Gold Cup 2019

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

5 hours ago, gigi riva said:

playing in 5200m above sea level in Denver 

Denver has moved up!

[Blackdude]

On Loin de s'en foot, it was mentioned that RDS will show Canada's Gold Cup matches and the knockout rounds. 

[Blackjack15]

Martinique shouldn't be a team to sleep on, they have tons of eligible players in France playing in Ligue 2 mostly and a few in Ligue 1 who have a few caps for the NT, or been in one of the nominations but have withdrawn last minute. the question is how many of those players will we see in the provisional roster and most importantly the final squad. Because for the nations league qualifying they used majority players from the local league

Only 5 notable played in one of the four matches

They are:

DF - Jordy Delem / Seattle Sounders | MLS ~ 41 caps 

DF - Jean Sylvain Babin / Sporting Gijon | Spanish Segunda division ~ 10 Caps 

*MF - Wesley Jobello / Ajaccio | Ligue 2 ~ one cap

*MF - Thomas Ephestion / US Orleans | Ligue 2 ~ Three caps 

*FW - Kevin Fortune / Troyes | Ligue 2 ~ Two caps

Plus us the all time goal scorer Kevin Parsemain who has 34 goals in 52  appearances is still leading the way 

* = New Recruits (2018-)

Now that they're no longer playing minnows they will be adding some quality guys who we should watch out for

Lets not forget Gold Cup 2013, Yes I said it. The dark years. Coincidentally at rose bowl, Time to put that demon to rest 

All I'm saying is we should be confident but not arrogant, we still have tons to prove ourselves. Herdman has installed a culture of humility, hard work; no players with high egos, the veterans are respected just as much as the youngsters and the mid age group, which is pleasing to see. Shift the mindset as he says, I do see that this group is hungry unlike past squads 

 

 

 

Edited April 12, 2019 by Blackjack15

[Keegan]

Any team that can put two goals by the USA we should be wary of... we haven’t done that since when? 

I was discussing with a friend how in 2013 vs Martinique our two best players were Teibert and Johnson and now both are fringe on the MNT despite being at prime ages.  Shows how far we’ve come and how crazy it would be to not smack Martinique this time though.  We owe them one and they weren’t nearly as good in qualifying as us. 

This should be similar to our games against FG except hopefully we can keep a clean sheet though. 

Edited April 12, 2019 by Keegan

[BenFisk'sBiggestFan]

I think we need to trust a couple of our "backup" players to get a result in one of the group stage games. In my opinion it should be against Martinique. I know they aren't a bad team, but our MLS players should be able to beat them. Assuming our starting midfield is Arfield, Hutch, and Oso, a trio of Piette, Kaye, and Oso or Arfield should be able to beat them.

We have enough depth in every position that we could honestly have our top 18 players play 2 games each in the group stage. We should be able to secure second spot with that rotation. We need players fresh for the knockouts. I know that we may not get there, but if we want to be a top team then we need to play like one.

[Alex]

Put the hammer down. Our best lineup can have several variations. Insert Larin for Cavallini, switch out a centre back, start Osorio instead of Hutchinson, etc. Several lineups can still be our A squad, that shows our depth. There’s no reason why we can’t draw México. Even if we finish second, there’s no guarantee Costa Rica win their group, Haiti could and we draw them in the quarters. This year will be exciting with the schedule so far, I just want some friendlies in June and I’ll be on cloud 9!

Edited April 12, 2019 by Alex

[mpg_29]

huh...this starts June 15th? Seems earlier than it normally is..

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

5 minutes ago, mpg_29 said:

huh...this starts June 15th? Seems earlier than it normally is..

2007 and 2011 were roughly this early.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_CONCACAF_Gold_Cup

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_CONCACAF_Gold_Cup

[El Diego]

I am having difficulty picking a 23 man squad for Canada, but for the first time this difficulty is from figuring out who to leave at home rather than who to bring. My personal picks if I had to choose today:

Goalkeepers (3)

Milan Borjan, Maxime Crepeau, Dayne St. Clair

Defenders (7)

Sam Adekugbe, Zachary Brault-Guillard, Derek Cornelius, Marcus Godinho, Doneil Henry, Manjrekar James, Kamal Miller

Midfielders (6)

Scott Arfield, Atiba Hutchinson, Samuel Piette, Jonathan Osorio, Mark-Anthony Kaye, David Wotherspoon

Attackers (7)

Lucas Cavallini, Jonathan David, Alphonso Davies, Junior Hoilett, Cyle Larin, Liam Millar, Ballou Tabla

Notes:

- I always thought that the third goalkeeper should be for development purposes; we need to get St. Clair into the NT picture (also considered Ranjitsingh)

- Kaye can cover the back up left-back spot. In fact, he may be the starter there over Adekugbe

- Wotherspoon was my last pick. I was thinking about guys like Edwards or Teibert for versatility, Chapman for something different, Fraser for youth, or a different position for more cover in other areas, but I feel like Wotherspoon is decently versatile himself and we need to know what we have with him and whether or not he's someone we use going forward

- Our midfielders (other than Wotherspoon) pick themselves, and when (if?) Atiba retires then Eustaquio will slide right in as a clear pick. Not only that, we have lots of versatility in the type of central midfielders we have. You can throw out any combination of Arfield, Atiba, Piette, Osorio, Kaye, or Eustaquio and it would be pretty well balanced

- I honestly almost left Larin off the team. If we had one striker other than Cavallini who was solid (Akindele?) then he'd be off. I was always a booster of his but his lack of form is undeniable at this point. That being said, sometimes players can use national team appearances to kick start their careers

[gigi riva]

9 hours ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

Denver has moved up!

error on  my part it   Denver is 5200ft not meters sorry

 

 

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

On 4/12/2019 at 1:16 PM, gigi riva said:

error on  my part it   Denver is 5200ft not meters sorry

It must be the extra spacing in all your posts  

Edited April 13, 2019 by Olympique_de_Marseille

[Blackjack15]

My 23 man squad:

Goalkeepers (3)

 Milan Borjan Maxime Crepeau, Dayne St. Clair

Defenders (8)

Sam Adekugbe, Ashtone Morgan, Manjrekar James, Doneil Henry, Derek Cornelius Kamal Miller, Marcus Godihno and Juan Cordova

Central Midfielders (6)

Scott Arfield, Atiba Hutchinson, Jonathan Osorio, Sam Piette, Mark-Anthony Kaye, and Russell Teibert 

Wingers (3) - Alphonso Davies, Junior Hoilett, Tesho Akindele

Forwards (3) - Lucas Cavallini, Cyle Larin, Jonathan David

Notes: 

Neither Jayson Leutwiler or Simon Thomas are playing so therefore we select a new 3rd goalkeeper. Dayne St Clair seems to be quite the talent with MNUFC, On loan at the newly formed 10 team USL League One. Marco Carducci and Quillan Roberts are the other from runners. Might come from CPL to raise the profile of the league

For back up left back, Morgan (technical decision) and Levis (injury) have yet to play any minutes this year which is concerning. Meanwhile Adekugbe is killing it in Norway, perhaps re-evaluate the idea to put MAK there as he can play both LB and CM. extra depth in both positions and that way we don't have to compromise in the centre midfield. Although I fully understand that Morgan/Levis will play games and are reliable options.

For CB; James, Henry are our fixed starters. Edgar doesn't deserve another call up imo. English fifth tier is not good enough, maybe for a small Caribbean nation but not Canada. Anyways, what worries me is Cornelius and he's played like crap this season with the whitecaps and Miller who just has 2 GP with Orlando City in MLS play. Best case scenario Kamal puts a string of matches (5-8) from here until the Gold cup then he's our #3 go to guy. Only problem is he has no caps,so better play  Friendly or two prior to the tournament. Also There's Adam Straith who could come in as a temporary fix until our CB pool gets better. I believe they're could even be a chance that our 4th CB comes from the CPL, how likely? Idk. Will be interesting to see how Herdman deals with that.

For RB - it's quite obvious, Godihno is our undesputed starter as he's played a lot with hearts in the Scottish Premiership. What is unclear is who backs him up? Well ZBG is kinda the first name that comes to mind as he's featured in all of our previous games in CNLQ. Although he still has to prove himself with the impact, he made one appearance off the bench and started another one which he looked good in. But if he doesn't play from here until GC how can we select him? Same thing with Cordova; very capable player but needs to be playing. Richie Laryea could be an alternative.

Central midfielders - 

CDM - Atiba, CM - Arfield, CM - Osorio is my starting trio pair, the back up pair is: CDM - Piette, CM - Teibert, CM - MAK. Johnson, Wotherspoon, chapman playing really well but not enough to overtake this solid group of six. Hutchinson is retiring after the GC and Eustaquio is available for a call up starting this fall in September once he recovers from injury and gets back to Playing with Cruz Azul.

Wingers - Davies, Hoilett is the startin pair without a doubt. Akindele has been in really good form, hard to deny that, he's my pick. Edwards started the year off right with a goal with the fire  but then got injured, let's see how he does here on out. Tabla and Milar are off my roster, Ballou hasn't been playing at all for Spanish segunda outfit Albacete and Liam only has 6/7 pro games under his name. Still could be a dark horse though but he misses the cut slightly, maybe he can move to a club next season where he is starting every game and scores lots of goals. Also a half year loan has partly to do with it. Pre season with Liverpool can benefit him a lot

Forwards - Cavallini, Larin and David 

Not much to say, they're our best! Ricketts, AJH far behind in level. And if one of them were to get injured, Were in a bad spot. Need more depth in the forward section which our replacements are alright, but the top guys are great

* David can also play CAM and slide in the wing position as he has done with his club Gent*

Edited April 12, 2019 by Blackjack15

[spitfire]

Why on earth would you take 8 defenders and only 3 wingers??

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, spitfire said:

Why on earth would you take 8 defenders and only 3 wingers??

4 starting defenders and 4 backups are pretty standard right? 

[Grandbloke]

ZBG will likely get a fair amount of playing time before the Gold Cup. Sagna is 36 and won’t start every match.

[BenFisk'sBiggestFan]

I have to say that Liam Millar and Talba really should get the call up. I don't think we need a backup for left back because both Davies and Kaye can play there. 

I also don't think we need 6 players at center mid. Multiple players can play each position in the midfield including David and Tabla being able to drop into a more offensive mid role. 

So for me we only need 7 defenders and 5 midfield, which allows us to bring both Tabla and Millar.

[Blackjack15]

2 minutes ago, BenFisk'sBiggestFan said:

I have to say that Liam Millar and Talba really should get the call up. I don't think we need a backup for left back because both Davies and Kaye can play there. 

I also don't think we need 6 players at center mid. Multiple players can play each position in the midfield including David and Tabla being able to drop into a more offensive mid role. 

So for me we only need 7 defenders and 5 midfield, which allows us to bring both Tabla and Millar.

So who do you take out? No Akindele, No Edwards? Going with 3/4 forward and who of the 6 center midfield is not considered; My guess is Teibert. A back up LB may or may not be needed. Ashtone Morgan does have experience though 

I think this a excellent problem to have. Many options, something Canada didn't have 4-5 years ago, the discussion is good. Herdman will have headaches when comes decision time 

[BuzzAndSting]

1 minute ago, Blackjack15 said:

So who do you take out? No Akindele, No Edwards? Going with 3/4 forward and who of the 6 center midfield is not considered; My guess is Teibert. A back up LB may or may not be needed. Ashtone Morgan does have experience though 

I think this a excellent problem to have. Many options, something Canada didn't have 4-5 years ago, the discussion is good. Herdman will have headaches when comes decision time 

Edwards is injured, out 4-6 weeks so he won’t be back to game shape by the GC.

[BuzzAndSting]

I’m not for handing out GC call ups to guys who aren’t playing or who just turned pro. This is an important tournament and I want our best 23. No St Clair, no Cordova, no Morgan.

[Blackjack15]

1 hour ago, BuzzAndSting said:

I’m not for handing out GC call ups to guys who aren’t playing 

As it should be, the best 23 should go based on form, and regularity with their clubs 

[apbsmith]

15 hours ago, Blackjack15 said:

For RB - it's quite obvious, Godihno is our undesputed starter as he's played a lot with hearts in the Scottish Premiership. What is unclear is who backs him up? 

He's 21, coming off injury, in the Scotish Prem he's played 2 games at RB since January ( one vs 1st place team, one vs last place team),  2 games at RM and 60 mins at LM.

 

11 hours ago, Blackjack15 said:

As it should be, the best 23 should go based on form, and regularity with their clubs 

Since the International break over 4-5 fixtures, he's played 60 mins at LM. 

 

Look, I like Godinho, but I disagree with "undesputed starter".... if anything with 3 games over 8 days + travel, followed by what is hopefully knockout round, we need two healthy and playing right fullbacks.  Hopefully Godinho is healthy and can find his way back into the 18 & get some minutes in phase 2 of the Scottish prem ( 5 games) and/or Scottish Cup final.

[Corazon]

Godinho definitely needs more minutes to overtake ZBG in my opinion.  Regardless of how little ZBG has played, he has done a good job for Canada in Nationas League.  If Godinho could secure a starting role than its a possibility.

I am in agreement that the 23 man roster should be based on players in form and regularity but lets be honest.  Everyone saying that is kidding themselves.  If Davies does not play another game for Bayern do we leave Davies off?  If Hoilett only plays a couple premier league games for the rest of the year.  Do we leave him off?  If Jonathan David gets injured and returns just in time for Gold Cup.  Do we leave him off?  The answer for all these are no.  We are not at the level that we can be leaving these players off.  I would take a bench player for Besiktas in Larin over players like Simeon Jackson or Ricketts as well.

There are exceptions.  The amount of exceptions should be minimal though.

[apbsmith]

At this point, we should not rule out Petrasso at RB either, depth at worse case. I do think he's better suited a bit higher up the pitch, but still. 

Here is my pro argument:

1) Last Gold Cup, played all 4 games full 90 mins including 0-0 vs Honduras, 1-1 vs Costa Rica. The minor defensive criticism that tourny was the lack of pace of Vitoria & Jokavic.

2) Few years removed from major career surgery

3) He's only 23

This is why we are finally blessed to have the CPL, really hoping he can remain healthy, have some quality outings and potentially springboard his career back on track. By no means am I saying call him in, but we should not forget about a guy, who not even 2 yrs ago when he was only 21 was solid for us.

[Corazon]

5 hours ago, apbsmith said:

At this point, we should not rule out Petrasso at RB either, depth at worse case. I do think he's better suited a bit higher up the pitch, but still. 

Here is my pro argument:

1) Last Gold Cup, played all 4 games full 90 mins including 0-0 vs Honduras, 1-1 vs Costa Rica. The minor defensive criticism that tourny was the lack of pace of Vitoria & Jokavic.

2) Few years removed from major career surgery

3) He's only 23

This is why we are finally blessed to have the CPL, really hoping he can remain healthy, have some quality outings and potentially springboard his career back on track. By no means am I saying call him in, but we should not forget about a guy, who not even 2 yrs ago when he was only 21 was solid for us.

Call him up for the preliminary squad and if he impresses in training then give him some minutes in a friendly.  If he impresses in the friendly as well then I don't see why he wouldn't make it.

Personally, I don't see him making the roster as he has had quite the fall from grace since QPR in recent years but I don't see why not a player such as him wouldn't make a 30-35 preliminary roster squad.

[Grizzly]

The Impact have another 3 games in a week stretch coming up. I am pretty sure ZBG will get at least one of those starts, probably the mid week game against New England.