Costa Rica vs Canada - Post Match Thread

[Gian-Luca]

11 minutes ago, jonovision said:

What's Floro got do with it?

Nothing, which is the beauty of it. If they are reading this board, they will be feel both insulted and confused, which is better than just insulted.

[Juan]

I have never seen CMNT play this well and while I'm proud of a tie versus this strong Tico team, I feel that we could have had this game and the extra points. Aim for 3 pointd versus Honduras.

I like how Davies is playing without fear and didn't let Gamboa push him around during that little kerfuffle early on 2nd half.

[Gian-Luca]

Big stat that I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned - we didn't pick up any yellows

[The Beaver]

8 minutes ago, Gian-Luca said:

They should not say stuff that suggests that we were going to lose by 4 or 5 goals to Costa Rica, a team that has beaten us now once in 8 tries in the Gold Cup - including failing to do so in 2015 so it's not as though this is a 20 year old stat that I am relying on. It shouldn't have been that hard for them to do some basic research.

 

 

Who cares what the Yanks have to say? It is sad, but I've had to lower my expectations of US football media big time.

[Gian-Luca]

2 minutes ago, The Beaver said:

Who cares what the Yanks have to say? It is sad, but I've had to lower my expectations of US football media big time.

I do (and not just what they have to say either). Not to the extent of losing sleep over it but to the extent to discuss it on a Canadian soccer discussion board.

[aloyol]

Excellent result.

Piette MOTM for me. I hope his GC performance can help him get to a better level of play. He was really terrific today, pitbull defending and some good distribution as well. Hope this put to bed some of the comments about him not being MNT material. Clearly, he's a starting midfielder for us.

Arfield and Borjan are honourable mentions.

[lazlo_80]

1 minute ago, Gian-Luca said:

I do (and not just what they have to say either). Not to the extent of losing sleep over it but to the extent to discuss it on a Canadian soccer discussion board.

Stop torturing yourself. Americans don't care what the Canadian pundits have to say.

[Gian-Luca]

2 minutes ago, lazlo_80 said:

Stop torturing yourself. Americans don't care what the Canadian pundits have to say.

Who's torturing themselves? I'm having fun

[lazlo_80]

Just now, Gian-Luca said:

Who's torturing themselves? I'm having fun

oh good. Just making sure.

[lazlo_80]

Gotta say, I thought Petrasso was shaky in the first game but I thought he actually played better today against tougher opposition. 

Also, credit to Zambrano for having the confidence to switch things up after getting our first win in forever. That man has some balls.

[1Knight]

Feels good to be excited again by the CMNT! Scoring goals, young players playing well are very encouraging signs. Arfield for me MOM; Piette and Petrasso at RB pleasant surprises tonight. Hope Davies is ok as well.

[Free kick]

45 minutes ago, Gian-Luca said:

They should not say stuff that suggests that we were going to lose by 4 or 5 goals to Costa Rica, a team that has beaten us now once in 8 tries in the Gold Cup - including failing to do so in 2015 so it's not as though this is a 20 year old stat that I am relying on. It shouldn't have been that hard for them to do some basic research.

 

 

Point taken.   But, if i were to take the pulse and mind read the collective concious of the soccer community (including most pundits) in the US, i would say that there is hidden yearning for canada to be a stronger side and hence a stronger rival to the US. It would better for concacaf as whole and (for the US) might shift the balance of power away from central america.   If canada could be where, say, cost rica were now, there it might be easier for the sport to gain greater mainstream penetration in the US and less latino community focused.  They think we could be a good rival, and i think they are right. 

plus it would better for MLS.

if they are talking about us, its because they care somewhat.  If they didnt care, they wouldnt talk about us.   Best example the U 19 basketball win last saturday, no mention of it in any major US media source, even though they did give the event some attention in the past when they woudl win.

[Christian B.]

Some creativity in attack, nice technical moves, best performance against decent opposition in years IMO, I love this team. A lot of potential. Wow! 

[TRM]

Milan = MOTM. Arfield was a midfield boss again and "Slamin Sammy" really did great but 9 saves is a game and a half type performance by our keeper.

I was just in awe of our triangle work. Even against 2 forechecking Ticos we kept calm and one touched it around so wonderfully. That for me was the highlights of the game. 3v1 and 3v2 we kept possession and didn't just punt. Sweet stuff.

[Ngravs]

What makes me happy is that we OZ played and had faith in the young guns, Petrasso and Adegukbe AJH against a strong opposition. That is exactly how they get better and get noticed by clubs. In passed Gold cups we would've seen Ledgerwood and De jong. 

 

Also having earned that point, the FG forfeit doesn't affect us does it? We either draw or beat honduras and finish ahead or lose and finish behind. (I mean for Goals differential not the 3 pts)

[DeRo_Is_King]

35 minutes ago, Free kick said:

I too thought that there were positive to take away from this game.  I am not going to get carried away though and say that this was a great result.  Thats just because we have to have the bar set a little higher and we have to show consistency into the next game. 

but i get a sence that things are starting to turn around.  And it looked like we stopped the bleeding.  

I agree with this. We need to keep our confidence up in tough moments. Yes, Davies went down. But that doesn't mean we should have played for a draw. OZ made a good change by putting Ricketts in, but I think subbing in Aird was a knee-jerk reaction to the Davies injury and showed we were ready to hunker down. That's not the kind of message you want to send to attacking players like Arfield, Hoilett and even Ricketts, who played their hearts out and have the ability to actually win it for you. 

Also, I hate to say it, but we need a better central defender than Vitoria. Don't get me wrong - I like him and Jakovic together. But Vitoria was beaten too easily in the air on that goal. I don't get the sense that he leads the defence as Arfield is able to lead the attack. If we are truly going to be successful and win the Gold Cup or qualify for the World Cup, we need a world-class player in the back who can really command the defence. 

Lastly, Borjan saved us from disaster. If it wasn't for Borjan, everyone would have hated that we tried playing for a draw at the end. 

This was a very pleasantly surprising result, but there's more work to do if we are going to get consistent results against quality opponents and overcome the disgraceful officiating of the shoddily run CONCACAF region. 

 

[hamiltonfan]

Airfield, Piette, Borjan, Davies, Junior, Luca - brilliant match 

[dyslexic nam]

38 minutes ago, Gian-Luca said:

Big stat that I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned - we didn't pick up any yellows

Do the cards clear/reset after the group stage?

[Ngravs]

1 minute ago, dyslexic nam said:

Do the cards clear/reset after the group stage?

It carries over to the Quarters but not semis 

[Free kick]

1 hour ago, DeRo_Is_King said:

Also, I hate to say it, but we need a better central defender than Vitoria. Don't get me wrong - I like him and Jakovic together. But Vitoria was beaten too easily in the air on that goal. I don't get the sense that he leads the defence as Arfield is able to lead the attack. If we are truly going to be successful and win the Gold Cup or qualify for the World Cup, we need a world-class player in the back who can really command the defence. 

Lastly, Borjan saved us from disaster. If it wasn't for Borjan, everyone would have hated that we tried playing for a draw at the end. 

 

The d-men is exactly what i was getting at when talking about guarded optimism after this result. And that if we dont follow this up with comparable performances, this one wont mean anything.   

Right now we going with central d-men who couldnt hold a starting spot in MLS.  If we can devise a game plan that is very linear, then maybe we can mitigate their deficiencies. 

[Unnamed Trialist]

My take.

It was not a good game, not great to watch. I think we did not actually play our best game, and neither did Costa Rica. So what I take away is the ability to kill off those last 20 minutes and play very professionally, with real maturity. 

Zambrano is a good coach, better than Floro. Not just because he communicates better, which he does. His positioning and tactics are superior and it helps the team. Weaker links in our squad are protected because the overall team play is more solvent. 

Also: the changes. I was surprised, but like this way of handling a team in a group stage, as it gets every player hyped (well, maybe not Leutwiler). It sets us up very well for the last match, as we have 20 guys very focussed, not a bunch of sulkers on the bench watching untouchable starters. That said, objectively I think that Adekugbe and Kaye were a step down from our guys in first match, as was Jackson-Hamel, even admitting that the rival was better (so don't want to exagerrate this). They are lesser players on paper, and they were lesser on the pitch. 

For me the key player was Arfield, he did what he did vs. FG but vs .a way better team. He is very important for us, he's dangerous, a leader, and you could see him coaching others (Kaye). A future captain of Canada. 

Piette was great, all over the pitch, challenging well, and some great tackles, like that 3 on 3 late where he just stood up the attacker on our right wing, great play. He is also a precise passer who knows what he is going to do before he gets the ball. Agree that Piette-Arfield is a strong combo, they also worked very well together, admirable duo.

Other players who were very good, IMO very impressive, were Borjan, Petrasso and Hoillet, this latter for doing what OZ asked, be a target striker. He worked his ass off, and sacrified up high. I am not sure why Cavallini could not have done that job, but Junior was good. Borjan gives the team confidence (Dejan, Vitoria) and Petrasso deserves a lot of credit for doing that job, not something he has often been called to do.

We are hurt  by the fact that Junior and Scotty are not really great goal scorers, it's a little piece we are missing with them. We are also missing a tricky dribbler with a goal scoring knack, like Tabla!! 

Our weak link was Kaye, I don't understand what people liked about him. He was out of position most of the game, on the wrong side of the ball, reacted late, looked lost frequently, and was by far our weakest player, perhaps the weakest overall of the 22 starters. He lacks higher competition experience. His errors were covered by Piette, and Arfield, over and over again. Are any of Bernier, Osorio and Teibert better? Yes. Would they have done better? Pretty sure. So that was an odd risk.

Davies was odd, 1st half was fine, his usual mode; in the 2nd half he held back, I suppose OZ wanted them to. So we lost his contribution. Davies makes little sense on the field if it is not to attack. He did not on many plays in the first part of the 2nd period, so what is the point? I wonder if he was either v tired already, or already ailing. Rewatch some of our attacking rushes 2nd half and watch how he just stays in our end. Odd.

Sure has been fun to be alive in the tournament, makes the whole week enjoyable and energizing. Finally, 100% agree with Gian-luca about the US announcers. So much systematic idiocy out there, though the ones with MLS connections are more balanced. But did you see Matt Doyle's tweet during the US-Panama game:

 

[gator]

I was very pleased with the way we played and am looking forward to watching this young team develop moving forward! 

[DeRo_Is_King]

5 minutes ago, dsqpr said:

17 minutes ago, Free kick said:

The d-men is exactly what i was getting at when talking about guarded optimism after this result. And that if we dont follow this up with comparable performances, this one wont mean anything.   

Right now we going with central d-men who couldnt hold a Starting sport in MLS.  If we can devise a game plan that is very linear, then maybe we can mitigate their deficiencies. 

It is what it is. For sure this is not our strength but I still believe that Jakovic / Vitoria is our best central defence pairing so we may as well get behind them.

Agree with both comments. It's our weak spot, but there's really no one to fill the gap right now. I like Free kick's idea to go more linear. 

[El Diego]

If you play with Vitoria/Jakovic you have to play deep, which means you need to play on the counter. I think that's fine for Canada, but it scares me if we need to chase a goal.

[Yohan]

25 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

My take.

It was not a good game, not great to watch. I think we did not actually play our best game, and neither did Costa Rica. So what I take away is the ability to kill off those last 20 minutes and play very professionally, with real maturity. 

Zambrano is a good coach, better than Floro. Not just because he communicates better, which he does. His positioning and tactics are superior and it helps the team. Weaker links in our squad are protected because the overall team play is more solvent. 

Also: the changes. I was surprised, but like this way of handling a team in a group stage, as it gets every player hyped (well, maybe not Leutwiler). It sets us up very well for the last match, as we have 20 guys very focussed, not a bunch of sulkers on the bench watching untouchable starters. That said, objectively I think that Adekugbe and Kaye were a step down from our guys in first match, as was Jackson-Hamel, even admitting that the rival was better (so don't want to exagerrate this). They are lesser players on paper, and they were lesser on the pitch. 

For me the key player was Arfield, he did what he did vs. FG but vs .a way better team. He is very important for us, he's dangerous, a leader, and you could see him coaching others (Kaye). A future captain of Canada. 

Piette was great, all over the pitch, challenging well, and some great tackles, like that 3 on 3 late where he just stood up the attacker on our right wing, great play. He is also a precise passer who knows what he is going to do before he gets the ball. Agree that Piette-Arfield is a strong combo, they also worked very well together, admirable duo.

Other players who were very good, IMO very impressive, were Borjan, Petrasso and Hoillet, this latter for doing what OZ asked, be a target striker. He worked his ass off, and sacrified up high. I am not sure why Cavallini could not have done that job, but Junior was good. Borjan gives the team confidence (Dejan, Vitoria) and Petrasso deserves a lot of credit for doing that job, not something he has often been called to do.

We are hurt  by the fact that Junior and Scotty are not really great goal scorers, it's a little piece we are missing with them. We are also missing a tricky dribbler with a goal scoring knack, like Tabla!! 

Our weak link was Kaye, I don't understand what people liked about him. He was out of position most of the game, on the wrong side of the ball, reacted late, looked lost frequently, and was by far our weakest player, perhaps the weakest overall of the 22 starters. He lacks higher competition experience. His errors were covered by Piette, and Arfield, over and over again. Are any of Bernier, Osorio and Teibert better? Yes. Would they have done better? Pretty sure. So that was an odd risk.

Davies was odd, 1st half was fine, his usual mode; in the 2nd half he held back, I suppose OZ wanted them to. So we lost his contribution. Davies makes little sense on the field if it is not to attack. He did not on many plays in the first part of the 2nd period, so what is the point? I wonder if he was either v tired already, or already ailing. Rewatch some of our attacking rushes 2nd half and watch how he just stays in our end. Odd.

Sure has been fun to be alive in the tournament, makes the whole week enjoyable and energizing. Finally, 100% agree with Gian-luca about the US announcers. So much systematic idiocy out there, though the ones with MLS connections are more balanced. But did you see Matt Doyle's tweet during the US-Panama game:

 

Pretty much what I saw from this game. I'll add that Kaye seemed to have a shadow role to take Ruiz out of the game. And defence lucked out by Borjan saving their aware.