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Tosaint Ricketts


Obinna

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6 hours ago, jordan said:

Team of the week honors after a two goal performance.

Glad to hear he is doing well.  Would have been nice to see him as an early ambassador for CPL, but can't blame someone for wanting to maximize their income - especially in the latter part of their career.  

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9 minutes ago, dyslexic nam said:

Glad to hear he is doing well.  Would have been nice to see him as an early ambassador for CPL, but can't blame someone for wanting to maximize their income - especially in the latter part of their career.  

I think that's what makes the move for De Jong so special.  Many players moved to CPL to benefit themselves and get their career on track.  De Jong is getting older but him and a few other players definitely had opportunities for more money elsewhere, but have made the switch for the benefit of the league and Canadian soccer in general.

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7 minutes ago, Corazon said:

I think that's what makes the move for De Jong so special.  Many players moved to CPL to benefit themselves and get their career on track.  De Jong is getting older but him and a few other players definitely had opportunities for more money elsewhere, but have made the switch for the benefit of the league and Canadian soccer in general.

Isn't De Jong still getting his MLS salary?

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21 hours ago, dyslexic nam said:

Glad to hear he is doing well.  Would have been nice to see him as an early ambassador for CPL, but can't blame someone for wanting to maximize their income - especially in the latter part of their career.  

Excellent for Tosaint. He always answered the bell when called for Canada and was disappointed he didn’t see the pitch more for TFC as the super speedy sub.  Maybe he returns in a year or two and finishes his career in the CPL.  

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I know the level is low, but at what point does he get a national team recall if he keeps pounding goals in?

They are the champions of Lithuania, so presumably they get a shot at Europa league next season.

I would think he'd have to at least in the convo for LON if he is their leading scorer and they are doing well in Europa league qualifying.

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32 minutes ago, Obinna said:

I know the level is low, but at what point does he get a national team recall if he keeps pounding goals in?

They are the champions of Lithuania, so presumably they get a shot at Europa league next season.

I would think he'd have to at least in the convo for LON if he is their leading scorer and they are doing well in Europa league qualifying.

I think they start in the Champions League.. beat APOEL and lost to Red Stat last year 

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2 hours ago, Obinna said:

I know the level is low, but at what point does he get a national team recall if he keeps pounding goals in?

They are the champions of Lithuania, so presumably they get a shot at Europa league next season.

I would think he'd have to at least in the convo for LON if he is their leading scorer and they are doing well in Europa league qualifying.

Sorry, Ricketts had his chance (too many of them) and he never delivered. I say he steps aside and lets the new young kids have their shot. Will always be thankful for his service to Canada, but its time to move on from players like him.

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2 hours ago, LeoH037 said:

Sorry, Ricketts had his chance (too many of them) and he never delivered. I say he steps aside and lets the new young kids have their shot. Will always be thankful for his service to Canada, but its time to move on from players like him.

Dwayne DeRosario

Dale Mitchell

John Catliff

Tosaint Ricketts

.........

He may indeed be done with the NT, and he has many flaws, but delivering was never one of them.

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7 hours ago, LeoH037 said:

Sorry, Ricketts had his chance (too many of them) and he never delivered. I say he steps aside and lets the new young kids have their shot. Will always be thankful for his service to Canada, but its time to move on from players like him.

Seriously?  As Obinna pointed out, you are slagging a guy who is tied for 4th in our all time scoring list.  With a couple more calls, it isn't inconceivable that he could reach 2nd (would need 3 goals).

There have been times where he has been a bit wasteful in the past, but I don't get the idea of ripping on him.  He has quite clearly and undeniably delivered goals for us, at a time where we were generally starved for offence (he didn't have the supporting cast that we currently have) - and usually from a wing position.      

I am all for giving the next generation playing time, but don't justify it by ripping on a guy who has proudly answered the call whenever it came. 

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19 minutes ago, BrennanFan said:

Im a fan of Ricketts but lets be real - he has only produced in friendlies and against minnows.  He has zero goals when playing top 12 Concacaf nations in official matches.  Zero.  His goal count is respectable but it should not be taken out of context. 

Larin has 2 in WCQ against El Salvador and Honduras. 

Every one of the other guys on the list have lots of goals against minnows.  DeRo, Bunbury - pretty much everyone except Mitchell - they all have padded stats from those sorts of games. 

I am not saying Ricketts is a world beater - just that he doesn't deserve the treatment he gets on here sometimes.  You can only score against the team in front of you, and he has done that - to the point where he is one of the top scorers ever.  And some of those games were WCQ's, even if at an early stage of quantification.  All sorts of other guys played in those games too and didn't manage to get the ball in the net.  

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2 hours ago, BrennanFan said:

Im a fan of Ricketts but lets be real - he has only produced in friendlies and against minnows.  He has zero goals when playing top 12 Concacaf nations in official matches.  Zero.  His goal count is respectable but it should not be taken out of context. 

Larin has 2 in WCQ against El Salvador and Honduras. 

I get what you are saying, but we shouldn't put an asterisk next to his goal record either. His record is what it is. No context is required. 

I get that scoring against minnows is theoretically easier, but someone has to put the ball in the net, right? It's not like such goals don't count, they do. That's why they are recorded.

You may argue that goals against top 12 concacaf teams (an arbitrary category btw) are more impressive, and fair enough. Let's celebrate the players who have produced in the important games, rather than diminish those which haven't, based on our subjective opinion on which games are important.

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13 hours ago, dyslexic nam said:

Seriously?  As Obinna pointed out, you are slagging a guy who is tied for 4th in our all time scoring list.  With a couple more calls, it isn't inconceivable that he could reach 2nd (would need 3 goals).

There have been times where he has been a bit wasteful in the past, but I don't get the idea of ripping on him.  He has quite clearly and undeniably delivered goals for us, at a time where we were generally starved for offence (he didn't have the supporting cast that we currently have) - and usually from a wing position.      

I am all for giving the next generation playing time, but don't justify it by ripping on a guy who has proudly answered the call whenever it came. 

scoring against who exactly? I don't care if a guy scores in pressure less friendlies and disappears when it matters during actual FIFA tournaments or World Cup Qualifiers. The fact guys that never delivered kept getting called up is indicative of the sorry state the program was in. and a "bit" wasteful is underselling it... My point is not to rip into Rickets, but guys at that level are not NT material.

Edited by LeoH037
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9 hours ago, LeoH037 said:

scoring against who exactly? I don't care if a guy scores in pressure less friendlies and disappears when it matters during actual FIFA tournaments or World Cup Qualifiers. The fact guys that never delivered kept getting called up is indicative of the sorry state the program was in. and a "bit" wasteful is underselling it... My point is not to rip into Rickets, but guys at that level are not NT material.

At this point, I agree that he doesn't get a call based on the others we have at our disposal.  What I debate is the idea that he "never delivered".  7 of his 16 goals came in WCQ matches.  Yes, they were early stage games against smaller opponents, but you still have to win them.  And getting the lone goal in 1 nil win (over Cuba, 2014 WCQ) or 2 goals in a 3 or 4  to nil win (Belize and Dominica respectively, 2018 WCQ) matters.  

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22 minutes ago, dyslexic nam said:

At this point, I agree that he doesn't get a call based on the others we have at our disposal.  What I debate is the idea that he "never delivered".  7 of his 16 goals came in WCQ matches.  Yes, they were early stage games against smaller opponents, but you still have to win them.  And getting the lone goal in 1 nil win (over Cuba, 2014 WCQ) or 2 goals in a 3 or 4  to nil win (Belize and Dominica respectively, 2018 WCQ) matters.  

 Occean scored the lone goal away to Cuba..buy yes all goals count; some more than others. Due to our lack of depth up front in the past, we never used Tos the way we should have ....a late game sub to use his speed like TFC did initially

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27 minutes ago, Kadenge said:

 Occean scored the lone goal away to Cuba..buy yes all goals count; some more than others. Due to our lack of depth up front in the past, we never used Tos the way we should have ....a late game sub to use his speed like TFC did initially

Sorry, you are right - but Tossaint scored the first goal at home in a 3-0 win against Cuba in that qualifying cycle.  

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I applaud Ricketts for always coming, and carving out a long professonal career, which as a Canadian is always difficult. He always plays with passion, which I also love.

However, I cannot (and don't want to) count how many times an offensive possession went to die on his feet. Ricketts in space, only to blast it over the bar from a position he has probably never scored from. 

5 of 16 goals in WCQ. 0 in Gold Cups. Only 1 of those goals was in the immediate pre-Hex stage, and it was vs. Cuba. He started I believe 8 out of our last 12 Hex games, including the disaster in Honduras. To say he delivered when it mattered is not true. He also has five goals from when Canada was already up 2-0 or more at the time. Putting teams away is great, but goals 5 and 6 to 0 vs Dominica in the second leg, hardly seem to count as clutch. 

Only 7 of Dero's 22 were in friendlies, and at least he has the pre-Hex goals vs. Costa Rica and Panama

Only 6 of 19 for Mitchell were in friendlies. 11 out of 18 for Catliff is closer, but he also had goals against Mexico and on the road in Honduras and El Salvador in competitive games. 

Ricketts and Ledgerwood were often my bane of watching for years. I grew to appreciate the relatively solid reliability of Ledgerwood. At least I stopped noticing him. However, Ricketts, when it mattered was not good. Was there another option? Not usually. Or at least not someone likely to do much better. Their talent is/was just limited. These are guys that hopefully (assuming our depth stays the same/grows) should only ever be on the fringes of the team. 

Edited by ktf
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