Canada announces preliminary roster for Gold Cup

[Obinna]

Wow, 1-1 final against a PDL team. Hard to be optimistic about this years GC squad.

I agree about the 1 striker thing. Why do we continue to do the same thing and expect different results. I know 4-4-2 is becoming a thing of the past, but why not give it a try? Whenever we play 4-3-3 it essentially becomes 4-5-1 and the central striker always becomes isolated. Jackson is most effective when he is partnered with another striker. If you are not going to do this why select him at all? We know he is not a good winger and we know he is not a good centre forward and we know he cannot play in a 4-3-3.

Rant over.

[Obinna]

^ But that's pretty much football for you these days. I don't see a lot of teams playing with two guys up top. There's a lot of solo strikers with support from advanced wide players who quickly transition between attack and defense. There are problems elsewhere on the field that need to be worked on and the overall talent level we have to deal with right now is definitely not the greatest.

I can't think of any reason why playing with a second striker would make this team prolific.

The team has a lot of issues and I do not think a second striker will be the saving grace but I think it could help the attack. When we play with one striker it seems that we always try to play into him and it never works out because he cannot hold up the ball efficiently. The best hold up play I remember seeing recently was during the last WCQ's when Occean was in this role, but even then it was below par to be honest. The top man checks to the ball and gets it at feet and is closed down and turns it over. Story of our team.

We have fast strikers. REB, Jackson, Ricketts. Why not try and hit the corners and have them run in behind? At least if we turn over the ball it is deep in the final 3rd. I would rather that than turning it over in the middle 3rd of the field because we unsuccessfully play the ball into a loan striker up front.

[lazlo_80]

^ But that's pretty much football for you these days. I don't see a lot of teams playing with two guys up top. There's a lot of solo strikers with support from advanced wide players who quickly transition between attack and defense. There are problems elsewhere on the field that need to be worked on and the overall talent level we have to deal with right now is definitely not the greatest.

I can't think of any reason why playing with a second striker would make this team prolific.

yeah, I doubt it would help too. Just the thought of the guys we have playing that striker position...solo...is, well, underwhelming at best.

I thought maybe with a guy like REB as a second striker it might give some variation to the attack, keep the other teams a little more off balance...but probably not.

[Sam]

I've said many times our midfielders are not nearly good enough to go up against the best of CONCACAF with a 4 man midfield. I think any additional benefits of playing with a second striker would be completely cancelled out by the huge holes we'd have to cover for in the midfield.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

Wow, 1-1 final against a PDL team. Hard to be optimistic about this years GC squad.

Regardless of formation, this is my thought. I hope we can get at least 4 points out of the group stage but if this is the best we can do against a PDL team...

[lazlo_80]

I've said many times our midfielders are not nearly good enough to go up against the best of CONCACAF with a 4 man midfield. I think any additional benefits of playing with a second striker would be completely cancelled out by the huge holes we'd have to cover for in the midfield.

Midfield is the spot I think we're our strongest this time around, Johnson, Deguz, Teibert are probably 3 of our strongest players this time around.

[Keegan]

I've said many times our midfielders are not nearly good enough to go up against the best of CONCACAF with a 4 man midfield. I think any additional benefits of playing with a second striker would be completely cancelled out by the huge holes we'd have to cover for in the midfield.

You're right about that Sam, against the best of CONCACAF and that includes these less than full strength Mexico and Panama teams. But this Sunday against Martinique it would be nice if we could push the issue, otherwise I think we're going to need a lucky PK or set piece goal just like Guadeloupe and Puerto Rico 2011.

----------Jackson----Haber------------

---------------Johnson-----------------

Teibert---------------------------Osorio

--------------De Guzman--------------

De Jong---Edgar----Henry---Ledgerwood

----------------Borjan----------------------

That would be interesting, putting our most in form player behind a target striker and a speedster. Two in form youngsters on the wings who actually take on guys and beat them. And you hope that JDG can get just half of his old Gold Cup form.

The beauty about a guy like Johnson in the #10 role is that you know he's gonna be right back helping JDG whenever needed.

[Grizzly]

The team has a lot of issues and I do not think a second striker will be the saving grace but I think it could help the attack. When we play with one striker it seems that we always try to play into him and it never works out because he cannot hold up the ball efficiently. The best hold up play I remember seeing recently was during the last WCQ's when Occean was in this role, but even then it was below par to be honest. The top man checks to the ball and gets it at feet and is closed down and turns it over. Story of our team.

We have fast strikers. REB, Jackson, Ricketts. Why not try and hit the corners and have them run in behind? At least if we turn over the ball it is deep in the final 3rd. I would rather that than turning it over in the middle 3rd of the field because we unsuccessfully play the ball into a loan striker up front.

I think it is less an issue of the lone strikers being able to hold up the ball than our other players being able to pass or cross accurately to a lone striker. Yes some of our strikers don't have great ball holding skills but for the most part they don't get the ball in the first place. Many of the teams playing with a lone striker in diamond formation are also able to feed that striker much more accurately than we are. Two strikers would at least increase the chances of one of them getting the ball and reduce the need for precision passing from our midfielders most of whom are not capable of this. Yes there is the defensive danger that Sam mentions but we should be capable of using a formation like this against opponents we should beat as well as using it when we are playing a good opponent but need a goal and have to take some chances.

And yes it is a bad omen to tie a PDL team especially when they did not play all of their best players. Of course in a friendly the coach has to try some different things and the result is not always the most important thing. However, our team really needs to learn how to kill weaker teams off and win by large margins. That should have been something we were working on in the first round of WCQ instead of playing Hart's conservative strategy which led to disappointing results even against those minnows and it is looking like same old same old here. Even in a friendly with experimentation we should be massacring a PDL team.

[dhawk11]

just a shocking result, but can we make an excuse as saying they haven't played together In a long time, I'm a bit worried by this results considering two teams in our group have been play WCQ this last month in Mexico and Panama. So with this teams I would see a lot more chemistry, especially with Mexico in the confederations cup awell. I just hope we can close the deal vs Panama this time around, not like that last Gold Cup against them......Still here's to a great tourney for canada

[ThiKu]

Guys.

It's a friendly ahead of a major tournament.

[ag futbol]

I think it is less an issue of the lone strikers being able to hold up the ball than our other players being able to pass or cross accurately to a lone striker.

^ This.

Equally as important, our teams are awful at transitioning from defending to attacking or vice versa. Even if we had two forwards, the ball wouldn't find them quickly enough to facilitate a proper attack, and they probably wouldn't get in the right places at the right times.

[Lord Bob]

guys.

It's a friendly ahead of a major tournament.

long national nightmare

[Keegan]

From the highlights I gotta say very disappointing. Their keeper looked like a beer league player and they shot right at him.. our goal shouldn't have gone in. How could we not score besides that fluke? That is very concerning.

[Grizzly]

[Grizzly]

From the highlights I gotta say very disappointing. Their keeper looked like a beer league player and they shot right at him.. our goal shouldn't have gone in. How could we not score besides that fluke? That is very concerning.

Yes it is really awful. The opponents look like a beer league team. The keeper is horrible and can't control easy balls, the defenders are constantly falling over, no one can pass or take a pass properly. We should be beating teams like this by double digits even in a training friendly with the players not giving their all. If we can not score on a team like this how will we score against the likes of Martinique let alone Panama or Mexico?

[gator]

Well that doesn't look too promising, maybe we should have Hume and DeRo in the squad to at least give us a scoring threat! The warning signs were there with this group of forwards at the Cuba match at BMO, we struggled to score against a terrible Cuba side which only had 11 players in the whole squad and who were playing with 10 men for a bit! We can only hope someone is able to score some goals in the Gold Cup!

[prawnsideFC]

Interesting to see that Teibert was on the left and not on the right where Rennie has been playing him.

[madmonte]

Stop playing Ricketts. Just STOP.

[maccaliam]

Interesting to see that Teibert was on the left and not on the right where Rennie has been playing him.

"Interesting" was not my first thought when I noticed that.

[BearcatSA]

I think it is less an issue of the lone strikers being able to hold up the ball than our other players being able to pass or cross accurately to a lone striker. Yes some of our strikers don't have great ball holding skills but for the most part they don't get the ball in the first place. Many of the teams playing with a lone striker in diamond formation are also able to feed that striker much more accurately than we are.

My take on our build up play is that it always seems a step (or steps) too slow, lacking that bit of urgency needed to expose a window of opportunity against an organized defensive side. Watching the match against CR in Edmonton (as well as a number of the Hart games) the midfield players in favorable offensive positions were either hesitant in making an incisive pass or simply lacking in technique (first touch) or confidence to make that key play in that particular instant, so inevitably we see a possession maintaining back pass instead. We could string together a number of those type of long passing sequences and not once trouble the opposition goal in the process.

To me, that's down to an overall talent issue which is the big concern with our player pool. As I stated in the other thread, too many guy in that player pool who are (or, at best, will become) lower echelon journeymen.

[ken]

^Also not enough real ball handeling skills so that the preferred option, by default becomes a back or lateral pass rather than a rush forward. Think of DeGuzeman a few years back when the Americans resorted to hacking him down because his running straight at them was causing too many problems. Hutch at times and Simpson would run straight at opponents which gives an extra alternative to a forward pass to push things on to the opposition. How many times have our mids lost or turned over the ball while trying to turn back to be able to return the ball to the defense. It becomes a confidence thing, the opposition is confident that we cannot effectively move the ball forward, we become convinced that is true and go for the safe alternative which in turn becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

[Lord Bob]

Teibert's a natural left-sided player and has been there most of his career. He's had a number of very effective MLS games playing down the left. I have no problem using there; he's versatile. That's the point.

[Addona]

^Also not enough real ball handeling skills so that the preferred option, by default becomes a back or lateral pass rather than a rush forward. Think of DeGuzeman a few years back when the Americans resorted to hacking him down because his running straight at them was causing too many problems. Hutch at times and Simpson would run straight at opponents which gives an extra alternative to a forward pass to push things on to the opposition. How many times have our mids lost or turned over the ball while trying to turn back to be able to return the ball to the defense. It becomes a confidence thing, the opposition is confident that we cannot effectively move the ball forward, we become convinced that is true and go for the safe alternative which in turn becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

In retrospect, losing Simpson was an absolutely crushing blow, even more so than what we thought at the time ...

[ken]

^That is one of the reasons that I am ok with this squad, it gives a chance to see how some of the younger players react to their chance to impress. REB likes to run at people but does he have the sense to know when to pass or lay off the ball instead, also how is his temper against some of the world class divers in CONCACAF and the at times questionable refereeing. Is Haber enough of a target man to claim that role as his own, personally I think not but I'd be happy to be proved wrong. Jackson and Ricketts are looking more like one trick ponies, can they show that there is more to them than they have shown so far. Teibert and Ossario, are they ready to step up to the international level (or at least the Gold Cup version of it) or are they in over their head. My guess is that with the squad that we have we should see all of these guys in one form or another over the next few matches and should have some objective evidence to supplement hopes and speculation.

[gator]

^That is one of the reasons that I am ok with this squad, it gives a chance to see how some of the younger players react to their chance to impress. REB likes to run at people but does he have the sense to know when to pass or lay off the ball instead, also how is his temper against some of the world class divers in CONCACAF and the at times questionable refereeing. Is Haber enough of a target man to claim that role as his own, personally I think not but I'd be happy to be proved wrong. Jackson and Ricketts are looking more like one trick ponies, can they show that there is more to them than they have shown so far. Teibert and Ossario, are they ready to step up to the international level (or at least the Gold Cup version of it) or are they in over their head. My guess is that with the squad that we have we should see all of these guys in one form or another over the next few matches and should have some objective evidence to supplement hopes and speculation.

My thoughts as well, a good chance to answer some of these questions in a semi competitive tournament! Your point about the CONCACAF diving and refereeing is valid because no matter what kind of squads are sent by our opponents you know that stuff will be present!