Players most likely to retire after WCQ

[Jarrek]

1. Watson

2. Radzinski (age)

3. DeVos (stated intentions)

4. Peschisolido (age)

5. Onstad (age)

6. Corazzin (age)

7. Menezes (age)

... any more ...

By 2008 (Qualification for the 2010 WC)

1. Jazic will be 33

2. Xausa will be 32

[Peschfan]

Here is a list of the oldest players who wont make it to the next world cup and a list of players who will be in there 30's when qualifying starts again.

Thats all folks? 2004 2008 2010

Pat Onstad 36 40 42

Nick Dasovic 36 40 42

Paul Fenwick 35 39 41

Mark Watson 34 38 40

Carl Fletcher 33 37 39

Carlo Corazzin 33 37 39

Paul Peschisolido 33 37 39

Mauro Biello 32 36 38

Fernando Aguiar 32 36 38

Tomasz Radzinski 31 35 37

Jason De Vos 30 34 36

Tony Menezes 30 34 36

One more left?

Martin Nash 29 33 35

Mark Rogers 29 33 35

Nevio Pizzloitto 28 32 34

Gaberiel Gervais 28 32 34

Ante Jazic 28 32 34

Davide Xausa 28 32 34

Paul Stalteri 27 31 33

Jim Brennan 27 31 33

Jason Bent 27 31 33

Richard Hastings 27 31 33

Daniel Imhoff 27 31 33

Sandro Grande 27 31 33

Greg Sutton 27 31 33

Lars Hirshfeld 26 30 32

Marc Bircham 26 30 32

Dwayne De Rosario 26 30 32

[Peschfan]

Here is a list of the oldest players who wont make it to the next world cup and a list of players who will be in there 30's when qualifying starts again.

Thats all folks? 2004 2008 2010

Pat Onstad 36 40 42

Nick Dasovic 36 40 42

Paul Fenwick 35 39 41

Mark Watson 34 38 40

Carl Fletcher 33 37 39

Carlo Corazzin 33 37 39

Paul Peschisolido 33 37 39

Mauro Biello 32 36 38

Fernando Aguiar 32 36 38

Tomasz Radzinski 31 35 37

Jason De Vos 30 34 36

Tony Menezes 30 34 36

One more left?

Martin Nash 29 33 35

Mark Rogers 29 33 35

Nevio Pizzloitto 28 32 34

Gaberiel Gervais 28 32 34

Ante Jazic 28 32 34

Davide Xausa 28 32 34

Paul Stalteri 27 31 33

Jim Brennan 27 31 33

Jason Bent 27 31 33

Richard Hastings 27 31 33

Daniel Imhoff 27 31 33

Sandro Grande 27 31 33

Greg Sutton 27 31 33

Lars Hirshfeld 26 30 32

Marc Bircham 26 30 32

Dwayne De Rosario 26 30 32

[DJT]

Let's not forget that Watson was actually already retired (and even then many people thought it happened too late). Then he came back for an entire WCQ! Clearly, with coaches having certain favourites, merely looking at a list of ages or even on-field performance doesn't really mean much.

[SS2006]

i tihnk devos should go onk, i mean maldini is that old

and why raddz

but we got some good young guys, guzman, peters, derosario is still ok, occean.

well be ok in 2010 hopefully

[The Beaver]

Soccer players are often at their best in their late 20s/early 30s. The only two players from the "old" list who should at least think about sticking around are DeVos and Radzinski, but I doubt they will be physically capable to hold starting positions by the time the next round of qualifying begins.

As for the other list, I would argue that the following will form part of the core of our National program for the next 6 years:

Stalteri

Brennan

DeRosario

Grande

Imhoff

Hirschfeld

Bircham

Bent (possibly)

Sutton

McKenna

I'd leave the rest off the list, including Jazic. I am glad and thankful he decided to play for us, but I am pretty sure that one of Simpson, DeGuzman, Brennan or Klukowski will win his spot in the very near future.

Other (younger) players who may form the core for the next 6 years:

Reda (How old is he?)

Bernier

Hume

Hutch

DeGuzman

Simpson

Kluka

Nsaliwa

Kenny S

And, other very young players who may get a sniff:

Peters

DeGuzman 2

Lombardo

Uccello

Ledgerwood

Hainault

Edgars (the future Devos??)

All-in-all, I think we've seen the end of an era (a sort of messy one if you look at the guys who will probably retire from international play) and thus begins the era of "Canada's decent showing at the international youth level" (I couldn't think of a better name, sorry.) Stalteri's grouping was the first to advance out of group play at the U-20s, followed by DeGuzman's group--which at least qualified for the U-20s--and then followed by the Hume/Hutch grouping that had our best ever showing at the U-20s. The future may not be dazzling, but it is getting brighter. Not sure if any of you knew this, but in the last U17 championship--for which we narrowly did not qualify--all four teams from our region advanced out of group play. Our bunch of players--including Peters and Lombardo etc--ended up not qualifying based on goal differential (and the flu) but were very competitive in every game they played, beating Cuba and Costa Rica.

Like I said, we should have reasonable expectations, but the future looks not so bad. [8D]

[G-Man]

Can someone tell me what Bernier has ever done?

[youllneverwalkalone]

quote:Originally posted by G-Man

Can someone tell me what Bernier has ever done?

They like him at Tromso. Not a bad club, relatively.

[Chet]

While I'm not going to miss Watson terribly much, I can't help worrying about what our back line is going to look like once he and DeVos retire. Hutchinson looks to be a fixture back there for the next few years, but there's no one else I've seen that I'd have a lot of confidence in.

What have you seen from Edgars that warrants labeling him "the future DeVos?"

[G-Man]

quote:Originally posted by youllneverwalkalone

They like him at Tromso. Not a bad club, relatively.

Norway. Like I said...what has he done since FC Rive Sud? I mean that says everything about our chances in 2010. Norway, The League of Wales....The Irish league....The Surburban Belfast League....

Our players generally play in crap leagues.

Here's a plan

go to the top 30 clubs in Europe and have them train our best 30 players in their youth systems and PAY them to do it. Being trained by the best instead being trained by guys who couldn't coach in Europe (so they come here- to coach provicial teams)would improve our National team 1000%.

Imagine if Hume had trained with Liverpool instead of Transmere....

[Guest Ed]

quote:Originally posted by G-Man

Norway. Like I said...what has he done since FC Rive Sud? I mean that says everything about our chances in 2010. Norway, The League of Wales....The Irish league....The Surburban Belfast League....

Our players generally play in crap leagues.

Here's a plan

go to the top 30 clubs in Europe and have them train our best 30 players in their youth systems and PAY them to do it. Being trained by the best instead being trained by guys who couldn't coach in Europe (so they come here- to coach provicial teams)would improve our National team 1000%.

Imagine if Hume had trained with Liverpool instead of Transmere....

I've seen the products of Liverpool's youth system on our A-League team here in Calgary. NO THANKS.

[The Beaver]

quote:Originally posted by Chet

While I'm not going to miss Watson terribly much, I can't help worrying about what our back line is going to look like once he and DeVos retire. Hutchinson looks to be a fixture back there for the next few years, but there's no one else I've seen that I'd have a lot of confidence in.

What have you seen from Edgars that warrants labeling him "the future DeVos?"

I didn't label him anything--I posed it as a question, thus the question marks. What I've heard is that he's a solid and very tall defender with a great head on his shoulders for the game. Of course, he's bloody young, and if ever becomes a Devos-like player, it will not be for many moons.

[youllneverwalkalone]

Norway has produced some of the best players in the world. Their schedule also makes it a great place to play from the MNT's perspective. Tranmere are a historic and fantastic club and Hume has nothing to be ashamed of. He's playing in the football capital of the world. The real world. Not the alternative/bizzaro one where Munchen or Stuttgart is the centre.

[Massive Attack]

quote:Originally posted by youllneverwalkalone

Norway has produced some of the best players in the world. Their schedule also makes it a great place to play from the MNT's perspective. Tranmere are a historic and fantastic club and Hume is nothing to to be ashamed of. He's playing in the football capital of the world. The real world. Not the alternative/bizzaro one where Munchen or Stuttgart is the centre.

Ya, that's the kind of mentality that gets an unproven, unattached teenager selected to the national team, over players like Nsaliwa and Klukowski.

[youllneverwalkalone]

quote:Originally posted by Massive Attack

Ya, that's the kind of mentality that gets an unproven, unattached teenager selected to the national team, over players like Nsaliwa and Klukowski.

Can you explain?

[Massive Attack]

quote:Originally posted by youllneverwalkalone

Can you explain?

Well, its more of a conspiracy theory than fact but I'll try to explain it anyway. Basically, the CSA is built on a British old-boys network. The leadership is the main part of this. Yallop is a part of it because he has played in England. The basic premise of this theory is that our national team coach would rather pick a player playing in the English 3rd division, or playing youth, or trying out in England, then pick an equal or better player who plys his trade in respectable leagues, like the Bundesliga 2, the Belgian top flight or the highest tier in Portugal. The proof for my theory is choosing someone like Peters over Nsaliwa.

[youllneverwalkalone]

quote:Originally posted by Massive Attack

[quote

Well, its more of a conspiracy theory than fact but I'll try to explain it anyway. Basically, the CSA is built on a British old-boys network. The leadership is the main part of this. Yallop is a part of it because he has played in England. The basic premise of this theory is that our national team coach would rather pick a player playing in the English 3rd division, or playing youth, or trying out in England, then pick an equal or better player who plys his trade in respectable leagues, like the Bundesliga 2, the Belgian top flight or the highest tier in Portugal. The proof for my theory is choosing someone like Peters over Nsaliwa.

An interesting theory. I would like to have seen Klukowski too. I think there's some more simplistic conflict with Tam. How do Jazic, Imhof, and the Scandinavians fit into this world view? I'm genuinely curious, but my only point was that Tromso and Tranmere are good clubs -regardless of division/league.

[Massive Attack]

I never said my theory wasn't flawed.

[BrennanFan]

Ever since we got eliminated from the last wc, I was looking forward to this lineup taking us to germany:

Radzinki, DeRosario

Brennan, Stalteri, Deguzman, Hume

Jazic, Devos, McKenna, Nsaliwa/Menezes

Hirschfeld

This was the team, this was our chance, a group who are ALL playing at high levels, who had been playing together for years. But through injury, suspension, and yallop's poor selections, it never happened. We never fielded our best team... instead we had the unstoppable duo of imhoff and grande patrolling the midfield, and the geezers, watson and onstad as our last line of defence. We missed a real chance at the WC. How many will be back in 4 years... Deguzman and Hume? i can't believe we went out without ever really putting our best 11 on the field.

[Ivan]

Central defence seems to be our biggest future unknown. We need two of Edgar, Hainault, Kassaye, Harmse or Arango to be ready by 2008. Or, some Euro club has to convert Hutch into a central defender where he was an all-star at the U20 tournament.

[Guest Ed]

quote:Originally posted by youllneverwalkalone

Norway has produced some of the best players in the world. Their schedule also makes it a great place to play from the MNT's perspective. Tranmere are a historic and fantastic club and Hume has nothing to be ashamed of. He's playing in the football capital of the world. The real world. Not the alternative/bizzaro one where Munchen or Stuttgart is the centre.

WTF is that supposed to mean? I'd take Klinsmann from Stuttgart over many of those from the UK that the CSA and Cdn media put on parade. And I'd argue that Germany is a better development environment for young Canadians, based on the progress of Stalteri and de Guzman compared to their peers in the UK (take Bent and Dunfield for instance).

[youllneverwalkalone]

quote:Originally posted by Ed

WTF is that supposed to mean? I'd take Klinsmann from Stuttgart over many of those from the UK that the CSA and Cdn media put on parade. And I'd argue that Germany is a better development environment for young Canadians, based on the progress of Stalteri and de Guzman compared to their peers in the UK (take Bent and Dunfield for instance).

I like the English game. The style I mean, which is not all that dissimilar from the Norwegian game. I was defending Hume and Bernier's quality. I know if you were in charge Holger would still be here and I can anticipate why that would be great and I don't even doubt we would have made it out of this group somehow. Anyway, as much as I like Jens Jeremies, I don't care for the German style. Being half German myself, I knew the above comment would upset you -so I said it.

[Grizzly]

Nothing is more exciting than English football other than possibly Norwegian style. I personally prefer boring successful football than boring unsucessful football. If we had the players to play like Brazil I would be all for it but we don't (nor does England or Norway). I don't think we would have been more successful under Ossieck for the simple reason that his relationship with the team had declined to a very poor level and a number of our players didn't want to play for him. I don't think anyone would denigrate Ossieck's abilities as a coach, it was his personality and player management skills that were a problem. Probably what we needed was a coach that combined Yallop's easy going personality with Ossieck's tactical knowledge and coaching background.

[DoyleG]

Who's gone from the MNT?

The CSL Generation

Quite sad.

[An Observer]

Ivan, I agree that central defense is one of our biggest concerns, the other one being keeper.

For keeper, as I mentioned on another string, we need Hirschfeld and/or Sutton play regularly at a reasonably high level and a couple of the younger keepers (Fernandes, Rayner, Karim, Lindley, Wagenaar, Giacomi, and Begovic) develop quickly over the next 2 to 3 years to play first team football on a regular basis and stake a claim for a place.

I still agree that we need 2 or 3 of Edgar, Hainault, Kassaye, Harmse or Arango to develop quickly as otherwise we are in the same spot as now where De Vos's gets injured and we are in a crisis situation. For me Harmse is not a likely option as from what I have seen he is too slow on the turn. Arango needs to play at a higher level so much depends on where he goes in the next year or two. The same really holds for Hainault and Kassaye, a lot depends on whether they can get some playing time in the A-league next summer and/or be picked up by a European club side. The other player that I have been impressed with at this position is Marshal. He is big and strong and can play with the ball at his feet (although he had an absolute shocker of a game against Spain in the U-20 quarter finals). As for Edgar, I really hope that in 4 years time that he will be a starter for Newcastle and therefore, for the national team. He is already at 17 playing in their reserves ahead of any one his age there so he must be highly rated. If he continue to improve, start with a premiership side and then be paired with an older wiser Hutchinson or Nsaliwa back there, this weakness may become our strength.

For central defense, I personally hope De Vos continues for awhile so that at least in the next 2005 Gold Cup he can play along side someone at the back to help bring them along. My personal is that central defense is Hutchinson's best position. I have seen him there in two matches at the U-20s World Cup and watched him elsewhere. He is an excellent defender and when he fills out a bit he will even be better. He is also composed on the ball which is something we need. Another possible player is Nsaliwa as this is where he is playing now in Bundesliga 2. He is fast, strong, and can play the ball out of the back. His only down side is that he is not that tall (5'11" I think) but if pared with a Hutchinson or someone like that he might not be a bad option.