Atiba Hutchinson

[toontownman]

What a servant he has been! While I am sure he will have lots of options if he heads into coaching I hope he returns to the Canada to continue to inspire our youth. 

Some interesting and frank quotes but could just be how its presented. Good to see he is complimentary about Herdman but I read it more in the sense it was as much a put down to past coaches than a glowing recommendation.  

I'm also going in with the knee-jerk before anyone else. 

"My three sons were born there, and my wife loves it there and doesn’t want to leave, so it’s home for us."

Captie before its too late! ?

[toontownman]

41 minutes ago, shorty said:

The impending retirement is a clever thing to put out there internally and externally. Internally it gives the team something to rally around (win one for Atiba) and externally it gives good media talking points to drum up interest in Canmnt and win Atiba some long overdue domestic notoriety. 

Also a call out for players to step up in terms of leadership on and off the pitch. 

[Blackjack15]

Would be the perfect scenario for Atiba to leave after a Successful Gold Cup, he has done so much for club and country! A True Legend 

Deserves this more than anyone, and on the decision to retire it’s completely up to him and a personal one

At 35, He’s taken good care of himself and continues to play at the highest level with Besiktas 

That being said, he has the ability to make it to another WC Cycle.

Although in fairness Herdman is leaving the door open for him to decide and we need to respect that 

Post Gold Cup, Samuel Piette will take charge of his spot and solidify what’s already his place 

Guaranteed are: Scott Arfield and Jonathan Osorio (CM) 

Theres also Russell Teibert and Mark Anthony Kaye as Central Defensive Midfielders (CDM) as options off the bench 

Good chance Of Stephen Eustaquio commiting to the program after Euro U21 championship should Portugal make it 

It’s Sad that he’s leaving yes, but we will be okay that I am sure of it

Very Optimismistic on the future of this program 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 14, 2018 by Thomas

[BrennanFan]

Knew he'd retire sooner than later, but it is still sad.  Atiba was and is PURE CLASS on and off the pitch.  Never a shred of controversy or drama relating to him unlike the DeRos, Radz or DeGuzmans of past teams. 

And now we have a clear mid-term goal.  Win Gold Cup 2019.  No more talk about just scoring a goal or getting out of the group. 

The sky is the limit for this team.   

[Bertuzzi44]

Hutch leading once again, setting a high standard (win the Gold Cup!)

Definitely in the conversation for best Canadian soccer player, ever.

[Keegan]

1 hour ago, BrennanFan said:

Knew he'd retire sooner than later, but it is still sad.  Atiba was and is PURE CLASS on and off the pitch.  Never a shred of controversy or drama relating to him unlike the DeRos, Radz or DeGuzmans of past teams. 

And now we have a clear mid-term goal.  Win Gold Cup 2019.  No more talk about just scoring a goal or getting out of the group. 

The sky is the limit for this team.   

What issue did we have with Julian De Guzman?  I think that's unfair.. his brother was a shame but that shouldn't reflect on him.  De Guzman was class for us and always showed up.  

[jpg75]

2 hours ago, Keegan said:

What issue did we have with Julian De Guzman?  I think that's unfair.. his brother was a shame but that shouldn't reflect on him.  De Guzman was class for us and always showed up.  

You clearly forgot when Grizzly was on the warpath after Jules was seen out at a club in Montreal the night we lost to Honduras in 2008.

[Blackdude]

20 minutes ago, jpg75 said:

You clearly forgot when Grizzly was on the warpath after Jules was seen out at a club in Montreal the night we lost to Honduras in 2008.

And when his dad watched Honduras players in the pool the day after the match.

[Grizzly]

1 hour ago, jpg75 said:

You clearly forgot when Grizzly was on the warpath after Jules was seen out at a club in Montreal the night we lost to Honduras in 2008.

 

43 minutes ago, Blackdude said:

And when his dad watched Honduras players in the pool the day after the match.

Yes and I fully stick by my point of view that this was disgraceful behaviour. I organized the Voyageurs section for that game which was quite big. Before the match we had one bar full and spillover into a second bar and a full section though unfortunately placed beside a Honduran section which caused problems. After the game everyone was so depressed that most went to their hotels afterwards and the atmosphere for the few who showed up at the after match bar could be described as a sad funeral. Then a few days later we saw photos of JDG partying it up at a Montreal disco after the match. By chance my father and nephew stayed at the same hotel the Honduran team was at which was full of partying Hondurans that night. The Honduran team, however, were not to be seen among the fans celebrating the victory as they went to bed. My father and nephew went down to the pool the next day early in the morning and the Honduran team was not in the pool but beside it doing fitness exercises with the assistant coach with a discipline that impressed my father even as a military man. The Canadian and Honduran teams were fairly close talent wise but guess which one made the Hex and then qualified for the World Cup? There was definitely an attitude and discipline problem on that Canadian team and JDG was not the only one. He played at a top level and was at times a very good player so I give him respect for that but at the same time I also don't think we can put him in the category of Hutch or Stalteri as guys that always showed up no matter what and gave 100%.

Edited October 15, 2018 by Grizzly

[RS]

31 minutes ago, Grizzly said:

I organized the Voyageurs section for that game which was quite big. Before the match we had one bar full and spillover into a second bar and a full section though unfortunately placed beside a Honduran section which caused problems.

This was unavoidable given that the entirety of Stade Saputo aside from the Voyageurs section was a Honduran section.

[Obinna]

4 hours ago, Bertuzzi44 said:

Hutch leading once again, setting a high standard (win the Gold Cup!)

Definitely in the conversation for best Canadian soccer player, ever.

If we win the GC and he plays a role, that decides it for me. 

- GC champion

- Danish POTY

- Multiple CL competitions played

- 2x Super Lig winner

- Dutch cup winner

- And if he's not the all time cap leader, he'll surely be in the top 3.

[Grizzly]

27 minutes ago, RS said:

This was unavoidable given that the entirety of Stade Saputo aside from the Voyageurs section was a Honduran section.

This is not true, it was fully avoidable and while about half the stadium was Honduran the percentage of Hondurans there has gotten exaggerated over the years. The effect was made worse by BMO handing out blue and white thundersticks to everyone so even the Canadian fans were banging thundersticks with Honduran colours on them. This game was a comedy of terrible errors of organization on the part of both the CSA and Impact that has fortunately not occurred again since then so it seems they at least learned some lessons from it.

[Obinna]

3 minutes ago, Grizzly said:

This is not true, it was fully avoidable and while about half the stadium was Honduran the percentage of Hondurans there has gotten exaggerated over the years. The effect was made worse by BMO handing out blue and white thundersticks to everyone so even the Canadian fans were banging thundersticks with Honduran colours on them. This game was a comedy of terrible errors of organization on the part of both the CSA and Impact that has fortunately not occurred again since then so it seems they at least learned some lessons from it.

I still cannot believe to this day that happened. Like seriously, talk about putting your brand ahead of your country....

[Grizzly]

2 minutes ago, Obinna said:

I still cannot believe to this day that happened. Like seriously, talk about putting your brand ahead of your country....

I think it was more ignorance then bad intent, ie. probably the BMO people in charge of this did not know much about soccer or what the colours of Honduras were but at some point on the chain of implementation this should have been stopped by someone at BMO, CSA or Impact. I got into a big argument with the people handing them out at the gate because I could not believe that they were actually doing that and tried to explain to them why it was bad but my opinion did not prevail and they had a number of people handing out thousands of those things. In those days there was almost no contact with the CSA so there was not much we could have done while now at least if I am organizing something in Montreal I always have a CSA person I can contact whenever we have problems like the time FIFA did not want us to hang up our banners at the Canada - North Korea game in the women's U20 World Cup. 

[Obinna]

3 minutes ago, Grizzly said:

I think it was more ignorance then bad intent, ie. probably the BMO people in charge of this did not know much about soccer or what the colours of Honduras were but at some point on the chain of implementation this should have been stopped by someone at BMO, CSA or Impact. I got into a big argument with the people handing them out at the gate because I could not believe that they were actually doing that and tried to explain to them why it was bad but my opinion did not prevail and they had a number of people handing out thousands of those things. In those days there was almost no contact with the CSA so there was not much we could have done while now at least if I am organizing something in Montreal I always have a CSA person I can contact whenever we have problems like the time FIFA did not want us to hang up our banners at the Canada - North Korea game in the women's U20 World Cup. 

You're probably right, but that in itself is hard to believe. Even if you aren't a soccer person, you can see that Canada is playing another team that has Blue jerseys. You don't really need to know much about soccer to realize that what your giving out is the colour of the away team.

Probably it is more accurate to say these were not sports people giving these things out?

I'm sure at least someone thought it was odd but never gave a shit enough to point it out. They are just doing a job after all. They were not invested in the actual match, clearly. It's all understandable, but unfortunate nonetheless.

[BrennanFan]

1 hour ago, Grizzly said:

 

Yes and I fully stick by my point of view that this was disgraceful behaviour. I organized the Voyageurs section for that game which was quite big. Before the match we had one bar full and spillover into a second bar and a full section though unfortunately placed beside a Honduran section which caused problems. After the game everyone was so depressed that most went to their hotels afterwards and the atmosphere for the few who showed up at the after match bar could be described as a sad funeral. Then a few days later we saw photos of JDG partying it up at a Montreal disco after the match. By chance my father and nephew stayed at the same hotel the Honduran team was at which was full of partying Hondurans that night. The Honduran team, however, were not to be seen among the fans celebrating the victory as they went to bed. My father and nephew went down to the pool the next day early in the morning and the Honduran team was not in the pool but beside it doing fitness exercises with the assistant coach with a discipline that impressed my father even as a military man. The Canadian and Honduran teams were fairly close talent wise but guess which one made the Hex and then qualified for the World Cup? There was definitely an attitude and discipline problem on that Canadian team and JDG was not the only one. He played at a top level and was at times a very good player so I give him respect for that but at the same time I also don't think we can put him in the category of Hutch or Stalteri as guys that always showed up no matter what and gave 100%.

I think its even worse that some CMNT players hit the clubs in Toronto after the Jamaica game, just a few days before the above noted Honduras game.  Just insane behaviour during a FIFA World Cup Qualifying window that would not be tolerated by any half decent program.  In fact, I believe DeRo was the host at the club that night.  

The inmates were certainly running the asylum that cycle. 

[Keegan]

55 minutes ago, BrennanFan said:

I think its even worse that some CMNT players hit the clubs in Toronto after the Jamaica game, just a few days before the above noted Honduras game.  Just insane behaviour during a FIFA World Cup Qualifying window that would not be tolerated by any half decent program.  In fact, I believe DeRo was the host at the club that night.  

The inmates were certainly running the asylum that cycle. 

The Jamaica and Honduras games were in separate windows...

[Grizzly]

50 minutes ago, BrennanFan said:

I think its even worse that some CMNT players hit the clubs in Toronto after the Jamaica game, just a few days before the above noted Honduras game.  Just insane behaviour during a FIFA World Cup Qualifying window that would not be tolerated by any half decent program.  In fact, I believe DeRo was the host at the club that night.  

The inmates were certainly running the asylum that cycle. 

As Keegan mentioned they were not the same window. We were flying to Mexico after the Honduran game to play Mexico 4 days later while Honduras was flying home to play Jamaica. Nevertheless, the proper behaviour after a game win or lose was shown by the Honduran team not our own team. The team we had during that WCQ cycle seemed to be a team with a number of clubbers who seemed to let their clubbing interfere with their play and professionalism. When they were doing events like the club night after the Jamaica game which if I recall correctly they even advertised on social media it gave one the impression that some of the players were using the Canada games as a reason to come home and party with old friends as opposed to being 100% committed to the task at hand of qualifying for the WC. The trouble for Mitchell in dealing with this was that many of the problem players were also our best players. 

[BearcatSA]

44 minutes ago, Grizzly said:

As Keegan mentioned they were not the same window. We were flying to Mexico after the Honduran game to play Mexico 4 days later while Honduras was flying home to play Jamaica. Nevertheless, the proper behaviour after a game win or lose was shown by the Honduran team not our own team. The team we had during that WCQ cycle seemed to be a team with a number of clubbers who seemed to let their clubbing interfere with their play and professionalism. When they were doing events like the club night after the Jamaica game which if I recall correctly they even advertised on social media it gave one the impression that some of the players were using the Canada games as a reason to come home and party with old friends as opposed to being 100% committed to the task at hand of qualifying for the WC. The trouble for Mitchell in dealing with this was that many of the problem players were also our best players. 

And that's the stuff I was alluding to in the Herdman thread, so thanks for doing the summary here.

 

[RS]

11 hours ago, Grizzly said:

This is not true, it was fully avoidable and while about half the stadium was Honduran the percentage of Hondurans there has gotten exaggerated over the years.

This is a fair point.

The same thing happened to the Jamaica game at BMO from the same cycle. In reality, the split was 90-10 in favour of Canada fans, but over the years the Jamaican percentage has steadily grown to the point where I see people claiming that it was 50-50 or even worse.

[Kent]

3 hours ago, RS said:

This is a fair point.

The same thing happened to the Jamaica game at BMO from the same cycle. In reality, the split was 90-10 in favour of Canada fans, but over the years the Jamaican percentage has steadily grown to the point where I see people claiming that it was 50-50 or even worse.

The best way for the numbers not to be exaggerated for the pro-visitor side, is for Canada to get shut out wins. If I'm researching correctly, that Jamaica game was a 1-1 draw, and the Honduras game was a 1-2 loss. When the visiting fans have goals and results to cheer, it will stick in your head more that there were people cheering about Canada's failings.

[Ansem]

 

 

[Jith12]

?

 

[apbsmith]

Great news, good for him, what a legend. 

2019 Gold Cup, let's get it!

Edited February 12, 2019 by apbsmith

[Obinna]

He's going to end up cracking the 200 league appearance mark for Besiktas.

Have we ever had a player play 200 league games for a top European club?