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The "False" Leadership


Keegan

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Kevin McKenna and Julian De Guzman were supposed to be the "leaders" of this team. They always talked a big game about how great the team is and how together everyone is and how they've grown. But they showed a total lack of leadership in these qualifiers.

Load of bull****. These two are the exact personalities you don't have on winning teams and unsurprisingly these two have a history of playing on LOSING teams. FC Koln, Energie Cottbus, Toronto FC, Deportivo...

Let's not forget some of the "character" moves they've pulled in their career:

Kevin McKenna:

- Leaves first division Energie Cottbus (where he was captain) for second division FC Koln... guess you can view that one in terms of your priorities. Not my cup of tea but some may have agreed with the move.

- Calling out teammates when at times it's his own mistake

- Half time in Honduras "It's just damage control right now" ... Oh is it Kevin? This is your last chance at your dream and that's what our captain is saying? Unsurprisingly we gave up 4 in the second half.

- The guy is friends with Owen **********.

Julian De Guzman:

- TFC. Grow up. We get it, things didn't work out.

- Comments about Jonathan... rounds 1, 2 and 3. The third conveniently the day before the Honduras match.

Check this quote from McKenna, total class:

Captain Kevin McKenna agreed that the Honduras debacle was the kind of game that forces players to ponder their international careers.

"Without a doubt," he said after the game. "I mean whether you're young or old, I think it's a game you look back and think 'Is it worth it anymore?"'

Whether you're young or old? This is our captain speaking? Maybe thats a question fans should be asking. Get the **** off our team "captain".

That's the equivalent to someone losing their company $250k and going "hmm, like I don't know I might quit not sure if it's worth it anymore"

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I've been holding off on reading commentary from players because I thought it would be heartbreaking while the wound is still fresh...this is just infuriating, and I'm suddenly a lot less upset about McKenna moving on...

I think going forward we're going to want Hutch and Simpson as the older mentor type players with a largely young team. Occean should also be welcomed to any matches he can make, and I really wish DeRo were even two years younger so he could stay on. I think at the very least in the case of players like DeRo and Jazic though, we should have a testimonial type friendly. They deserve at least that in lieu of playing in a World Cup...

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I think going forward we're going to want Hutch and Simpson as the older mentor type players with a largely young team. Occean should also be welcomed to any matches he can make, and I really wish DeRo were even two years younger so he could stay on. I think at the very least in the case of players like DeRo and Jazic though, we should have a testimonial type friendly. They deserve at least that in lieu of playing in a World Cup...

Simpson is a really good candidate. I think Hainault and Johnson will emerge as leaders as well. I think Hutch is too quiet. He'll lead by example, but I don't see him getting in people's faces.

I'm not sure why anyone expected JdG to be an emotional leader. I never considered him as such. Just doesn't fit with his mentality.

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Definitely agree with the main post of this thread. McKenna does not have leadership skills and loses his composure on the field quite easily when a Captain needs to be calm and cool and collected. His comments at half time .... wow! A game of that magnitude and the attitude was like "yeppers, getting our bums blasted and loving it". C'mon! If Hume played more and was a starter I'd want him to Captain, that man has heart and never quits.

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I think there is something to be said about the fact we didn't get one card. If any of us had been playing I'm sure at 4 or 5 we would have been kicking the **** out of people just to get a bit of passion and grit out of the team.

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I think there is something to be said about the fact we didn't get one card. If any of us had been playing I'm sure at 4 or 5 we would have been kicking the **** out of people just to get a bit of passion and grit out of the team.

Especially after watching the Hondurans basically make a mockery of us at 8-1 with their row boat... but no, our guys seemed to like patting the Hondurans on the back and helping them up. ANY team would have taken at least a few reds.

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Originally Posted by Keegan

Especially after watching the Hondurans basically make a mockery of us at 8-1 with their row boat... but no, our guys seemed to like patting the Hondurans on the back and helping them up. ANY team would have taken at least a few reds.

When I saw that I was begging for Dunfield to be subbed in for DeGuzman. If you're going to make a mockery you may as well have a player or two who knows that they were in a football match and not a shooting gallery.

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Kyle Porter was Tweeting through the game.

You could feel the Pain in every letter. As too was David Monslave.

I'd swear they would have got on a plane at half time and flown there if they could have. they had the same attitude as Pele moore and the other ficticious players in the dressing room in EScape to Victory. If your going down your going down fighting.

Thats the type of response you want from your Nats.

There is no such thing as damage limitation in what is effectivley a knock out game. Shamefull comments by McKenna.

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At least one Honduran should have been carried off the field with a broken leg. We do not have a player like that on our roster. Holland had two of them in front of their defence to make the final of the last WC.

really? this sounds like a sore loser comment to me

deliberately injuring an opponent is unacceptable

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I think Hainault and Johnson will emerge as leaders as well.

Oh yeah? Hainault never even had the guts to win ANY individual battles out there. Some leader emerging there.

Johnson? Maybe. He needs to control his emotions, he was the one who first started grabbing the ball from the Cuban keeper before Occean joined in. At least though he has a pulse though unlike 75% of the team.

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...the more I think about this, the less I ever want to see any of them put on the CMNT jersey again. They do not deserve it.

I excuse Simpson, De Jong, Occean, Bojan and DeRosario (injured/not given the chance/suspended), and I excuse Hutchinson because he showed the most heart out there.

The rest are either not good enough, or do not have enough heart.

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This excerpt from the interview done by Jeff Blair with Bob Iarusci (http://pmd.fan590.com/audio_on_demand-2/Bob-Iarusci-with-Jeff-Blair-jb-20121017-Interview.mp3) gives a good perspective on things: "I just hurt so much after watching these guys basically collapse like a cheap suitcase and the only thing I could think of was those stupid headphones that players wear now and they listen to music before they go to the dressing room they come off the bus. I'm thinking of them twittering people. I'm thinking about that stupid interview Julian de Guzman did about telling Canada that now his brother is ready to play for Canada if we make the hex and I'm thinking to myself am I on a different planet than these guys or what?..." A bit "Donald S. Cherry", as Iarusci can be at times, but his disgust seems to be universal shared by former CMNT players. And I love the reference to the "stupid headphones", ha ha ha...

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This excerpt from the interview done by Jeff Blair with Bob Iarusci (http://pmd.fan590.com/audio_on_demand-2/Bob-Iarusci-with-Jeff-Blair-jb-20121017-Interview.mp3) gives a good perspective on things: "I just hurt so much after watching these guys basically collapse like a cheap suitcase and the only thing I could think of was those stupid headphones that players wear now and they listen to music before they go to the dressing room they come off the bus. I'm thinking of them twittering people. I'm thinking about that stupid interview Julian de Guzman did about telling Canada that now his brother is ready to play for Canada if we make the hex and I'm thinking to myself am I on a different planet than these guys or what?..." A bit "Donald S. Cherry", as Iarusci can be at times, but his disgust seems to be universal shared by former CMNT players. And I love the reference to the "stupid headphones", ha ha ha...

Good to hear what some of the old school players think of the new generation.

We need winners and fighters, preferably players who are both. The next MNT coach and Dasovic need to get together and screen out any flakes who don't have the mental make up to persevere under harsh circumstances.

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Oh yeah? Hainault never even had the guts to win ANY individual battles out there. Some leader emerging there.

Johnson? Maybe. He needs to control his emotions, he was the one who first started grabbing the ball from the Cuban keeper before Occean joined in. At least though he has a pulse though unlike 75% of the team.

I thought Hainault was the worst player on the pitch.

Also, his pre-game comments were complete garbage... all he did was talk about how intimidating it is etc. when really he should have been playing everything down for the guys who have never been there. "People are breathing on you and you're in a tunnel" OH NO!! How can we ever win in central america?! People are mean to you down there? Awww muffin.

A true leader would make the journalists feel stupid for asking such questions, not giving them a quote for their shock piece on sportsnet.ca

The answer should have been in a monotone voice: "ya it's loud, but so is BMO and it is what it is" period.

Defeatist attitude from the start = losers.

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At least one Honduran should have been carried off the field with a broken leg. We do not have a player like that on our roster. Holland had two of them in front of their defence to make the final of the last WC.

Not refering to Van Bhommel by any chance?

Or as he's known in his song... "you'll never book van Bhommel"

Don't take the Brocken leg literally. It more acse of an attitde of a willing ness to Fight till yer last breath.

Nobody think to deliver the St ChrispendaySpeach before Kick off.

that should hve been in their hearts as they entered the field.

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McKenna and Julian are different cases. Julian has had a decline and horrible time in TFC, not all of that is his fault TFC made a terrible signing and fans expected too much and they had poor coaching. Julian has almost always performed above his club level during that time and has been a loyal soldier, TFC has had issues with lots of players I'm not going to hold any player accountable for that ****box of an organization especially players with a short window of a career. With his brother I don't know how that can be misconstrued as anything other than a brother trying his hardest to get a top level talent to join the program, there is no way that Julian is making himself look like an idiot just to toy with the fans, 0 incentive and nothing to make me think he would have anything but the right motivation to be doing that.

McKenna has been absent from the team for long periods, he played really poorly yesterday and tbh missed chances to bury headers in a bunch of close games. His comments are pathetic and really not what I would expect from a captain, and some of his club choices have looked bad, but I can't really comment to much on that as that's club soccer and more info would be needed. You are the ****ing captain and you were basically responsible for 4-5 goals, played like complete **** and you say "is it worth it anymore" that is the most selfish, egotistical bull**** I've ever heard from our captain after the worst loss, in the biggest game in years. McKenna should never be called again and should be shunned from the program, hes the captain there should be no choice for him to make, he should not touch the MNT ever again. Not to mention his distribution from the back is god awefull, he never gets involved in the play and hits long balls every opportunity he gets. Good riddance.

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really? this sounds like a sore loser comment to me

deliberately injuring an opponent is unacceptable

I agree with you, its not acceptable to be going out and intentionally injuring someone just because they are embarrassing us but there is a way to play the game to send a message to your opponents. Go out and take a hard foul, not to injure but to make them feel it, pass up a chance to dribble out of a tackle to go in as hard as you can. You can play the game hard without being dirty and I didn't see anyone doing that going for the head, spikes up or for the knee is not what I'm suggesting.

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If the team I'm losing 8-1 to is doing a damn ****ing rowboat on my goal line as I watch my World Cup dream fade away I'm sprinting over there and clocking one of them in the head. At that point they're asking for it. I would be furious if our boys did that at 4-1 nevermind 8-1.

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Julian has had a decline and horrible time in TFC, not all of that is his fault TFC made a terrible signing and fans expected too much and they had poor coaching. Julian has almost always performed above his club level during that time and has been a loyal soldier, TFC has had issues with lots of players I'm not going to hold any player accountable for that ****box of an organization especially players with a short window of a career. With his brother I don't know how that can be misconstrued as anything other than a brother trying his hardest to get a top level talent to join the program, there is no way that Julian is making himself look like an idiot just to toy with the fans, 0 incentive and nothing to make me think he would have anything but the right motivation to be doing that.

I find that too many of his comments over the past season (be them in interviews about his club career or regarding his brother) have been either needless and distracting. That's not leadership.

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I agree with you, its not acceptable to be going out and intentionally injuring someone just because they are embarrassing us but there is a way to play the game to send a message to your opponents. Go out and take a hard foul, not to injure but to make them feel it, pass up a chance to dribble out of a tackle to go in as hard as you can. You can play the game hard without being dirty and I didn't see anyone doing that going for the head, spikes up or for the knee is not what I'm suggesting.

oh I agree with you. nothing wrong with hard, but fair tackles

but this is CONCACAF and esp in Honduras. I bet the players were told to watch out how they tackle, because the ref looks for any excuse to red card someone

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I think there is something to be said about the fact we didn't get one card. If any of us had been playing I'm sure at 4 or 5 we would have been kicking the **** out of people just to get a bit of passion and grit out of the team.

Edgar was cautioned towards the end of the first half.

I think Hainault might have gotten a yellow in the second half too, but I may be misremembering (and I'm not going to look it up right now).

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