Canada vs Denmark - January 26, 2013 - PRE-match

[Lord Bob]

It's open.

Supercool. Sounds like we should get our plans together early so we can do a group buy. Since we know Finchster is definitely coming and all. Can you get a Miami Vice in Tucson?

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

I think there are certain tiers of players in our national team, the best ones stick around regardless of age, some might have a shot and then others who will lose their spots to youngsters in the upcoming teams.

Best players (shouldn't be in danger of being dropped): De Rosario, De Guzman, Hirschfeld, Hutchinson, Simpson, Occean

Agreed. For example Michael Klukowski should never play again.

If calling up strikers Cavallini > Rob Friend.

DeRo (even if he retires before WCQs in 2016) should still play and could help us do well in the Gold Cup.

Borjan should be given more minutes to give him a chance to prove himself ahead of the Gold Cup 2013.

I might add Johnson to your list.

Supercool. Sounds like we should get our plans together early so we can do a group buy. Since we know Finchster is definitely coming and all. Can you get a Miami Vice in Tucson?

Finchster said he was tempted. Did he confirm he's going as well?

Since they're on the west coast already they should try to segway into a BC Place friendly for the FIFA match date imo

That would be sweet. @socceronly did your contacts in the CSA say anything about the February FIFA date? Or the March one?

[tarnado1555362291]

I may be In for this along with my gf, thinking of flying to phoenix and renting a car.

[Sam]

Here is a 20 man roster that we could call without taking anyone away from their club (all domestic, off-European or currently below the first team). I really don't see the need to call anyone who is in the middle of their European season, just doesn't make sense to me. As for the develop now vs. develop after the Gold Cup debate I think the answer should be obvious. Because this is an "off" Gold Cup cycle lots of countries will be sending B+ or U-23-esque squads and we should do the same. It'd be nice if by qualifying for 2018 rolls around the core of our 22-24 year old guys have had 2 Gold Cups under their belts playing against CONCACAF opponents. I understand winning the Gold Cup is important, but I don't think we have much hope of winning in 2013, but if we start to put together a new squad for the future today I think we have a much better shot of competing in 2015 than we would if we played the usual crew.

Hirschfeld

Crepeau

Monsalve

Jakovic

Hainault

Teibert

Morgan

Henry

De Guzman

Johnson

Bernier

Dunfield

Piette

Alderson

Aleman

Stinson

Saiko

Bekker

De Rosario

Clarke

Sodade

[Yohan]

Sodade? Seriously?

[Lord Bob]

Finchster said he was tempted. Did he confirm he's going as well?

No. I'm telling him he's going to go.

[Sam]

Sodade? Seriously?

Yeah - what other domestic-based forward would you pick?

[Keegan]

This Gold Cup is also very important in terms of FIFA points, if we don't get those points and end up with a bad draw in 3 years we are in trouble. Bring in the DESERVED youngsters, there are very few at the moment so I don't think we could go with a drastic youth movement even if we wanted to.

[El Hombre]

Because this is an "off" Gold Cup cycle lots of countries will be sending B+ or U-23-esque squads and we should do the same.

Disagree with this. I would call the best team available with an eye of developing a few youngsters at a time. We should never send out a B+ or U23 team by choice because I think it is very important that we win every game we can. We must use the next 3 to 4 years to do whatever we can to keep our FIFA ranking. It's a tough task but if we can keep our 5th or 6th ranking going into the WCQ and skip the first round, that will give us a much better chance of qualifying. Playing against the bottom two of either of the other two WCQ groups this cycle would've been desireable to playing in the group we had.

Goal #1: Win as much as possible. Everything else is secondary.

[Sam]

Where I think I disagree with you is that bringing the old guard is the best way to win at all costs. The team that didn't make it out of the group in the last Gold Cup? Is that who we want to call?

We have to start thinking about putting together a team that can challenge in 2016. And I'm not saying start that team in the Gold Cup, what I'm saying is start bringing them into the system at a much faster rate than I would have been advocating for if we were in the hex.

[Wingback6]

This is the best news about the CMNT I've heard in weeks!!

Two of my teams (part Danish) playing each other in a mid-winter friendly?? -

Looks like X-mas has come a bit earlier this year. Just hope they broadcast it.

Look forward to seeing who gets called up, hopefully lots of newbies.

[Alex_K]

Jackson, Edgar, Hutchinson, REB and Haber may all be unavailable because this is not a FIFA date, but I like the other choices otherwise.

Eintracht won't have a game on that date, but it's just a few days after they return for camp in Tunisia, and just a few days before the first match after the winter break, so still somewhat inconvenient.

[A_Gagne]

Yeah - what other domestic-based forward would you pick?

A couple of thoughts...

Monslave wasn't even the first choice keeper for FCE. I would bring in Smits before him... and to be honest I think Smits deserves a look. Also, coming out of CIS he's a completely unknown commodity at the CMNT or Jr Nats level.

I would also call in Sodade. As far as I'm aware the Sounders still rate him highly. Knee injury was unfortunate, but he's very athletic and he's the kind of player I think could one day compliment our speedy up and coming strikers well. Hopefully Sounders aspire to develop his as a future Eddy Johnson type player.

The Mother of All Canadian's Abroad list is currently keeping tabs on Columbus Crew's Ethan Finlay. He had a decent year this season and IMO looks just as likely, if not more likely, than most of our prospects to go onto becoming a career middle of the road MLSer. That's probably not going to get him on Klinsmann's radar, but IMO we could use a few more solid, domestically based, offensively minded, young players like him in our player pool. Does anyone know anything more about Finlay (e.g. what is connection to Canada is, has he ever said anything publicly about the USMNT or CMNT, or ever been involved in a US camp at the jr. level?)

I think it's a high priority to get Cabara and Pisanjuk back into the fold as they have been doing well this past season, are currently completely off the radar and both could get caped by other countries.

EDIT: @LB, thanks for the correction WRT Smits no longer being first choice for FCE, as of Lance Parker's return to fitness.

[Lord Bob]

In the interest of accuracy, I should say Smits was only the starter while Lance Parker (American, alas) was injured. Once Parker returned Smits was the backup, although he did play a bit.

Quality, though. If he keeps showing what he did last year he deserves at least a glance from the MNT.

[finchster]

Supercool. Sounds like we should get our plans together early so we can do a group buy. Since we know Finchster is definitely coming and all. Can you get a Miami Vice in Tucson?

$555 return from the Victoria plus I could make the flight without missing any work, I will probably commit after I finish christmas shopping and see what the damage is.

[Yohan]

Yeah - what other domestic-based forward would you pick?

I'm just not in favour of giving out full national team caps like candies, especially to players who haven't played one single professional game yet

[Obinna]

I agree with Sam that it is important to get youth players CONCACAF experience now.

Of course we want to win and pick up points for our ranking, but I don't think there is any evidence that playing in the preliminary round is a bad thing. It give our team more games and more time to gel and without that extra 6 games of prep I don't think we would have picked up 10 points during this cycle.

Also, it is only an assumption that playing a youth heavy squad = sacrificing results. Look at the T&T friendly, where Tiebert was reportedly the sharpest player in the camp. After watching the highlights I don't have a hard time believing that either.

That being said, I do think players have to earn a call. For example, Solade is an interesting prospect, but he has not even played a professional game and is coming off an ACL injury. Instead, I would rather see Porter, and even though he had a case of the sophomore blues this season, he still has 12 goals and 47 appearances at the NASL level. That to me is worth more than anything Solade has (although in an ideal world I would not reward a striker who only scored 3 or 4 goals in the NASL level - we just have terrible depth issues up front).

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

I would call the best team available with an eye of developing a few youngsters at a time. We should never send out a B+ or U23 team by choice because I think it is very important that we win every game we can.

Goal #1: Win as much as possible. Everything else is secondary.

Agreed. Also the psychological effect of many wins is powerful (and has the potential to grow the fan base).

but I don't think there is any evidence that playing in the preliminary round is a bad thing. It give our team more games and more time to gel and without that extra 6 games of prep I don't think we would have picked up 10 points during this cycle.

I reckon you're right about the 10 points thing. However being in the top 6 means we would be seeded. We were in a strange group with a really weak seeded opponent(Cuba) and a strong non-seeded opponent(Panama). It is statistically unlikely to happen again (get a #6 Cuba).

Playing against the bottom two of either of the other two WCQ groups this cycle would've been desireable to playing in the group we had.

Slightly disagree. We would have been in just as much trouble(perhaps only slightly less at best) with Mexico-El Salvador-Guyana or USA-Guatemala-A&B.

Being ranked 6th over 7th is a significant advantage iff the CSA schedules quality friendlies.

[Alex_K]

Eintracht won't have a game on that date, but it's just a few days after they return for camp in Tunisia, and just a few days before the first match after the winter break, so still somewhat inconvenient.

Scratch the training camp, btw - for some weird reasons I looked up the dates for the training camp two years ago (2013 is in Turkey, I think). Should be arround the same time, though.

[Yohan]

MLS teams start their pre season camp around this time, though shouldn't have much effect on players being released for this friendly

[Sam]

Firstly considering this is a camp on a non-FIFA date right after the biggest loss the program has suffered in a generation I really don't see the merit in saying players have to "earn" a cap. We should pick the squad that best serves our interests as a national team moving forward.

Secondly people saying that we shouldn't pick Sodade, you still haven't listed an alternative. Unless we want to pull players out of their teams in Europe (which I think is a very bad idea at this point in time) who else can we pick in MLS. It's one thing to disagree with a selection, but we can't go into this camp without any forward - which other domestic players would you pick?

[Lord Bob]

Sodade just strikes me as a non-entity coming off a crippling injury. I'd sooner pick a prospect like Clarke or Vukovic, or a college kid with more upside like Daniel Haber.

[Obinna]

Secondly people saying that we shouldn't pick Sodade, you still haven't listed an alternative. Unless we want to pull players out of their teams in Europe (which I think is a very bad idea at this point in time) who else can we pick in MLS. It's one thing to disagree with a selection, but we can't go into this camp without any forward - which other domestic players would you pick?

My alternatives would be Clarke or Porter.

Clarke is younger (I think), has made more first team appearances, and is not coming off a serious injury.

Porter has 12 goals in 47 appearances for FCE and is still only 22.

[Keegan]

My alternatives would be Clarke or Porter.

Clarke is younger (I think), has made more first team appearances, and is not coming off a serious injury.

Porter has 12 goals in 47 appearances for FCE and is still only 22.

Sodade was also selected ahead of both for the U23 qualifiers FWIW. I think Sodade is closer to a MNT call up than both of those players... though Clarke may be better in the future. The only draw back to calling in Sodade would be his serious injury but since he received it playing for us I think it would be a classy move to help the guy out a bit too.

[Obinna]

Not only was he selected ahead of both, but he was also impressive in the minutes he played to be fair. Like you said, the main draw back is the injury. Some players are not the same after an ACL injury, but some players rebound just fine when they are young (Marcus Haber). I wonder if anyone can give us an update on how his rehab has gone?