Yallop Names Gold Cup Roster

[snake]

it was either friend or will johnston.with johnston the more pressing need to get cap tied to canada.

[Ashton Gate]

Tam Nsaliwa is well known in Alberta as a quality player and I hope he is able to sort out his club situation in Europe this Summer, ultimately Canada will benefit.

Personally, I felt that the U-20 WYC in Holland unearthed two young players of quality in Ledgerwood and Edgar. Gyaki has an excellent engine on him and will also benefit from the no nonsense approach of Neil Warnock at Sheffield United. Sheff Utd also have coaches of real class in their youth system e.g. England legend Tony Currie. With Edgar also learning from Peter Beardsley at Newcastle, I think these are going to be young players to watch.

In contrast to these players of genuine quality, Frank Yallop has chosen Jaime Peters again. I think this player was found wanting at the WYC and needs to bed into the system at Ipswich ASAP. He desperately needs to work on his poor first touch, ball control, technical kicking ability, passing, crossing and movement off the ball. Yes, he has a burst of pace and can quickly chase down balls that he has kicked pass defenders, however unlike Frank Yallop, I just don't think he is ready for prime time.

I hope he proves me wrong at the Gold Cup!!

[An Observer]

Perhaps it was posted here previously but I didn't realise that Imoff transferred to Bochum. I believe they were relegated to Bundesliga 2 last year....but they must be a half decent side and possibly have a chance of going back up this year.

[Joe Keeper]

Officially, Im dissapointed with some of the senior players decisions not to attend. Hopefully Yallop wont pull a Holger and start to ommit them in the future. If he does that, he gets my vote for the heave-ho. Its no sense beating this horse to death though, these are the players we have to work with.

Its not all that bad a squad for this tournament and they may surprise. These young players seem to be hungry for National team success, given the Guatamala and N. Ireland game results.

The real question is, how do they line up? Theres alot of possibilities here.

My vote:

-------------Sutton

Simpson---Gervais---McKenna---Hutchinson

Brennan------Grande----Serioux-----Bernier

---------DeRosario------Hume

[Guest Jeffery S.]

quote:Originally posted by An Observer

Perhaps it was posted here previously but I didn't realise that Imoff transferred to Bochum. I believe they were relegated to Bundesliga 2 last year....but they must be a half decent side and possibly have a chance of going back up this year.

I didn't see or hear that at all, was it posted on Canadians Abroad? Any more info on that?

Thanks.

Another obvious ommission in my view is Dani Fernandes; instead of taking starting keepers from squads in the middle of their season, you have a player in Vancouver now, not into pre-season officially with his team until mid July (so not missing that much of it), and who was given starts with Paok throughout May, so game sharp.

I get the impression sometimes that Frank just throws the thing together any which way, with not real clear idea of how it is supposed to work.

[Dandal]

quote:Originally posted by Winnipeg Fury

[--snip--]It would be nice to know the staus of Friend, Ademolu, and Stamatopolous. Where they asked, and what happened.

Stamatopoulos told a local newspaper in Boden in an interview after returning from the Florida camp that Yallop had let him know that he needed to play in a better league than the swedish 2nd tier if he wanted to compete for a national team position.

I don't know if the 2nd tier discussion applies to Ademolu too. Even if he scores quite a lot, he relies a lot on his pace but is technically a bit, let's call it immature. From what I understand there are already players on the squad with these qualities?

[Ivan]

quote:Originally posted by Dandal

Stamatopoulos told a local newspaper in Boden in an interview after returning from the Florida camp that Yallop had let him know that he needed to play in a better league than the swedish 2nd tier if he wanted to compete for a national team position.

I don't know if the 2nd tier discussion applies to Ademolu too. Even if he scores quite a lot, he relies a lot on his pace but is technically a bit, let's call it immature. From what I understand there are already players on the squad with these qualities?

Yet he calls Pozniak, not even playing for a third tier Norwegian team? Doesn't make sense, unless Poz is hurt. Actually, still doesn't make sense given his comments to Kenny & Ademolu.

[canso]

Fire Yallop Now!!!!!!

[Winnipeg Fury]

quote:Originally posted by Ivan

Yet he calls Pozniak, not even playing for a third tier Norwegian team? Doesn't make sense, unless Poz is hurt. Actually, still doesn't make sense given his comments to Kenny & Ademolu.

Poz was injured. He played FKH's last match on 05/06/18.

As far as Nsaliwa goes, we don't actually know what FY said regarding his future participation with the national team. Neil Davidson said 'he would likely not be called', but did Yallop. I don't see any quotation marks.

[canso]

He wouldn't just speculate. Yallop must have given him that indication that he was no longer welcome.

Which is the worst kind of news for the program.

I promised to wait till after the Gold Cup to start with the Fire Yallop postings, but, in my mind, there is no need to wait any longer.

[Gian-Luca]

I also had no idea that Imhof had moved to Bochum. Totally understandable that he, Stalteri, De Guzman and Klukowski (who is still essentially with a new club - this is his year to prove his starting worth) miss this tourney. I hope in 2007 we all see them though, as with WCQ out of the way hopefully all Concacaf teams will be sending their best teams (really this tourney should be once every four years) & taking the tourney seriously. And we will need that tourney with our best players to help prepare for qualifying in 2008.

Will Johnson I expect is picked as a reserve over Rob Friend simply because of convenience. Its easier to call up a guy who is playing in the US than in Norway, especially when the tournament is being held in the US. Notice that all the reserve players are North American-based - I think that's another reason why Wagenaar gets selected over the Euro-based keepers.

I don't have any problem with the roster, really, except that it would make sense to have Rob Friend taken a look at given that he's having a great year. I would liked to have seen Nsaliwa there but if he turns down the invite fair enough - though I suspect there is still more going on between those two (Tam & Yallop) than has been reported, since Tam will apparently be treated differently than Imhof, Klukowski, De Guzman, Stalteri, Radzinski etc.

[El Hombre]

quote:Originally posted by canso

I promised to wait till after the Gold Cup to start with the Fire Yallop postings, but, in my mind, there is no need to wait any longer.

Oh goody, cause yelling out "Fire Yallop" always brings so much to the debate. []

On the one hand, I like the fact that FY is trying to instill a little pride in playing for Canada. However, if he is going to rule out players so quickly and be very stubborn about this stance, then we are in trouble. One thing that puzzles me is that Nsaliwa and FY were together for a week for that camp. If Nsaliwa was concerned about his professional future and that he wanted to concentrate on his contract, why did he not communicate this to FY? He must've had ample opportunity to do this.

I also think Jeffrey was bang-on when he said that he gets the impression that FY fixates on certain players (Peters, DeRo etc.) without taking into account others. Seems to be a recurring theme in roster selections.

One thing that I might commend Yallop on is the fact that he might be listening to a few here about player selection. Everybody on here was calling for Nsaliwa and he was added for a camp. Same thing sort of happened for Reda. I may be giving this forum too much credit, but it seems to me that many of the players mentioned over and over again here, eventually get a look. Hopefully that'll follow for Friend.

FWIW, this is how I'd line up:

<center>

Sutton

Bernier-Gervais-McKenna-Brennan

Hume-Hutchinson-Serioux-Simpson

De Rosario

Occean</center>

We have at least 3 players coming off injury (Poz, Sutton and Grande) are there any others?

[Gian-Luca]

What sums up the current A-league situation in Montreal & Toronto. 6 current Impact players on the squad, one of the reserves. No current members of the Lynx, but 5 former members there.

Looking at this line-up now for who is there, rather than who's missing, I'm a bit worried about our central defense. Wondering if its worthwhile dropping Serioux back to his old right back position he had with the Lynx and putting Atiba in the middle with McKenna. Grande can fulfill the ball-winner role instead of Serioux anyway. Now who's our creative mid supposed to be?

Part of the difficulty in assessing this line-up & suggesting formations is that I have no recollection of seeing Leduc play (I probably have, just don't recall anything in particular, don't even know what he looks like) and I've never seen Rhian Dodds play, though if he's anything like his brother who plays for the Lynx I will know what to expect.

Glad for Ali that he has finally been called to play for the senior team. At least that's one former Lynx chant I'll be able to use again.

[Gian-Luca]

Actually if DeRo is now playing creative central midfield for San Jose, perhaps he's the guy to go to for our creative mid role. With Occean, Ali & Hume we have enough strikers to afford to do that (and could even push McKenna up there if need be). It will be a reunion for Ali & Iain, the strike tandem for the successful 2001 WYC qualifiers that never got to play again when Ali was mysteriously cut from the U20 team going into Argentina.

[Free kick]

quote:Originally posted by Gian-Luca

Actually if DeRo is now playing creative central midfield for San Jose, perhaps he's the guy to go to for our creative mid role.

I am afraid that, with the current style that our national teams play under Mitchell and Yallop, there is little appreciation or regard for creative midfielders . The central MF that I normally associate with the description that you provided is more and more taken up workman type players rather than artists. The talented players ( better word would be athletic) are sent on the flanks to run up and down the pitch to kick high in-swinging balls inside the box. In every other country around the globe, a player like Peters would have been groomed and placed in the middle. Whereas Mitchell and yallop like to put their least talented players in the middle of the pitch.

I was dismayed last night watching Jpn-Bra for about 30 minutes. Watching the Japanese play, left me wondering why we cannot play that way? The Japanese were able to create great scoring chances through the middle of the pitch and successfully traded scoring chances with Brazil. There was no sense of domination from Brazil from what I saw. Furthermore, they ( japanese) played what looked like a 3-5-2. Remember that? When we played that system, we never looked outclassed in games. Yet recently, more and more, we look outclassed, hurried and hanging on for dear life. Much like in the nineties. Another thing about the Japanese, the recognizable players on their squad all played in postions that were in the middle of the pitch. Unlike Canada, whereby one of our more prominant players ( JDG) is sent to play on the wings.

Finally, how much more internationally recognized are the Japanese players compared to Canadians? yet right now our squad looks to be not even in the same league when you watch both play.

[ditty]

quote:Originally posted by Ed

All you armchair critics joining FY and Neil Davidson ****ting on Tam for refusing the invite might be less critical if you realized he is out of contract this month. He had a one year deal with Saarbruecken and it has yet to be extended.

As far as I am concerned, his career is much more important than this rather meaningless (this year) Gold Cup.

How is Neil Davidson personally taking the piss out of Nsaliwa? To me, he was just reporting what Yallop said.

Just pure speculation on my part, but it seems like Yallop maybe feels jerked around by Nsawila (which I fully understand Nsaliwa feels he's experienced). My guess is that Tam indicated he'd be involved, attended the Florida camp, then changed his mind.

Nsaliwa may have a perfectly legite reason, like you said (out of contract, trials coming up, etc.). It just seems strange that he'd commit to one stage leading up to the tourney, and not the tournament itself.

Saying he'll never be invited again is a bit of stretch. Nsaliwa will be invited again the minute it makes sense to have him when we enter WCQ again.

[Free kick]

What happened to Alim Karim? I hope that they didn't choose Wagenaar over Karim Based on their performances at the WYC. If they did, You have to wonder just what Yallop is smoking?

[Gian-Luca]

quote:Originally posted by Free kick

I am afraid that, with the current style that our national teams play under Mitchell and Yallop, there is little appreciation or regard for creative midfielders .

Not sure I'd lump Mitchell in with Yallop here - it seems to me that Tyler Roselund was played in the role I'm talking about by Mitchell in the qualifiers & the WYC (except for the aberration of the Colombia match in which we didn't play any offensive tactics at all). He's also played Gyaki in the middle, allowing for some offense to come in the centre of the park, not just relying purely on the wings.

Yallop on the other hand, and Holger before him in his latter days, has often gone with two ball winners in the middle of the park & relied almost soley with penetration down the wing. He has played DeGuzman in the middle at times with Imhof, but in WCQ eventually put him out on right wing and put Grande in the middle with Imhof, neither of whom are creative. And the problem with De Guzman is that he doesn't play that creative role for his club, even though he probably has the techinical capability to do it for us.

That's why slotting in DeRo there, if he's excelling at that at San Jose, makes sense to me. Will Yallop follow suit? I'm not overly confident, but you never know.

[Gian-Luca]

Here's the US roster we will be facing. Seems a little closer to their A team than ours is. Which doesn't help our cause, but hey, they've got their own league.....

ROSTER BY POSITION

Goalkeepers (3) –Marcus Hahnemann (Reading FC), Kasey Keller (Borussia Moenchengladbach), Matt Reis (New England Revolution)

Defenders (7) –Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96), Jimmy Conrad (Kansas City Wizards), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Liege), Eddie Pope (Real Salt Lake), Greg Vanney (FC Dallas)

Midfielders (9) – Chris Armas (Chicago Fire), DaMarcus Beasley (PSV Eindhoven), Brad Davis (San Jose Earthquakes), Clint Dempsey (New England Revolution), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado Rapids), John O’Brien (ADO Den Haag), Ben Olsen (D.C. United), Steve Ralston (New England Revolution)

Forwards (4) – Conor Casey (FSV Mainz), Eddie Johnson (FC Dallas), Pat Noonan (New England Revolution), Josh Wolff (Kansas City Wizards)

[Ivan]

quote:Originally posted by Free kick

What happened to Alim Karim? I hope that they didn't choose Wagenaar over Karim Based on their performances at the WYC. If they did, You have to wonder just what Yallop is smoking?

I seem to remember Karim starting a game during Olympic qualifying in El Salvador and having to be replaced by Olivieri at half time with the score 0-0. Either he was hurt, or pressure was getting to him. Regardless, he has not played for Canada since.

[RS]

quote:Originally posted by Gian-Luca

Here's the US roster we will be facing. Seems a little closer to their A team than ours is. Which doesn't help our cause, but hey, they've got their own league.....

ROSTER BY POSITION

Goalkeepers (3) –Marcus Hahnemann (Reading FC), Kasey Keller (Borussia Moenchengladbach), Matt Reis (New England Revolution)

Defenders (7) –Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96), Jimmy Conrad (Kansas City Wizards), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Liege), Eddie Pope (Real Salt Lake), Greg Vanney (FC Dallas)

Midfielders (9) – Chris Armas (Chicago Fire), DaMarcus Beasley (PSV Eindhoven), Brad Davis (San Jose Earthquakes), Clint Dempsey (New England Revolution), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado Rapids), John O’Brien (ADO Den Haag), Ben Olsen (D.C. United), Steve Ralston (New England Revolution)

Forwards (4) – Conor Casey (FSV Mainz), Eddie Johnson (FC Dallas), Pat Noonan (New England Revolution), Josh Wolff (Kansas City Wizards)

Oh man, that is an extremely strong squad.

Our boys really have their work cut out for them, if they didn't already.

[youllneverwalkalone]

quote:Originally posted by Free kick

I am afraid that, with the current style that our national teams play under Mitchell and Yallop, there is little appreciation or regard for creative midfielders .

If we had any, they'd be greatly appreciated. Just because JP's short doesn't mean you can throw him in the middle and expect Davids. What about his pace? Should you ignore that and play Imhof on the wing? Doesn't the 3-5-2 need wingers? Or is everybody bunched up in the center of the pitch, "creating?"

I don't think a 3-5-2 is a bad idea, but a 4-4-2 with DMs is okay too. Especially considering the defenders called for this competition.

[Gordon]

quote:Originally posted by ditty

Just pure speculation on my part, but it seems like Yallop maybe feels jerked around by Nsawila (which I fully understand Nsaliwa feels he's experienced). My guess is that Tam indicated he'd be involved, attended the Florida camp, then changed his mind.

Nsaliwa may have a perfectly legite reason, like you said (out of contract, trials coming up, etc.). It just seems strange that he'd commit to one stage leading up to the tourney, and not the tournament itself.

Saying he'll never be invited again is a bit of stretch. Nsaliwa will be invited again the minute it makes sense to have him when we enter WCQ again.

It really doesn't matter if Nsaliwa's reason is reasonable or as petty as it comes. It is up to Yallop to try to put the best team on the field. That means sucking up and inviting any player who you think he can help. If Yallop doesn't think a player can cut it, then fine, just say so. Man management, unfortunately, means that you have to be the one to put the ego aside for the sake of getting things done. And this goes for Aguiar as well. Yallop picks the team. If he thinks a player is not who he wants on the team at this point, then he is doing what he should as the coach: he lives with the results. But to decide that anyone isn't going to get a call in the future because he feels jerked around is poor management. Team before ego Frank. It doesn't matter what kind of a jerk you think a player is. If he can help your team compete then you suck it up and call him. And if you don't think a player can help, then say so. In any case, a simple, "I invited him, but he declined" or, "I didn't invite him because I didn't think he was one of my best 23 at this time" are acceptable answers to the "where's player x" questions. But don't ever close the door on future selction: with Aguiar at least, he responded to Aguiar's petulance by leaving the door open for reconsideration on the players part. If Davidson is reporting what he is getting from Yallop, rather than speculating on his own, then this is quite disturbing.

[Free kick]

quote:Originally posted by Gian-Luca

But I don't see DeRo as a guy who: always wants the ball, and can control the game. He is more of the type who relies on space rather than a guy who can dribble and control the ball in tight quarters and beat tight marking.

As far as Gyaki, well his role was not necessary that of a creative MF players but rather that of a withdrawn striker. he has demonstrated a good touch around the goal. But I would not say that he is classic MF. I've not seen eveidence that he relishes the ball distribution element of the game. The usage of Rosenlund and previously Chin in the middle of the pitch supports my point. Neither were adept at ball distribution and struck me as far from gifted from a creative and technical standpoint. Yet there they were.

I saw the usage of Grande in much different manner. He has showns me quality ball distribution. Have you noticed that our play improved a little when he was inserted.

[redhat]

quote:Originally posted by Free kick

I was dismayed last night watching Jpn-Bra for about 30 minutes. Watching the Japanese play, left me wondering why we cannot play that way? The Japanese were able to create great scoring chances through the middle of the pitch and successfully traded scoring chances with Brazil. There was no sense of domination from Brazil from what I saw.

Finally, how much more internationally recognized are the Japanese players compared to Canadians? yet right now our squad looks to be not even in the same league when you watch both play.

Agree with you completely. But let's not forget that the Japanese

have the league, the money, and the infrastructure. They can pay

great coaches, and even naturalize foreign players as citizens.

We can't even agree on a stadium, have a domestic league, or have

decent kits. And they have loads of fans that support their team.

So what's wrong with us? I'm curious as to why we keep playing

4-4-2 when every opponent (eg. Portugal) knows how to counter it.

I'm curious as to some of the tactics and the player selection

by Yallop. And then there's the lack of preparation, evident in

WCQ. And do our players really progress while playing for Millwall,

Ipswich, or 2nd-tier Sweden?

But let's look for the positives. Olivier Occean, Sandro Grande,

Sutton, Rhian Dodds, Jamie Peters, Will Johnson, Serioux, and

a few others will get their shot. I recall Sandro not willing to

play for us early on, while in Serie B. And look who's in the

pipeline: Stalteri, De Guzman, Klukowski, Stamatopolous, Ademolu,

Gyaki, De Jong, Lombardo, and Uccello. And even Rob Friend.

We'll just have to wait and see.