Who Will Play Against Austria?

[An Observer]

Matthew and David C...you both make good points vis-a-vis Kluklowski. I am not sold on any of our central defenders these days. It does seem McKenna has come along way this year with Cottbus but still not sold...i would be more sold if he played along side a premiership/bundesliga veteren....but marshalling the whole defense, no. I would still prefer to see Nsaliwa over Kluklowski as he is playing that position for club and he certainly has speed and strength. Alternatively, lets continue to give Reda and Gervais some time there over the next year. My real hope is that McKenna gets into the Bundesliga with cottbus soon, Nsaliwa continues to develop and a couple from David Edgar, Steven Vittoria, Andrew Haineault, Winston Marshall, Andres Arrango, and Blerim Rhustemi establish themselves at championship or higher level in order to challenge for spots and give more depth here. If Edgar could get into Newcastle's first team and play their for a year or so....McKenna may make a good partner especially if he gets established in the Bundesliga as well.

Worst comes to worse...I would put Hutchinson back there for WCQ next time around. I think he is much better defensively than Kluklowski in my opinion.

As for Imoff, this is where he started but I think he is too small to play the center in international football. He's a usefull player but just not in the center at the back.

[Winnipeg Fury]

Poz named to squad:

16.02: Chris Pozniak på landslaget

Ikke uventet er Chris Pozniak med i Canadas tropp til privatkampen mot Østerrike.

Chris ser ut til å ha etablert seg på det Canadiske A-landslaget. Der er han mest aktuell som høyre back, og det skader neppe at han den siste tiden har spilt i samme posisjon på klubblaget.

 

Canada møter Østerrike i Wien den 1. mars. Chris drar til Wien 26. februar og er tilbake i Haugesund 2. mars. Dermed skulle han være klar til bortekampen mot Viking 4. mars.

[RS]

Pozniak seems to be a Yallop favourite.

[Ian Kennett]

While everybody may differ on who ought to be called or not, I feel that there are some who must definitely be there to give YAllop a chance to have seen everybody in the player pool.

Fernandes. This board has hashed this over and we all agree that Fernandes needs to be capped ASAP (right. Loyola?

Hastings - He has worked his way back into the Caley defence as a regular SPL starter. He has, apparently improved his game quite a lot, and has surely earned another look.

Nsaliwa - Yallop has tried, and, hopefully, Tam responds this time if Yallop patiently calls him again. He would be silly to refuse again as that may just "DO" him for the national team for quite some time.

As for Jazic, it would not surprise me if he was given the game off if he is trying to land a spot with the Metrostars. On the other hand, if he is trying to sign in Austrias, he would want to play against the Austrians. Similarly, while I would like to see him play, Serioux needs to cement his place in MLS.

[loyola]

Ian, I don't have a problem with DF being called but I do have a problem with all the posters who are having him as the current MNT #1 when they haven't seen him play.

I think he deserve a shot, and with all the talk of Portugal calling him I think we need to take a look at him soon. FY said in Luxembourg that he was scouting him, so we now need to wait to see if he'll indeed call him for the Austria game.

[Derosario23]

I spoke with Gervais at work and he did not get called neither did Braz but Sutton did so we will have our number one goalie

[Grizzly]

I don't know that Poz getting called is a good sign unless Yallop is trying to display him so he can play at a higher level. I like Poz and think he should be in the mix but I think it is time to put our full A side on the field and I don't think Poz is a call up for the A side. Braz would be on my A side, not necessarily a starter depending on who is called but definitely on the team.

[matthew]

Hmmm I like Pozzy and all, but that's a surprise. It's not so much that he's selected, but what I'm reading into it . . .

I don't mind us loading up on Euro-based guys for this game. Give us DeRo, Serioux (and I guess Sutton) and let the rest of the Euros show their worth. If we have a big-ish team, say 18-20 then Pozniak should certainly be a part of that. But if we have 16, that means someone I wanted to see won't be there. That's my concern/disappointment.

To the best of my knowledge Jazic is not training with the Metros, so it can't hurt him to get some training and a game in. There may be a time to give Hastings another look, but we have loads of depth on the left side of defence and I don't think now is that time. I would much rather look at Ledgerwood first. Esp since he can play on the right as well, which beyond Stalteri is not our strongest spot.

What are the odds that we leave both Hirschfeld and Stamatopoulos out for a Euro friendly and call in Fernandes? Slim to none I'm guessing which is really too bad. Should we pencil Sutton in as our first-choice starter? There is — hopefully — no sense in calling him all the way over there to back up. I would assume he's slightly ahead in the pecking order to be getting this call. And I'm okay with that. He's been the most consistent of the three in a national team shirt. If only Fernandes would get the chance to show what he can do . . .

I want Serioux there. I don't think Metros are going to change their minds just because he wants to miss some pre-season training on national team duty. They don't have a lot of other options at d-mid and it's clear Super Mo loves him. We could put Grande, Imhof or Bernier there, but I don't think we get as much as we would with Serioux. And yes that's a near 180 from where I stood last year, but Serioux has done nothing but impress the hell out of me in the last 12 mos.

I like Braz and Gervais too, but I think it makes sense to focus on the Euro-based guys. Thanks for the scoops everyone.

cheers,

matthew