Friendly - Colombia vs. Canada - October 14, 2014 - POST-match [R]

[BearcatSA]

I thought Edgar was excellent tonight.  JDG battled hard and was crafty.  The whole team played really hard.

[Cheeta]

Also, I think Edgar and Hainault played tremendously tonight. Henry had a rough outing, hope that means the experiment at RB is over

 

Hell.  Friendly or no but I can't help but feel the man has played himself off the team.  Not off the pitch and onto the bench but right off the squad. 

 

I know the younger players are an investment, and sometimes a painful "short term" investment, but it's becoming too much at this point.  If it's in him, he'll fight his way back into the mix but right now, to me, Henry for Canada is nay, nay.   

[jonovision]

^ I think you're being a bit harsh on a guy who is not a natural right back. He was more than fine doing his primary job, which was defending. He lost far too often attacking the wings, but what do you expect of a player who has never been asked to play that role before.

[The Ref]

Ok we seemed to have learned how to play defence, now we need to learn to play attacking.  A Spanish commentator criticized Borjan as being too lazy, I thought the guy played quite well.

[king1010]

Ok we seemed to have learned how to play defence, now we need to learn to play attacking.  A Spanish commentator criticized Borjan as being too lazy, I thought the guy played quite well.

 

how does one determine that a goalie is lazy from a game like that?

[Soccerpro]

1-0 is a good result considering the opposition.

But we've still yet to show that we can create offensive chances and score.

Bunkering for a 0-0 draw in Panama or Honduras in 35 degree heat doesn't work.

[jonovision]

1-0 is a good result considering the opposition.

But we've still yet to show that we can create offensive chances and score.

Bunkering for a 0-0 draw in Panama or Honduras in 35 degree heat doesn't work.

 

This was never the match to find out if we can. Recent evidence (Jamaica friendly) suggests Floro is on the right track, and that more chances are likely if Atiba is playing. I am encouraged by Ricketts' recent play and am probably higher on him than most, but I suspect we just don't have the offensive talent to be the kind of team that wins games 3-2.

[hamiltonfan]

3-1 vs Jamaica would be a better comparable to Panama or Honduras than a #3 ranked Columbia.  

[Cheeta]

Bah, officaiting was more than a bit funny tonight but I don't really expect too much during a friendly.  However, I DO vote penalty on that one early on (and only because it was early.  Would scream murder if THAT was a penalty call in the 92st minute don't care who it was for or against) but just another one of those matches.

 

Shrug.  Typical.  Columbia showed a bit of everything that's good about football but, unfortunately, a bit more about of everything that is bad about it.

 

South American's would say I'm "naive" about the way the game is played but I'd say the best of South Americans is coming to England to play the naive game so....

 

Overall I thought The Dobson and Dickio were okay.  Worked well off each other even if Dickio's cockney accent gets in the way a bit.   

[Gian-Luca]

Costa Rica proved in the World Cup that even with average talent you can go far if you are well-organized defensively. That's how we look under Floro. Very encouraging on that side, when you add our better players to the mix (particularly offensive) we have to potential to go far in any Gold Cup tournament playing that way. My only complaint was that the subs post-goal were a little too defensive minded - at one point we had 5 central defenders out on the field (Henry, Straith, Ouimette, Edgar & Hainault with three of them playing out of positin), which is somewhat ridiculous. And I"m not sure I need to see Ledgerwood playing left midfield again, at least not if we want to create any offense down that flank.

 

The Ref was an asshole who cost us the game. Not just with the obvious penalty, their goal should never have counted. If you are going to allow a team to take a free kick quickly it has to be from the spot of the foul, not from wherever it is convenient for the attacking team. You can't just take a free kick wherever the hell you feel like it. That should have been whistled down, but the Ref didn't have the balls  to do that, just like he didn't have the balls to award a PK against the #3 ranked team in the world 4 minutes in.

 

However, we can hold our heads up high. Everyone played well. That includes Doneil Henry by the way (I'm happy to disagree with all of you on that), while he was poor as a playmaking/attacking right back (go figure), once again for his primary responsibilities (particularly in a game like this where we are setting out to defend first and foremost) he was extremely difficult to get past and was excellent at reading & breaking up plays. Once again, the opposition got very little joy (if any) for the 2nd game in a row in attacking down our right flank, and this time it was one of the top countries of the world that struggled to do so.

[rob.notenboom]

This was never the match to find out if we can. Recent evidence (Jamaica friendly) suggests Floro is on the right track, and that more chances are likely if Atiba is playing. I am encouraged by Ricketts' recent play and am probably higher on him than most, but I suspect we just don't have the offensive talent to be the kind of team that wins games 3-2.

I'm shocked at how confident Ricketts has been playing lately. He still has flaws but his runs, first touches, and hold up play have all improved over the last few years.

[Gian-Luca]

Ok we seemed to have learned how to play defence, now we need to learn to play attacking.  A Spanish commentator criticized Borjan as being too lazy,

???? What were they expecting him to do, dribble up the field like Rene Higuita?

[gator]

I'm as pleased as I can be with a loss, I thought this could be ugly but Floro is getting this side really well organized! Dejong and Edgar had amazing matches for me and JDG, Issey and Hainault get honorable mention! I don't think Henry was that bad, he played some real poor balls in the 1st half yet made some real quality passes into the middle in the second as well as a couple of nice defensive headers! If Floro rates him worth a spot in his 11, that's good enough for me!

[BearcatSA]

I'm guessing Floro will probably be pointing out some of the easy possession losses after we absorbed substantial pressure, but he'll be really pleased with the overall defensive shape and work rate out there.  Keeping the ball is the best form of defence but, as jonovision points out, this is probably not the opponent you'd use as a metric (though they weren't a really swarming team in trying to get the ball back). I can remember in previous years and previous editions of this team where we'd repulse attacks successfully and then someone would give it away with an ill advised pass to start the defending cycle over again.

[Cheeta]

^ I think you're being a bit harsh on a guy who is not a natural right back. He was more than fine doing his primary job, which was defending. He lost far too often attacking the wings, but what do you expect of a player who has never been asked to play that role before.

 

Right back, left back, center half or holding mid if you are unable to anticipate the simplest of movements from compatriots or opponents alike, whilst in possesion, and react and execute accordingly you have no business anywhere on the modern football field.

 

I'll give the match another watch later in the week and try to be more objective than intuitive but on first impressions there is nothing in Henry's play which so encouraged me defensively, tonight or for that matter in the 2014 calender year, which would be enough to counterbalance the simple horror I experience when he is in possesion.

 

As an example tonight Edgar and de Jong can, at least, be blamed for their offensive short-comings when they are trying to over-reach.  To do/be too much.  No such excuse for Henry.

 

May soften my critic later.  We'll see.     

[Yohan]

Very pleased to see. Still lots to work on, but at least we can frustrate superior teams with some defensive organizations. I don't recall Colombia creating many quality chances. Although I didn't like the bunker mentality as the game went on esp in 2nd half, it was still a good game for CMNT considering the talent we had on the pitch. Good collective team effort. 

[Obinna]

any highlights available? Or better yet, a full recording. Gutted I missed this one. Glad to see we kept it close (as I thought we would).

[toontownman]

I unfortunately missed the last half an hour, but managed to sneak a peak at the feed as I got to my rehearsal, just in time for the James goal..annoying, but all credit to Floro and the Canada team. Some hugely positive things coming out of this game.

Will zip right to Henry though as he seems to be a hot topic. He was a disaster for the most part coming forward, however I have neither any complaints or high praise for his defending. He did that part of his job ok. He had a good game switching at RB against Jamaica and also looked reasonable coming forward. He was just completely of the rails with his passing and forward play in the first half.

People forget how young he is, CB's dont mature until their mid to late 20's. yet to counter that he also has a lot of experience under his belt. He has such a great upside if he can become more intelligent on and off the ball, he is just too much of a liability to play at CB right now for both club and country imo. However he can learn a lot at RB, be shielded a bit from the pressure and build back his confidence. The burning issue is whether anyone better at RB is being held back by his inclusion.

Talk of him being dropped from the squad is harsh imo. I look back at Rio Ferdinand and Sol Campbell who were complete disasters in their young age but like Henry displayed all the attributes to be a success. Not to say he will be one tenth of either of those players but in comparison how he develops over the next few years and if he manages to cut out the silly errors makes the difference with whether we have a relative Canadian Sol Campbell or another Titus Bramble.

Back to the game. Pacheco, Issey, Ricketts, JDG, Edgar, Bojan, hainault and straith all deserve special mentions. Ledgerwood drove me insane coming infield and leaving their winger and full back free in acres of space. Dejong was much better than his Jamaica showing, maybe the difference in attitude from playing Jamaica to Colombia tightened up his game because it was sloppy to the point of me not wanting to see him at LB again.

Overall a fabulous effort hard done by poor officiating, great atmosphere though, thanks to the colombia fans and set up for bringing their strongest team.

[baulderdash77]

I was very encouraged by this game.  I'm very surprised to say that it could have gone either way for us.  Defensively we played very well.  Everyone across the back line played great defensively.  I'm much less upset about Henry at RB.  I think in only his 2nd real game at RB he was more than credible and certainly that's a big team weakness for us so I'm happy to let him develop there.

 

The team has really come along and I think with a couple midfield/attacking upgrades next year we're going to be in contention for one of the Gold Cup semi spots.  Certainly with this kind of defensive effort we're always going to be in the game.

 

I'm a bit surprised to say that I've become a fan of Floro's 4-1-4-1 formation.  It seems to fit our personnel and give the team a real identity.  Regardless of anything else nobody will enjoy playing against us next season.

[toontownman]

I enjoyed Dichio's commentary. He is generally surprisingly insightful and will pretty much say it how he sees it without too much bias or agenda.

Dobson works fine too, I actually enjoyed the fact he cringed out loud, as I and probably everyone else did as one of our many cheap passes in the first half went to Colombia. I don't mind having someone that is a fan showing that sometimes as long as they are willing to remove the rose tinted specs and stay unbiased over calls.

Poor officiating throughout what I watched, which is too bad. I didn't get to see multiple angles but the colombia goal looked absolutely onside, stonewall penalty to us, not playing clear advantage and missing blatant hand balls and fouls. Then there was the placing of the free kick for the goal. The officials certainly have had better days.

[An Observer]

Watching this game, all I can think of is "what if" we had Floro in the last cycle or the previous one where we actually had a talented side.  If he can get this group of either has beens or young up and comers to play like that, imagine what he could have done when we had Rad, DeRo, DeGuzman, Kluklowski, etc. in their prime.  It just makes me shake my head at the CSA brain thrust back then for going with unprofessional managers.  Qualifying for last year's WC or the one in South Africa would have given Canadian soccer such a lift.

 

On the bright side, I now have hope for the next cycle even though I think we have the least talented side we have had probably reaching back to before the 86 WC team.  We have alot of good youth but I doubt they will be ready over the next 2 years for when qualifying is in mid-flow...he is really going to have to pull something out of the bag to get this team into the WC.

[Yohan]

[madmonte]

Just watched.  I think Edgar had a helluva game.  Henry was awful offensively, but we have to keep in mind that he got his toe in there a LOT on defense tonight.  He may get a failing grade, but I think most of us agree he's out of position at RB...needs a lot of work on passing decision making.  STILL played capable defense.

 

Know who REALLY suprised me on the defensive side though?  Issey.  In this formation I wasn't surprised at his placement, but he did his job in a 4-1-4-1 very well on the defensive role, stuck to his markers, was really impressed for a guy that has been lambasted even by his own team mates (re: Caldwell) in TFC for poor defense even this year.  

 

Before I credit Issey, though...Credit Floro, the camp, and the tactics...

[madmonte]

I'm shocked at how confident Ricketts has been playing lately. He still has flaws but his runs, first touches, and hold up play have all improved over the last few years.

 

Yeah man I'm right there with you on being impressed with his development.  

 

Know what else I was surprised with?  I haven't actually SEEN Quillan Roberts in a while...last I saw him, he looked like a skinny kid, MAN has he hit the gym, he looks like a real keeper now...

[The Ref]

You can't just take a free kick wherever the hell you feel like it.

A player does not have to wait for a signal from the referee to take a free kick, unless the referee tells the player by voice or gesture to wait for his whistle.  If the kicker chooses to take a quick free kick and not wait for the opponents to be at least 10 yards away in all directions, he can do so.