loyola Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 quote:Originally posted by BrennanFan the friendlies prior to SVG are excellent, but IMO WCQ doesnt REALLY start until august. i think well get 2-3 days before that game after not being together in months. i believe the gold cup team had 10-14 days prior to the tourny They had one practice prior to the Venezuela game (June 1 I think) and then spent the next day travelling and we played CR on the 6. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gian-Luca Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 Bloody hell. Just spent almost 5 hours in internal meetings at work wondering what the score was only to find out it's this. Ugh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ekaram Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 I only started watching at the 50th minute, and I felt we played much better than them. Their first goal was unlucky, and the second was due to horrible defending. Our problem was definitly in the final third and I think that has more to do with tactics then our players. I wasn't to worried before, but I certainly am now. Hopefully they will have better preparations during the summer leading up to the first group stage of qualifying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piltdownman Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 Wow, I watched the game (on a tablet sitting on my lap below the table) during a very boring three hour meeting, and I don't know what was worst the meeting or the match. Maybe what can be taken from this is snow seems to remove skill from the equation. So if we want to play dirty, Concafac Style, we should play Mexico and the USA in the Yukon (Mount McIntyre Recreation Stadium Anyone?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nolando Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 quote:Originally posted by piltdownman Wow, I watched the game (on a tablet sitting on my lap below the table) during a very boring three hour meeting, and I don't know what was worst the meeting or the match. Thats awesome. An early nominee for Voyageur of the Year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonovision Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 I only saw most of the action out of the corner of my eye (had to pretend to be working) but was the 2nd goal not clearly offside? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nolando Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 Embarassingly missed the game as the meds I took for my recently herniated disc wouldnt let me up at 1:00 AM. Disappointing result. I was thinking it would be a 0-0 draw at worst. Did we learn anything about the back line? I guess DeJong isnt going to figure into the plans if hes not going to get a good run out. Is Hainault-Hastings really our first-choice pairing? What happened to McKenna? (Not that I think he's a perfect replacement for either of the two) Does Brennan get another look, this time at CB? Is Mitch getting into Yallop territory starting a lower league player up front? Did we ever get confirmation that OO was left out due to club/personal request? If this is a long term thing, do you not have another Peters/Simpson issue? Is that the last time we see Gerba start in a A-team game? Does OO get called in and gets automatic time in the next game or two? Waste of a valuable friendly date, snow or no snow. We could have actually hurt our own chances at WCQ if even one of our starting eleven ends up hurt during this latest adventure. And we learned absolutely zilch about playing CONCACAF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonovision Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 quote:Originally posted by nolando Is Mitch getting into Yallop territory starting a lower league player up front? Did we ever get confirmation that OO was left out due to club/personal request? If this is a long term thing, do you not have another Peters/Simpson issue? Is that the last time we see Gerba start in a A-team game? Does OO get called in and gets automatic time in the next game or two? I don't think playing Gerba can be compared to starting Simpson and Peters in WCQ matches before they were ready. At this point, I think it's even too early to say that Mitchell favours Gerba over Occean. For one, Gerba is in season, while Occean hasn't played a competitive match in months. And Gerba isn't 16 years old like Peters was. He's a professional with experience and I don't think his level of talent is that much below Occean, if at all. By the time important WCQ matches are being played in August and September, there is a good chance that Gerba will be playing in the same league that Friend, Simpson, Bernier and McKenna have been playing in this season. Still on OO/Gerba, to my mind these are both depth players unless we are playing a strict 4-4-2 with two pure forwards. Friend is the man in the 4-5-1/4-3-3 setups we have been deploying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toronto MB Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 Ok, so for those of you that didn't see this game, I wouldn't even bother to consider the result. This was bar none the worst conditions I have ever seen a football matched played in. This was a Winnipeg-esque BLIZZARD - we're talking like 3+ inches of snow on the pitch in parts. An absolutely ridiculous contest. What a waste. Yes I hated losing. And yes I did question some of Mitchell's tactics. But given the situation, who knows what his thinking was. This game WAS a write-off. A complete and utter waste of time, resources and energy. URGGGGGHHHH!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
denis Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 Well at least no one got hurt. Would have sucked of DeRo or DJG got a career threatening injury out there today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nolando Posted March 26, 2008 Share Posted March 26, 2008 Originally posted by jonovision He's a professional with experience and I don't think his level of talent is that much below Occean, if at all. I think Yallop could have/ would have said the same things about a Serioux vs a Tam or Brennan last time we had this kind of debate. Not saying I agree with the thinking, but a very similar argument, no? If OO is playing and scoring goals regularly and not called in over Gerba, I think we have a very similar situation. Still on OO/Gerba, to my mind these are both depth players unless we are playing a strict 4-4-2 with two pure forwards. Friend is the man in the 4-5-1/4-3-3 setups we have been deploying. I agree, but would like to see Friend score in at least a couple of games between now and the first group stage of WCQ for me to be convinced. Yes, he's playing the back-to goal, target man role quite often, setting up for the attacking midfielders, but he should be creating and banging in the odd goal too himself to be considered an automatic first choice starter. Again, Gerba vs OO for the striker off the bench (as it is now completely clear we will be a one-top squad for the foreseeable future)becomes a very interesting discussion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loyola Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 quote:Originally posted by nolando And we learned absolutely zilch about playing CONCACAF. Before making such comments consider this about 10 of the players who played today. Hirsch 20 Stalteri 57 Hainault 34 Kluka 13 Hastings 41 Imhoff 22 JDG 27 Hutchinson 47 Friend 25 DeRo 52 The number after the names is the number of times everyone of those players have played against CONCACAF or South American teams in their NT (including youth levels) career. I think our players knows about CONCACAF, 70 % of the games they played for Canada was against such teams... Add to that the fact that since 1 1/2 year 13 out of 17 MNT games(including the next 2) were against CONCACAF or SA teams, I don't think we should use that as an excuse for our players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gian-Luca Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 Well I finally had a chance to watch the game, and couldn't stop myself from laughing repeatedly on the absurd conditions. When I first saw the result I was all ready to rip the players for not coming through when they been outspoken about the quality of the opposition they were getting but I decided to wait until I saw the game, and good thing I did, because I can't really blame them or anyone for the result, other than God. If there was ever such a thing as a "meaningless" friendly, this was it. Have to agree with the well-expressed sentiments of gkhs (& one or two others) that this game was basically a total waste. The Setanta commentator was wondering what either coach could have possibly gotten out of this game given the conditions and I'm inclined to wonder the same. All the poor conditions did negate any superior skill or speed that we might have had (which is probably why it would be a good weapon to use against a superiorly skilled team like Mexico in WCQ, if we can manage it). The winning goal was an undeserved complete fluke of a goal that came against the run of play. Had we not carried the play the whole game & gave up a bunch a chances I might be worried, but that was not the case. When even our most skilled players like DeRo, DeGuzman & Radzinski have difficulty controlling the ball, passing & crossing I think it says something. To criticize the players for this performance would be almost akin of criticizing our hockey team for losing to Switzerland for a game played with skates but on grass instead of ice. A few people have claimed that the 2nd goal was offside, but having checked the replay I'm pretty sure it wasn't. I think Hastings (who gave the ball away to begin with) played the striker on side, but the play was a bit of a mess for central defense as a whole as they were not on the same page (Hainault & Stalteri moved up but Hastings did not). That is a concern we will have to address. Where we do have a gripe with the officiating is that we had at least three dangerous breaks nullified by incorrect offside calls & we had three legitimate penalties not given (two obvious handballs in the box one of which negated a dangerous De Guzman cross) & a player obviously holding up Friend as he entered the box). I can see the Ref maybe not giving them all, but ignoring all three was a tad ludicrous - although I suppose the Ref could legitimately use snow blindness as an excuse. In the end it doesn't really matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheeta Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 You know what? I just watched this match off a tape and it's completely worthless as an analytical tool. But Gawd-damn it was fun to watch. A total gas. What a hoot, but completely useless for anything meaningful to football. Not sure how those who followed the CBC webcast were able to watch because Geezus Christ it was hard enough to follow on Setanta's feed. Win, lose, draw. Doesn't matter. Today was a complete write off. Thank goodness no one got hurt and years from now this friendly will be a piece of Canadianna. Hilarious. Will say this, the Setanta commentator had done his homework on Canadian football and Canadian footballers. Came off as being very in the know whether that was real or no. He was full of tid-bits you'd be hard pressed knowing about outside this board or in the small soccer-circles in this country. Good job. I will say this on a positive note though. This sort of experience can be a real team builder for the lads involved. A unique shared experience. The moral payoff of this match may far offset the otherwise uselessness of it at the end of the day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gian-Luca Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 quote:Originally posted by Joe MacCarthy I see we have the usual CSA whining (apparently they can now control the weather) and Mitchell bashing. When, oh when, is somebody going to step up and blame the players. This core group has been together long enough (with each playing at a reasonable competitive level) that they should be getting some results. The players have to take some ownership. They want high profile friendlies and yet cannot be successful against supposed minnows. I would agree with you in principle (and especially that they should quit the whining about the lack of high profile friendlies) but not for this particular game, since this game was played on snow rather than grass I find it difficult to lambaste them. I think the players did as well as they could in the conditions. Seeing DeGuzman and DeRosario compete for the best Junior* impersonation pretty well sums it up. Although the blaming of the CSA for the weather on this board has to go down into the Voyageurs Hall of Fame as an all-time classic! *Junior being the prematurely grey-haired Brazilian player in the 1982 & 1986 World Cup with similar hair-styles to Julian & Dwayne. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheeta Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 quote:Originally posted by Varsity Tyler Some quick notes from Tallinn .... I made my way from the hostel to the stadium around 3. I wanted to get there early to sort out tickets and really just to find where the actual ground was. When I got there the Estonian supporters were out in mass shovelling the pitch. Yes - the supporters. I joined in lent a hand. Being Canadian, apparantly I am a ringer when it comes to shovelling, lol The Estonian FA was nice enough to comp tickets for anybody who picked up a shovel, so I watched the match for free. While waiting for the free ticket our boys came into the ground. It was nice to chat with them, take some pics and wish them luck. The game ...... aaaah what can you say. It was a **** result on a **** night. I did manage to see one TFC shirt, and the guy still has his seasons in 115. I took along a couple brits and a kiwi, and met up with some Canadian girls in the stands. There were 10 of us for the reds tonight. Good times! Estonia ..... the land is cold but the people here are warm. It usually doesn't snow like this. This is the first real snow that they have received all year. I'll write more and post some pics when I get home. The result puts a small sour taste on the trip, but Canada away is always a good time. Estonia makes it that much better. Cheers! Ha! Good on yah. Wish I was there. Swear to Gawd, wish I was there. You're presence didn't un-noticed go. "Pocket of Canadian fans" I believe was the quote on Setanta, and the odd Canada chant was heard on the broadcast. What else can I say? Oh, yeah. You're an animal. You belong in a cage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheeta Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 quote:Originally posted by speedmonk42 Has anyone ever played in conditions like that? I have, it is pretty hard to put your heart in the game. Me to! Worse even! April/October in Winnipeg is one merciless bitch. You can go from trotting about sweating without your shirt on one afternoon to freezing your nads off in the sleet the next. It's crazy. If we'd won this fixture 5-nil I'd still shrug and say "So what?". Nights like this don't mean anything in the big scheme of things. They're useless. Got me smiling though. Remember endless winters of kick-about on the snowed over tarmac of Doctor Hamilton Junior High School during lunch break with a frozen ball. Frost bitten faces and sweat soaked backs. Good times, good times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loyola Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 Hey Varsity Tyler, hope your enjoying your Baltic trip! I'm heading to Tallinn beginning of May, do you have any recommendation for an hostel? What's worth visiting in Estonia. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gian-Luca Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 quote:Originally posted by Cheeta Will say this, the Setanta commentator had done his homework on Canadian football and Canadian footballers. Came off as being very in the know whether that was real or no. He was full of tid-bits you'd be hard pressed knowing about outside this board or in the small soccer-circles in this country. Good job. Agreed with your entire post, but wanted to highlight this point - I totally agree! This guy did more research than we often see from the Sportsnet broadcasts, he was excellent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadianSoccerFan Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 The web feed commentator thought Friend was Gerba and vice versa. He also thought Issey was actually his younger brother Paris. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loyola Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 Just saw the highlights on FSWC and that Estonian keeper made one heck of a save in the first half. Very unlucky to conceede that own goal but suspect defending on the second, but really we cannot make a lot of judment on a game like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Ref Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 I think we did learn one thing out of this useless game, and that is that Mitchell is not the man to lead us to South Africa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gian-Luca Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 Post-game write-up from CP with some quotes from Mitchell: http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Soccer/2008/03/26/5110851-cp.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nolando Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 quote:Originally posted by Gian-Luca Post-game write-up from CP with some quotes from Mitchell: http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Soccer/2008/03/26/5110851-cp.html "Our guys got on with it with a good attitude," Mitchell said. About the best that can be said, by the sounds of things. Another character-building loss... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 Highlights: http://www.rds.ca/video/visionneuse.html They're in "En vedette" for now, but you can always search for it ("Soccer"). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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