Which defector are you least pissed at?

[dyslexic nam]

1 hour ago, gigi riva said:

 Fuck  them   all

I am going to ignore the rest of your post and take this as a broad commentary on all of them.

Also, your text spacing is weird.  Nothing personal.

[xcalibre]

Everyone lambasting Hargreaves and celebrating Hoilett, he jerked us around as long as anyone and surely would've happily played for England if his career went differently and they allowed that kind of naturalization.

Keep in mind the CSA was a complete joke until about 2016. Like, a disaster.

Imagine you're a professional with ambition (difficult I know) circa 2001 - you can rot away with the CSA, who might not even recognize your potential, or play with England, shine at a World Cup, and earn your dream move to Man Utd? I used to hate Hargreaves with a passion when I was 16, 17 and he was doing this stuff, but maybe I'm just mellowing out now.

Same for Begovic. The guy started in a WC, and earned a big-money move to Chelsea. JDG2 started a third-place game at the World Cup.

When they were looking at who to commit to, and saw the CSA doing stuff like appointing Dale Mitchell... c'mon. Dale's U-20s didn't score a single goal in 2007. And then he got the senior job. And everyone knew it was gonna happen!

[gigi riva]

What happened in the past is the past  lets look  forward instead . 

[Joe MacCarthy]

2 hours ago, xcalibre said:

Keep in mind the CSA was a complete joke until about 2016. Like, a disaster.

Imagine you're a professional with ambition (difficult I know) circa 2001 - you can rot away with the CSA, who might not even recognize your potential, or play with England, shine at a World Cup,

You play for your country not the federation.  I've had lots of bosses I didn't like in careers I loved, it shouldn't deter you.  It's opportunism pure and simple, and the whole idea of playing for your country is supposed to be sacrifice not mercenarism (if that's a word) :).  That's why you get paid to play for a club team.

Playing for your country is for the greedy bastards making unreal money to give back to all those volunteer coaches and officials and the despised soccer moms who for the love of the game gave up their time to mentor them and help put them in the positions they are..

[Marc]

Agreed with Joe.  The CSA angle is a shifty smokescreen that can be applied anywhere, anytime, at any judgment/convenience.  It is even less legit than the "I got cut by a mean provincial coach" excuse.  Who thinks the Bosnian FA is a tight ship?  How about the JFF?  The reality is that if you play for Canada and you're decent then you are critically important.  (And maybe that's part of the lack of appeal.)

Playing for a birthplace, or for a better country, or at major tourneys by taking a lesser role - all are rational decisions that most our nats would make had they the option.  If Guyana was a world power, A.Bunbury/Hooper/DeRo would be their nats.  Hargreaves would not be perfecting his Petyr Baelish with tongue cankers accent on broadcasts if he were an Canadian international.

But defections are the structural equivalent of what game-losing own goals or unnecessary red cards or corrupt referee decisions are to matches.  (Defections are up there with choosing not to go to Copa America.)  Defections have deep implications - to the national program, off field, on field - that reverberate well into the future.  And defections are almost never communicated openly or respectfully or honestly. And just as players have the right to switch, I think fans have the right to be cranky about both.

And that's the common theme I think in that list - Mannus and Vant Schip of course not really suitable in the first place, and you could add Vitoria, for me - the defection always hurts, but it's the deception is what makes it really sting.

[Joe MacCarthy]

On 2017-07-26 at 5:41 PM, dsqpr said:

That may be your take on the choice of country to represent internationally but I suspect many players would disagree.

Of course they would, because some of them are now entitled, greedy SOBs who forgot where they came from and who helped get them where they are.  Notice I said some not all.

I blame FIFA not necessarily the greedy players and the amoral federations.  FIFA has the crappy rules and people will use and abuse them unless you have some gumption like the two Georges.

[SuperCanuck]

I started having a friendly conversation with a guy yesterday, and then it suddenly took a bad turn.  He told me he's trying to lose his Canadian citizenship so his son can play for another country.  Just as I was about to explode, he clarified that his son plays basketball.  

I wish our national team well, although I couldn't possibly stay awake through a game where someone scores every 20 seconds and gets two points for doing so - first team to 3000 points wins.  

The guy I was talking to was an immigrant, but was very evasive about where he was from, possibly Jamaica, but I don't know.  He'd lived here for 40 years, and he's giving that up so his Whoregreavesy son can go play for another country.  I don't know why the father has to give up his citizenship, or why this clown started telling me this in the first place, especially with his introduction being, "I'm trying to lose my Canadian citizenship." out of the blue when we were talking about airplanes.

Edit:  Oh yea, whom do I hate the least.  Mannus, I guess.  Leroux's the worst.

[jonovision]

33 minutes ago, SuperCanuck said:

I started having a friendly conversation with a guy yesterday, and then it suddenly took a bad turn.  He told me he's trying to lose his Canadian citizenship so his son can play for another country.  Just as I was about to explode, he clarified that his son plays basketball.  

I wish our national team well, although I couldn't possibly stay awake through a game where someone scores every 20 seconds and gets two points for doing so - first team to 3000 points wins.  

The guy I was talking to was an immigrant, but was very evasive about where he was from, possibly Jamaica, but I don't know.  He'd lived here for 40 years, and he's giving that up so his Whoregreavesy son can go play for another country.  I don't know why the father has to give up his citizenship, or why this clown started telling me this in the first place, especially with his introduction being, "I'm trying to lose my Canadian citizenship." out of the blue when we were talking about airplanes.

Edit:  Oh yea, whom do I hate the least.  Mannus, I guess.  Leroux's the worst.

Your friend does not sound particularly bright.

[Joe MacCarthy]

51 minutes ago, jonovision said:

Your friend does not sound particularly bright.

And apparently doesn't know too much about the present ascending Canadian basketball scene.

[Marc]

I bet that the dad is from a country that doesn't allow dual citizenship.  So the action of gaining Canadian citizenship way back resulted in him automatically giving up his birth country's citizenship.  His son probably isn't good enough to play for Canada.  But the son doesn't qualify for citizenship from his Dad's birth country until the Dad gets his original citizenship back.  If this all is the case, renouncing Canadian citizenship in favour of citizenship from a country that you don't live in and won't let you be a dual citizen, just so your kid can play international basketball certainly isn't the smartest thing to do.

[SuperCanuck]

13 hours ago, jonovision said:

Your friend does not sound particularly bright.

"A friendly conversation with a guy."  Not a conversation with a friend.  I'd never be friends with anyone who'd "try to lose his Canadian citizenship just so his son can **** off and play a sport for some other country.

[Blackjack15]

I'll tell you which defector i am most pissed about! 

Ethan Findley.

I don't understand his thinking at all. He chose USMNT, when he knows that they have a large player pool of over 50 players playing in MLS, Mexico and Europe. That his chances of ever being selected for a final 23 man roster for Gold Cup or WC are slim to none. Also the fact that he plays 2 International friendlies against Iceland & Canada (2016), then gets cap tied by playing vs Guatemala in a WCQ! If he would have chose to represent the maple leaf without a doubt with his talent and set of skill he would be called up to every important match and on forward. 

I strongly believe he made a mistake. Oh well, it's his career and why want someone who doesn't want to be here? I wish him well as he's done pretty good with Columbus Crew SC. 

[Blackdude]

17 minutes ago, Blackjack15 said:

I'll tell you which defector i am most pissed about! 

Ethan Findley.

I don't understand his thinking at all. He chose USMNT, when he knows that they have a large player pool of over 50 players playing in MLS, Mexico and Europe. That his chances of ever being selected for a final 23 man roster for Gold Cup or WC are slim to none. Also the fact that he plays 2 International friendlies against Iceland & Canada (2016), then gets cap tied by playing vs Guatemala in a WCQ! If he would have chose to represent the maple leaf without a doubt with his talent and set of skill he would be called up to every important match and on forward. 

I strongly believe he made a mistake. Oh well, it's his career and why want someone who doesn't want to be here? I wish him well as he's done pretty good with Columbus Crew SC. 

Defector? I don't even consider someone who never lived in Canada except for trips playing MLS a defector.  And was it ever clear that he was eligible for us? 

[Addona]

2 hours ago, Blackdude said:

Defector? I don't even consider someone who never lived in Canada except for trips playing MLS a defector.  And was it ever clear that he was eligible for us? 

I think it was made pretty clear that he was NOT eligible for us!

[Complete Homer]

3 minutes ago, Addona said:

I think it was made pretty clear that he was NOT eligible for us!

Yup. He was the one who approached the CSA apparently, and somewhere along the way getting his passport they realized he was never Canadian. 

Lots if theories why, but it was apparently his father who was Canadian... 

[Bison44]

Lets not open up that can of worms again.  Findley probably never got past the first conversations with CSA.  Good for him getting on with the USA though.  

[Joe MacCarthy]

The whole snowflake argument about being cut from a youth team, and using that as an excuse a la Ho sickens me. 

Angelo Esposito (once touted as a number one draft pick) was cut three times from the highest profile youth team in the country.  Unlike some, he had the nads to persevere and made it on his fourth try.  He ended up scoring the gold medal winning goal on a line with John Tavares, Nuf ced.

 

[SuperCanuck]

I'm waiting for "other" to catch up with Owen-the-Whore.

[jordan]

Mark Chung, could have offered a lot during the pre internet days.

[Pottsy3]

On 7/30/2017 at 6:11 AM, Blackjack15 said:

I'll tell you which defector i am most pissed about! 

Ethan Findley.

I don't understand his thinking at all. He chose USMNT, when he knows that they have a large player pool of over 50 players playing in MLS, Mexico and Europe. That his chances of ever being selected for a final 23 man roster for Gold Cup or WC are slim to none. Also the fact that he plays 2 International friendlies against Iceland & Canada (2016), then gets cap tied by playing vs Guatemala in a WCQ! If he would have chose to represent the maple leaf without a doubt with his talent and set of skill he would be called up to every important match and on forward. 

I strongly believe he made a mistake. Oh well, it's his career and why want someone who doesn't want to be here? I wish him well as he's done pretty good with Columbus Crew SC. 

This is some misplaced anger. I feel as though you should probably redirect this argument and edit the name in your post from Finlay to Teal Bunbury. His circumstances were essentially the same as you're trying to mention, except he was actually eligible to represent us.

[Marc]

13 hours ago, jordan said:

Mark Chung, could have offered a lot during the pre internet days.

Solid Major League Soccer Manager signing

[matty]

On 30/07/2017 at 6:11 AM, Blackjack15 said:

I'll tell you which defector i am most pissed about! 

Ethan Findley.

I don't understand his thinking at all. He chose USMNT, when he knows that they have a large player pool of over 50 players playing in MLS, Mexico and Europe. That his chances of ever being selected for a final 23 man roster for Gold Cup or WC are slim to none. Also the fact that he plays 2 International friendlies against Iceland & Canada (2016), then gets cap tied by playing vs Guatemala in a WCQ! If he would have chose to represent the maple leaf without a doubt with his talent and set of skill he would be called up to every important match and on forward. 

I strongly believe he made a mistake. Oh well, it's his career and why want someone who doesn't want to be here? I wish him well as he's done pretty good with Columbus Crew SC. 

I'm 100% sure his thinking was "I love America and I want to play for it" and I don't think he regrets his choice at all.

Also he never had a Canadian passport.

[CanadianSoccerFan]

On 7/23/2017 at 4:44 PM, Califax said:

 

Leroux is the worst. 

Wasn't sure what thread to write this in. 

I was in the Eaton Centre today walking past the Nike store and was stopped in my tracks to nearly spit out my coffee. There before me was a gigantic storefront poster of Sydney Leroux.....   I let out an audidble "WTF!" to the unanimous confusion of busy shoppers wondering why some guy is stood there gesturing angrily at an overpriced shoe store.

[BradMack]

2 hours ago, CanadianSoccerFan said:

Wasn't sure what thread to write this in. 

I was in the Eaton Centre today walking past the Nike store and was stopped in my tracks to nearly spit out my coffee. There before me was a gigantic storefront poster of Sydney Leroux.....   I let out an audidble "WTF!" to the unanimous confusion of busy shoppers wondering why some guy is stood there gesturing angrily at an overpriced shoe store.

Thats actually bullshit. Give that deal to a Canadian.

[harrycoyster]

34 minutes ago, BradMack said:

Thats actually bullshit. Give that deal to a Canadian.

They did...