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Milan Borjan is a funny guy. I unknowingly sat beside his girlfriend at the 0-0 tie against Honduras less than a year ago at BMO field. He came up to our section after the game ended; it took me a few minutes to realize what was going on. We got a few words in with him, he responds really well to people, and loves to hear our support. I can agree with the comment that he'll become a fan favorite.

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I'd never even seen him play until the last Gold Cup cycle. For me, honestly, I think the national team's keeper position is his for years at this moment, with no strong contenders. I mean Lars isn't necessarily done yet, but Borjan's ball distribution is miles ahead of Lars'. I suspect Borjan's defensive positioning and posture are improving more and more, despite the occassional video posted here that may suggest otherwise (because most times you see a keeper it is when they are getting scored on. So if he isn't ahead of Lars yet, he certainly is equal to him.

It'll be up to any other young keeper to contend, but at this very point, it's hard to see Milan not being our keeper all the way to the 2022 cycle, if not the 2026 cycle.

Edit: aaaand I just read the article. Might as well not have posted, whoever wrote the article is clearly of the same mind as me, just read the article instead of my post.

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We are already in big trouble next cycle (see how few promising players we have between the ages of 20-25) but goalkeeping won't be our biggest problem at least.

And that's what I meant when, at certain times, I was referring to enterring the "dark ages" of canada soccer for the next couple of years. Hopefully we pass by that and have some of those young guys more developed by 2018 qualifying, though.

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Right now it appears the GK position is Borjan's, BUT, Stillo is on the rise, Santiago is getting games, and Thomas is still quite young. There is also Chenchinski. We have a few decent GK, don't we....well, potential GK. Not to mention Lars is not finished by a long shot.

Sure we don't exactly have Howard, Friedel etc but we're not bad are we?

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  • 1 month later...

Borjan in Europa league?

The rules to me are unclear. The team that qualifies right to the playoff round for Europa league is the winner of the 2012-2013 Turkish Cup. Right now, Galatasaray are eliminated.

In the semi finals, which are scheduled for April 17th (1st leg), Sivasspor take on Trabzonspor, and Fenerbahce take on Eskişehirspor. So then, if Sivasspor win the Cup, obviously they are in Europa. That would be nice, and they COULD do it.

But Fenerbahce, obviously, are the difficult team. If Sivasspor can get past Trabzonspor, who are close to them in the Turkish Table this year, and Fenerbahce also go through...

Well then...what happens if Fenerbahce wins and then qualifies for UEFA Champions as well? Then who does the Europa spot go to? The Turkish Cup runner up, OR the 5th placed team in Turkey? I'm THINKING it goes to the 5th placed squad.

But if it DOES go to the cup runner up...then right now Sivasspor aren't in horrible shape to qualify for Europa, even despite being only a mid-table team! Should be interesting to watch. Don't forget to pay attention on April 17th!

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Borjan in Europa league?

But if it DOES go to the cup runner up...

Wikipedia isn't clear, but it seems to go to the Cup finalist if the Winner is already headed to the Champions League. Then, if the finalist is already qualified for the Champions League as well, it goes to the next highest placed team in the league. So Borjan would have a decent chance to make Europa.

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Sivasspor have done alright against Trabzonspor (1-0 loss away, 2-0 win at home), and Trabzonspor are actually below them in the table and their form is worse.

The last two times Borjan has qualified a team for Europe, he's missed out on the tournament due to a transfer (first time with Rad, then technically with Vaslui they tried to get him but Sivasspor called him back).

I'm 99% sure the rule on the Turkish Cup is that if the winner is already in Europe, the finalist is awarded the Europa League spot.

We should be really pulling for Milan on this one b/c IMO his development requires him to get into a league or team that is a bit more focused defensively and has a better reputation for coaching keepers.

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Sivasspor have done alright against Trabzonspor (1-0 loss away, 2-0 win at home), and Trabzonspor are actually below them in the table and their form is worse.

The last two times Borjan has qualified a team for Europe, he's missed out on the tournament due to a transfer (first time with Rad, then technically with Vaslui they tried to get him but Sivasspor called him back).

I'm 99% sure the rule on the Turkish Cup is that if the winner is already in Europe, the finalist is awarded the Europa League spot.

We should be really pulling for Milan on this one b/c IMO his development requires him to get into a league or team that is a bit more focused defensively and has a better reputation for coaching keepers.

Definitely, although for Milan to get the exposure you are talking about...his team would have to go deeper in Europa. And be careful that the exposure isn't negative, right? It would suck for them to get into the group stage with say...Lazio and Porto or something, and lose a couple games 4-1 and 5-0. That doesn't help at all!

I want Borjan to get there purely for love of the game and club, if he gets positively noticed well...lucky side effect, but I'm not counting on it!

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Definitely, although for Milan to get the exposure you are talking about...his team would have to go deeper in Europa. And be careful that the exposure isn't negative, right? It would suck for them to get into the group stage with say...Lazio and Porto or something, and lose a couple games 4-1 and 5-0. That doesn't help at all!

I want Borjan to get there purely for love of the game and club, if he gets positively noticed well...lucky side effect, but I'm not counting on it!

Well the interesting thing is that Borjan has secured transfers upwards by never even playing in the tournament. Having qualified the team for either the Europa or Champions League has raised his stock on two occasions (funny enough twice with the same team!). With one year left on his contract, Sivasspor would run the risk of losing him for nothing - or getting some $$ for him this year and being able to shop/sell him with the tag of "helped Sivasspor reach finals of Cup and get to Europa League."

IMO that is the ideal scenario and while it might not be to a top four league, as long as he's somewhere that has good coaching and set up for keepers, that will be a huge benefit to him and the CMNT.

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Well the interesting thing is that Borjan has secured transfers upwards by never even playing in the tournament. Having qualified the team for either the Europa or Champions League has raised his stock on two occasions (funny enough twice with the same team!). With one year left on his contract, Sivasspor would run the risk of losing him for nothing - or getting some $$ for him this year and being able to shop/sell him with the tag of "helped Sivasspor reach finals of Cup and get to Europa League."

IMO that is the ideal scenario and while it might not be to a top four league, as long as he's somewhere that has good coaching and set up for keepers, that will be a huge benefit to him and the CMNT.

So like a semi-lateral move? Perhaps mid table Eredivisie? Or maybe a nice upward move like a top 5 Ukraine squad?

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So like a semi-lateral move? Perhaps mid table Eredivisie? Or maybe a nice upward move like a top 5 Ukraine squad?

I don't follow the Ukrainian top flight too closely but I would imagine a move to Dynamo Kiev or Shaktar would be out of reach for Bojan at this stage of his career. Now a move to Dnipro or Metalist on the other hand would not only be very nice but more realistic!

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I don't follow the Ukrainian top flight too closely but I would imagine a move to Dynamo Kiev or Shaktar would be out of reach for Bojan at this stage of his career. Now a move to Dnipro or Metalist on the other hand would not only be very nice but more realistic!

I certainly wouldn't want him to go somewhere to rot on the bench. Even a solid European club, we need our players playing, more than sitting on the bench for 5 years as a backup.

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Borjan is by far the best goaly Canada has at the moment. And seeing that is 25 and playing week-in week-out on a pretty high level, he has at least a decade to go. I'm very impressed by his performance, he's keeping his 3 Turkish competitors on the bench. I would never advise a transfer from Turkey to a similar club in let's say the Netherlands Eredivisie, but he should keep playing at Sivas and keep imrpoving, before making the jump to a topclub. Wether that is in Turkey or where-ever is not important. At this stage of his career, playing is all that matters. Ow, and I regard the Turkish competition al lot higher than the fraudulous Romanian one. Borjan is good where he is right now.

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