Hungary v Canada - post-match [R]

[Ivan]

quote:Originally posted by The Beaver

To those who saw the game ( I did NOT):

Would you say this performance was a step in the right direction? Keeping in mind we were using a never-before-seen back line combo, were missing our captain, were missing DeRo and Stalteri etc. From what I've read, it certainly doesn't sound that we took a step backwards.

IMO, definately a step forward. We pushed the ball around and kept possesion quite well considering the young team we fielded and the fact that many were making their debut or hadn't been around for awhile.

Besides, any time we play, it is a step forward.

[El Hombre]

quote:Originally posted by Ivan

IMO, definately a step forward. We pushed the ball around and kept possesion quite well considering the young team we fielded and the fact that many were making their debut or hadn't been around for awhile.

Besides, any time we play, it is a step forward.

While we definitely did have a lot of possession and moved the ball around, you have to bear in mind that we were up against a pretty poor Hungarian side. It was a game that we should've got a result out of.

What concerned me the most was the apparent fly-by-night approach to tactics. I realize we had injuries and playing constraints but it seemed very disorganized. Particularly when you see things like Peter's as a center mid playing just in front of the D.

Not a bad game but I was hoping for more.

[jonovision]

I just finished watching the game. My thoughts, player by player:

Wagenaar - Obviously there were some communication issues that manifested themselves on the Hungary goal, but I thought he showed decent leadership for a young keeper (pushing Pozniak onto one of the posts while defending a corner) and though we wasn't tested much he looks like a good shot-stopper.

Nsaliwa - For a while I was wondering what all the fuss about when we couldn't get a lower-division German player back with our side. But he was strong defending and made several good long passes out of the back. Probably a bit unlucky to get whistled for the foul on the goal.

Pozniak - He still looks like he is about 17 years old but he played a controlled game and didn't look too bad.

Hainault - Strong in the air and for such a young player had a good game in an important position. Maybe it's early, but I think he is one of our top 3 or 4 central defenders for sure.

Jazic/Braz - Jazic was getting beat a lot and leaving lots of space, but it was probably the injury. Braz did a little better and made some runs but didn't have a lot of the ball.

Bernier - Fairly invisible in the first half when De Guzman and Hutchinson were controlling the midfield, but as the announcers mentioned, had a lot of defensive work to do on the left side. When he starting playing more on the right and the middle in the 2nd, he became more involved. Probably is a more important player than he appears on TV.

De Guzman - I thought, along with Hutchinson, he was the best player on the pitch in the first half. Owned the ball well, made some nice moves and linked up well with Hutchinson and the flank players. I wonder why he was taken off at half because I doubt Deportivo, who hadn't been using him, had a side deal with Stephen Hart.

Hutchinson - The CL experience shows. Hutchinson is a classy player and Canada is lucky to have him. Good at winning the ball and made some nice passes. Too bad he couldn't have played the whole game.

Radzinski - Obviously still has a lot of speed and played well, but it was surprising (and disappointing) that Canada's forward player with the most experience and most offensive polish missed the easiest chance and was a yard or two off on some critical passes. Still, has a lot to offer Canada and it is good to see (or read about) him at every match recently.

Hume - The work rate is great, he is solid on set pieces, and I like the intensity. Like the rest, needed a bit more precision in the final 3rd.

Friend - I'm not sure how much of it was him and how much the system, but the link up with the outside forward players wasn't always there. Seemed to get tired and frustrated after the bad non-PK call. Great in the air, with McKenna in the lineup, a fairly threatening group for corners and free kicks.

Subs

Issey - Didn't always do enough with the ball when he had it, but a decent performance for his first time with Canada.

Peters - Did you know this was his 11th cap? Probably his first time in central midfield and I thought he did OK there. Great run and made a few other good plays. While he still might need work in some areas, you can't ignore that speed, especially late in games.

Ornoch - Short time in the game, but got his jersey dirty and a few touches to boot. Probably won't see him again for a while, but one to keep an eye on.

I thought that Canada had more of the play. In the 2nd half it was because Hungary was sitting back, but in the 1st the midfield, particularly Atiba and Julian, controlled the game. Ultimately, though, we need to score.

[Ivan]

Question.

Does this "official friendly" cap-tie Issey to Canada?

[JamesW]

quote:Peters - Did you know this was his 11th cap?

No I did not. He is only 19, are you sure? I have a feeling those 11 you talk about have not been with the Senior team. Where did you find that number?

[Cheeta]

Articule from the CBC's soccer section.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/story/2006/11/15/canada-hungary.html

[Cheeta]

Articule from the CBC's soccer section.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/story/2006/11/15/canada-hungary.html

[beachesl]

quote:Originally posted by Ivan

Question.

Does this "official friendly" cap-tie Issey to Canada?

Yes, absolumente:D. No Question.

[loyola]

I only saw the highlights but I can say this:

On the goal it seems to me that Atiba is at fault more than the GK, hardly a keeper's mistake (even if he stays on his line he wouldn't have save the header and he did came out pretty quickly). I think Wagenaar was the youngest keeper, at 21, to start a game for Canada since Forrest and Dolan in 1986/1987.

Radz miss was terrible.

Now let's hire a new coach, Hart did a good job calling a lot of players and let's hope we can build from there. BTW, good to hear that Lars was called.

[Guest speedmonk42]

quote:Originally posted by beachesl

Yes, absolumente:D. No Question.

Did I miss the sarcasm? No, I don't believe it does.

It must be an official FIFA competition, friendlies do not count.

[Guest speedmonk42]

Atiba was not goal side on the goal. It happened again later in the game with another player as well.

The ball on the goal in was put in almost the perfect place. Right at the point where it is not clear who should get the ball the defender or the goalie.

Our corner kicks seemed very dreadful.

[redhat]

A good game that we should have gotten a result from.

Like everyone on the board, pretty impressed with the class of

Nsaliwa, de Guzman, Hutchinson, and Radzinski. I am also surprised

by the play and promising skills of Hainault, Wagenaar and Nakajima.

Should have scored on Radz's open goal, but what could we expect?

Two days of training, missing a few "key" players (McKenna, Stalteri,

De Rosario, Serioux, Hirchfeld, Klukowski, et.al.), and an interim

manager. And playing in slick conditions.

Kudos to Hart for making the most of what we got and then some. Hope

he retains an assistant coaching position with the senior team,

despite a new coach.

And to the CSA : get that high-profile coach soon (before the new

year)!

Thanks to Cheeta for supplying the drinks/food for me and the boys.

See what you Winnipeg lads missed?

[marktci]

quote:Originally posted by speedmonk42

Did I miss the sarcasm? No, I don't believe it does.

It must be an official FIFA competition, friendlies do not count.

It does. The FIFA regulations state that any player who appears in an International "A" match is cap-tied. According to FIFA "An international “A” match is a match arranged between two Members of FIFA and for which both Members field their first representative team."

There is no distinction as to whether it's a friendly or part of a competition. The match was recognized by FIFA and was, despite the strengths of the rosters, not designated a "B" match, so he is cap-tied.

[Daniel]

General thoughts:

- Missed first 30'.

- Liked Nsaliwa a lot and Hainault could be a good matchup with McKenna (if Nsaliwa isn't playing CB).

- The offense was a catastrophe, with nobody knowing what to do in the final third.

- We need a coach to instill some tactics, our guys are all over the place (and not in a good way), similar to the Jamaica game in Montreal.

- Peters did OK for central mid, but after that long run and looking for a goal, I was thinking we needed him to run at defenders on a wing, this is where he excels.

[ubuntu]

I imagine Hume with the same attitude playing in against a team from central america with a latin ref, it will be an automatic red card! Again! Still not quite mature...

I think we found a real nice right back and Hainault was good. Nakajima is good surprise.

[Daniel]

Oh, and Hume had an awesome beard.

[Soju]

Hume's beard and general angst have made me rethink branding McKenna as our angriest player. I'm going to leave it with McKenna for now, but he's got some stiff competition just around the corner with Humey. Our boys were strong between the boxes, weak and disorganized in them ARGGGGGGGGGGGG! That game was terribly disappointing but with proper tactics and players played more to their strengths there is hope eh.

[BrennanFan]

Just finished watching the game. Time for BF's Canada Report Card

Friend: B-

Strong and Fast, but i expected more than that. did not solidify a starting place on the team. from what i have seen, i believe Occean has superior ball skills, and would like to see him again.

Radz: B

Would have got a B+ if not for that miss. still, he was our most creative and tricky player.

Hume: B-

I know he is loved around here, and maybe thats why i expected a better performance. seems to me like he plays like he thinks he's better than he actually is, and thus gets in over his head. lost possession and gave away possession a few too many times. good free kick, but not dangerous going for goal. did not cement his place on the starting 11.

Hutchinson: B+

Did everything right. Good half. Good skills, both offensively and defensively. Still would like him to take charge a bit more. Happy he's around.

deGuzman: B+

Dominated the midfield with Hutch. Plays with the ball alot, but makes it work. Good passing.

Bernier: B-

Dwarfed by the skills of Hutch and deGuz, not too effective going forward. Useful guy though, hopefully he will put together some better games for us.

Jazic: C+

Sorry Jazzy, but youre done. Thanks for coming out. Next!

Pozniak: B

Here is a guy who gets no respect around here. But he played a solid game in central D, in fact that was the best performance by a Canada Centre back ive seen in a while. Far superior to Reda and Gervais. This guy has a role on the team, he earned more callups. He just needs a better agent.

Hainault: B

No mistakes. Good first outing.

Nsaliwa: B+

Great game. Great passing. Ran all day. Got forward often, and delivered some good crosses, and yet never once got caught. Had the most skilled Hungarian to deal with, and dealt with him well. Did better at Right Back than I have ever seen Stalteri do in that position. As far as im concerned, Tam is our new Right Back, he is superior to Stalteri in every way. He may also be effective as a centre back, but i would rather see him on the right to give him the opportunity to show his offensive skills. Maybe a shot in our midfield too, as he looked more promising than Bernier.

Braz: B

No mistakes defensively, but not great passing going forward.

Nakajima: B

Did fine. Would have liked to see him get more invovled at times, and shouldve done better on that header, he had time. Showed some signs of better days to come.

Peters: B

Much improved defensively. Has serious wheels. A future staple on the team.

Ornoch: Not on long enough for a grade, but good to see him get involved.

Hart: B-

Good selections overall. Like that he got everyone in, and that he played Wagenaar. But the team still looked disorganized and this was his 3rd game with basically the same group.

[Grizzly]

Computer difficulties have delayed my comments. The first few minutes when the broadcast was experiencing technical difficulties were very stressful for me. Did anyone else have a similar situation? I went to my chosen bar and Goltv was showing commercials with no comment that there were technical difficulties. I was pretty stressed out because I was thinking this was some sort of Goltv advertising channel and was thinking of going to my fallback bar even though the owner of this place was telling me that he had the real Goltv. Finally at about 2:15 as I was close to leaving the game came on in the 7th minute and they stated they had technical difficulties.

To echo what some others have commented on, we played without tactics and no tactical shape just like in the Jamaica game. The game was filmed quite well and this was more readily apparent than in the Jamaica broadcast because the Hungarian broadcast was shot at a more wide angle and one could see more players on screen than in the Jamaica game. The Jamaica game was shot from two cameras at field level and there was seldom more than 2 players on screen at any time so it was hard to notice the lack of organization if you weren't watching the game at the stadium. I will give Hart credit for calling up the right players and they seem to play with some enthusiasm for him but he is tactically completely inept and players are just running every which way and playing like 11 individuals as opposed to playing as a team. We really need someone who can organize the team effectively. I also think we saw the same thing with Hart as we did with Yallop, attractive losing soccer. The object of the game is to win, there are not judges giving style points. Until we have players who can cross and pass accurately and finish goal scoring chances I think we need to concentrate on being solid at the back, something I think both Yallop and Hart have neglected. Once we get behind it is very difficult for us to come back so we have to put more emphasis on not falling behind. I am not saying we should play long ball or abandon possession based soccer but I think I could accept a few less chances that usually don't result in a goal anyway if we were giving up fewer chances. Hungary countered very effectively and even though they had fewer chances the ones they had were very high quality. The type of soccer we are playing leads to a lot of games where we can say "We should have won but didn't".

I thought this was a very frustrating performance from Radzinski, he seemed to be doing his best DeRo impression. He created a lot but passed when he should have shot, his passes and crosses were mostly inaccurate and he missed a sure goal. His alround game is superior to DeRo but he really should have done better. I would really like to see McKenna employed as a striker because so far he is our only player who seems to have a natural goal scoring talent. Friend looks promising though but he can't score if he doesn't get the ball. Friend was constantly trying to get to passes and crosses which were a metre too far in front or behind him.

As far as Nsaliwa goes, to all those who were sceptical of his quality and that he would have made a difference in WCQ, a big I TOLD YOU SO! His performance Wednesday is yet another proof of the incompetence and corruptness (who probably did not want Watson to have any serious competition) of Yallop who didn't even call Nsaliwa as a sub.

Jazic looked poor, let's hope it was the injury and is not indicative of his present form. Braz was a bit better in replacement but still mediocre though to be fair was on the left when he usually plays right. Hainault looked solid in his debut, he maybe didn't win the starting position yet but certainly should at least be a regular selection.

Bernier continued his inconsistency. I don't agree with some that he has never played well for us, he was one of the best players against Jamaica and I can remember a few other games where he shone. Yet he seems to follow up a good game with a poor one and was not very impressive Wednesday.

Wagenaar looked confident and skilled and unlike many of our keepers is good with the ball at his feet and can kick. I think he is already playing at about the level of Sutton and certainly has far more potential to develop and a much better technical base to work from. If Lars comes back and is in good form I would probably go with Wagenaar as his sub.

Peters run really impressed me and I agree he should be on the wing. He is also one of our few players able to cross and pass accurately (DeGuzman and Hutchinson being the others with this ability). As others mentioned Hutch and DeGuzman had very strong performances. Poz was adequate but certainly not first choice for CB. Hume created a lot but his finishing was weak. Nakajima looked ok, probably not a selection when we don't have injury problems but a possible player for the future.

[GAZZA]

I though the guys played exceptionally well & could have easily have won the game. Plent of encouragement for the future.

We were in the main stand high up just to the right of the half way line with our flags draped over the railings.

Josh's brother was at the game as was Adam Braz's grandfather.

from Gary, Joanne & Chris the English Canadian fans.

[River City]

Finally had a chance to see the game last night. Very impressed especially with our attack in the second half. We couldn't finish if our lives depended on it, but we kept good possession and kept moving the ball towards goal.

Now we just need more friendlies....

[beachesl]

quote:Originally posted by speedmonk42

Did I miss the sarcasm? No, I don't believe it does.

It must be an official FIFA competition, friendlies do not count.

Sorry, was answering seriously, just happy to see someone capped for us. I used to answer with long explanations explaining the capping system over the years, but I get too many sarcastic comments, so I just answer simply now.

Cheers.[8D]

[ANC2]

Heard last night from one of the players that DeGuzman had hamstring problems and had to come off.

I just finished watching the game and quite frankly cannot be too critical. A new back line which was nice to see, this includes the Goalkeeper. A little lack of understanding but that is expected. After all they had one maybe two training sessions. Playing Pozniak in central defense raised my eye brow but he did well. Tam at Right back did well but I thought his recovery at times was lazy.

After all the years of reading Canada needs to play more attacking soccer. Now I am reading Canada needs to concentrate on defending. Attacking takes time and understanding, it also requires someone to encourage the ability of the players to attack. Why not do it in exhibition games? Hungary only had 3 maybe 4 chances all game at home. Plus Razinski, Hume, Farran and Friend should all have scored. Was it a penalty?

People on this board have unrealistic expectations. Imagine Canada is attacking and fails to score, what makes people think that playing tight will lead to Canada scoring.

For me Heinault and Wagner were the bonus of this game. Not to mention I actually enjoyed watching Canada play.

So what do we want. Tight at the back long ball, chase and try to score.

Tight defending deep, Counter attack game of maybe two, three chances.

What!

[youllneverwalkalone]

This match was a bit frustrating in that Hungary really isn't a very good side, and an organised Canada should have earned a result.

My feeling overall is that the squad will ultimately dictate the tactics and we are starting to develop a pretty decent midfield -one that should be able to press forward.

Peters acquitted himself very well for a 19 year-old and was one of our more composed players on the ball. The other nice thing about him is he could clearly play either wing. Tam was great but, in the absence of De Jong, I wonder if he'd contribute more on the wing himself -given that we could have Stalteri behind him.

It was also nice to see Hutch and JDG show a little chemistry. If JDG2 would come into the fold as a centre forward, I'm sure Friend would be a lot more effective. Even DeRo in that role would do for now.

If we do find a manager who can organise our side (which would include Mitchell, IMO) we need somebody how can strike the ball on set pieces. I'm still not convinced Hume is that guy. I've seen some nice clips from JDG2 in this regard and, although DeRo never seems to do it for the MNT, he still wins goal of the year every year somehow. Maybe one day we'll see one of those crackers win us a match.

[Daniel]

Hume is usually a fantastic freekick taker, as are Grande and JDG2.