kelownaguy Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 jb, some of us here have been waiting a long time to see Friend get his shot,, slowly but surely he is working his way into this lineup.. Sounds like he's more then held his own in the last two appearances.. It appears to be a battle for that one striker position between Friend, Gerba, and Occean... At least all 3 are still young and improving,, bodes well for our future.. As far as the game,, great job by the boys and Frank.. Yallop's been taking a lot of heat on this board,, some of it justified, and some of it not.. But the one thing we all agree on is we need to start seeing some results from him.. I think many of us have started to notice an improved style of play in our team of late, even in the 0-0 B-team tie in the U.S. last month things were looking better and we deserved a better fate .. It's about time we got a decent win,, looks like we've got a solid pool of players now too.. Hopefully we can keep them playing together more often rather then once every 6 or 7 months.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gian-Luca Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 Friend did very well, definitely his best outing for the senior team. Seeing him out there being so effective made me think "Take that Lenarduzzi!", as Bob stated on Sportsnet back in 2001 (during the WYC) that it was difficult to see Rob Friend ever playing for the national team, a comment I took great exception to on the old V-board back at that time. I suspect we will see more of him used in the target forward role, particularly if Yallop goes with a sole "out & out" striker as he has done recently (rather than a 4-4-2), with two attacking wing-players supporting him. I think he's more suited to that style of play than Ademolu or Gerba who don't have the height of Friend and are better suited to playing alongside a striker than by themselves. Gerba I would like to see play up front alongside Hume one of these days, as I think it would benefit them both (they seem to have chemistry at the U20 level). The other possibility for the target role is Occean, who is a bit of a mixture of the contrasting styles that Friend & Gerba bring. Nice to see some depth up front, even if the depth isn't as prolific as we'd like thus far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gian-Luca Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 Here is Paul Romanuk's report available on www.sportsnet.ca Sounds like he was at the game so I hope we can at least get the highlights of the match on Soccercentral on Saturday. The only thing in the report I question is his claim that Kenny made 7 saves off good Austrian chances. Maybe the feed didn't show them but I only counted him making one. ----------------- Canada blanks Austria By Paul Romanuk, Sportsnet.ca Jim Brennan scored a pair of goals to help lead Canada past Austria 2-0. VIENNA, Austria - It's nice every once and a while to see effort rewarded with good results. Canada put in a solid effort against Austria in their men's international soccer friendly on Wednesday night in Vienna, and were rewarded with a 2-0 win. Veteran Jim Brennan led the way with two goals. The win was a contrast to several recent Canadian international matches where good effort wasn't always reflected in the final outcome. "It was great to finally see us finish on some of our chances," Brennan said. "We played well against the U.S. (in a 0-0 draw last month) but we didn't get the result. Tonight was different." Canada started a little slowly and was almost caught on a sloppy clearing attempt in the 12th minute when Austrian forward Markus Keisenebner came up with the ball, but pounded it just wide to the left of the Canadian goal. Dwayne DeRosario seemed to push the momentum to the Canadian side in the 19th minute with a brilliant run down the left wing where he managed to beat everyone except for the final Austrian defender, who managed to knock the scoring attempt wide of the net. Canadian coach Frank Yallop, who was a little concerned in the early part of the first half, was pleased with how his team turned it around. "We were giving away some balls in bad places," Yallop said. "I was pleased with the way we settled things down and started to play the way I know we can. It was a good result and we deserved to get that result from the effort we put in." Brennan came in off the bench early in the second half and turned in one of the finest showings of his distinguished (43 caps) international career. "I guess it's memorable anytime you can score two in an international match," Brennan explained afterwards. "I'll remember this one, for sure." His first goal came in the 65th minute when the ball came back to him at the top of the box to the right of the Austrian goal. He blasted the ball past Austrian keeper Heige Payer to put Canada up 1-0. Five minutes later Brennan picked up the ball off a corner kick from Sandro Grande and found the right hand corner to put Canada up 2-0. "This game felt really good for us. We played well against the Americans a month ago and we played well again here tonight. I think this is definitely something we can build on," said Grande. NOTES - According to official match stats, Canada controlled the ball for 53% of the game…. Austria committed 12 fouls to Canada's eight, although Canada took two yellow cards to Austria's one…. This was the first ever meeting between Canada and Austria's senior men's teams…. Kenny Stamatopoulos was the Canadian keeper and he turned aside at least seven good Austrian scoring chances… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winnipeg Fury Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 I am very happy for Kenny. He quietly sat for years wondering if he would ever get the chance. No bitching or complaining, just biding his time. He had a solid game vs Spain and now has two clean sheets in his last two internationals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john tv Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 I told you so we have great soccer players and anyone of you who keeps on giving the CSA srick, you stick it.Great results and I just love it.Beating a good European team. In fact when i grew up in Holland the coach of the Dutch national Team was Ernst Happell and us Dutch guys thought he was god.Well things are now different and Frank is now a Canadian God( in soccer) Come on guys start believing,I told you so and I know!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew W Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 Finally getting around to commenting after an enjoyable afternoon of watching on the internet and chatting with fans across the country. My favourite part was simply watching and knowing that the majority of better players were on our side. That's not something we've always been able to say. I'm not so sure why it's difficult for the match officials, etc. to determine that Marco Reda scored that goal. It was a clear deflection that ensured it snuck inside that post. It would be all the Reda deserves for playing so well. The Gerba thing is put in perspective by the fact that he's still learning and growing as a player. Friend changed the overall dimension of the game when he came on and the Austrians could not cope with both the speed of our wide men and the height in the middle. As was noted Gerba could have had a couple of points in the first half and seemed to panic when he was all but free and clear in the second half. He's still adjusting and will get there because there is no denying he's a good, raw athlete. I really liked the change-up of bringing in a big forward after 60 minutes of a quick, darting forward. That was deft managing. I can understand gassing a couple of chances overall, but to me the biggest disappointment in terms of missed opportunities was Radzinski's header he beat into the ground. But his wide play on the right hand side was so good that he can hang around for a few more years, plus I saw him coming back to help in his own box a few times. Stamatopoulos was cool when things got hectic in the box and made the one save he needed to. He seems to smother low balls well and is brave in traffic. I think a year at a higher level of pro soccer plus the confidence he's gained with the nats has solidified his position as a real option between the sticks. I look forward to good things from him in the future. Hopefully he's great with Tromso this year. I could go on but I'm really content and pleased with our direction finally. We seem to be settling into a quality side with some composure. I can see us staying at 85 in the rankings, but the Austrians will drop to 143. I'd like to see us play more of these even matchup friendlies. Teams like Hungary, Bosnia, Jamaica, Venezuela and South Africa sound like good teams for us to play along the same level as Austria. It's a good run out in the park and can help build confidence. Cheers all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soju Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 Oh yes...this is even sweeter when your neighbour's an Austrian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurosawa1555362267 Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 quote:Originally posted by Jason So when is the next FIFA open date? I hope we see a lot of matches this year. Jason According to this (PDF) the next open date is on august 16. After that there is 2 days at the beginning of september, 2 days at the beginning of october and one day in mid-november. Let's hope the CSA can be creative and find a way to schedule a friendly before august as that would be terribly far away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Keeper Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 Winners of 3 of our last 4 in Europe and Unbeaten in 3... Cant argue with this at all. We are creating chances like a proper team and finally capitalizing. This 4-3-3 with a tall target forward is the way to go. With this new depth, we have either Friend or Occean in the middle, with DeRo and Radzinski on the wings with Gerba and Hume who could also replace them, and Ademolu and Johnston deputizing. The midfield is getting deep too, all we have to do is solidify. I salavate at a midfield with the DeGuzmans, Hutchinson, and the others... We just need to get the back line a bit more solid. However, with Andre Hainault at FK SIAD Most, this is starting to get exciting... We also have 3 very capable keepers with others in the wings... Lets not forget the youngsters coming through The best way to prepare for the next Gold Cup and WCQ is to start playing European and CONCACAF teams now, home and away. However Im also fully in favor of playing good Asian and African teams home and away. Cant wait for the next game! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Keeper Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 quote:According to this (PDF) the next open date is on august 16. After that there is 2 days at the beginning of september, 2 days at the beginning of october and one day in mid-november. Let's hope the CSA can be creative and find a way to schedule a friendly before august as that would be terribly far away. It would be absolutley insane to wait that long. Surley FIFA cant prevent friendlies during the world cup as most top leagues are off for that anyway? I mean why should 4/5ths of the worlds nations stop playing just to observe the glory of 32 others? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regs Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 quote:I mean why should 4/5ths of the worlds nations stop playing just to observe the glory of 32 others?Surely you can't be serious... are you even allowed to be on the internet this late at night? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Keeper Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 Ok I overstated that a bit... You know what I mean though I should think... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
An Observer Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 I only saw the second half but here are a few comments. Great performance considering that we were missing some quality players (2XDeGuzman; Stalteri; Hirschfeld; Nsaliwa; Hume; Occean...all of which may not have started but most of which would have seen the field) Even greater considering the bulk of those that did play are out of season and only training at the moment (Stamp; Reda; Pozniak; Hutch; Bernier; Serioux; Grande; Gerba; DeRo; and Friend). Frankly, we only had a few players that were in season. The 4-3-3 works to our strengths (as already mentioned on this board). Perhaps some on this board will start giving Yallop some credit. I personally have seen quite an improvement since Portugal. You could see even then that we are trying to play positive football. Hopefully, results like these will make DeGuzman the younger and Fernandes reconsider. I personally do not think that Gerba is bad as people say...i think he makes some good runs, he lays off ok, and he runs into space pretty well. Doesn't hold the ball up overally well and goes offside a bit too much. His panics in front of the goal are probably more to do with being out of season than anything else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jeffery S. Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 Nice, our win as a I write the lead item on uefa.com. More to talk about the future of Austria of course, but still, nice press for us. Hard road ahead for Hickersberger Thursday, 2 March 2006 by Raimund Fabi from Vienna e-mailPrint New Austria coach Josef Hickersberger faced up to the magnitude of his task as the UEFA EURO 2008™ co-hosts lost 2-0 against Canada in his opening game. Major task With no competitive matches to play before the finals in two summers' time, the 57-year-old has been handed the job of preparing Austria for the pressure of the EURO. After they leaked two second-half goals at home to the Canadians, the former SK Rapid Wien boss knows his side have a long way to go. 'We start again' "I knew it would be hard and Canada deserved this victory," said Hickersberger, who is in his second spell in charge of the national team. "They played better in every sense. They dominated us, physically and technically, and this was the key. Now we start again from scratch and can only get better." Early days Austrian Football Association president Friedrich Stickler was quick to give his players the benefit of the doubt, with the Bundesliga season only recently restarting after its winter break. "We are at the beginning of the spring season," he said. "Our players are not in the best shape at the moment. 'No excuse' "That should be no excuse, but we have to look forward to our next match in May," added Stickler. "We have to put in a much better performance against Croatia, but it seems we are at the start of a long and difficult journey. Saying that, there is still quite a bit of time left." Positive omen Hickersberger's previous reign commenced with a defeat by neighbours and UEFA EURO 2008™ co-hosts Switzerland. He went on to lead Austria to the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy. On a night of unpleasant home truths, that might at least represent a good omen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
An Observer Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 interesting comment about only restarting recently in Austria...practically the whole Canadian side is out of season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bxl Boy Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 Yes, the next fifa date is in August but don't forget the World Cup preparation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zacRWE Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 ya, exactly, and some are possibly injured (Serioux, no Stalteri, Klukowski recently came back). This a a great win, and Im soooo looking forward to seeing the highlights. Unbeaten in three, lets make it four!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loyola Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 Very good match for us. I like that 4-3-3 formation and the fact that we are playing a more offensive style. Like I've said on the chat, I think Gerba needs 1 or 2 seasons in Sweeden and he'll be a better player (he showed some good stuff like that pass to DeRo in the first half, that was a nice set up). At the moment, I would like to see Occean back with the team. DeRO: I don't know what to think of him, he's great at creating chances with some amazing runs but his decision making is atrocious at the end of those runs. I know that we'll be missing chances in a game but I see some repetitive stuff with DeRo. Radz: I hope he'll be playing in our next WCQ campaign, he's so important for us. Agree that he should've done better on that first half header but obviously he's no Peter Crouch and he jumped to high I thought. Grande: very good game, he was everywhere and delivered some nice pass. Friend: that was a good sub by FY, from his first seconds on the pitch we knew he was there, missing a good chance and then heading the ball to JB for our first goal and then having his header well saved by the keeper. I think Friend will be good for us. JB: Those two shots were pretty nice and he made some good plays apart from his goal and the deflected shot. Serioux, played a good game but missed a few easy plays but all in all a good performance for Adrian. Our defense looked solid most of the time, but some mistakes were made but that's normal. Hutchinson was pretty impressive during that second half. Reda is pretty solid too, I liked that sequence where he was blocking everything in our box. Kenny S.: Very good performance, pretty safe with his distribution, made some good intervention in his box and made the only save he had to make. Everything looked easy, and that's what I'm looking from a keeper. I'm wondering what it means for Hirschfeld when Yallop fly Sutton all over to Europe to sit him on the bench when he could have called Hirsch to do the same (maybe it had to do with the recent rumour of Sutton heading to Norway?). Yallop: I'm seeing the improvement since last year (Northern Ireland game) and I like that. The 4-3-3 is working well for us. He's not afraid of making substitutions and it paid off yesterday. Now, we have to get some quality friendlies (most likely in Europe ) before the WC, 1 or 2 would be nice. I must say that I also enjoyed chatting with everyone who were on the chat during the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Natesta Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 quote:Originally posted by john tv I told you so we have great soccer players and anyone of you who keeps on giving the CSA srick, you stick it.Great results and I just love it.Beating a good European team. In fact when i grew up in Holland the coach of the Dutch national Team was Ernst Happell and us Dutch guys thought he was god.Well things are now different and Frank is now a Canadian God( in soccer) Come on guys start believing,I told you so and I know!!!! Not really a good European team at the moment, but a Euro team anyway. I still have trouble getting excited about the result, sure I'm happy to see the victory, but the MNT has crapped the bed 1 too many times for me to get excited this early. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loyola Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 quote:Originally posted by Natesta Not really a good European team at the moment, but a Euro team anyway. I still have trouble getting excited about the result, sure I'm happy to see the victory, but the MNT has crapped the bed 1 too many times for me to get excited this early. Maybe John TV is overeacting, but I think as a fan I should be happy with that result. Also, I think that since this ummer GC we've seen our team improve on the collective aspect and it's positive for the future. There's a lot of works to do before we qualify for the WC, but the 2-1 defeat against Spain, 0-0 with the USA and this win against Austria are all very positive results where our team wasn't overblown by the opposition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeanKeay Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 Here we go boys... the Sean Keay ratings for the game. Kenny Snuffalupogus - 7 Kenny did nothign wrong at all, but didnt make any huge saves. So i cant rate him higher..... Klukowski - 7 Wasnt challenged alot by the austrians and didnt make any glairing mistakes The wizard of Poz - 6 Didnt notice him to much, but that could be a good thing on defence Mckenna - 6 Cant stand him, to slow, flat footed and our defence looked alot better when he wasoff the field Reda - 8 Making up for mckennas weakness's and did a great job positionally Dero - 8 Sure he couldnt put the ball into the net, but he creates chances like nobodys buisness and was all over the pitch... i dont understand why he isnt in europe. Serioux - 8 I thought he did a GREAT job in the midfield, he breaks up plays and is great for our counter attack style, hes very quick and knows how to play, he only lacks a good first touch. Grande - 6 I didnt like sando at all, he was off on alot of passes and wasnt that big of an impact player... but he did make "some" threwballs which were not bad, but i expect more from him Atiba - 7 As a midfielder he got a 6, because he was invisable...but as a defender he got an 8. He is just soo good on defending and i think thats where he should play for us, we are cluttered with destroyers in the midfield. And we have little centre backs Radz - 7 Really nice runs down the wing, i like him playing on the wing, he scares the beeejebus's out of defenders. He should of gotten a 8 on this game but that header was a shame... Ali - 6 Meh, i like ali but it wasnt he best game... he had some brain farts and is still learning.. he needs to trust his skills a bit more. SUBS: Brennan - 8 Well he scored 2 goals (ya, ya redagot1) but he played well cleaning up all the balls coming from the 18 yard box and did well...but actually playing midfield, i would rather have him on the defencive wing like normal. But GREAT JOB... All other subs, didnt leave an impression on me so.. thats all Frank Yallop - 9 Did a great job managing the squad, they seemed prepaired and the subs he made actually made sense and resulted in 2 goals Thats all i gotta say... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sj Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 overall a very good performance, good buildup and some quality chances. beside the result what was also pleasing is the way we played. no bunker defense, attacking from the outset and the willingness to play a passing game and it looks that Yallop gave the players the freedom to display theirs skills amd tricks. I liked the approach and the 4-3-3 formation works very well it will get better and more beneficial if we don't resort to the 4-5-1 formation again even again the best of oppositions. keep up the good job Yallop I think you are on the right track and you are going to make a positive impact with that style. the kind of style that will keeps the Toronto stadium filled in the near future. Bravo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BearcatSA Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 I didn't see the match nor any highlights as yet, but from all the comments on the board, this one stood out: quote:Originally posted by Grizzly The things that still worry me are the chance conversion and we also gave the Austrians a lot of chances but their conversion was no better than ours. Most of these chances seemed to stem not from problems in the back four but from our midfield letting the attacks through. I am worried that if we do not improve our conversion rate playing this offensively might be dangerous against teams with better offence than Austria. Do you think that's the negative trade-off of playing with three men in midfield? Regardless, this was an excellent result. Great to see Reda have a solid game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loyola Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 quote:Originally posted by SeanKeay SUBS: Brennan - 8 Well he scored 2 goals (ya, ya redagot1) but he played well cleaning up all the balls coming from the 18 yard box and did well...but actually playing midfield, i would rather have him on the defencive wing like normal. But GREAT JOB... All other subs, didnt leave an impression on me so.. thats all I agree with your ratings, but Friend comes in and gets 3 good chances and get an helper on our first goal and he "didn't leave an impression" on you.....at least give him a 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeanKeay Posted March 2, 2006 Share Posted March 2, 2006 Actually.... sorry Friend actually did a great job.. i completly forgot about him He gets a 7.... won the ball in the air and created chances Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.