuy. I also am not doubting Friend or his sister. Just raising the possibility that everyone involved may be simply repeating a rumor that they believe to be true, but may not be. Of course the story might be accurate. However, I would not bet money on it.

[Free kick]

I did not realize this. But if you look at the other thread on this page there are discussions on the recent U20 match against Haiti held just two weeks ago. I was not aware that he played in that match. That was just two weeks ago!!!! odd isn't it. Also, Jaime Peters did not play in that match

______________________________________________________________

Canada U20s vs. Haitian Selection

July 25, 2004 - Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA

Sunrise Hilton Sports Complex

Canada 1(1)

Haiti Selection 1(0)

Goals: Canada – O’Neill (11); Haiti Selection – unavailable (75)

Cautions: Canada – 68’ Gyaki (68); Haitian Selection – 78’ unavailable (78)

Canada – Thomas Lindley; Nikolas Ledgerwood (captain); Simon Kassaye; Andrew Hainault; Patrick Kellly (46’ Graham Ramalho); Carlo Schiaboni (46’ Petro Czoli); Ryan Gyaki; Tomasz Charowski; Franco Lalli; Jeremy Shepherd (62’ Marcel De Jong); Riley O’Neill (46’ Dylan Hughes); Head Coach – Dale Mitchell; Subs not used – Josh Wagenaar; Jaime Peters

[ditty]

quote:Originally posted by Ed

If he makes the senior Kaiserslautern squad this year as he states he'd like to in the article, this would be a big loss for us. He is very young to be winning a spot on a Bundesliga squad as a striker.

It's hard to read into what a few reserve team appearances may mean for his career at this point. Whether he's on the cusp of the Bundesliga or not is hard to say but I'd agree that losing him can't be anything but a negative.

That being said, decisions like these seem to be seemingly out of everyone's hands. The CSA invited him to Dubai, he was called before that as well, so what can you do. He doesn't seem to have any reason to harbour a Hargreaves-esque grudge.

[Gian-Luca]

quote:Originally posted by Free kick

I did not realize this. But if you look at the other thread on this page there are discussions on the recent U20 match against Haiti held just two weeks ago. I was not aware that he played in that match. That was just two weeks ago!!!! odd isn't it. Also, Jaime Peters did not play in that match

______________________________________________________________

Canada U20s vs. Haitian Selection

July 25, 2004 - Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA

Sunrise Hilton Sports Complex

Canada 1(1)

Haiti Selection 1(0)

Goals: Canada – O’Neill (11); Haiti Selection – unavailable (75)

Cautions: Canada – 68’ Gyaki (68); Haitian Selection – 78’ unavailable (78)

Canada – Thomas Lindley; Nikolas Ledgerwood (captain); Simon Kassaye; Andrew Hainault; Patrick Kellly (46’ Graham Ramalho); Carlo Schiaboni (46’ Petro Czoli); Ryan Gyaki; Tomasz Charowski; Franco Lalli; Jeremy Shepherd (62’ Marcel De Jong); Riley O’Neill (46’ Dylan Hughes); Head Coach – Dale Mitchell; Subs not used – Josh Wagenaar; Jaime Peters

Peters was injured in the game prior to this one, as the opposition (Jamaica?) fouled him deliberately to take him out of the game because he was causing them so much trouble (or so the reports I read seemed to indicate).

[bc_soccer_fan]

I hope that Hughes doesn't commit to Wales. Sure he may not be as good as some of our other players, but who is to say that he won't be better in 5 or 10 years from now. And even if he doesn't become better than our other players it would be nice to have him as depth in case of injury or suspension.

[Timotas]

quote:Originally posted by ditty

It's hard to read into what a few reserve team appearances may mean for his career at this point. Whether he's on the cusp of the Bundesliga or not is hard to say but I'd agree that losing him can't be anything but a negative.

That being said, decisions like these seem to be seemingly out of everyone's hands. The CSA invited him to Dubai, he was called before that as well, so what can you do. He doesn't seem to have any reason to harbour a Hargreaves-esque grudge.

The brink of being in the Bundesliga doesnt mean THAT much, until he is a proven Bundesliga player, then we can worry if we don't have him playing for our country. Remember Dunfield? Playing with Manchester City, cracked their first team for the last game of the season, won the Man of the Match, now hes playing for Bury in League Two of England (Old Division III), on the bench as well. You can never predict a players future. Even someone like Freddy Adu might have all the star-struck go to his head and eventually by the time hes 20, he could still be playing in the MLS as an average player because of lack of motivation, just an example of how you can never predict a players future!

[Gordon]

Hughes has played for Wales before, so this is nothing new. While one would obviously like him to play for Canada, especially if he turns out to be a good'un, it is his choice.