Canada vs Venezuela (May 29th)

[TOcanadafan]

I know we are all impressed with how Pacheco played, but I can't believe this guy is even playing for us. I know this may not be the appropriate thread to open this discussion, but why FIFA allows this kind of nation jumping, it is completely ridiculous. We shouldn't be applauding ourselves for finding this guy... we should be spending our efforts lobbying FIFA to make sure the next Hgreaves or De Guzman isn't able to jump ship.

[BearcatSA]

I never got to see the whole game. When I programmed through my Starchoice/Shaw satellite schedule Saturday morning, they clearly had the game on two Sportsnet channels. I didn't care which channel so I choose the first one, which turned out to be the wrong one. Imagine my surprise when I returned home this evening to get a big dose of Fight Club on my recording. Who do I contact to chew out?! (this isn't the first time this has happened)

During my travels I was only able to see part of the first half, including the Venezuelan goal. Great to see these guys earn a result. Happy to hear the good reviews about some of the players (Pacheco, Sidra), though I wish I could have seen it and decided for myself. Also happy to see that Nakajima-Farran had some influence out there, considering his poor club form this season. It was he who provided Jackson with his gilt edged chance in the first half, wasn't it?

[David Bailey]

I think Gavin replied in the best possible way to your post.

I'm sure Uncle Trevor is very proud of the young man.

[David Bailey]

I know we are all impressed with how Pacheco played, but I can't believe this guy is even playing for us. I know this may not be the appropriate thread to open this discussion, but why FIFA allows this kind of nation jumping, it is completely ridiculous. We shouldn't be applauding ourselves for finding this guy... we should be spending our efforts lobbying FIFA to make sure the next Hgreaves or De Guzman isn't able to jump ship.

In that vein, how Massih Wassey ended up playing for Canada is interesting. Born in Germany from a German father and an Afghan mother, he became eligible to play for Canada when his mother later remarried a Canadian.

Regarding Pacheco, I was extremely impressed with him and I'm glad he's one of ours but I'm curious as to just how he is eligible to play for us.

Does anybody have that information?

[nolando]

The Good:

-the youth and plenty of it

-the discovery of Pacheco

-Sidra's versatility - he has played two full matches in Stalteri's place at RB without incident and today here he was screaming down the left wing

-Nakajima proving he still has something to offer. He has a similar skill set to Simpson, is a full year younger, and a better crosser with more options to create space for himself. Needs to lose the "donkey" stamp he has earned himself and get out of Danish 2nd division. Puts himself back in the top winger pool along with Simpson and Peters and Hume, well ahead of the likes of Ademolu and back on the radar

-Straith not looking out of place at all. We can't mention enough how he is NINETEEN. This guy might be good for the next 3 or 4 qualifying cycles, which proves exactly why we need to have to take risks and show faith in the young lads from time-to-time, for the advancement of the program

-Hart's attitude about the difficulty traveling to Merida being a good challenge to prepare the players for the kinds of frustrations they will face in CONCACAF

-The Venezuelan pre-game coverage

- a goal, any goal, from anyone - what would have been the odds after Canada's previous most recent goal that the next goalscorer would be Gavin McCallum? A storybook ending to the feel good story of the camp

The Bad:

-how no matter who we have up front as a lone wolf, no matter who is playing in support of the striker, he ends up poorly serviced and creating very little for himself. Jackson looked to be pushing it to keep up with this young Ven squad. I think in terms of being an effective contributor come WCQ against top CONCACAF competition he is still a ways away. Good thing the qualifiers are too.

-how so very few of these promising young guys look like they will be starting regularly for a decent club in a decent league next year

-as another poster mentioned, how Klukowski could suddenly go from the Canadian player of the year to being so incredibly underwhelming?

-Ledgerwood showing why he was deemed expendable at club level - not much of a memorable impact in either match. Since Straith and Sidra and Peters and others can play right back, and we have a number of decent defensive midfielders, I will stop wondering about his name being excluded from future squad lists

-the Sportsnet coverage - how can a respectable sportscaster in North America not have taught himself how to pronounce places and names in Spanish? What sarcophagus was Dick Howard released from? Isn't it creepy that he hasn't aged in 20 years? Did you see the excitement he had pregame about Dunfield's debut?

The Ugly:

-Hastings, Stalteri

-20 min to prove something as a first cap for a keeper?? seriously??

-Dunfield proved me right - why did he play 90 minutes??

CANADA: Josh Wagenaar (Haidar Al-Shaibani, 70), Paul Stalteri, Adam Straith, Michael Klukowski (Eddy Sidra, 64), Richard Hastings; Terry Dunfield, Massih Wassey (Stephen Ademolu, 61), Nick Ledgerwood (Gianluca Zavarise, 85), Pedro Pacheco (Gavin McCallum, 81), Issey Nakajima-Farran, Simeon Jackson

[matthew]

I don’t think anyone made a strong case that they’re ready to start in the next cycle, but I do think that a handful of players certainly deserve to be in the mix moving forward with the next three friendlies.

I was mostly happy with Straith. I liked his composure and his skill on the ball. He was beaten twice in the air on set pieces and I thought he should have closed space down better on a good Venezuelan chance. Still far more good than bad. He definitely merrits consideration for one of the CB spots because I think in two years he could be at that level. But I’m not anointing him yet.

Like everyone else I had no idea Sidra was that fast. Provided a great spark. I think he’ll need time to adjust to the fact that he can’t be as physical in CONCACAF as he is in Germany. I thought he had good body position, but he gave away a dangerous FK. How left footed is he, does anyone know? I wouldn’t mind him on the right. I’m hoping this is a sign of things to come for Canada and Cottbus.

Pacheco had a lot of good qualities (touch, vision, composure), but he faded pretty quickly (tough to say when he started to cramp up) and never did deliver a really great final ball from the run of play. It depends on tactics/formation, but to me he may be the first mid off the bench. He’d certainly look at home playing a short-passing possession game with Hutchinson and DeGuzman if he we’re not at full strength.

I wasn’t crazy abaout Wassey. You can see the skill, but he didn’t do much with it. He’s still young though, I’m not writing him off or anything.

I was very surprised by Issey. Best game he’s had for the nats? Had to be close. Lots of creativity, tons of energy and a willingness to get at people. I had kind of written him off after his domestic season, but you can’t after a match like that. He has to be part of the group going forward if he keeps playing like that. I don’t see him starting, but he’d be a nice option off the bench at worst.

I thought Jackson did all right. He created the second half chance out of not much at all and he wanted the ball played a second earlier on the first half chance. Had he gotten it that fraction earlier the keeper might not have gotten off his line so quickly. Still it’s a chance he has to finish, but it was a good stop too. Considering how isolated he was, I thought he did okay.

I actually liked Dunfield the best of the four d-mids. Ledgerwood had some nice passes, but some bad giveaways too. I still like him better as a back. I don’t think Dunfield is too high on the depth chart, but he won some balls and did some all right things. I wasn’t impressed with either of JBB or Zavarise in the time they got. Neither did much to break up the Venezuelan run of possession and they did very little going forward (granted JBB had a lot more time than Zavarise) when we needed a push late.

I thought Stalteri played not bad actually. Your usual clumsy/dangerous fouls, but he looked more solid. I didn’t think he was any worse than Klukowski to be honest. I’m assuming Klukowski is just tired because he has a lot more than that to give. He wasn’t awful, just not at his usual high standard.

And thanks to Gavin McCallum for making my weekend.

cheers,

matthew

[CUJO]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZYhIEKf6Jk

[Gian-Luca]

Regarding Pacheco, I was extremely impressed with him and I'm glad he's one of ours but I'm curious as to just how he is eligible to play for us.

Does anybody have that information?

IIRC in the broadcast Peter Loumbardias mentioned that Assistant Coach Tony Fonseca discovered him, and I guess got him to play for us as he doesn't speak much in English (Pacheco that is, not Loumbardias or Fonseca), and mentioned that his parents are Canadian.

Too bad Loumbardias couldn't pronounce my name properly, but otherwise did a good job. And LOL at Dick Howard's goal celebration in the studio!

[CanadasBest]

Thanks Cujo! That was a sick run by Sidra.

[Unnamed Trialist]

I think Gavin replied in the best possible way to your post.

He should be below Haber, to give an example. At the same level as USSF Div 2. Good goal though, short guy at the far post, but not enough to change my position: hell, not long ago I saw Grande score a beauty vs. Spain, and that never gave him merits to start or even close to it for us. And the list is long.

[Unnamed Trialist]

Found a video interview with Pacheco, can't understand it all. I think he says his parents lived in Canada, he has had a passport for about 5 years, and that he wants his kids to have one too.

Anyone help with the rest?

http://videos.sapo.pt/f8IS9hdmIVQIzOjQszYu

[Free kick]

McCallum on for Pacheco, good match for Pedro, esp 1st half.

Agreed. He deserves another look and another callup.

[Lord Bob]

In defiance of popular opinion, I didn't like Nakajima-Farran's game. He was (until that lovely free kick) all smoke and no fire, all over the ball but not making a single even decent touch with it and turning it over all too often. I know we all like seeing guys who are active and urging to get into the play, but he'd have been better off hanging back on most occasions.

I thought Pacheco was extremely promising and had better ball skills than anyone on the team. Dunfield was better than I'd expected if still not exactly "good". Sidra proved the value of a good impact substitute and his athleticism and ball sense alone might get him onto our bench for the next cycle. Adam Straith was man of the match, looked almost laughably able to cope with the Venezuelan attack, and oh by the way he's nineteen years old.

[canucklefan]

Found a video interview with Pacheco, can't understand it all. I think he says his parents lived in Canada, he has had a passport for about 5 years, and that he wants his kids to have one too.

Anyone help with the rest?

http://videos.sapo.pt/f8IS9hdmIVQIzOjQszYu

I'm not sure to understand Pacheco's words as I don't speak portuguese! (however portuguese and spanish are a little bit similar). If I did understand correctly, his parents lived in Canada for 12 years and his mother is born in Canada.

[Lord Bob]

For those interested in reading a thousand of my words about this match, I've got a post up at http://www.maple-leaf-forever.com.

[Free kick]

I thought the result was very fair and that we did very well given that we were playing players that most of us only know by name and who play at very low rungs of the professional ladder mostly in Germany. But whats even more telling about our National team in a match like this is: how there is so little (to distinguish) from those aforementioned players and seasoned pro's.

The game, especially in the first half, lacked cohesion and organization. It was as if Venezuela wanted to play a counter attacking game thus surrendering possession to Canada but the Canadian side did not have the cohesion and familiarity with one another to be effective in that kind of game. So what you saw was some sloppy play with a lot of changes in possession. I didn't check the stats but i think that we may have out-chanced the opponent in this game but Venezuelans may have had the edge in quality of chances. We didn't play well together as team but there were some things to like from an individual standpoint and even though nobody dazzled there are a few that should have earned another look. Pacheco and Sidra are two that come to mind.

On the downside, that quality ball in the final third is still eluding us and I saw some really dreadful crosses that could have been better delivered from a CFL punter. There were some good scoring opportunities that would emerge only to be snuffed out by a woofull hoof (10 feet over someones head) or the fact that the players weren't on the same page. There were also a couple of sloppy/mistimed tackles.

[Free kick]

For those interested in reading a thousand of my words about this match, I've got a post up at http://www.maple-leaf-forever.com.

Its always great to put another face to a name.

[canucklefan]

He should be below Haber, to give an example. At the same level as USSF Div 2. Good goal though, short guy at the far post, but not enough to change my position: hell, not long ago I saw Grande score a beauty vs. Spain, and that never gave him merits to start or even close to it for us. And the list is long.

Agree that Haber plays at a better league level than McCallum but so far, Haber has only 1 goal in 10 league and Voyageur Cup games. That's sad, IMO he has to score a lot more to have a chance to be included in the West Brom squad at the end of his loan. At the end, Haber with his current stats could not help our MNT, neither McCallum if he stays in England 4th Division, that means little in a WCQ tournament.

[BearcatSA]

Based on what's been said and what I have seen in the past, I still think this team needs someone to emerge in that ball winning role in the centre of the park, a guy with some tackling presence yet the quickness to cope at the international level. It was mentioned by some during the Macedonia/Poland series that we appeared overmatched physically yet even when you play a side like Honduras you have to be able to nullify their underrated physicality as well and stem their dangerous counterattack before it begins. Thoughts?

[Gian-Luca]

He should be below Haber, to give an example.

I agree, but I imagine the Whitecaps wouldn't have been overly thrilled to give up Haber for an important time of the short period they have him for in order to make this South American trip, so I'll give Hart the benefit of the doubt on that one.

[Gian-Luca]

ILike everyone else I had no idea Sidra was that fast. Provided a great spark. I think he’ll need time to adjust to the fact that he can’t be as physical in CONCACAF as he is in Germany. I thought he had good body position, but he gave away a dangerous FK.

I thought that was very much a b.s. call though. When it happened live I was laughing at the pathetic attempt to draw a foul by the Venezuelan, and then shocked and cursing that the otherwise decent Ref had fallen for it.

[Gian-Luca]

More media coverage:

http://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/2010/05/29/canada-venezuela-0/

http://www.torontosun.com/sports/soccer/2010/05/30/14188841-torsun.html

As far as I can tell the Toronto Star isn't even reporting the result, never mind doing an article on it. Disgraceful.

[Moldy9]

And LOL at Dick Howard's goal celebration in the studio!

That was classic! I loved it. He should have shouted over Loumbardias in the first place! Ah I guess I'm getting to used to Latino game broadcasts down here.

[Moldy9]

He should be below Haber, to give an example. At the same level as USSF Div 2. Good goal though, short guy at the far post, but not enough to change my position: hell, not long ago I saw Grande score a beauty vs. Spain, and that never gave him merits to start or even close to it for us. And the list is long.

Yeah, Marcus Haber is really good, why doesn't he get a call up? And Sandro Grande scored against Spain? I'd like to see that clip (checked youtube, no clip)

[Gian-Luca]

I put up a blog entry with some irreverant thoughts on the game - it's not on the main page as yet but those interested should be able to find it by hitting the blog tab at the top of the page or by clicking on the Blog number in my profile.