Who is our A team

[RJB]

All this talk about this being our "B" team at the Gold Cup has puzzled me somewhat. Who is really missing, and in what way is this our "B" team?

I see a few names missing: Stalteri, Radzinski and De Guzman. Three players? After all, De Vos has retired from the squad.

But Sutton is there, Hutchison, Brennan also. Who is missing aside from the 3(4) above?

Because after watching this team, and reading a lot of posts, I'm starting to believe that this team is full of players that are now the "A" team, give or take a few.

Just curious about your thoughts.

[jonovision]

Although he hasn't played much for Canada, I think if Klukowski hadn't declined Gold Cup duty, he would start ahead of any of the defenders currently with the squad. Nsaliwa might arguably be a first 11 guy if he ever comes out and plays. Imhof is another guy who has played in most of Canada's big matches but isn't around this time.

[LUFC]

Well we are still missing Klukowski, Reda, Nsaliwa, Imhof and Hirschfeld to go along with Stalteri, De Guzman and Radzinski.

Also Occean wasn't available for the first game.

[beachesl]

A: Whoever will be our starters for the beginning of World Cup Qualifying in 2008.

All our rosters from now on should have this bloody-minded goal as the focus. Why try to put a squad together involving players who won't be there? Radzinksi will not be there, De Vos may yet. Some players not at the GC like Bircham may be (like Radzinski) available for a hypothetical best-of-the-world-squad-today for some imaginary present-world-championship, but I don't think he now has any future on the squad (he should have been involved in the last WCQ semis though, along with Brennan, Klukowsi and Nsaliwa).

In terms of your (RJB's) list of players missing now, Klukowsi also has to be near the top of the list (perhaps Tam Nsaliwa and Reda added).

I don't think this GC team is close to an A team. There are upcoming players (who maybe should have been there instead of some of the older guys on the squad now) as well as the obvious experienced A players not there now. In terms of who our starters will be in 2008, it is too soon to say, especially amongst the truly developing players. I think we have a clearer idea of who should NOT be on our A-squad, with respect.

[Timotas]

I think really our A-Team Lineup would be...

Sutton (Montreal Impact)

Simspon (Millwall) - Reda (AaB Aalborg) - McKenna (Energie Cottbus) - Stalteri (Tottenham)

Brennan (Norwich City) - DeGuzman (Deportivo) - Hutchinson (Helsingborg)- Hume (Tramnere)/DeRo (SJ Earthquakes)

Occean (Odd Grenland) - Radzinski (Fulham)

Subs:

Patrice Bernier - Tromso

Serioux - Millwall

Daniel Imhof - VfL Bochum

Tam Nsaliwa - Saarbrucken

Jaime Peters - Ipswich Town

Mike Klukowski - Club Brugge

Sandro Grande - Montreal Impact

Daniel Fernandes - PAOK

Wow writing that lineup down is beautiful. On paper, I think we are almost as strong as the Americans (excluding the depth of course). So if I was to pick an A-Team, that would be it. There is approx. 8 missing from our full team.

[loyola]

Our A team is: Sutton, and another keeper among the rest.

Stalteri, Hutch, Mckenna, Simpson, Kluka, Nsaliwa, Brennan, Peeters, DeGuz, Imhof, Occean, DeRo, Grande, Bernier, Hume, Serioux and Reda.

Maybe I forgot someone but I think that's pretty much our best 17-18 players. We're missing a top striker on this squad, hope Hume and Occean will become top striker in Concacaf soon.

Considering that 4-5 of our best players were missing we can say that we played our A- team or B+ team but we can't call that our B team.

[kelownaguy]

I think in reality about half this team is A team (Hume, Hutch, Brennan, DeRo , Sutton, Grande, McKenna) while the other half is B team material (Simpson and Peters will be "A" soon as they continue to develop, Serioux, Braz , Gervais, Gerba,,,etc) The thing is , with some of our A players being so young and inexperienced at the senior national level,, you can pretty much call the whole squad a "B" team,, does that make any sense??

[Gian-Luca]

Ante Jazic as well, though he's currently injured I believe, but at age 28 hardly one to write off forever.

Much of the point of this squad (though partly forced upon Yallop by so many players declining the invite) is to develop players for the A team. So of course we will see some players start with this team and move into the first choice team, or at least in consideration for it - if we don't this "developmental" squad will have failed to do its job (not to mention failing to win the Gold Cup itself, as seems likely).

[Bertuzzi44]

quote:Originally posted by Timotas

I think really our A-Team Lineup would be...

Sutton (Montreal Impact)

Simspon (Millwall) - Reda (AaB Aalborg) - McKenna (Energie Cottbus) - Stalteri (Tottenham)

Brennan (Norwich City) - DeGuzman (Deportivo) - Hutchinson (Helsingborg)- Hume (Tramnere)/DeRo (SJ Earthquakes)

Occean (Odd Grenland) - Radzinski (Fulham)

Subs:

Patrice Bernier - Tromso

Serioux - Millwall

Daniel Imhof - VfL Bochum

Tam Nsaliwa - Saarbrucken

Jaime Peters - Ipswich Town

Mike Klukowski - Club Brugge

Sandro Grande - Montreal Impact

Daniel Fernandes - PAOK

Wow writing that lineup down is beautiful. On paper, I think we are almost as strong as the Americans (excluding the depth of course). So if I was to pick an A-Team, that would be it. There is approx. 8 missing from our full team.

Nice lineup Timotas! ...but, Klukowski on the bench? I think I'd have him start in the back instead of Mckenna. And probably Nsaliwa instead of Simpson...

[BearcatSA]

I'll suggest this midfield/striker configuration:

Left mid: Brennan

Centre defensive holding mid: De Guzman

Centre mid: Hutchison

Right mid: Staltieri

Striker: Occean

Striker: Radzinski

Alternates: Imhoff, Grande, Hume, DeRosario, Peters, Bernier, Serioux

[Andrew W]

Every time we talk about our "best 11" I always like to tangent and change the formation. Personally I think our personnel at this time best suits a 3-5-2. Considering that I'd go with the following (ages are in brackets).

--------------- Sutton (28)

-----Nsaliwa (23)-- Reda (28) -- Klukowski (24)

Stalteri (28) --- DeGuzman (24) --- Brennan (28)

---------------- Hutchinson (22)

------------------- Hume (21)

---------- Friend (24) -- Occean (23)

Reasoning: Well, I just like big strikers, so I say we give the Norway based pair the chance to latch on to crosses by Stalteri and Brennan. Or either one of them can knock down some of those longer balls to Hume. Plus, we still seem to knock the ball forward a lot so we might as well have guys who can win it and are used to that type of tactic. As well, I'm not sure what contribution Radzinski will make in the future. Plus, I'm one of those "DeRo off the bench" guys. I prefer him to come in when we need a spark. I'd also have Grande, Simpson, McKenna, Imhof, Peters and Gerba to round out my top 18 at the moment although there is some flex to the subs.

Synopsis: I think this is a very defensively responsible group but the ability to switch to attack is what I like most about them. The formation could also be 4-4-2, but I prefer Stalteri and Brennan as wingbacks with the protection of the back three so they could venture forward more often.

Note: Rob Friend is in my lineup because (1) he's young (2) he's currently scoring (3) I like big forwards, and (4) why not.

I had fun doing this.

Cheers.

BTW, I know Frank is a 4-4-2 coach. That's why I'm advocating a 3-5-2.

[matthew]

Right now my 18 would be: Sutton; Hutchinson, McKenna, Klukowski, Jazic; Stalteri, Imhof, DeGuzman, Brennan; Occean and Radzinski with Hirschfeld, Simpson, Hume, Grande, DeRosario, Nsaliwa, Reda

I however agree with Beach that 2010 is more important. And in chanelling Gordon's thread from before about the 23-man roster for 2010, here's my fearless forecasts (age in 2010 in brackets)

Goalkeeper

Greg Sutton (33) — Montreal

Lars Hirschfeld (32) —

Dan Fernandes (27) — PAOK Athens (Greece)

Defenders

Michael Klukowski (29) — Club Brugges (Belgium)

Atiba Hutchinson (27) — Helsingborg (Sweden)

Kevin McKenna (30) — Energie Cottbus (Germany)

Josh Simpson (27) — Millwall (England)

Tam Nsaliwa (28) — Saarbrucken (Germany)

Nik Ledgerwood (25) — 1860 Munich (Germany)

David Edgar (23) — Newcastle (England)

Midfield

Julian DeGuzman (29) — Deportivo de la Coruna (Spain)

Paul Stalteri (33) — Tottenham (England)

Jim Brennan (33) — Norwich (England)

Daniel Imhof (33) — Bochum (Germany)

Sandro Grande (33) — Montreal

Patrice Bernier (31) — Tromso (Norway)

Jaime Peters (23) — Ipswich (England)

Jonathan DeGuzman (23) — Feyenoord (Holland)

Forward

Dwayne DeRosario (32) — San Jose (United States)

Iain Hume (27) — Tranmere (England)

Olivier Occéan (29) — Odd Grenland (Norway)

Ali Gerba (28) — Montreal

Will Johnson (23) — Chicago (United States)

Obviously Stamatopoulos, Jazic (but he'll be 34), De Jong, Gyaki, Ademolu and who knows who else could be stars by that point. This is clearly a crap shoot and there's too many guys on the wrong side of 30 (especially in the midfield), but I think the likes of Grande and Imhof will be important to getting us there as 31yo guys in (or just past) their prime. I have faith in Stalteri still having it at 33, Brennan I don't know.

There a gap of mid-20s there that will need to come to the fore soon enough. It the guys in their early 20s I think we need to be examining, not guys like Leduc that will be too old in 2010 anyway. Braz, Friend, Sita-Taty Motando . . . it would be great if one of those kind of players really takes off for us.

cheers,

matthew

[Daniel]

Think about the U20s from 2001-2005 and how many of those players are in our squad now or will be. That lineup is OLD and I don't necessarilly expect guys like Imhoff or even Dero to still be around.

[An Observer]

I think for 2010, you guys are missing a few keepers in Karim (27), Begovic (23), Wagenaar (25), Kalthoff (22), Giacomi (24), and Monsalve (22)....and possibly the big surpise Adam Street who would be 18 or 19 (considering he must have potential as he played for the U-17s). In any event, I would not be surprised to see one of these guys be number one by then (and in fact, I am hoping for that as Sutton is steady but he is not going to steal a game for us). Obviously, Fernandes has potential with PAOK. In any event, I think we are developing some keepers. I just hope that Sutton maybe able to get us through qualifying in 2008 to 2009 as that is where we will need him.

I think the midfield will be quite young actually with the starters likely to be DeGuzman, Hutchinson, Peters and possibly DeGuzman junior if he plays for us. Behind these guys, we will have some veterans such as Grande, Serioux, Bernier, Brennan and so on. At least, when we have injuries, we will not have to throw in some inexperience kids.

Central Defense is still worrying for me as De Vos is clearly too old and McKenna, Reda, or Gervais are adequate but certainly not stellar. I sincerely hope that Nsaliwa can continue to improve and by 2008 be an established bundesliga central defender (and play for us). Then hopefully, he can be partnered with a younger player such as Edgar or Haineault who are just in the 21 to 22 year old age but hopefully, at least established in a championship league side or on the fringe of a premiership side. That way we would have a good blend of youth and experience.

I do have a concern about a proven goal scorer though (as apart from a creator). Hume doesn't seem to be it, nor does DeRo. Gerba and Occean may be good enough against the likes of El Salvador but certainly won't trouble Mexico or the U.S. unless they can play and score consistently at a higher level than they do. I don't think Johnson is a scorer either. I really like him as he is good with the ball, runs into positions well, and knows exactly when to dive (which is a quality you so rarely find in a Canadian player). But I don't think he is a goal scorer. This is where Ucello I think has a head up on some, and even Lombardo...but those two will have to develop and mature alot in the next 2 to 3 years.

So unfortunately, my concern is that in 3 years time when qualifying starts we will be adequate in goal, so in central defense with no proven goal scorer. Which means, we may move the ball around all over the park and play some decent soccer but we will be prone to the odd gift goal and not finish our chances consistently. Sound familiar. I hope I am wrong but in any event, from what I see we are moving in the right direction.

[canso]

My A team does not include Patrick The Duck!

[matthew]

I agree it's an old lineup Daniel, but by 08 are we going to have replaced all of the 77 or 78s? The DeRo, Stalteri, Brennan, Imhof, Grande players. I think we'll start qualifying with them being part of the team and playing roles. They'll only be 30-31. By time the Cup rolls around they may well be past it, but the next wave are quite young. There aren't a lot of 22-25yo players besides the obvious big names (Hume, Simpson, Nsaliwa, Hutchinson) who are even really in the picture. Who in the mdifield at that age looks like they're going to replace a Stalteri or Brennan on the roster? Taty? Canizalez? Lemire?

And in goal, I think keepers tend be a little older and Stamatopoulos and Fernandes are going to be close to the right age, but I suspect that Sutton or Hirschfeld are preferred to youngsters like Kalthoff, Lindley, Giacomi or Begovic. Who knows though, that's the tough thing to guess. Five years ago Bent might have been pencilled in as a starter for 2006. He's not even playing anymore. Who was Jaime Peters five years ago?

cheers,

matthew

[Kye]

Id like to see this as our A team

Staltari-hutch-klucka-Simpson

Serioux------Deguz----Brennen

--------------Hume-----------

--Radzinski----------Ocean--