WCQ Canada-Mexico 25 March Postgame

[Cheeta]

Echo that.  Get the fu'king thing 40 yard further from goal.  If it does nothing else it buys time.  Even a couple of seconds sometimes is worth it's weight in gold

[mranski]

Unlike others who mentioned it as a highlight, I thought the Garret Kusch tackle was uncalled for. Yes the fan shouldn't be there, but that is the job of stadium security, not the team staff. Also, he blind sided the smaller fan at almost full speed and could have injured him. And then he is gesturing to the fans about his accomplishment, taking attention away from the play. Not what I want from team staff, makes me wonder team staff supervision?

[barca99]

I'm enjoying the debate here about build-up vs. Route 1. Here's my 2 cents:

If you build up, my thought is that you can control the game a little more. Slow it down. Anytime we have possession, they can't score kind of thing. If you play Route 1, you are essentially leaving Larin on an island and allowing Mexico to come at you in waves, which seems like suicide. So basically you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. 

I didn't mind a lot of the tactics on Friday. I thought Canada controlled the ball decently, and if this is the way that we are going to play, then I don't think you can pick and choose when to play it. I don't mind it. A few critical mistakes really cost us though. First off, the early misses. I thought out mid's pressured way too high. And I don't understand Canada ever rushing a throw in. You need to SLOW the game to a crawl. Lull Mexico to sleep. Hell, put 55,000 people to sleep if it got us a result! I was actually impressed with some of the build-up out of the back. 

As was said, sometimes you have to put your foot through the ball and relieve some pressure, but at least I can see where the team is going and how they are trying to play.

[Soro17]

1 hour ago, mranski said:

Unlike others who mentioned it as a highlight, I thought the Garret Kusch tackle was uncalled for. Yes the fan shouldn't be there, but that is the job of stadium security, not the team staff. Also, he blind sided the smaller fan at almost full speed and could have injured him. And then he is gesturing to the fans about his accomplishment, taking attention away from the play. Not what I want from team staff, makes me wonder team staff supervision?

Well, to be fair to Kusch, it was the third pitch invader. The first two managed to run around unnoticed by security for 20 seconds or more. Security wasn't doing anything about the third guy either until Kusch intervened. I can see how he was pissed off and decided to take action - you are in your home stadium, you are down 3-0 and jackass fans of the visiting team keep running on the pitch celebrating without consequence. 

[Admin]

On 3/26/2016 at 11:52 AM, Canada1 said:

We could not get into Doolins Pub so we were at the Roxy Burger next block north by 5:00. We were just being served beers and food when we saw the March go by the windows. Our aim was to join yourselves at 5:45pm as was mentioned on here. We ended up leaving at that time and there were others on Granville who were also confused why the March started at 5:15. There was plenty of time for the March as I do understand the increased security issue. We actually left the Roxy Burger at 5:45 and were in the  Stadium by 6:15pm.

I appreciate those who organize these events but next time please give much more warning as 20 of us were looking forward to supporting the March.

We posted it everywhere we could.

We had to head the warning and move it up, it could have been a disaster otherwise. 

[Dub Narcotic]

I was at the game. Some quick thoughts from what I saw from beneath my flag:

* That first Hoillet chance was the moment that Canada had to get a result. Sadly, such moments have great import in the ludicrous high stakes of qualifying. The psychologically pressure the players are under is immense and I think it weighs on the players a lot. In Europe you have the big tournaments every two years so you can afford the mistakes and off cycles. Not so here, and add the constant reminder of recent failures and it's a lot to ask of the players to perform in those critical milliseconds.

* Great work and thanks to the group who organized the event. So much work, and it went very smoothly. One comment: without raised capo stands and megaphones it is impossible to see or hear what is being asked and led to only a few small groups around the capos singing. I don't know how this gets fixed at BC place; it's a problem for the Whitecaps groups as well.

* The first Mexico goal was a nightmare: no pressure on the crossser and no pressure on Hernandez. That goal was a complete breakdown. de Jong and Straith were so slow all night. I thought Jakovic did well moving the ball around in the teeth of the high pressure. The Borjan stop on the screened shot on the second phase from the corner was the best save I have ever seen live.

* Larin was awful. By 60' he was standing still and petulantly swinging his arms when he didn't get an immediate long ball when Canada got possession.. It was shocking and I'm really surprised we didn't see Akindele or Haber at that point. Larin is still quite young and has been a big fish in some small ponds so far. A disappointing finish on his great chance early on as well.

* Arfield and Akindele both looked lively.

* The third goal was very demoralizing. Canada went into damage limitation mode and stopped fighting and the constant stream of unchallenged Mexican pitch invaders seemed to signal how casually they and their team were taking this game and why they weren't wrong. There was one pitch invader at the end of the game that BC Place stewards completely missed, he was taking selfies with the team and just walked off the field at the end. Not a great showing but they did do well getting the huge crowd in on time even with extra security.

* I would put the El Salvador game in Toronto. Freshen the fans up and get the players away from the Mexico memories.

[Yohan]

What's the definition of insanity? Keep trying same thing and expecting a different result?

I get that Floro wants Canada to play more possession based soccer. But once you find out that whatever you're trying to do is not working, you need a plan B. Borjan trying short distribution to a defender and having to give the ball away because Mexico was too fast putting the defender under pressure and negating any chance of playing the ball out from the back was an exercise in futility.

You need to mix it up more often. Hoofing it to Larin, who has been winning most of 1v1 battle against Mexican CBs, is not bad of a Plan B. Larin could have hold up the ball and wait for support. And it might have eased off some of the pressure on Canadian defenders and create more room for Canadian midfielders to use the space created.

[Unnamed Trialist]

9 hours ago, dsqpr said:

The key to good possession football is movement off the ball. The ten players who do not have the ball have to work hard and smart to get themselves into position away from a marker where they can receive a pass. As I noted in the match thread as I watched, our movement off the ball is shite and that is why we kept turning it over or making dangerous passes back to Borjan that thankfully and luckily he handled without disaster. The player on the ball often simply had no place to go and that was because nobody was hard working enough or intelligent enough to get into position to give him an option.

Kind of reminds me of my own playing days when I'd get the ball in defence and immediately players 40 yards away would start a full on sprint towards the opposing goal yelling for a pass. Who the fcuk did they think I was, Yohan Cruyff?! Meanwhile the intelligent players would find space 10-20 yards away and I would pass to them.

Exactly, this. But you have to train it, and you have to train it in tiers. Meaning, you have an option going forwards, if it is good, take it. Second option is horizontal. Third is back. Take the best option, not only for the comfort of reception so the next player can start again, but in terms of the support that player has. This is where you have to be moving in support of a player receiving BEFORE he gets the ball. 

This can be practiced, it is essentially playing keep-away but asking the team to advance as well, there are tons of drills. We are very static in the middle and at the back, we also sit in flat lines and not staggered lines with the ball (without a straight back line can be justified). 

Basically what we need in Canada is for all our teams to be properly trained in possession, from an early age, because it is not true they don't have the skills. Simply too many have never been asked to use them to their full advantage.

[MtlMario]

13 hours ago, 1996 said:

While I'm happy that these qualifiers are on TV It's too bad we did not get more of a pregame, I mean TSN basically went straight into the national anthems and then basically the game no real pregame considering the significance of the game and the sold out crowd, a half hour pregame would have been nice but hardly anything lol. TSN could have made something of the great atmosphere maybe show the rest of Canada more of the incredible atmosphere outside the stadium before the match, maybe show all the Canadian fans and Mexican ones at the different bars and pubs getting reading for the game. Maybe show some of the supporters march instead of the 20 seconds they showed. TSN really captured hardly anything of the atmosphere outside and even outside the stadium, however, if this atmosphere had happened in any of the other more mainstream sports here in Canada I'm sure TSN would have shown it and had stories upon stories of it and would have had a nice pregame show . However, I understand it's soccer here in Canada so I guess we should just be happy they showed the game I guess lol.

I agree with you 100%  and I guess TSN finally saw the light..There will be a 30 min. pregame show before Tuesday's game.

[rightback]

12 hours ago, jpg75 said:

Not having the threat of a poor back pass, slip or mishit turning into a goal for starters. Then when you boot the ball "aimlessly" from the spot you're actually not under pressure and can pick out who/where you're kicking it.

 

9 hours ago, Yohan said:

What's the definition of insanity? Keep trying same thing and expecting a different result?

I get that Floro wants Canada to play more possession based soccer. But once you find out that whatever you're trying to do is not working, you need a plan B. Borjan trying short distribution to a defender and having to give the ball away because Mexico was too fast putting the defender under pressure and negating any chance of playing the ball out from the back was an exercise in futility.

You need to mix it up more often. Hoofing it to Larin, who has been winning most of 1v1 battle against Mexican CBs, is not bad of a Plan B. Larin could have hold up the ball and wait for support. And it might have eased off some of the pressure on Canadian defenders and create more room for Canadian midfielders to use the space created.

I don't mind the occasional long goal kick to mix things up but I don't think we (including Larin, I sure didn't see him winning most of the 1v1 battles at all) manage to bring the ball down, control it and get it to one of our own guys more than 2 times out 10. The other 8 times we can expect Mexico to regain possession and come back straight down our throat and I just don't see the point of that. The defender receiving the short pass on the goal kick must be 1) unmarked, obviously and 2) have team-mates making themselves available and 3) have the option to pass back to the keeper as necessary. Option 3 has to be part of the fundamentals, if they can't handle that, they don't belong on a national team.  

[jpg75]

If i didn't make it clear there was a Mexican 10 yards from Henry when Borjan made the pass (the play was maybe around 15-20 min. in). It was absurd. I'm all for building from the back, but common sense should prevail - another Borjan brain fart.

[Bison44]

Those short kicks almost seemed like they were part of the gameplan.  Borjan used the short kick 3-4 times, It must have been something they worked out in training.  

[Lucho.Sevilla]

On 27/3/2016 at 7:13 AM, Free kick said:

Nope.  I agree with poster that you were responding to.   They do not play all out with the same effort and urgency for all games.  They put their best foot forward when needed.   We have seen it time and time again over the past 30 years in Concacaf.  Their team, fans and media are at a level of confidence and maturity in the game to know and understand the bigger picture.  And in that bigger picture, they know that they are the best in the region and that their performance at the work cup finals is what they are measured by.  Hence, the objective of this round is to advance, not to win every game.  If you look back over the last 4-5 cycles,  many sides in the region have eeked out some positive results against them but it almost always in matches that didnt matter for them.   T&T, Hon, CRC are but a few that managed some surprises.  Even canada managed several results against they in matches that had no bearing on who advances or doesnt. But when something is at stake,. Its a whole different game.  

So yea, we should always be worried about when we are playing them in a qualifying rounds and when otheres in the group are playing them.  Who could ever forget that draw that T&T went to get in 2000 against them in the first week of the semi final round.  That, for all intents and purposes, sunk Canada's chances right from the start. 

What you said, used to be true, but lately the Mex national team is under scrutiny all the time, specially after the shitty qualifycation to Brazil 2014 that we didnt even deserved, the relatively new coach Osorio has many people in the media that still dont have faith in him and i can asure to you that people here are like the Old Romans and the Azteca is the Coliseum... they expect to see blood there, if Mexico doesnt get a convincing victory on tuesday it wont matter that they have won the past 3 games his "administration" would get hammered with critics. Another thing is that he is probably changing at least 4-6 players of the line-up, and some are youngsters hungry to prove themselves in the "arena" to their new master.....

And please do not take this as if i was trolling, i am just giving you an honest insight of what i see and hear in the media here in Mexico, as i have stated before there is always a place in my heart for team Canada, and nothing will make me happier than see team Canada go to Russia... well Mexico winning Russia would, but that is unlikely, you guys have better chances to qualify.

[rob.notenboom]

16 hours ago, Symp_Res said:

I am back in Regina after a few incredible days in Vancouver. 

Just want to say...thank you to all Canadian supporters and to the Voyageurs specifically!  You guys made my first experience with the National team a very memorable one.  I met some fantastic people at Doolins and thought the march to the stadium was incredible.  I have never been a part of a group of people that had that much unadulterated passion and love for a Team that you all showed for our Canadian boys on Friday.  Major Props!

The crowd inside BC Place was incredible and I am so proud to have been part of it.  I have much to say about the game itself, but I will restrain for the time being.  Just know that we have come a long way, but we still have a long way to go.

Please keep working hard to provide the Canadians with the home field advantage that they need and deserve.

 

 

 

Did we meet. Very surprised if I don't know a Voyageur from Regina. 

[Sébastien]

After a few days to think about it, a few thoughts:

- Though Arfield made it clear in his short time that he makes more happen than Ricketts, you can't blame the coaching staff for not starting Arfield as he was nursing an injury (do we know about his status for tomorrow's game?).

- Henry showed why he will be a great defender. One on one, he was almost impossible to beat. However, his touch going forward was very poor and he clearly lacked positional awareness for his FB (as demonstrated by him not closing down the winger for the 1st goal and not returning to his position after his clearing header for the 3rd goal). He should definitely be on the field, and should definitely not be playing FB.

- While Atiba played below expectations, he was still as good/better than most our other players. Problem is that if Atiba plays at a level similar to our other guys, we're in big trouble. We need him to dominate.

- I was disapointed in Hoillett. Not only the chances he missed, but he gave the ball away way too much. Frankly, if Ricketts had the same game, most people would be out for his head again (got some chances and whiffed incredibly on it, showed some pace going one on one, but went nowhere, crosses wayyyyy off the mark, giveaways galore, etc. Rings a bell?) Hoillett definitely has good moments and should keep on starting, but we need way more, and he can offer way more, than what we saw on the field the other day.

- Love Edgar. Please bring him back on the field.

- What worries me the most is how we lost our shape often. Though I understand some people's dislike of Floro, I am a fan of his disciplined style and its effectiveness, especially when playing away. That being said, if he's unable to get the players to stick to it, it's not worth much. The primary cause of Mexico's first goal was the Mexicans swinging the ball from one side to the other, and suddenly nobody being there to cover the weak side. That's unacceptable.

- Unlike many, I thought Larin played a good game. Yeah, he missed that tight angled shot (should have gotten it on net, but frankly, it would have taken a really nice shot to beat the keeper from there). However, he ran onto the ball, found some open space, took some people one-on-one, was able to hold on and wait for support the few times he got touches, some decent diagonal runs, etc. The way some are acting, it's as if they expect him to receive the ball, split the defenders on his own and score from 40 yars away.

It was a very depressing game. However, I still believe we can maybe get a result in Azteca. I will be watching and hoping.

Final thought:

Well done Vancouver. Very well done.

[king1010]

Again. Arfield re aggrivated his back and never made the trip to mexico. 

[nolbertos]

9 minutes ago, king1010 said:

Again. Arfield re aggrivated his back and never made the trip to mexico. 

I wouldn't play him at Azteca either.  He's better used in Honduras and the final game.  We'll need to play a 3-6-1 to clog up the midfield and force Mexico to work hard pressing us.  I would've put our most speedy wingers in tomorrow's game.

[Addona]

1 hour ago, Sébastien said:

- Henry showed why he will be a great defender. One on one, he was almost impossible to beat. However, his touch going forward was very poor and he clearly lacked positional awareness for his FB (as demonstrated by him not closing down the winger for the 1st goal and not returning to his position after his clearing header for the 3rd goal). He should definitely be on the field, and should definitely not be playing FB.

This sounds about right ... there was also one time in the 2nd half where Arfield got the ball on the right side, turned to look for the RB and Henry was 20-30 yards down the pitch in his own end.  Arfield gave this sort of shrug of disbelief, like "where the fuck is the RB support!", and then Henry tried to come storming down the pitch and promptly played a touch out of bounds.  It was slightly hilarious only because the game was lost at that point.

[masster]

Couple of points:

While De Guzman did not have a great game, I think some people are being a bit tough on him saying he is done. He has played very well for Canada over the last year. Plus, he is another one of the guys currently in preseason. Taking those 2 things into consideration, I'm not ready to completely write him off yet.

Borjan - while he made some unbelievable saves in the first half, could he have done better on the second or third goals?

[zeelaw]

On 3/26/2016 at 6:10 PM, Califax said:

We lost and ill take it... But how the two footer on dejong 5 mins in and bringing down atiba in the box werent cards, ill never know.

The ref was a coward.

Hoilett's challenge that lead to his chance was at least a yellow too. Ref was weird

[king1010]

1 minute ago, dsqpr said:

I don't agree. Hoilett was just fighting for the ball. He had two feet in play because he was sitting on his arse! There was no dangerous two footed lunge which would certainly have deserved a straight red. I think that was another one of the many decisions that the ref got right by just leaving it alone and letting them play.

i dunno. looked like a 2 footed lunge to me.

I was always told lunging with your studs up aint cool. never mind both feet studs up

[SthMelbRed]

8 minutes ago, dsqpr said:

I don't agree. Hoilett was just fighting for the ball. He had two feet in play because he was sitting on his arse! There was no dangerous two footed lunge which would certainly have deserved a straight red. I think that was another one of the many decisions that the ref got right by just leaving it alone and letting them play.

Watch it again. He leads with two feet in a manner that could very well have seen him shown a straight red card. After his reckless lunge, he ended up on his ass with the ball between his feet from whete he proceeded to fight for the ball. The initial lunge was silly and could have cost us badly.

[king1010]

 

5:15 of this video is the challenge

[BearcatSA]

On Sunday, March 27, 2016 at 0:48 PM, king1010 said:

Ledgerwood over henry.

Another out of season guy, who I believe has played mainly as a DM at club level when healthy, and who can't be left in 1 v 1 situations:  I don't like that scenario.

[aloyol]

Looks really bad. When I saw it live I thought he was gone. Looking at it now on the replay I think it's a red. 

If this kind of challenge is to be consider legal we'll see many broken legs....