Jump to content

May 22 - U20 Friendly - Canada vs Brazil [R]


DJT

Recommended Posts

Hardly a soccer friendly

Brazil takes it to Canada in spirited match at UVic

Cleve Dheensaw, Times Colonist

Published: Tuesday, May 23, 2006

BRAZIL 3 CANADA 1

A friendly? Well, technically, that's what they call it in soccer.

But the often physical action on the pitch indicated otherwise as Brazil showcased its famous soccer sorcery by scoring two late goals to defeat Team Canada 3-1 in a spirited and passionate Under-20 men's soccer exhibition game before 4,415 boisterous fans Monday at Centennial Stadium.

"There is no such thing as a friendly against Brazil . . . a lot of our players play in Europe in important leagues and are very competitive guys," said Andrea Lombardo, who put Team Canada up 1-0 at 54 minutes, and then celebrated with a mad dash across the running track to gesture in front of a cheering packed grandstand while being mobbed by his Canadian teammates.

"I don't like forwards who don't celebrate after a goal. A goal is a joyous thing. It's everybody's dream to score a goal for his country, and this was against Brazil, so emotions were running high. I'll remember this a lifetime. A goal against Brazil doesn't happen often."

But that 1-0 Team Canada lead was against the junior national team of the world's most fabled soccer country and was anything but safe.

Not only that, but Brazil was coming off a stinging 2-1 loss to Team Canada on Friday at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton in the first ever soccer victory by a Canadian national side over a Brazilian national side. For Brazil, a second loss to Canada would have been unthinkable.

"They're Brazil . . . they were not going to be happy with a tie," said Toronto's Lombardo, who plays pro in Italy under contract to Perugia.

A questionable penalty inside the box against Team Canada opened the door for Brazil and captain JI Parana converted from the spot at 66 minutes. After that, it was only a matter of time and Team Canada did well in holding off the Brazilians until three minutes to full time as Luis Adriano scored twice at 87 and 90 minutes to put it away and rejoiced with almost as much gusto as Lombardo did for Team Canada.

"They celebrated like they won the World Cup and that reflects well on us because it shows we're earning some respect now," said defender Joey Loreth of Victoria, who subbed in for the last seven minutes.

Brazilian head coach Nelson Rodrigues, speaking Portuguese through an interpreter, touched on the expectancies of just being Brazil in soccer.

"No matter where we go in the world, people expect double the showmanship and double the skill levels," said Rodrigues.

"I am proud and satisfied that we were able to display today the style of football we play in Brazil."

Canada head coach Dale Mitchell -- whose team will host the 2007 FIFA Under-20 World Cup next year (Victoria will host a group) -- put it in perspective for his players: "They're disappointed but I told them they stretched Brazil to the 87th minute," said Mitchell.

"Not many people would have bet that this [three-game] series would come down to the last game Thursday [at Swangard Stadium in Burnaby and televised on Rogers Sportsnet]."

© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2006

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 74
  • Created
  • Last Reply
quote:Originally posted by Gian-Luca

I can't say we deserved to win, but that was some of the worst officiating I've ever seen for a (meaningless) U20 friendly. And I though the American Ref on Friday night was bad, we can safely send this Ref back to Mexico, where he can allow all the diving & cheap play that he wants.

ahh so it was it all the refs fault. much like our 06 WCQ right?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The City added extra bleachers to Centennial for the 94 Commonwealth games increasing the seating capacity to maybe 15,000. It was beatiful. But then, the bleachers were removed and have never been seen again. Only in Canada, eh.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by Daniel

I think the Vistas played at RAP, while Centennial has seen all the recent Victoria games (going back to the U20 2001 WCQ). Capacity is around 6,000.

On the webcast they reported it as a sell-out at 4,415.....I had the same question...are they expanding capacity for the WYC?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by brandon

I doubt the card would carry over in a friendly.

i hope not, i have tickets for thursday and i am really looking forward to seeing Edgar. was disappointed with him being sent off. he was a monster on the back line all day and as a leader on that team he really should have kept his cool in spite of brazils antics

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest speedmonk42

I doubt the card would carry over in a friendly.

----------

Rule or not, I think in the spirit of the game, in a 3 game series like this a red card is going to count.

Especially in the sense that you are attempting to simulate the first round of a tourney.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest speedmonk42

I wonder what chance we have of getting these guys into pro environment/teams for the next year, and what impact it might have on the team.

All of these player are unsigned, is that correct?

--------------

5 D LUMLEY, Stephen National Training Centre - ON 16-Apr-87MississaugaON

8 M NUNEZ, Cristian National Training Centre - QC 07-Jul-88MontrealQC

11 M BABINEAU, Olivier University of Montreal 12-Jul-87DieppeNB

12 M BALDE, Ibrahim National Training Centre - QC 24-Dec-87MontrealQC

13 M CONTRERAS, Hector National Training Centre - QC 24-Jun-87MontrealQC

18 D GALA, Gabe National Training Centre - ON 29-Jun-89BramptonON

87RichmondBC

21 D HABER, Marcus National Training Centre - BC 11-Jan-89VancouverBC

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by speedmonk42

I wonder what chance we have of getting these guys into pro environment/teams for the next year, and what impact it might have on the team.

All of these player are unsigned, is that correct?

--------------

5 D LUMLEY, Stephen National Training Centre - ON 16-Apr-87MississaugaON

8 M NUNEZ, Cristian National Training Centre - QC 07-Jul-88MontrealQC

11 M BABINEAU, Olivier University of Montreal 12-Jul-87DieppeNB

12 M BALDE, Ibrahim National Training Centre - QC 24-Dec-87MontrealQC

13 M CONTRERAS, Hector National Training Centre - QC 24-Jun-87MontrealQC

18 D GALA, Gabe National Training Centre - ON 29-Jun-89BramptonON

87RichmondBC

21 D HABER, Marcus National Training Centre - BC 11-Jan-89VancouverBC

I can see Lumley and Nunez moving on to Europe fairly soon, as those two guys have really impressed me over the past two matches (Lumley's odd miscue notwithstanding).

The other guys I don't really have an opinion on, as we've either seen very little of them or nothing at all so far.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by Gian-Luca

What part of "I can't say we deserved to win" did you not understand?

What was wrong with the American on Friday? I thought he had full control of the match and wasn't a factor either way.

I sometimes wonder what, for many of us, constitutes a "good" referee performance?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The ref on friday night did a good job. Yesterday's ref had a good first half but he was very bad on the second half, he lost control in a meaningless friendly.

I'm not quite sure how some here can be that confident that it was a penalty or that it wasn't a penalty....with no replay and a very different angle than the ref I would at least need to take a second look of that call before making any judgement.

But I think the Brazilian who dove a minute earlier should've receive a yellow and the free kick call who led to the second goal wasn't a foul.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by ditty

What was wrong with the American on Friday? I thought he had full control of the match and wasn't a factor either way.

I personally thought the American ref did a good job.

As someone else said, he wasn't noticed, and he also wasn't missed. That constitutes a good reffing job.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by speedmonk42

I wonder what chance we have of getting these guys into pro environment/teams for the next year, and what impact it might have on the team.

All of these player are unsigned, is that correct?

--------------

5 D LUMLEY, Stephen National Training Centre - ON 16-Apr-87MississaugaON

8 M NUNEZ, Cristian National Training Centre - QC 07-Jul-88MontrealQC

11 M BABINEAU, Olivier University of Montreal 12-Jul-87DieppeNB

12 M BALDE, Ibrahim National Training Centre - QC 24-Dec-87MontrealQC

13 M CONTRERAS, Hector National Training Centre - QC 24-Jun-87MontrealQC

18 D GALA, Gabe National Training Centre - ON 29-Jun-89BramptonON

87RichmondBC

21 D HABER, Marcus National Training Centre - BC 11-Jan-89VancouverBC

Balde is on the Montreal Impact roster. Someone from Montreal posted somewhere that he has signed a two-year contract.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by ditty

What was wrong with the American on Friday? I thought he had full control of the match and wasn't a factor either way.

Well, since you asked, I thought he was alright in the first half but deteriorated quite badly in the 2nd with some of same type of inconsistency. I remember distincly Kennedy O-A getting hauled down quite obviously when making a run towards the penalty box, with the Brazilian player cleary not getting any of the ball at all and getting all man (or in this case 16 year old boy), and then compounding that by allowing several blatant Brazilian desperation dives within minutes of that. I also didn't think he did a very good job of keeping up with the play. Fortunately we played so well that we didn't let the officiating affect the outcome on Friday night, whereas that wasn't the case on Monday. That doesn't change the quality of the officiating though. Remember, officiating can suck even when we win! ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As I posted after the match I think the ref Friday was quite good. Sure there were a few calls one could quibble with as always but he didn't buy any of the obvious dives and even if he made a mistake it was an honest one and one never felt he was favouring one side over the other. It may not have been World Cup final referreeing but it was pretty damn good particularly by CONCACAF, MLS or USL standards and even a lot better than many matches I have seen in the 1st Bundesliga or Premiership. If every Canada match in WCQ was played with this level of refereeing I would be pretty happy. Unfortunately I was working and could not see the second match to compare but it seems like the refereeing and bias level was much lower for the 2nd match or ie., typical CONCACAF standard.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by Daniel

Btw, I believe Centennial Stadium was around 30k in 1994, you can find some pics somewhere online.

games2b.jpg

That whole complex was beautiful. Makes me sad just thinking about it. They ripped up the warm-up track behind that set of bleachers as well. That was (would still be today) probably the best track setup in Canada.:(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by footballfreak

That whole complex was beautiful. Makes me sad just thinking about it. They ripped up the warm-up track behind that set of bleachers as well. That was (would still be today) probably the best track setup in Canada.:(

When stadiums expand with temporary seats (Victoria '94, Grey Cups in Regina, Ottawa, Winnipeg, etc) do they just rent them? I presume they do 'cause if they buy them I am not sure what the rush is to pull them down.

Seems to me it would make good sense for someone (like the CSA?) to buy some temporary seeting and have them available for erection at different sites on an as needed basis....then we can have flexible/portable national stadia all over the country!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by footballfreak

That whole complex was beautiful. Makes me sad just thinking about it. They ripped up the warm-up track behind that set of bleachers as well. That was (would still be today) probably the best track setup in Canada.:(

While very nice, I don't think that track set up would be as good as at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton (site of the 2001 World Track and Field Championships).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...