The Beaver Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 Not drinking the Kool Ade on REB! Loads of pace, but no soccer smarts--at all! Somebody said he sort of reminds them of Peters, and I think that is about right. Lots of speed, but either too vain or too thick to actually learn how to play the game. Only advantage he has over Ricketts is he's younger. Ricketts has a good attitude, mind you, but he ain't learning nuttin'. Oh, we've got such a long ways to go. Pacheco needs more minutes. Another 10 years before we've got a team worth getting excited about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grizzly Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 No, serious. Using 6 pm as an excuse? Yet we don't see reduced attendence for 4:30 versus 7:30 games in Toronto? It just an excuse. I'm tired of excuses about start times. Always? Do we even have any 7pm weekday starts this season? But yes, I've pointed out "fans" using this as an excuse for not going to games before. Only getting 8,000 fans, and having to play on turf to do it is poor. Should have gone to Saputo instead. I don't think the national team should be playing on turf. Costa Rica requested to play on artificial turf because they will be playing on it at the Gold Cup. The early start time was probably for television but it is ludicrous to suggest that a 6 pm start time does not affect attendance. Yes the hard core fans will go regardless but not casual fans. 8000 is not fantastic attendance but I don't think it is that bad either for a friendly at a bad time with both countries fielding B teams. Maybe they would have gotten more in Toronto or Montreal but lets also consider the difference in population between Edmonton and those cities especially Toronto. The population of Toronto and its nearby municipalities is greater than that of the three prarie provinces combined let alone just Edmonton. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grizzly Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 Not drinking the Kool Ade on REB! Loads of pace, but no soccer smarts--at all! Somebody said he sort of reminds them of Peters, and I think that is about right. Lots of speed, but either too vain or too thick to actually learn how to play the game. Only advantage he has over Ricketts is he's younger. Ricketts has a good attitude, mind you, but he ain't learning nuttin'. Oh, we've got such a long ways to go. Pacheco needs more minutes. Another 10 years before we've got a team worth getting excited about. I do think REB has something a bit more than Peters and Ricketts. Even in the speed category he seems to be faster than those two and he has some trickiness in his moves. Plus from what I have seen of him while he does sometimes not make the right final move he does seem to be a good finisher when he is in position unlike Ricketts who if alone in front of the the keeper will miss the net. He certainly does lack an understanding of the game and what to do with his speed but I do think a fair bit of what he lacks can be taught. What he needs is to move to a club with a good coach where he will get a lot of playing time and will be played as an out and out attacker where he can benefit from his speed and trickiness. At Braunschweig he did not play much and then was often put in a role where his lack of technical ability was exposed. He is still young enough at 23 but it is really crucial that the next club he chooses is the right fit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 No, serious. Using 6 pm as an excuse? Yet we don't see reduced attendence for 4:30 versus 7:30 games in Toronto? It just an excuse. I'm tired of excuses about start times. Always? Do we even have any 7pm weekday starts this season? But yes, I've pointed out "fans" using this as an excuse for not going to games before. Only getting 8,000 fans, and having to play on turf to do it is poor. Should have gone to Saputo instead. I don't think the national team should be playing on turf. There would be a huge difference between 6pm and 7pm. That alone would have brought in thousands. It's not an excuse if you can't actually get there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
narduch Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 But yes, I've pointed out "fans" using this as an excuse for not going to games before. We don't all live in your priveleged world where you can easily skip off work to attend a sporting event. I love the Canadian national team, but let's be honest here. The team isn't popular enough for people to make big sacrifices to attend a meaningless friendly. There would be a huge difference between 6pm and 7pm. That alone would have brought in thousands. It's not an excuse if you can't actually get there. Compare TFC attendance between weekday and weekend games. (you could do that with the Jays too). Not everyone is as hardcore or priveleged as nfitz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ag futbol Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 I think REB has something to offer. Movement off the ball is 10x better than a Peters or some of the other athletes we have. His problem is all about the end product. He does the 'get past your man' part well, which is the hard part but he usually fails to do whatever comes after, ie pick out the open man with a good pass or take a good shot on net. It's a trait a lot of our players have. Looking at that game, we put ourselves in a lot of positions to put in dangerous passes or take chances but we didn't do it. Bekker was probably the one exception because he put in a high % of good balls to the box. On the flip side, Morgan wasted a ton of opportunities by being so one dimensional and Henry fluffed about 4 headers in the box. CR played a so-so game but their ability to jump on half chances compared to ours was obvious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nfitz Posted May 31, 2013 Share Posted May 31, 2013 Compare TFC attendance between weekday and weekend games. (you could do that with the Jays too).Playing the game on a weekday would impact attendence. I didn't say that. I did compare 4:30 and 7:30 weekday Jays starts, and I see no difference in attendance. Sure, some can't make 6 pm. On the other hand, you'd be more likely to have kids there for a 6 pm game than an 8 pm game. Look how small Edmonton is. You don't have hordes of people driving 60 km from the suburbs. Commonwealth is quite central - a 25 minutes drive in any direction gets you to farm fields (assuming no traffic). I think people are overplaying the start time here. Still, if Costa Rica WANTED to be on turf ... then I guess Edmonton is the place to play. I guess they won't be seeing a WCQ there anytime soon, with a lack of an appropriate facility. I look forward to seeing proper soccer facilities in Edmonton, along with Ottawa and Vancouver. We don't all live in your priveleged world where you can easily skip off work to attend a sporting event.Not sure why you have to start making personal insults here. Please remain civil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wingback6 Posted June 1, 2013 Share Posted June 1, 2013 I might not have mentioned it before, and I will predicate this comment by noting that what I describe occured AFTER we went down. But there were stretches of that game where we played the closest thing to REAL 'football' I've ever seen from a Canadian side. Arsenal stuff, really. But only flashes. Still, I think we have the makings of a true central midfield with some of these players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Hombre Posted June 12, 2013 Share Posted June 12, 2013 Not sure if it matters to people but Costa Rica held on for a 0-0 draw against Mexico last night at Azteca. Based on the lineup that I could find for our game (not sure if it's correct), 3 of the ticos that we played started in that game and another came on as a substitute. Another 3 of the starters in our game were on the bench for the ticos. Just to give you an idea of the strength of the Costa Rican team we played in Edmonton vis-a-vis they're A team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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