General - CONCACAF Nations League

[CanadianSoccerFan]

Curacao is all over Grenada.  Full squad of European pros against part timers.  Beat Bolivia and Qatar a while back as well so they're a decent side.

Edited September 11, 2018 by CanadianSoccerFan

[tyler453]

Wow, Haiti absolutely smashes Sint Maarten 13-0. Sint Maarten sits 9 spots above USVI in the ELO rankings and we sit 25 ahead of Haiti in FIFA's. Should we have been at home against USVI on a bigger pitch, I hope we would've got a similar result. 

Edited September 11, 2018 by tyler453

[CanadianSoccerFan]

Curacao leading 9-0 and the referee has the stones to add 2 minutes of injury time.  Curacao duly hits number 10

[Blackjack15]

Curaçao destroyed Grenada 10-0 at Home, Canada now sits 4th in the standings

[dyslexic nam]

Yeah, but if we don't run up the score, we might go through on smiles.

[jtpc]

That wasn't even Curaçao's match against a Pot D team. They play the US Virgin Islands next. Yikes.

[Ansem]

So far due to Goal differential
League A

1. Haiti +13
2. Cuba +11
3. Curacao +10
4. Canada +8
5. Dominican Republic +5
6. French Guiana +5   

[Keegan]

37 minutes ago, Ansem said:

So far due to Goal differential
League A

1. Haiti +13
2. Cuba +11
3. Curacao +10
4. Canada +8
5. Dominican Republic +5
6. French Guiana +5   

The good news is Haiti and Cuba face each other.. also Haiti has Nicaragua and St Lucia away.  

Curacao I see going 4-0-0, they have a really underrated team.

We have the easiest draw by quite a margin imo.  Only one true away match and our A match at home against a favourable opponent. The expectation has to be #1. 

[Blackdude]

Curacao have Guadeloupe as their A-team and Antigua as their B-team. IF they win all 4, I think they'll finish first. 

[DrFitzpatrick]

On ‎9‎/‎8‎/‎2018 at 7:07 PM, Blackjack15 said:

I must say the stream provided by CONCACAF has been excellent

This New Competition looks promising!

Although most was good, I found that it would randomly skip back 15 or 20 seconds and show parts I had already watched.  It happened probably 3 or 4 times.  It could have been on my end, but I don't usually have any problems watching Netflix or DAZN.

[Gian-Luca]

Still two more Pot A teams to play against Pot D teams in round one, so we could drop down to 6th place if they each win big.

[Keegan]

1 minute ago, Gian-Luca said:

Still two more Pot A teams to play against Pot D teams in round one, so we could drop down to 6th place if they each win big.

And unexpectedly,  ES and Jamaica are the two teams with the worst GD of the A teams so far.. and they have to play each other.  It seems inevitable that one of them will start in League B and may even miss the Gold Cup. 

[Gian-Luca]

34 minutes ago, Keegan said:

And unexpectedly,  ES and Jamaica are the two teams with the worst GD of the A teams so far.. and they have to play each other.  It seems inevitable that one of them will start in League B and may even miss the Gold Cup. 

The inclusion of the strong non-FIFA teams (including French Guiana) and the apparent rise of teams like Curacao and the Dominican Republic is making this a more complicated proposition for everyone. Curacao will likely go through from Pot B (and thus beat out one Pot A team) unIess they lose to their Pot A team. Cuba is in a great position now but they have to play the Dominican Republicand then travel to Haiti.

I still think we need friendlies in addition to these games which count. We "only" beat Dominica 4-0 at home although under different circumstances - we already had 2 away goals in the 2-legged tie and we scored early (from Akindele IIRC) in the 2nd leg and then coasted relatively easily after that. Also as Floro was our coach we probably played about 5 CB's in the same game. So I'd like to think we could do better than 4-0 this time and hopefully get back up to at least 2nd place after round 2 (Curacao will be difficult to catch until the later rounds given they play USVI next).

[BradMack]

Jamaica and El Salvador could be in real trouble here. I think one of them along with French Guiana, and one of Martinique or Guadaloupe will not make it from pot A. Jamaica has a pretty easy rest of draw until they have to go to El Salvador. Curacao is a pretty decent team and belongs in the top half of Concacaf. Realistically only 1 or 2 of these teams will miss out on the Gold Cup, I hope it isn't Jamaica, it's good for the region to have more famous places in the Gold Cup. 

[Keegan]

Dominican Republic and Cuba I’m not convinced about.. I think they’ll drop points.  Curaçao is the team to beat and as pointed out, they probably have the easiest draw of anyone despite being in pot B (I thought we did but they just edge us). 

We have to smash Dominica at home.. 2-5-3 again.  We definitely still need friendlies, even if we won’t get them.  

Dominica in 2015 seems just like yesterday but comparing our rosters is like night and day.  Add Hoilett, Arfield, Davies, David, Millar, Cavallini.. we should win this by at least 6 at home.  I don’t think that’s unrealistic or cocky.

What happened to Grenada?  I know they were never great but they qualified for a Gold Cup and had Shalrie Jospeh and Jason Roberts who were two very good players for the region.  Now losing 10-0 to curaçao?!

Edited September 11, 2018 by Keegan

[jpg75]

4 minutes ago, Keegan said:

Dominican Republic and Cuba I’m not convinced about.. I think they’ll drop points.

As G-L pointed out above, Cuba and DR play each other so one of them will for sure drop points.

[Gian-Luca]

All that said about improving upon our performance against Dominica at home, the real one we have to improve upon is our performance against St. Kitts away from home (which was a 0-0 draw last time and IIRC they came close to scoring a late winner). Hopefully there will be reminders of this within the team so that they don't take anyone lightly (although the fact that we sit 4th right now despite an 8-0 win also helps in the "don't take things for granted" category).

[Keegan]

My worry would be that our players start playing selfishly in the hopes of padding stats and it costs us goals (or even a result away).  There were some inexplicable bits of play from some guys I recall off the top of my head David, Millar, Arfield, Osorio all making selfish decisions at one point in the hopes of grabbing a goal.  

Hopefully these guys are all made aware of what can happen.

[Kent]

I hadn't noticed this until today.

https://www.concacafnationsleague.com/en/article/concacaf-nations-league-qualifying-match-in-martinique-postponed

Martinique vs British Virgin Islands postponed due to tropical storm Isaac.

[Gian-Luca]

26 minutes ago, Keegan said:

My worry would be that our players start playing selfishly in the hopes of padding stats and it costs us goals (or even a result away).  There were some inexplicable bits of play from some guys I recall off the top of my head David, Millar, Arfield, Osorio all making selfish decisions at one point in the hopes of grabbing a goal.  

Hopefully these guys are all made aware of what can happen.

In fairness to those players, their coach was doing his best "20-minute workout" impersonation by shouting "four more!" "two more!" etc from the sidelines which was encouraging those sorts of selfish plays. I'm not sure if Dominica will bunker to the extent that USVI did and we will be playing on a proper sized pitch which should give our players more space so that some of them aren't trying to dribble past 6 players at once. At the same time, I don't think we are going to see the 2-5-3 formation against Dominica, although maybe we will see Davies at left back against them to put more offense on the field - a "problem' that Peter Galindo writes about in this article:

https://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/herdman-faces-selection-headache-following-canada-win/

[DrFitzpatrick]

On ‎9‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 7:00 AM, apbsmith said:

Herdman is a master tactician of long term visionary.  Adding to what you said above, I would assume most, if not all, competitive matches over the next 8 yrs will be being played at our three host cities.  From tactical preparation standpoints, our players should play in our host city venues as MUCH as possible (my opinion).

Unfortunate for vancouver etc, incredible support, but unless it is a friendly or there is a clear tactical advantage in a WCQ, I don't see them getting many more CMNT in the next 2 cycles..... can't really put the blame on CSA for this one, is what it is.  Speaking truthfully, Edmonton should get a friendly before Vancouver.

Being in Vancouver and itching to see a CMNT match, I can't disagree.  Our provincial government really screwed us on this one.  All after the previous government spent half a billion dollars to reno our stadium to attract world class events.

 

[damaaster]

On 9/10/2018 at 9:12 AM, Keegan said:

I agree that Edmonton is long overdue.. our last match was v Costa Rica in 2013.

An Alphonso Davies homecoming would be a smart move once he goes to Bayern.  The problem is the stadium is awful to watch on tv and nearly impossible to fill.  Winnipeg would be amazing simply for their stadium.

Yes Winnipeg Please

[nfitz]

2 hours ago, DrFitzpatrick said:

Being in Vancouver and itching to see a CMNT match, I can't disagree.  Our provincial government really screwed us on this one.  All after the previous government spent half a billion dollars to reno our stadium to attract world class events.

Provincial?

I thought it was municipal support they sought, not provincial.

Perhaps Vancouver needs a stronger, more efficient, amalgamated city council - like Toronto!

[SkuseisLoose]

It’s not really a proper Davies homecoming if it’s not in Edmonton or Vancouver.

[Oranje]

I think they should use the notwithstanding clause and reduce the amount of locations a home game can be played. That's how it works right?