South Korea vs Canada - Friday November 11th (in Cheonan 천안시, Korea)

[Markus]

Hard to evaluate a game like this. Good on the guys who were there. Can't be that easy to practice for a week and then fly to Korea and play cohesively. First twenty minutes aside, we had a couple spells of decent possession and some half-chances. Nothing much though. I'm not sure if we settled into the game or they just took their foot off the gas. 

S.K. has some skilled depth guys from what I saw. Our back line had their hands full all night. A little surprising since I think most of them played together during qualifying. 

Nice to see Leutweiler do well in his debut. Aird shows promise going forward.

Maybe unlucky not to nick one from De Jong's free kick or was it Haber?'s header off the bar. That being said, if I'm not mistaken that De Jong strike might have been the only question we asked of their keeper all night... and what a world class answer he had. Thought that was destined for the top corner.

Very sporting game by both sides. Only one yellow IIRC.

Not much build up play without Hutch, Hoilett, and Arfield. What can you say? Our lack of depth means when we play a mainly 'B' squad against a better team's 'B' squad we can be pretty outmatched at times. Probably a fair scoreline. Maybe flatters us a little. 

Just my thoughts

[Vince193]

Bustos was pretty good. I hope Vancouer doesn't bury him this year.

[JamboAl]

Agree on Bustos, he looks like he's got that little bit of movement and I see some good potential there.  

Overall, more or less what I expected.  We are an average side with Arfield, Hutch, Hoilett, etc.  But it was nice to see some of the new lads given a crack especially Leutwiler and Haworth.

[Soccerpro]

Bustos has the ability to keep possession of the ball in the middle, look for 1-2s and create chances. That's lacking in our program. I hope he gets real MLS minutes this season.

I'm looking forward to the day where our lineup is along the lines of Cyle Larin, Jonathan Ororio, Jay Chapman. Ballou Tabla, Alphonso Davies..

The exact opposite of the vast majority of players we have now that only know how to look for a back pass when they encounter the least bit of resistance. 

[Northvansteve]

Bustos and Aird have to be part of the "A" team going forward - even if they are the first subs off the bench. They add the offensive spark, creativity and unpredictability we are missing. 

[Blue and White Army]

6 hours ago, biospherian said:

Lee Yong Pyo (former Whitecaps player) is casting the game. He made a joke about Aird that I cannot understand..

I'm not sure how much consideration you should give to the opinions of a man who wore a gold tuxedo to his wedding.

[Keegan]

Thought Haber was fantastic for us tonight, really showed why he deserves to be part of squads.  

[Stryker911]

This was arguably Canada’s worst line up in recent memory. 

The players came from:

MLS: 3

NASL: 4

USL: 1

Scottish Prem (1^st tier): 1

Hungarian NB 1(1^st tier): 1

Spain Segunda (3^rd tier): 1

Norway First Division (2^nd tier): 1

Norway Tippeligaen (1^st tier): 1

J-2 League (2^nd tier): 1

English League 1 (3^rd tier): 1

Polish Elstraklasa (1^st tier): 2

[Toje]

The be fair, Trafford, has spent the majority of the past few months in the Polish 5th tier 

[shorty]

6 hours ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

Going forward he was solid; he still finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time when he has to defend. He should be a winger but we really lack quality options at the back.

I think Aird on the wing (wasn't he?) up until they took off Ouimette for Dixon and dropped Aird back.  I agree with your assessment of both Aird and our depth.  I don't think there was much separating Aird and Ouimette defensively.  They each had their moments (good, bad and awful in about the same measure as far as I could see).  Given that Aird offers more going forward, then, I'd prefer him over Ouimette until a more complete RB option is available.

Off topic, I was hoping for a Korean version of Benny's #1 store, and it never came.  So disappointed.  Did like the cell phone dancing boy band and the "Party? Spurite-u!" commercial.  Not nearly the same, though.  Also the Pizza Hut pizza looked terrible but they were SO excited to see it, which made me think of me waking up at 3am to watch CanMNT, and then I was sad.   Briefly.  At least we have pizza, which is better than none.

Nice to see Leutwiler capped.  He seems quality.  Bustos also looked decent going 90 -- not out of place and still young.  Also nice to see how the depth stacks up against technically better Korean depth (Ouimette, Trafford, Dixon, Haber).  Agree that Edgar and James are not a good combination.  Felt way more confident with Vitoria and Jakovic. Might just be that those two are calmer, but might have also been some half-time instructions to the midfield on protecting the back line and on linking play going forward.  First half there were little to no options for Edgar and James to play out of the back other than side to side -- it was so static and predictable.  Hope we see Hutch again for the Gold Cup.

[shorty]

1 hour ago, Blue and White Army said:

I'm not sure how much consideration you should give to the opinions of a man who wore a gold tuxedo to his wedding.

To be fair, having now sampled a wide range of Korean TV commericals, I feel I understand gold tuxedos.

[El Hombre]

1 hour ago, Keegan said:

Thought Haber was fantastic for us tonight, really showed why he deserves to be part of squads.  

 

7 hours ago, Floortom said:

Haber way too slow and indecisive as he had a few opportunities.

I love this board.

[JamboAl]

20 minutes ago, El Hombre said:

 

I love this board.

EL HOMBRE is the Marcus Haber (and Jonathan Osorio) of the Voyageurs board.

[shorty]

21 minutes ago, El Hombre said:

 

I love this board.

And we love you.  And hate you.  And some can't decide.  And fire Mont Vic because he hates the Dutch.

[shorty]

To be fair, though, I think both those things are true of Haber.

I think he did have some good hold up play, especially since both he and Bustos were often immediately surrounded by 3-4 red shirts with no help/support.  I was impressed with how long Bustos and Haber were able to hang on to the ball in those conditions actually.  That said, Haber (and everyone else) were slow-thinking and slow-reacting in comparison to the Korean players.  They were able to work their way out of trouble efficiently and build attacks because they had the technical ability to make one-touch passes and teammates who were always moving and supporting in good positions.  I think most of our players lacked both those things, Haber included.

[shorty]

Thinking about YP Lee and the technical gap between us and the Koreans, it also struck me how different we were from them in terms of body control and balance.  I always loved watching YP play, because no matter how fast he was moving I never felt that he was off-balance or couldn't change directions on a dime.  Not sure how you teach that, but that's something I'd love to see us develop more.  Hutch has it.  JDG had it at his peak.  Bustos has it.  Not sure of anyone else.  Hoilett, maybe.  Most of our players, as much as I love them, are runaway and off-kilter a lot of the time:  Henry, Ricketts, etc.  You sometimes get the feeling they are following the ball where it takes them, rather than dictating where it will go next.

[Floortom]

41 minutes ago, shorty said:

To be fair, though, I think both those things are true of Haber.

I think he did have some good hold up play, especially since both he and Bustos were often immediately surrounded by 3-4 red shirts with no help/support.  I was impressed with how long Bustos and Haber were able to hang on to the ball in those conditions actually.  That said, Haber (and everyone else) were slow-thinking and slow-reacting in comparison to the Korean players.  They were able to work their way out of trouble efficiently and build attacks because they had the technical ability to make one-touch passes and teammates who were always moving and supporting in good positions.  I think most of our players lacked both those things, Haber included.

Yes. Haber did have good hold up play -  I can certainly admit that. The problem is he held up the play on occasions where we had the opportunity to go at the defence. Holding up play in that situation just allows the defence to catch up and get set - it's counterproductive. 

[shorty]

Can't remember too many situations when Haber had the ball facing goal, or had time to turn, but I'll take your word for it.  Certainly I agree with your point in the general sense that we turn back far too often instead of pressing forward in attack and taking on defenders.  Problem is that we don't have the collective mindset to do that as a team, with midfielders having the instinct to jump into the attack and make good runs as a group.  One guy running at the defender isn't enough.  The Koreans were dangerous not just because they made attacking runs with the ball, but because when they did so, there were 4-5 attacking runs for our back line to track (or not).   Floro stressed collective pressing and the collective decision-making of when to do so and when to hold back.  Hopefully, we retain that.  Now we need the same collective mentality on attack:  pick your spots, but when it's on, jump up in numbers and know which areas to attack.  We rarely give opposing defenses more than 1-2 danger areas to cover.

[Coramoor]

1 hour ago, shorty said:

Thinking about YP Lee and the technical gap between us and the Koreans, it also struck me how different we were from them in terms of body control and balance.  I always loved watching YP play, because no matter how fast he was moving I never felt that he was off-balance or couldn't change directions on a dime.  Not sure how you teach that, but that's something I'd love to see us develop more.  Hutch has it.  JDG had it at his peak.  Bustos has it.  Not sure of anyone else.  Hoilett, maybe.  Most of our players, as much as I love them, are runaway and off-kilter a lot of the time:  Henry, Ricketts, etc.  You sometimes get the feeling they are following the ball where it takes them, rather than dictating where it will go next.

I actually disagree when it comes to Hutch, he almost always looks off balance but he makes it work, he's got a spider leg thing going on.

Petrasso runs with fantastic control whenever I've seen him play, hopefully he'll be able to get into the good graces of the new QPR manager.

[kungfucious]

ignore this post

(...cont below)

[Floortom]

I haven't seen anyone point this out but what happened to Edgar? He's been rather miserable in many recent Canada matches. How was he in MLS this season? I watched a few whitecaps games but not enough to judge his overall play.

[shorty]

Coramoor:  I know what you mean about Hutch looking spidery on the ball, and I agree it looks less "tight" or compact than a smaller player like YP or Bustos or JDG.  Still, when I watch him I don't get the "juggler about to drop all the balls" feeling I get watching Ricketts or even Osorio for all his nice footwork.  I feel like Hutch is always able to change directions or decisions.  Doesn't mean that he hasn't ever lost the ball or turned over possession, (clearly he has) but when he does more often than not it seems to me it's because he is double- or triple-teamed and lacks quick multiple outlets.  Until we can field a starting 11, all with the balance, technical ability and positional sense (individually and collectively) to pass out of trouble (and into attack, not just backward) good teams will press hard as the Koreans did yesterday, and we will continue to turn the ball over as we did yesterday.

[kungfucious]

i was reading a few articles and they said something like the MNT ends 2016 with a loss. really?!? is that so? my calendar says november and i know for sure tues is another date on the international calendar, so theres at minimum one more if the CSA can get its head out of its a##!

 

friendlies are free opportunites to get all players much needed national time minutes. furthermore... b/c u idiots decided to let a good manager go, u have to find a replacement and open up that debate (again). seeing how theres an interim, wouldnt this be a good time to also give him more matches to trial him as a permanent hire?

 

the MNT needs to play A-level matches, each and every window. this is not the only way to improve, but its the simplest way i can think of.  wake up u idiots!

[Coramoor]

2 hours ago, kungfucious said:

i was reading a few articles and they said something like the MNT ends 2016 with a loss. really?!? is that so? my calendar says november and i know for sure tues is another date on the international calendar, so theres at minimum one more if the CSA can get its head out of its a##!

 

friendlies are free opportunites to get all players much needed national time minutes. furthermore... b/c u idiots decided to let a good manager go, u have to find a replacement and open up that debate (again). seeing how theres an interim, wouldnt this be a good time to also give him more matches to trial him as a permanent hire?

 

the MNT needs to play A-level matches, each and every window. this is not the only way to improve, but its the simplest way i can think of.  wake up u idiots!

we were only able to get 1 game this window and this is the last international window of the year

[Northvansteve]

3 hours ago, Floortom said:

I haven't seen anyone point this out but what happened to Edgar? He's been rather miserable in many recent Canada matches. How was he in MLS this season? I watched a few whitecaps games but not enough to judge his overall play.

For the Whitecaps Edgar was exactly what you see on the national team: vocal, physically strong, good in the air, but weak on defending through balls on the ground. He's a competent MLS defender - no more, no less.