Sept. 2, 2011: Canada v. St. Lucia (R)

[Gian-Luca]

We made their keeper look good on many occasions, I tought. I also thought that beaulieu-bourgeault didnt look out out place. I have not seen the replay of the st lucia goal, but Lars looked poor on it. I dont think he faced another shot on goal all game.

Lars got a late jump on it as McKenna screened him (inadvertantly) - it actually looked like McKenna may have gotten out of the way of the shot. But on the whole they seemed to be caught sleeping but hopefully they can use this as a lesson for future games not to do that after they score.

As for their keeper, I thought he made about 5-6 excellent saves. True, we also missed about 4-5 sitters that didn't require a save from him (mostly in the first half which is why it was so frustrating) and they rocketed one off their own cross-bar. So perhaps by saying this could have been 10-1 I was being a bit generous, maybe 13 to 14 to 1 was more accurate. I also hadn't noticed (until watching the replay of the game) that #16 for St. Lucia was the one who escaped getting a yellow for the horrible foul on Simpson in the corner, which would have meant his second yellow, and should have reduced them to 10 players by the 22nd minute (the same player got sent off late in the game), so they caught a major break.

Agreed with you on the Sportsnet microphones.

[neil_z_]

Pictures anyone?

[Mimglow]

The mics were loud and clear until the "we're f***ing dynamite" chant started. At that point they're risking getting in trouble with the CRTC if they don't turn them down.

Just a nitpicky correction: it's the CBSC they would get in trouble with. The CRTC does not regulate offensive content. Carry on!

[phil7777]

My toughts:

Overall team: Same old problem, no finish and very little confidence. Too much attacking on wings, not enough in the middle. Too many long passes, passes are too slow. Defense sometimes looks shaky. Need Gerba back.

JDG: Did ok, no more, no less.

DDR: Overall dangerous, but corners were aweful.

JBB: Don't be too harsh, he's still yound and we have to keep developping our (rare) youngsters. I might be wrong, but I though he is now playing in the 3.bundesliga. Didn't his team get promoted?

Hutch: Overall calm. His clinical forward pass on the 3rd goal is what we need to see more often.

Jackson: Ok I like the guy, I really do. But honestly, by looking at how this guy plays for the CMNT, one has to wonder how can he be playing for an EPL team. Weak dribbles, weak first touches, absolutely no finishing. Couldn't score a goal if his life depended on it. I'm really starting to have doubts about him.

Simpson: Overall not as good as previous CMNT games. His two goals saves the day for him.

Johnson: Much better game than GC. Looked solid. Nice ramming finish on 4th goal.

Haber: Horribly deprived of talent and speed. This guy has no business playing for the Nats.

Hirsh: Had no business letting that goal in.

If we could get a Hoilett in the team, I think it would make all the difference - even at the confidence level. Otherwise, we need Gerba and Occean in front. We also need some players to be able to make crosses, but we don't seem to have any.

I have confidence the overall cohesion of the team will go better with the following games.

[Cheeta]

Second biggest surprise of the night;

Nicely placed shot, sure, but Geez Lars that ball came from A LONG way out. Between the time the StL player hit it to the time it spun off the twine in the back of the goal Canada Customs had to inspect and approved that parcel for import. Sheesh.

Biggest surprise of the night;

St Lucia finished with the astounding number of 10 men. Would have bet dinner earlier in the night it was going to be 9 or less.

Hey, did Simpson get credit for that 1st goal?

[Old Style Pilsner1555362318]

Interesting match to take in. The air of expectancy pre-match turning us into a bag of nerves until the penalty. The south-end as always were great and from my vantage point it looks like we got a couple of pockets on the east side stand making noise. Crowd wise my only gripes would be the tossers in the row behind me who decided to start a Danny Dichio chant in the second half; and the small smattering of Germany and Italy jerseys I saw in the south end. But, at least they were out cheering on Canada!!! JDV's OSC really brought some good numbers, hopefully they'll be back for future internationals and a new breed of Canada supporter has been born.

Onto the match. Against an opposition who at best would have had it tough against an organized Sunday League side, we looked disjointed. Trying to pass the ball into the net just doesn't work. I've read complaints about DeRo being selfish, I thought the exact opposite until his penalty goal he was far too selfless in on goal expecting him to hammer it and he lays a pass off to the corner of the box. Another problem was our tendency to work the ball outside and try to whip the ball for a header into Hume and Jackson who were never going to win headers against the two biggest men in St. Lucia; why couldn't we play through the middle where you could have run a battleship through the gap between the central defenders on most occasions. The second half was a different story and we finally started to carve up the St. Lucian's (I will mention nothing of the stretcher bearers who I'm sure were claiming overtime pay for their work last night), could have won by a bigger margin, SHOULD have won by a bigger margin; but as we say in South Yorkshire three points in the bag and bring on Puerto Rico, ALLEZ LES ROUGE!!!!

[ThiKu]

Agree with most of what's said. Poor performance. In the match prediction thread, where I got the score way wrong, but did get one point right - lots of chances to start, but nerves will impede that before finally scoring and then seeing a bunch go in. Sure the bunch turned out to be just 2 more....making it 4-1.

GK - Erm...tough to say on the shot to be honest. I know CF was an amazing GK but I am not sure LH had much chance to save that...Agreed Milan starts in PR though.

RB - We didn't have one. SH - did you forget this on the whiteboard? Peters for the PR match.

CB - They were good. Solid. Passing out of the back was poor though.

LB - Jazic was solid but then again, it was StL. Let's get Kluka in there please and thank you.

CM - Hutch did OK but looked frustrated. JDG was...plodding. Not bad, not great. Looked bored and frustrated. De Ro was typical selfish De Ro.

LW - Simpson good....let's get him playing centrally...How about in DeRo's spot!?

RW - Jackson was alright...kid needs to score. Period. He knows this.

CF - Hume was a sparkplug and I love him. But I am sure Occean will overtake him...

Johnson was great off the bench but let's not get carried away. It was v. StL, and StL was exhausted when he came on and then they went down a man. Johnson needs to get the nod ahead of JDG though...sorry but JDG is done.

Our finishing was horrific, and our decision making against a team that sat so centrally as a unit was very poor. The balls to the wings were pointless in that they always lead to crosses. We had no one who could win a cross until Habs and Ricks came on. Play to the wing, draw the defenders over, swing possession back, then play a blind-side through ball...pretty simple guys! But if you are crossing to Hume and De Ro how about playing it at waist height or lower???

Those corners were awful. Someone else please step up!

Win v. PR? Yes please! Prediction? 2-0 Canada.

[gator]

That was an excellent night of soccer and socializing! We really should have put them away early and when we finally did break through we gave up a horrifying equaliser! It was becoming more and more frustrating as the half went on as we tried to walk the ball into the net through 8 to 10 behind the ball defenders! Cheeta mentioned about their rough tactics and they were truly lucky they didn't have a bunch of red cards, it was working and I think some of our players were intimidated! Every time they dove in with a leg breaking foul one of their players would roll around on the pitch to distract the ref and it worked! Myself and several others were concerned at the half that we may be about to witness the worst result in Canadian soccer history! Thank goodness for the penalty in the second half, that settled everything down and two wonderful goals from open play sealed the deal! As has been mentioned I think our lack of a big center forward hurt us in this one, Gerba, Friend or OO surely would have helped! I thought Hume did as well as could be expected playing up there but we were kind of out of sorts in the attacking 3rd of the field! Hutch was his normal solid self and I thought JDG played solidly if not spectacularly! If PR are a similiar opponent and the game plays out like this one, Hart must consider putting Haber into the CF position! I'm looking forward to Tuesday to see if we can build on this!

[Hard Canadian]

A great experience last night, especially at Maro meeting fellow V's & board members. ^ remember me Gator? Picked myself up a Voyageur's tee shirt and scarf and feel like a true V now. The march to the stadium was something to remember, got some good videos on my phone. Oh and the match, right... very disappointing first half, I was embarassed by our performance to be honest. Second half showed loads of improvement but we really shoould have put this one out of reach well before the half time whistle. We didn't give the opponent enough respect and it showed. Let's hope we can improve for Tuesday's match, probably our toughest game in the second round.

[tmcmurph]

The goal on Lars started straight at the middle of the net then took a nasty curve to the side halfway there. It is hard to read those flat, bounce on air, shots. Unlike the ones with consistent spin which you can develop a feel for how much they will bend.

Dero was not selfish last night! What game were you watching? If anything he should have shot 2 or 3 times instead of passing. His shooting was not on last night so maybe that is why he passed more. Not good delivery on corners. Our forwards were all short so passing to the corner of the 18 and trying a shot from there was the better idea.

Hume was also off. He knew it too. After his last miss he kicked the post in frustration. Jackson was the same. Very frustrating night for those 2 and us fans.

Hutch is our #10. I ran out of fingers and toes counting the number of nice, 20-30 yard, split the defense passes he made to open spots for his teammates to run onto. Great play all night. Stay healthy man, we need you!

We played down the wings a lot because they sucked covering us there. Especially on the left it was obvious that nobody could keep up and we just went past them constantly. Even before they got exhausted we owned them on the left. That generated most of our chances in the first half and with better finishing we could have been 4-1 at half so I don't have a problem attacking on the wings when the other team can't stop it.

We should have done more one time shots. We passed into the box several times in the first half alone and tried to settle the ball before shooting. That gave the defenders time to get in the way. Their keeper had terrible hands and we should have just one timed several shots and gone for the inevitable loose ball.

I'm glad we played them first and not Puerto Rico. We obviously need a warm up game to get ready and I'm glad we had it. Against Puerto Rico I doubt we will have the speed or conditioning advantage to the extent we do against the St.* teams. I'm not as down on the performance as most seem to be. Yes we have to be better on Tuesday. If we can take 3 points in PR we are loving life. It will be hard for anyone to catch us. Lets get the full 3 on Tuesday. To do that we will need to finish a whole lot better.

[Canuck Oranje]

GK - Erm...tough to say on the shot to be honest. I know CF was an amazing GK but I am not sure LH had much chance to save that...Agreed Milan starts in PR though.

LW - Simpson good....let's get him playing centrally...How about in DeRo's spot!?

Johnson was great off the bench but let's not get carried away. It was v. StL, and StL was exhausted when he came on and then they went down a man. Johnson needs to get the nod ahead of JDG though...sorry but JDG is done.

1. From my seat, there is no way that goal should have gotten past Hirschfeld.

2. Re: Johnson in place of JDG, Johnson didn't play the role that JDG did and I am not sure he is capable of playing the traditional No. 5 role.

3. Re: Simpson playing the traditional No. 10 role, I think you would be wasting his strengths. In fact, I would be more inclined to shift him back to the RB role to play a more of a Wingback with the help of some defensive midfield cover. Perhaps bringing Johnson on in this case.

[paul-collins]

I thought the St Lucia goalie was a bit Arturs Irbe (remember the happy wanderer for San Jose Sharks?). They should have been pumping the ball into him the first half and looking for rebounds, he couldn't catch the ball to save his life.

Corners and crosses are a weakness, no one could loft it in in any serious way, it seemed. Long, low, hard seemed to be the delivery of choice.

McKenna definitely dodged the shot that led to the St Lucia goal, and Lars simply didn't move. I don't know if it was a knuckleball (no spin) but from where I was sitting behind the St Lucia bench it seemed predictable in its arc to me. I'll have a look on the tape and confirm.

Ricketts was underutilized when he came on.

I think JDG looked decent but not stellar, contrary to much expressed opinion here.

*afterthought - Atiba was very sore after the game, he was hobbling in his socks when heading to the tunnel (and don't forget, during the salute to the south end, he was carried by a teammate). I hope he's good to go on Tuesday.

[smartlikefox]

JDG looked alright to me. He was fine with his possession and short passes but his longer balls left a lot to be desired. Very few of those worked out.

Only player who had a couple of decent crosses in was Jazic early on. Dero couldn't get a corner in properly to save his life. Good call on going the short route and keeping possession later on in the game.

[BearcatSA]

JBB looked a similar calibre replacement for Ledgerwood at RB. Mind you, as an injury replacement he was still able to win the starting place ahead of Peters. So you are left wondering what Peters is or isn't doing in the manager's eyes that's leaving him on the outside looking in (played 90 at RB vs Greece, but a few late sub appearences after that and then no minutes during the GC).

[jonovision]

JDG looked alright to me. He was fine with his possession and short passes but his longer balls left a lot to be desired. Very few of those worked out.

Only player who had a couple of decent crosses in was Jazic early on. Dero couldn't get a corner in properly to save his life. Good call on going the short route and keeping possession later on in the game.

De Ro's corners were terrible. And while he was pretty poor in other departments, JBB put a few decent balls in including a low one that Dwayne should have converted.

[Canadian_Soccer]

Agreed that it was not our best performance but I'm actually glad that we are playing more games so we can learn and gel as a team before the next round. Peters or Edgar should get in for the next match at rb. In the mid I really think Johnson should start and someone needs to replace Jackson. He's shown promise but he was brutal last night especially when he missed the ball entirely from 6 yards out. Last thing is that rickets played well and deserves another game even if it's a sub.

[BearcatSA]

I was fine with the mids and fowards (we were always going to struggle playing that formation without a true target forward), but I don’t understand Jazic or JBB. How often have we heard that someone really impressed in training during the week and then didn’t look all that hot in the match?

Maybe the people's choice for the RB spot, Peters, was sh*te in training, poor positionally, poor attitude, whatever?

[nfitz]

Just a nitpicky correction: it's the CBSC they would get in trouble with. The CRTC does not regulate offensive content. Carry on!

The CBSC would likely not even get them in trouble. There's no blanket ban on anything here ... it's all contextual. CBC has had no issues running full frontal nudity in the 8 pm slot in the past, in the right context. Typically all that may be necessary is a warning.

Any censorship would be entirely the choice of Sportsnet ...

[Oranje]

Just throwing this out there, what about Johnson as a No. 10?

[killgod]

Just throwing this out there, what about Johnson as a No. 10?

We have enough talented offensive players to mix in that spot and he's still finding ways to get involved playing his natural spot, so I don't see the need to move him up.

[Tybalt]

I find it frustrating that few others (except some of the other Voyageurs) can't see that Canada are far, far better when we play through the middle rather than down the wings and crossing it through the middle. Even players like Will Johnson (Jackson too) are better when they cut inside and play the ball on the ground, rather than trying to go wide and deep and bring it back in the air. Sure, on set plays against a dodgy keeper I don't mind an aerial bombardment but it seems so obvious to me that playing through the middle of the park (and letting Hutchinson bring it into the final third as much as possible, god he's brilliant) is our strength. This has been the case every one of the last 8-10 games.

Defensively I think against this caliber of opposition you never get a very good read. Both St. Kitts and Puerto Rico should give us a slightly better idea.

Best thing about yesterday was the 0-0 draw for SKU and PUR.

[DichioTFC]

Just as important as our result last night is the result in Group C. The winner of that group will make it out into our group for the next round.

Nicaragua beat Dominica last night and play Panama at home on Tuesday. If Nicaragua can beat a rested Panama (Bahamas pulled out of their group, its now a 3-country group), there's a very good chance we wont have to see Panama in the next round.

[themodelcitizen]

There's highlights on youtube, but no Johnson goal - anyone have a link?

EDIT: ah, the Sportsnet vids have it now - great to see it replayed after watching it from the south end!

[Grizzly]

Just as important as our result last night is the result in Group C. The winner of that group will make it out into our group for the next round.

Nicaragua beat Dominica last night and play Panama at home on Tuesday. If Nicaragua can beat a rested Panama (Bahamas pulled out of their group, its now a 3-country group), there's a very good chance we wont have to see Panama in the next round.

Just as important? Nicaragua beating Dominica (a team from an island with not even half the population of St. Lucia) is an expected result. Equally Panama is a much stronger team than Nicaragua so it would be a major upset for Nicaragua to take any points from Panama. Anything can happen but Panama not getting out of this group even if they play poorly is extremely unlikely.

[DichioTFC]

Just as important? Nicaragua beating Dominica (a team from an island with not even half the population of St. Lucia) is an expected result. Equally Panama is a much stronger team than Nicaragua so it would be a major upset for Nicaragua to take any points from Panama. Anything can happen but Panama not getting out of this group even if they play poorly is extremely unlikely.

I misspoke (mistyped?). I meant to say that the result of Tuesday's matchup is of high importance for Canada. You spoke to my point though, it would be a shocker for Nicaragua if they can make it out of the group but the match that will determine if the upset can happen is this Tuesday.