Canada vs Scotland

[PopePouri]

6 minutes ago, Floortom said:

A few thoughts 

Aird - obviously MOTM. We've always seen his willingness to run at defenders and take chances. If we're going with one striker up top(Larin) much prefer Aird (or Davies) on the wing than Tesho.

Bustos - I thought he was solid. Good at holding possession and countering. Is anyone else surprised at how little pace he seems to have though? He can't run anyway from anyone which is a shame given his skill (and lack of size). Almost scored fantastic curler reminiscent of his goal vs England last year in U21 win.

Arfielf - really love Scott but I thought this was his worse performance as a Canadian. Still solid but maybe pressure of this match got to him.

Re: Bustos. He has similar atheticism and size as Felipe @ NYRB. i.e. he can still be a successful soccer player at a decent level.

[rob.notenboom]

Hey @admin I thought you were going to Scotland. Did I read that wrong?

[Greatest Cockney Rip Off]

Really enjoyed the first half. Always great to celebrate a Canada goal at an away match. Seemed to be a few hundred in the Canadian end. Really happy with that. Pre match drinks were good too. Got to meet new people and see some familiar faces. 

 

As everyone has point out, Aird was MOTM. Would love to see that replicated in the gold cup. 

[gator]

2 hours ago, Gopherbashi said:

It's a good result, but by god it's painful to watch Canada when we get the ball at midfield.  We either stand around with it, or pass it back and forth until Scotland intercepts.

It's like they want to be defending again because at least they know how to do that.

Scotland fans are expressing similar views atm!

[One American]

3 hours ago, Dominic94 said:

Scotland really lost out on Arfield, so impressed by him. Aird, Bustos and Hoilett have been very good, love our attacking approach didn't realize we could attack like this. Goal scoring will not be an issue, our defence however will be. 

In a nutshell.

[gator]

2 hours ago, Gian-Luca said:

Do you feel the same way about Arfield, given that he's the player who actually made the plays in question?

The problem on the goal we conceded was the CB laying on his back (James?) took a stab at the ball as the player (Arfield) was about to clear causing him to shank the clearance!

[nolando]

3 hours ago, Gian-Luca said:

It was on that particular play. It was an easy goal to avoid giving up

Sure enough. Arfield indeed made the poor clearing attempt, seemingly trying to compensate for a mix-up  started by Piette's terrible glancing-header backwards and then Manneh-like backtracking  - in any case no one earned themselves any kudos on the play in question:

 

[Guest]

23 minutes ago, gator said:

Scotland fans are expressing similar views atm!

They thought it was a good result? I thought they would be livid right now

[gator]

1 minute ago, canta15 said:

They thought it was a good result? I thought they would be livid right now

No, they are bitching about their lack of creativity in the midfield as well!

[Big_M]

Good performance. Ledgerwood good as usual, Tissot shouldn't play at LB anymore as he'll probably play in the midfield with Richmond and we have other quality options there, Straith wasn't very good and is likely to play in midfield with Edmonton so the battle is open there, Thomas shaky in goal and also a few bad decisions by Leutwiler. Piette was good, played quickly in a couple of touches, Aird was great, Bustos has high qualities just needs to make better decisions at times but is still behind others and is not playing in club.

Arfield has to play at CAM not CM. He is our best playmaker and dribbler. He's playing too low and putting too much energy on defending. Also made a couple big mistakes at the back.

[Floortom]

13 hours ago, nolando said:

Sure enough. Arfield indeed made the poor clearing attempt, seemingly trying to compensate for a mix-up  started by Piette's terrible glancing-header backwards and then Manneh-like backtracking  - in any case no one earned themselves any kudos on the play in question:

 

Airfield was not at fault for that clearing attempt. James attempted to clear it from the ground right as Arfield was going to boot it. That caused the mishit. Just one of those things that happens- wouldn't blame anyone in particular and certainly not Arfield

EDIT: as numerous people have pointed out it was tissot not James on the ground.

[dyslexic nam]

Not a mind-blowing game, but overall very positive for us.  

A really solid result against a credible European team.  They may not have had their best game, but we were (well) represented by a lot of new faces.  Aird had a great game, the other young guys showed a lot of promise, Arfield played excellently for 89:58 of the game, we showed some encouraging attacking ambition, and when iI comes right down to it we were one miskicked clearance from getting a win in Scotland.  

[GuillermoDelQuarto]

just thought it was overall a fairly clean game, tactically.  other than a couple defensive miscue, they moved the ball well.  Seen more than a few games where we were basically just trying to escape our end, wasn't the case today.

[aloyol]

10 minutes ago, Floortom said:

Airfield was not at fault for that clearing attempt. James attempted to clear it from the ground right as Arfield was going to boot it. That caused the mishit. Just one of those things that happens- wouldn't blame anyone in particular and certainly not Arfield

You are right about the mishit. Arfield isn't to blame for it.

BTW, I think Thomas should catch that ball instead of pushing it (with both hands, which should be an indication that he can catch it) in the middle of the field.

[nolando]

5 minutes ago, aloyol said:

You are right about the mishit. Arfield isn't to blame for it.

BTW, I think Thomas should catch that ball instead of pushing it (with both hands, which should be an indication that he can catch it) in the middle of the field.

My beef was with the player trying to dribble the ball out of danger some ten seconds before the mishit you are referring to, just after the backwards header, which I think was an error in judgment and worthy of some finger-pointing, and really put us on the back foot. This indeed was Arfield and not Piette as I had mistakenly first thought.

[masster]

-So nice to watch a great stream. Hope TSN Go continues to be an option for those matches that aren't on TV.

-Thank goodness Strachan avoided Arfield and drove him into our open arms

-Can't help but be happy for Aird. His Scottish born father recently passed away. Must have been a super special moment for him.

-Don't think our fullbacks were good enough defensively. Need to improve in those positions against stronger opposition. In fact, James was the only player out of the back 4 that I would be happy with as a starter. Wanted to see Gasparotto get a shot, but I understand not wanting to make too many subs when a result was there for the taking. 

-Piette takes too much flak on this board in my opinion. He reads the game well, had some nice interceptions, and keeps the ball moving. Needs to be playing against better opposition week in and week out.

-Think we missed a target man today. We had our moments with the ball, but being able to clear to a central striker when we were under defensive pressure could have allowed us to alleviate it a bit easier. 

-Curious to see where Zambrano takes us from here.

[Soccerpro]

Nice friendly result, but we drew Ghana 1-1, and we know how much that means in WCQ and Gold Cup games.

Are we ever going to develop some good defenders? Hell, play Will Johnson at RB just like Orlando does.

[The Beaver]

2 hours ago, shermanator said:

At the risk of opening up a debate that I'm too lazy to have, am I the only one who thinks Bustos is very overrated here? I just see a lot of flash with no substance with his play.

Now I will say that I'm primarily basing this on what I've seen at the club level. Didn't watch the Bermuda, Ghana or Korea friendlies. I barely noticed him in this game, and the games against Mauritania and Morroco, although I was also trying to work and watch at the same time for all 3 friendlies. 

Maybe I'll have a different opinion when the CSA uploads the video of the Scotland friendly to YouTube?

The knock against Bustos, I suspect, is that he is too easily muscled off the ball. And, while he is indeed quick, he is not fast by any means, which does not work for a counter-attacking team like the Caps.  He is fighting Mezquida for a role, and Mezquida can do pretty much everything Bustos can AND he is very fast AND strong on the ball. Mind you, I want Robbo to actually give Bustos a chance in the hole. The last outing he had Bustos on the wing, which is nuts. He has no speed at all! Bustos would do well with a team that plays a very compact system, like Tigres. The problem isn't the Caps; I think he is simply in the wrong league. He'd be better in Spain.

[lazlo_80]

I feel like Manjrekar James has made a case for being considered for a move somewhere else. I keep forgetting he's only 23.

 

[Gian-Luca]

39 minutes ago, Floortom said:

Airfield was not at fault for that clearing attempt. James attempted to clear it from the ground right as Arfield was going to boot it. That caused the mishit. Just one of those things that happens- wouldn't blame anyone in particular and certainly not Arfield

Unless James dyed not only his hair blonde but his skin white, I am pretty sure that the guy on the ground trying to clear it was Tissot ?

[zeelaw]

Only saw half the game but looked like a great result and performance overall.

[Stryker911]

Too bad Gasparatto didn't get a start. I think like Aird he would have played his heart out to impress his Scottish counterparts.

I also really enjoy playing a mid-level European team way more than anyone from Caribbean and central America. None of the diving, time wasting, and overall bitching.

[shermanator]

Full game (starts after the Aird opening goal) is up on Youtube now. Time to verify my claim that Bustos sucks! 

 

[Obinna]

43 minutes ago, shermanator said:

Full game (starts after the Aird opening goal) is up on Youtube now. Time to verify my claim that Bustos sucks! 

 

Beware of confirmation bias my friend

[shermanator]

After watching what is up on Youtube here are my thoughts. First off, this was a very enjoyable game to watch. Second, if you're going to take a long range shot, FFS get it on frame. Far too many wasted shots from outside the penalty area.  

I'll echo the thoughts that Aird was the best player on the pitch. I thought Ledgerwood had a really good game as well. James and Straith were decent as well. No complaints on either of the keepers. Hoilett was his usual polarizing self, of note is his finishing is really lacking. 

Bustos was okay, but I'm just not sold on him yet. He just seemed to float around the central mid when not in possession. He gave the Scottish players far too much room to come out of the backfield. I will say he kept possession well, and no complaints on his passing, but just generated nothing going forward. His lone attempt at driving at the Scottish backline, he just ran the ball directly into the defenders. Perhaps he'd be better as a central midfield rather than a #10?

Piette was fantastic. This game was a good example of the type of role where I see him as being valuable to the national team, as a destroyer supporting the back 4. Lots of pressure on anyone with the ball, won most of his challenges, not clunky in his tackles as I've seen him in the past (i.e. his performance at the 2015 Gold Cup). Didn't have to try to go forward as he could rely on Arfield or Aird primarily; going forward is not where his strength is. Thought he and Arfield played well off each other. Arfield himself was average.

Jackson was meh, but he's never been good wearing the maple leaf. 25 games without a goal and it shows. If we have Larin up top I think he buries that through ball from Hoilett on the first touch shortly before half. Tissot at LB is scary, he's much better on the wing. Corbin-Ong's debut was a howler, but he's got a long throw so maybe that can be added to the arsenal. Not much of a view of Fisk and Trafford.