Octavio Zambrano

[Guest]

I love how it is explained why each player was not included in the roster and it is not like Floro's bullshit

Edited May 31, 2017 by Guest

[Big_M]

So Hutchinson is done with Canada in official competition. Thank you and have a nice end of career

[Rheo]

1 hour ago, mpg_29 said:

tidbits:

- Hutchison not playing in Gold Cup

- Arfield getting married but will be at Gold cup

- Alphonso Davis getting called up as soon as he gets his passport

- Tabla declined invitation

 

Thanks at the bar and hard to summarize 

[Obinna]

Nice write up. Zambrano mentions he will keep communication open with Tabla. Sounds great. 

I like how he's handling it, telling Tabla he needs to be convinced himself. I think that is the best way. We want people who are committed. What's the point in capping him when he hasn't bought into the program?

I don't know who mentioned that Tabla would likely be another Hoilett case, but whoever said that I must agree with them. I can't see Tabla committing to us until at least after the 2018 World Cup, perhaps longer.

Once our WCQ for Qatar starts to get going, that is when I think he'll make a decision either way. That will be 2019, which give Tabla 2 more pro seasons to develop.

Remember, he is very promising, but even he doesn't yet know what he'll become. In 2 years he could be playing with Bolonga in Serie A (or elsewhere in Europe), scoring plenty of goals and finding himself on Wilmots radar (if he's not already - which I don't think he is, but he could be). Or, in two years he could still be in MLS scoring 4 to 5 goals a season with Montreal, still a dangerous but occasional starter, nowhere near the Ivory Coast set up, watching Davies shine with us in WCQ from the sidelines, wondering if sitting out is really worth it! 

Let's see what happens. To know Davies is committed really softens the blow, not to mention all the other little pieces we are adding (Cordova, Spoon, Edwards etc.)

Edited May 31, 2017 by Obinna

[Keegan]

Pretty disappointing roster to be honest.  Pantemis?  How can you justify that call?  Fresenga as well, you would think guys like Beckie, Ledgerwood, Attakora and Edward deserve calls ahead of him.. even Brault-Guillard.  Uruguayan 2nd division is an extremely low level unless you're absolutely ripping it up.  Hopefully this isn't another case of a manager calling in questionable players as Floro and Yallop did.  

[masster]

1 hour ago, Keegan said:

Pretty disappointing roster to be honest.  Pantemis?  How can you justify that call?  Fresenga as well, you would think guys like Beckie, Ledgerwood, Attakora and Edward deserve calls ahead of him.. even Brault-Guillard.  Uruguayan 2nd division is an extremely low level unless you're absolutely ripping it up.  Hopefully this isn't another case of a manager calling in questionable players as Floro and Yallop did.  

The camp is in Montreal. He is a third keeper who happens to be around to make up the numbers. I don't have an issue with that.

Totally agree with you on Fresenga though. Couldn't catch on with the Whitecaps and barely played for Ottawa as well.

[Dominic94]

As good as Tabla is, at some point there's another kid coming up who is as good or better. I refuse to believe that we haven't found our next Davies/Tabla at the younger groups, or that there isn't one. 

What I mean is, that we should in theory have another top prospect somewhere in the country.

[Guest]

He is making cuts prior to the actual friendly right? Perhaps he is calling up these unknown players to get a look at them in camp as he sees qualities in them that others don't.

[yothat]

Fresenga didnt make at the NASL level .. edwards and trafford got skipped over .. only really questionable call

[matty]

4 hours ago, mpg_29 said:

tidbits:

- Hutchison not playing in Gold Cup

- Arfield getting married but will be at Gold cup

- Alphonso Davis getting called up as soon as he gets his passport

- Tabla declined invitation

 

interpretation

-retired

-rad

-yay

-meh he's still thinking stuff over, no big deal

[shorty]

It's interesting to think of this Curacao roster in the context of the long list of 40 players for the GC that is due to come out soon.  Surely this friendly roster is an audition of sorts for the fringe players.

Not on this roster but likely in the running for the GC long list we probably have:

GK: Leutwiler, Thomas, and then maybe Irving, Chenchinski, ??

CB/FB: Vitoria, Attakora, Ouimette, Ledgerwood, Tissot, Corbin-Ong, Dixon and then maybe Gasparotto, Stanese, Kapor, ??   (not Henry or Edgar -- injured)

MF:   Arfield, Davies (just in case passport comes soon) Chapman, Bustos, Trafford, Fisk, Petrasso, Jackson and then maybe Cristante, Wotherspoon  ?? (not Hutchinson)

ST:  Hamilton, Cavallini and then maybe Zanatta, Elva, Twardek, ??

OZ is leaning toward youth but will likely still have experience on the long list, and above are at least 18 candidates, maybe more, ranging from locks to be on that list to at least 50-50 when compared to Curacao selections like Kaye, Pasher, Awuah and Fresenga.  That's a total of 45+ in the running for 40 spots.

What are the head-to-head competitions for roster spots that other people see? It looks to me like mostly auditions for wide fullback positions, meaning that if OZ likes what he sees, we may have seen the last of Ouimette and Tissot, and possibly Ledgerwood.  Certainly I think those three are facing the most competition from the up and comers and are probably the first three to drop from our recent squads.

Edited May 31, 2017 by shorty

[Obinna]

4 minutes ago, shorty said:

It's interesting to think of this Curacao roster in the context of the long list of 40 players for the GC that is due to come out soon.  Surely this friendly roster is an audition of sorts for the fringe players.

Not on this roster but likely in the running for the GC long list we probably have:

GK: Leutwiler, Thomas, and then maybe Irving, Chenchinski, ??

CB/FB: Vitoria, Attakora, Ouimette, Ledgerwood, Tissot, Corbin-Ong, Dixon and then maybe Gasparotto, Stanese, Kapor, ??   (not Henry or Edgar -- injured)

MF:   Arfield, Davies (just in case passport comes soon) Chapman, Bustos, Trafford, Fisk, Petrasso, Jackson and then maybe Cristante, Wotherspoon  ?? (not Hutchinson)

ST:  Hamilton, Cavallini and then maybe Zanatta, Elva, Twardek, ??

OZ is leaning toward youth but will likely still have experience on the long list, and above are at least 18 candidates, maybe more, ranging from locks to be on that list to at least 50-50 when compared to Curacao selections like Kaye, Pasher, Awuah and Fresenga.  That's a total of 45+ in the running for 40 spots.

What are the head-to-head competitions for roster spots that other people see? It looks to me like mostly auditions for wide fullback positions, meaning that if OZ likes what he sees, we may have seen the last of Ouimette and Tissot, and possibly Ledgerwood.  Certainly I think those three are facing the most competition from the up and comers and are probably the first three to drop from our recent squads.

The last of Ouimette and Tissot? Dude both are only 24. They'll be around for a while. I think Ledgerwood might be done sooner rather than later though. We'll see.

[PopePouri]

11 hours ago, yothat said:

Fresenga didnt make at the NASL level .. edwards and trafford got skipped over .. only really questionable call

Fresenga is Zambrano's Jonathan Grant.

[shermanator]

22 minutes ago, Obinna said:

The last of Ouimette and Tissot? Dude both are only 24. They'll be around for a while. I think Ledgerwood might be done sooner rather than later though. We'll see.

We have definitely not seen the last of either.

I think Tissot has the higher ceiling, and will be around the national team for some time. I think he'll be on the roster for Gold Cup as de Jong's backup. Ouimette will be a fringe player for years, don't know if he'll ever be more than that.

[BenFisk'sBiggestFan]

15 hours ago, Keegan said:

Pretty disappointing roster to be honest.  Pantemis?  How can you justify that call?  Fresenga as well, you would think guys like Beckie, Ledgerwood, Attakora and Edward deserve calls ahead of him.. even Brault-Guillard.  Uruguayan 2nd division is an extremely low level unless you're absolutely ripping it up.  Hopefully this isn't another case of a manager calling in questionable players as Floro and Yallop did.  

I agree. But its just a prep game. Ledgerwood and Attakora are pretty reliable and experienced. It isn't a big deal that they aren't there. If he wants them, he will call them for the gold cup. Beckie and Edward are good hard working players but they don't show the kind of upside as many of the guys invited, plus they are being heavily relied upon by their teams in their leagues. Fresenga and Pantemis are just extra bodies for practice. Thats my opinion anyways.

[Moldy9]

I'm curious. Maybe someone with inside info can enlighten me. Ok we all know it's OZ job to keep tabs on his player pool of Canadians. My question is did he or does anyone know if part of his job is to review the mistakes of the last manager and watch all the games of the CMNT from GC15 onward including all the WCQs to get a better sense of the players who were given the opportunity and did well or underperformed and were just a disaster that should be dropped?

[shorty]

Didn't realize Tissot and Ouimette were that young, tbh, but my point was to hear from others who know more and follow more closely than me what you all thought about where the competition lies at each position for the GC and beyond.  

Age aside, it just seems to me that a lot of the competition is coming up at the wide MF and FB position.  I agree that Tissot probably has more to offer than Ouimette, but doesn't he also face a deeper pool on the left?  And how high is his ceiling compared to the ceiling of those he is up against:  Corbin-Ong, Adekugbe (provided he doesn't end up perma-injured like Doneil), Edwards, Awuah, Levis, Pasher...  Honest question.  I just was guessing that with OZ sounding like he might go more attacking on the flanks that we might see 2 or 3 of that list get called regularly ahead of Tissot going forward.  Maybe "end of Tissot" was a bit strong, but I think like Ouimette he might end up being fringe, especially if a couple of the MLS guys get more time next year.  

Nothing against him, and I hope I'm wrong -- high water floats all boats and such.

[shermanator]

3 hours ago, shorty said:

Didn't realize Tissot and Ouimette were that young, tbh, but my point was to hear from others who know more and follow more closely than me what you all thought about where the competition lies at each position for the GC and beyond.  

Age aside, it just seems to me that a lot of the competition is coming up at the wide MF and FB position.  I agree that Tissot probably has more to offer than Ouimette, but doesn't he also face a deeper pool on the left?  And how high is his ceiling compared to the ceiling of those he is up against:  Corbin-Ong, Adekugbe (provided he doesn't end up perma-injured like Doneil), Edwards, Awuah, Levis, Pasher...  Honest question.  I just was guessing that with OZ sounding like he might go more attacking on the flanks that we might see 2 or 3 of that list get called regularly ahead of Tissot going forward.  Maybe "end of Tissot" was a bit strong, but I think like Ouimette he might end up being fringe, especially if a couple of the MLS guys get more time next year.  

Nothing against him, and I hope I'm wrong -- high water floats all boats and such.

I think what many of us can agree on is that there is no clear cut choice at LB right now. De Jong gets it by default given his years of service to the MNT, but realistically, none of the players mentioned are head and shoulders above the others.

Until we have a LB starting every game at a decent level (Corbin-Ong is the only LB in the pool doing that right now), we have a number of players who could either play at LB or not be called, and it wouldn't be a big surprise if either happened.

[BuzzAndSting]

8 hours ago, Moldy9 said:

I'm curious. Maybe someone with inside info can enlighten me. Ok we all know it's OZ job to keep tabs on his player pool of Canadians. My question is did he or does anyone know if part of his job is to review the mistakes of the last manager and watch all the games of the CMNT from GC15 onward including all the WCQs to get a better sense of the players who were given the opportunity and did well or underperformed and were just a disaster that should be dropped?

I don't know for sure but I would be shocked if OZ didn't spend time going backwards to get a better idea of where the players are at, where they were used, what worked and didn't work collectively. 

[The Ref]

11 hours ago, BuzzAndSting said:

I don't know for sure but I would be shocked if OZ didn't spend time going backwards to get a better idea of where the players are at, where they were used, what worked and didn't work collectively. 

I don't think OZ has much to look back.  It has been a long, long, time anything worked.

 

[SpecialK]

16 hours ago, shermanator said:

I think what many of us can agree on is that there is no clear cut choice at LB right now. De Jong gets it by default given his years of service to the MNT, but realistically, none of the players mentioned are head and shoulders above the others.

Until we have a LB starting every game at a decent level (Corbin-Ong is the only LB in the pool doing that right now), we have a number of players who could either play at LB or not be called, and it wouldn't be a big surprise if either happened.

Juan Cordova can play both LB and RB 

De Jong 

Corbin - Ong

Tissot 

Adekugbe

And OZ is talking to Cristian Gutiérrez 

canada has a lot of options at Left Back 

 

 

[Dominic94]

59 minutes ago, SpecialK said:

Juan Cordova can play both LB and RB 

De Jong 

Corbin - Ong

Tissot 

Adekugbe

And OZ is talking to Cristian Gutiérrez 

canada has a lot of options at Left Back 

 

 

Isnt Christian actually a part of the Chile setup ?

 

how big of a boost would he be ?

[Vince193]

22 minutes ago, Dominic94 said:

Isnt Christian actually a part of the Chile setup ?

 

how big of a boost would he be ?

Bog boost, and he is in the youth teams but he's cooled off since making his debut for Colo-Colo a couple years ago.

[SpecialK]

35 minutes ago, Vince193 said:

Bog boost, and he is in the youth teams but he's cooled off since making his debut for Colo-Colo a couple years ago.

Totally agree , he would be a huge boost. He hasn't really cooled off though. He was loaned to Unión Española and has started most games at LB. Unión Española finished 5th and were only 5 points back from 1st. 

I hope OZ doesn't bury his twin brother. His brother could be a huge help in recruiting him. 

[Vince193]

11 minutes ago, SpecialK said:

Totally agree , he would be a huge boost. He hasn't really cooled off though. He was loaned to Unión Española and has started most games at LB. Unión Española finished 5th and were only 5 points back from 1st. 

I hope OZ doesn't bury his twin brother. His brother could be a huge help in recruiting him. 

Oh I meant in Chile's eyes. I don't think he has been recalled to the team since they crashed out of U20 WC qualifying.