MNT heads for FL, prepares for St. Lucia/Estonia

[loyola]

Men's National Team

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Canada heads for Florida, prepares for St. Lucia and Estonia

Canada’s men’s national team will open their first training camp of the 2008 season in Fort Lauderdale, FL next week. The team will run an 11-day training camp before heading to St. Lucia to play their first international friendly of the 2008 season on Saturday 2 February. The men’s national team also announced that it will face the Republic of Estonia (Eesti Vabariik) in Tallinn on 26 March 2008.

'The January training camp is largely about working with players who are in their off season,' says head coach Dale Mitchell. 'Ultimately, we are looking to see who amongst the group could play a part in the qualifying process of our senior men or Olympic team during 2008.'

The Canadian training camp in Florida will feature mostly players from North American-based clubs. There will also be a few players from European clubs in off-season breaks. The group will feature a mix of veterans and young stars, perhaps even a couple of players who will be eligible for Canada’s entry in the CONCACAF U-23 Championship this March.

The 2 February match will be Canada’s first-ever meeting with the Staint Lucia. Geographically, Saint Lucia is next to Canada’s first opponent in the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ Qualifications - Saint Vincent & the Grenadines. While Canada doesn’t begin qualifications until 15 June (Stage 2), Saint Lucia plays its first match on 6 February (Stage 1) on the road against the Turks & Caicos Islands.

'It will be a benefit to players and staff to play in Saint Lucia as we look ahead to our first round series against Saint Vincent & the Grenadines.'

The 26 March match will be Canada’s second meeting with the Republic of Estonia. Canada lost 1:2 to Estonia on 29 March 2003, a match that also took place in Tallinn.

[Gian-Luca]

Doesn't look like the Feb. 6th match is happening, at least not yet. I expect (or hope) that we'll get another press release though indicating who is actually being called, perhaps there might be more news then.

[loyola]

quote:Originally posted by Gian-Luca

Doesn't look like the Feb. 6th match is happening, at least not yet. I expect (or hope) that we'll get another press release though indicating who is actually being called, perhaps there might be more news then.

That's what I'm hoping for. It seems the roster hasn't been finalized yet and let's hope for another game.

[Scottie]

It's about bloody time this got mentioned. How long till we hear the roster?

[tarnado1555362291]

Saint Lucia lost 8-0 to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in 2006...

The MNT will likely be playing on this ground Feb 2:

http://www.worldstadiums.com/stadium_pictures/middle_america/saint_lucia/vieux_fort_stadium.shtml

[ken]

I thought that there were going to be two camps, a senior camp and a U23 one. This looks like they have been merged, unless some of the U23's will go from their camp to the senior camp for the match against St. Lucia. I do like the idea of playing against St. Lucia, one of our problems over the years has been putting away teams that we should easily beat. Think of last time around compare our two match total against Belize of 8-0 to the U-23's total of 18-0 against their qualifier which was home and home whereas the senior squad had two matches in Kingston. Even if this is a B or C squad, they have to learn not to play down to the level of the opposition as that can lead to shock upsets.

[RJB]

The game against St Lucia is news to me. That'll be a nice holiday for some of the players, but really, is it worth it? Couldn't we get a game against a stronger nation? If we wanted a sure win, there are other teams better than St Lucia who we could play and still beat.

[Gian-Luca]

quote:Originally posted by RJB

The game against St Lucia is news to me. That'll be a nice holiday for some of the players, but really, is it worth it? Couldn't we get a game against a stronger nation? If we wanted a sure win, there are other teams better than St Lucia who we could play and still beat.

There may be a game against a stronger nation on the 6th, but given that our team is stationed in Florida for this camp our options are somewhat limited. And it will give the boys a taste of the Carribbean weather (although they should expect it to be a lot warmer by the time June comes around, I'm guessing). I'd rather play them than nobody, which so often happens.

[Alex]

I like this game, its good to play a variety of teams. We've played Austria, Spain, Venezuela, Iceland and now St. Lucia, theres nothing wrong with variety like that in a few short years.

[VPjr]

Playing St. Lucia is a waste of time but its better than not playing at all. I'd rather they beat up on a small nation than beat up on themselves in scrimmage.

I was told that we would get a 2nd match against a stronger opponent. I'd like to believe that the 2nd game is still in the negotiation phase because going against St. Lucia is tantamount to playing the USL2 all stars (at best).

[Joe Keeper]

St. Lucia lost to St V and G 8-0 in a meeting last year wich makes me wonder if we couldnt have choosen an opponent closer in caliber to our opponents, like Barbados, St Kitts and Nevis or Guyana.

But we are deperate for games. Just to ensure that our prep this time around is even half way better than the sh*t prep we did last time around, I would take a game against Aruba or Mongolia over nothing.

[Joe Keeper]

St. Lucia lost to St V and G 8-0 in a meeting last year wich makes me wonder if we couldnt have choosen an opponent closer in caliber to our opponents, like Barbados, St Kitts and Nevis or Guyana.

But we are deperate for games. Just to ensure that our prep this time around is even half way better than the sh*t prep we did last time around, I would take a game against Aruba or Mongolia over nothing.

[Saviola7]

http://www.givemefootball.com/pfa.html?newsID=982

quote:

The St Lucia Football Association (Concacaf) is immediately seeking English professional footballers to play in the 2007 Olympic qualification games and 2008 Olympics in Beijing - both for the national team and the Under 23s.

Players born on or before January 1, 1986 are urgently needed and the St Lucia FA is also seeking three over age players (born after January 1, 1985) to compete in the Beijing Olympics.

The FA is also seeking senior players (over 23) for future national team opportunities, including the 2010 World Cup qualification campaign.

Potential Under 23 and national team players must have been born in St Lucia or have a parent or grandparent who were born on the island. Potential players must not have played for another country's national team.

[8)]

[Winnipeg Fury]

January 13

Guyana - St. Vincent & the Grenadines 1-0

[nolando]

I agree with most of the points made here - this is really only marginally better than no game at all - it could even be argued that this will only serve to make the team overconfident as we beat up on a team that got very badly beaten by our next opponents. I mean, are we gonna hammer in an 8-0 win and learn anything from it? IMHO the whole focus has to be the 2nd round of qualifiers, and this should have been the game plan for the past year as well.

I know that if we pull out the list of the matches over the past ten games or so we have played a few that i would categorize as appropriate prep for our upcoming 2nd round opponents (like the CR matches), but the only thing that really concerns me is the most recent block of games which i cant help but still call extremely inappropriate.

I will cross my fingers that we are still lining up a Panama or Ecuador (in both cases appropriate prep in my books) for Feb 6th, because with Estonia in March the next match on the radar, I am starting to regain that terrible nervous feeling that I seem to get around every WCQ cycle. Thankfully it seems to pass before too long.

[Daniel]

The training camp part is what's important.

[nolando]

quote:Originally posted by Daniel

The training camp part is what's important.

That would be true if the majority of the players at the camp were actually going to be taking part in WCQ, which is almost certainly not going to be the case.

I don't question that the Olympic team needs a camp. They need a separate one, and their own appropriate prep too.

This will look like Yallop's roster for the friendlies vs Millwall and Hearts. Not the same players but the same kind of mix, which would have been perfect for perhaps just after the GC (or even six months before it) but not useful at all in terms of WCQ.

[nolando]

I'll be adding a separate thread showing just exactly how Jamaica, Honduras, and Mexico are preparing for WCQ in a different thread, but let me point out that despite the fact that those three nations are all playing a minnow in a set of WCQ matches before they (will almost definitely) join us at the group stage, none of those countries is wasting valuable time (even with a skeleton squad) by playing matches againt the worst possible CONCACAF nations or mediocre European nations away.

[BearcatSA]

quote:Originally posted by nolando

That would be true if the majority of the players at the camp were actually going to be taking part in WCQ, which is almost certainly not going to be the case.

I don't question that the Olympic team needs a camp. They need a separate one, and their own appropriate prep too.

This will look like Yallop's roster for the friendlies vs Millwall and Hearts. Not the same players but the same kind of mix, which would have been perfect for perhaps just after the GC (or even six months before it) but not useful at all in terms of WCQ.

Agreed. One or two fringe NA players looking like a million bucks vs St. Lucia could give a false impression of their worth within the context of the main WCQ squad. I am interested in seeing how Serioux is looking/playing as well as Pozniak for the right back depth behind Stalteri, but that's about it.

[BearcatSA]

quote:Originally posted by nolando

That would be true if the majority of the players at the camp were actually going to be taking part in WCQ, which is almost certainly not going to be the case.

I don't question that the Olympic team needs a camp. They need a separate one, and their own appropriate prep too.

This will look like Yallop's roster for the friendlies vs Millwall and Hearts. Not the same players but the same kind of mix, which would have been perfect for perhaps just after the GC (or even six months before it) but not useful at all in terms of WCQ.

Agreed. One or two fringe NA players looking like a million bucks vs St. Lucia could give a false impression of their worth within the context of the main WCQ squad. I am interested in seeing how Serioux is looking/playing as well as Pozniak for the right back depth behind Stalteri, but that's about it.

[Sam]

I see this ST. Lucia match as being a mix of WCQ fringe players and the u-23 team, so no serious prep for the actual WC campaign.

[Sam]

I see this ST. Lucia match as being a mix of WCQ fringe players and the u-23 team, so no serious prep for the actual WC campaign.

[RJB]

quote:Originally posted by Gian-Luca

I'd rather play them than nobody, which so often happens.

That is a very good point.

[Fort York Redcoat1555362293]

This is painful. It feels like the CSA are doing the very least that is expected of them. We are finally getting info on friendly dates but they are vs the least competitive nation. They are training together but its not the team we'll be using later on in the year. i want to watch these games on tele. If it gets on will it be re aired in the middle of the night?

[Scottie]

It's very unlikely that a match of this profile will get shown at all, as was the deal with bermuda and even iceland last year. Hopefully estonia gets aired though.