The Road to Qatar.

[narduch]

Those September and October 3 match windows are going to be a grind. 3 games in 7 days. Maybe 1 or 2 training sessions before the 1st match 

We definitely need to call a squad of about 30 players if we are serious about qualifying 

[Shway]

1 hour ago, Obinna said:

American fans are anticipating rosters of 28 to 30 players.

Supposedly teams are required to name their 23 man roster 24 hrs prior to kick off. Therefore, we may also opt to call a bigger group of players and name different 23 man rosters for each match.

Where did you see this? It’s weird that they would format it like that, instead of just saying 30 man rosters like UEFA did.

Any team planning on bringing just 23 guys to 3 matches in 7 days is asking for an early exit. 

We need minimum 28 guys.

[narduch]

15 minutes ago, Shway said:

Where did you see this? It’s weird that they would format it like that, instead of just saying 30 man rosters like UEFA did.

Any team planning on bringing just 23 guys to 3 matches in 7 days is asking for an early exit. 

We need minimum 28 guys.

There's no rule for this. Teams can carry as many players as they want. They can only announce 23 for each match day though.

But nothing is stopping us from naming a different 23 for each game

[Obinna]

I would say Miller has played his way on. That one is pretty easy. 

Corbeanu I am less sure about, but at minimum he's raised his stock with WCQ and now Gold Cup. Especially with his sub appearance against Mexico in a big game, that really showed that he can make an impact at this level. I can see him and Millar both being included in our larger squad (if we call one), but we may not both in the same 23.

Sturing I don't think will be involved much, if at all. He may sneak onto a 28 or 30 man roster, but I cannot see him getting on the field considering he saw no Gold Cup action and was only involved against the minnows in the previous rounds of WCQ.

Got a feeling we won't see much of Paton, unfortunately. I hope he makes a few Ocho rosters, but with Wotherspoon and maybe Arfield, hard to see where the opportunity comes.

Here's one who's stock went up despite not playing in Gold Cup: Gutierrez. He's a locked in starter at Vancouver and would have played in Gold Cup if the Whitecaps didn't beg us to leave him behind. This may partly be me just wanting him to be involved, but I really think he makes his debut next window.

[Obinna]

19 minutes ago, Shway said:

Where did you see this? It’s weird that they would format it like that, instead of just saying 30 man rosters like UEFA did.

Any team planning on bringing just 23 guys to 3 matches in 7 days is asking for an early exit. 

We need minimum 28 guys.

Tactical Manager and 11 Yanks had a live stream during the gold cup where they talked about it.

To be clear, it was that teams would have to name the final roster 24 hrs before kick off of each match. Everything else about 28-30 man squads was speculation. 

I doubt anyone will call a 23 man squad, including us.

Basically what Narduch is saying. We likely see different 23 rosters for each match.

[Floortom]

Pasher is an interesting one for me - he barely played at the Gold Cup so maybe didn’t impress in training? Based on pure club form I would have him over Millar for example.

re: Theo - league one doesn’t break for international windows right? Not sure we would want to take him out after he just joined up with SW.

[gigi riva]

3 hours ago, Shway said:

Where did you see this? It’s weird that they would format it like that, instead of just saying 30 man rosters like UEFA did.

Any team planning on bringing just 23 guys to 3 matches in 7 days is asking for an early exit. 

We need minimum 28 guys.

Ya bit knowing CONCACAF  they will probabley allow 28 players while The US amd Mexico will  some how be allowed 30 

[Shway]

Predicting the WCQ roster may be more  predictable than we think. I’ll start with the Goal Keepers…

Milan Borjan - Although he missed the Gold Cup, I will still suspect that he’s still our number 1. That doesn’t mean it’s not possible for him to be rotated with…

Maxime Crepeau- Solid Gold Cup tournament where he showed his great shot stopping abilities, and his no nonsense approach to the game. Something that we as fans, and the coaching staff should take into consideration when comparing him to Borjan-susceptible-to-a-mistake. Hes definitely should be considered for the number 1 at some point, but again I won’t be surprised if he plays a few games this round. 

Pantemis/St. Clair - Very tough decision considering St Clair has been in all of the recent camps this year, but he hasn’t played much minutes at the club or national team level. Pantemis had a great performance earlier this year, and he has been staking his claim to be the number 1 in Montreal. All in all they would be the third option, and I’ll highly doubt that they will play but if I’m picking Im calling James.

 

Edited August 2, 2021 by Shway

[Shway]

Defenders:

Steven Vitoria, Scott Kennedy, Kamal Miller, Doneil Henry, Richie Laryea, Allistair Johnston, Sam Adekugbe, Cristian Gutierrez, Zachary Brault-Guillard.

Stock Up⬆️:

Kamal Miller - solid performance at the Gold Cup. He has shown that he can play in big games against big opponents and rise to the occasion. 

Allistair Johnston - He’s another guy that has came into the team, and hasn’t showed any flaws to his game. His ability to basically not be noticed on the field, especially in position like RCB is incredible testament to his rise. His versatility is crucial to our ability to moving from a 352 to a 433.

Stock Down⬇️:

Doneil Henry - I love the guy. I love his tenacity. His will to bang and give a crunching tackle, but he just can’t be trusted to not make a crucial mistake in a must win game. That’s not to say he won’t be in the team, as WCQ will likely be more beneficial for him as card accumulation won’t leave us short handed as it would in a tournament. 

Overall our defensive worries should be lessened based on the rise in a lot of our players in the backline. We’ve barely seen Kennedy, and Gutierrez however both are off to great starts and inform with their club teams. This doesn’t even mention guys like Cornelius or Smith who could potentially join the squad. I believe we have solid options whether we are playing with 3 in the back or 4.

Edited August 2, 2021 by Shway

[JohnnyFranchise]

2 minutes ago, Shway said:

Predicting the WCQ roster may be more  predictable than we think. I’ll start with the Goal Keepers…

Milan Borjan - Although he missed the Gold Cup, I will still suspect that he’s still our number 1. That doesn’t mean it’s not possible for him to be rotated with…

Maxime Crepeau- Solid Gold Cup tournament where he showed his great shot stopping abilities, and his no nonsense approach to the game. Something that we as fans, and the coaching staff should take into consideration when comparing him to Borjan-susceptible-to-a-mistake. Hes definitely should be considered for the number 1 at some point, but again I won’t be surprised if he plays a few games this round. 

Pantemis/St. Clair - Very tough decision considering St Clair has been in all of the recent camps this year, but he hasn’t played much minutes at the club or national team level. Pantemis had a great performance earlier this year, and he has been staking his claim to be the number 1 in Montreal. All in all they would be the third option, and I’ll highly doubt that they will play but if I’m picking Im calling James.

 

i wouldn't complain about borjan still being the #1, but if i'm jh crepeau is my guy. 

[Shway]

Midfielders:
Stephen Eustaqiuo, Jonathan Osorio, Samuel Piette, Mark-Anthony Kaye, Atiba Hutchinson, David Wotherspoon, Liam Fraser, Scott Arfield*

Stock Up ⬆️:

Stephen Eustaqiuo - He’s absolute boss in that midfield, and showed he’s our complete midfielder with his ability to score from set pieces, in play, and create goals. I might even say he could be the captain come 2026. 

Stock Down ⬇️:

Scott Arfield - How does your stock go down without playing? It’s the importance to the team. So far we have showed that we don’t need him, but he could be used. His injury concerns/durability is questionable, and with him being out of 3 consecutive windows the question might need to be asked of the former captain “What is the Importance of Scott Arfield??”

Overall like our defence we have a lot of solid players, the only true standout is Eustaqiuo. We will have no issues when we have to rotate the middle 3, as we have a lot of guys who do the same thing/can get the job done of controlling the middle like we seen in the Gold Cup games against the USA and Mexico.

[JohnnyFranchise]

1 minute ago, Shway said:

Midfielders:
Stephen Eustaqiuo, Jonathan Osorio, Samuel Piette, Mark-Anthony Kaye, Atiba Hutchinson, David Wotherspoon, Liam Fraser, Scott Arfield*

Stock Up ⬆️:

Stephen Eustaqiuo - He’s absolute boss in that midfield, and showed he’s our complete midfielder with his ability to score from set pieces, in play, and create goals. I might even say he could be the captain come 2026. 

Stock Down ⬇️:

Scott Arfield - How does your stock go down without playing? It’s the importance to the team. So far we have showed that we don’t need him, but he could be used. His injury concerns/durability is questionable, and with him being out of 3 consecutive windows the question might need to be asked of the former captain “What is the Importance of Scott Arfield??”

Overall like our defence we have a lot of solid players, the only true standout is Eustaqiuo. We will have no issues when we have to rotate the middle 3, as we have a lot of guys who do the same thing/can get the job done of controlling the middle like we seen in the Gold Cup games against the USA and Mexico.

spot on. agree 100% on arfield.

[Shway]

Attackers:

Alphonso Davies, Jonathan David, Cyle Larin, Tajon Buchanan, Junior Hoilett, Lucas Cavallini, Theo Corbeanu, Tesho Akindele, Daniel Jebbison*

Stock Up ⬆️:

Tajon Buchanan - Gold Cup young player of the tournament. His consistent ability to beat guys 1v1, create and score goals. This kid is going to be a problem to all Concacaf teams. We will be scaring the shit out of teams if we see Davies and Buchanan on the wings andddd interchanging. My god - the entertainment these guys are going to bring.

Junior Hoilett - He stepped up as a leader in the Gold Cup, and had a very good tournament. It’s a statement that kinda says “I’m still here”, as he has the ability to the job of scoring or creating as we saw. I think going forward he’ll be a super sub.

Overall our attack is our strongest part of the field. Without David, Davies, and Larin we saw that we can still be dangerous with the likes of Buchanan, and Hoilett. I think it’ll be tough to make the starting XI, as I think the only undroppable player is Davies. And at this point Buchanan has to start. 

[EJsens1]

12 minutes ago, Shway said:

I think it’ll be tough to make the starting XI, as I think the only undroppable player is Davies

I’d put Eustaqiuo in that equation now.  He controls the flow of the midfield too much over 90 minutes that having him come on later in a game would not make him as effective 

[Shway]

Our best starting XI will be the hardest thing to make considering our coaching staff will take into many factors of the opponent we are playing, so we might see our formation change - although it seems like the the 3-5-2 is the best formation.  However here's my best XI today:

A:

B:

I prefer option A, but you'll notice the surprise omissions are Laryea, and Larin. But I'll say, it's going to be very hard to not put Tajon in the XI- and chances are it's at the expense of Laryea. We just have a lot of quality in the attack - we have never be able to say that!

I think having four midfielders in the middle will clog the middle, and allow those guys to play the short touches they like to play, while giving Davies, and Tajon the freedom to get forward, and it will allow Kaye and Hutch to slide into the spaces they leave behind. 

 

[Obinna]

@Shway spot on with all 3 of these posts. Great analysis.

[Obinna]

11 minutes ago, Shway said:

Our best starting XI will be the hardest thing to make considering our coaching staff will take into many factors of the opponent we are playing, so we might see our formation change - although it seems like the the 3-5-2 is the best formation.  However here's my best XI today:

A:

B:

I prefer option A, but you'll notice the surprise omissions are Laryea, and Larin. But I'll say, it's going to be very hard to not put Tajon in the XI- and chances are it's at the expense of Laryea. We just have a lot of quality in the attack - we have never be able to say that!

I think having four midfielders in the middle will clog the middle, and allow those guys to play the short touches they like to play, while giving Davies, and Tajon the freedom to get forward, and it will allow Kaye and Hutch to slide into the spaces they leave behind. 

 

The only question I have here is Kennedy over Vitoria in the middle of the back 3. He seems to have the tools to play there, but he hasn't yet, so until he does I will question if he is first choice there.

Now I certainly think you can argue that Kennedy and Miller are better players than Vitoria right now, and that swapping Kennedy in there puts our best players on the field.

However, one could also argue that Vitoria is the best player in the pool for that back 3, even if he's currently not a better player than Kennedy or Miller overall.

He's barely put a foot wrong for us lately, with great passing and composure and leadership. I see him as a steady presence that lets Kennedy/Johnston do their thing.

We haven't seen Kennedy, Miller and Vitoria in the same squad yet though, so maybe Herdman will experiment with this. Kennedy gives the backline more speed and that alone may be worth it. 

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

On 7/31/2021 at 5:30 PM, narduch said:

Wait a second when did the dates change for the November window?

The dates for November were never actually fixed. See CONCACAF's initial tweet from June 16th here:

 

Unlike the other four windows that have triple matchdays which allow for no flexibility due to rest and travel time between games, the November window has good circumstances for many teams. Not all teams will play their matches on the same day.

-Canada has two home games (possibly no travel)
-Mexico has two away matches but the travel is comparatively light. They'll go from Cincinnati to Toronto/Vancouver.
-The USA will likely charter from Cincinnati to Kingston, Jamaica
-Honduras will fly to nearby Costa Rica
-El Salvador have an easy flight to Panama

Thankfully, on Sunday "Decision Day" November 7th , all Canadian teams are playing at home.

Our second match against Mexico cannot be on Sunday, November 14th because they will be in Cincinnati on November 12th.
https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2021/07/cincinnati-to-host-usa-mexico-presented-by-allstate-on-nov-12-in-world-cup-qualifier-for-qatar-2022

The turnaround at BC Place can be very quick. For example:
There is a Whitecaps home match on September 10th
https://www.whitecapsfc.com/schedule/matches
and then a BC Lions game on September 11th!
https://www.cfl.ca/schedule/2021/

Given Wednesday, November 10th might be too early to get all our foreign players in, I think we play Costa Rica on Thursday, November 11th at BC Place.
Unlike Ontario & Quebec, I believe Remembrance Day is a provincial holiday in BC and an early kickoff time might be possible.
(The BC Lions would then play the next day)

Then we host Mexico on Monday, November 15th or Tuesday, November 16th.

4 hours ago, narduch said:

There's no rule for this. Teams can carry as many players as they want. They can only announce 23 for each match day though.

But nothing is stopping us from naming a different 23 for each game

That is my understanding too.

The 23-man squad with the starting 11 and 12 substitutes must be submitted 85 minutes before kickoff.
https://editorial.uefa.com/resources/0263-10f46ad3158d-d735f61afd27-1000/fifa_world_cup_2022_preliminary_competition_regulations-covid19_1_.pdf

Imagine how much of a flex it would be to call 46 guys into camp and name two completely different 23 man squads on two different matchdays.

Edited August 3, 2021 by Olympique_de_Marseille

[narduch]

16 minutes ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

The dates for November were never actually fixed. See CONCACAF's initial tweet from June 16th here:

 

Unlike the other four windows that have triple matchdays which allow for no flexibility due to rest and travel time between games, the November window has good circumstances for many teams. Not all teams will play their matches on the same day.

-Canada has two home games (possibly no travel)
-Mexico has two away matches but the travel is comparatively light. They'll go from Cincinnati to Toronto/Vancouver.
-The USA will likely charter from Cincinnati to Kingston, Jamaica
-Honduras will fly to nearby Costa Rica
-El Salvador have an easy flight to Panama

Thankfully, on Sunday "Decision Day" November 7th , all Canadian teams are playing at home.

Our second match against Mexico cannot be on Sunday, November 14th because they will be in Cincinnati on November 12th.
https://www.ussoccer.com/stories/2021/07/cincinnati-to-host-usa-mexico-presented-by-allstate-on-nov-12-in-world-cup-qualifier-for-qatar-2022

The turnaround at BC Place can be very quick. For example:
There is a Whitecaps home match on September 10th
https://www.whitecapsfc.com/schedule/matches
and then a BC Lions game on September 11th!
https://www.cfl.ca/schedule/2021/

Given Wednesday, November 10th might be too early to get all our foreign players in, I think we play Costa Rica on Thursday, November 11th at BC Place.
Unlike Ontario & Quebec, I believe Remembrance Day is a provincial holiday in BC and an early kickoff time might be possible.
(The BC Lions would then play the next day)

Then we host Mexico on Monday, November 15th or Tuesday, November 16th.

 

Would Edmonton be out of question for the first November game? I notice the Elks play on November 13.

Then play the 2nd match in Vancouver.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

4 minutes ago, narduch said:

Would Edmonton be out of question for the first November game? I notice the Elks play on November 13.

Then play the 2nd match in Vancouver.

Possible, but seems unlikely.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

On 7/20/2021 at 2:04 PM, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

El Salvador will play Costa Rica in a friendly in L.A. on Saturday August 21st as both teams prepare for the Octagonal.

https://amp.elsalvador.com/amp/deportes/860168/selecta-amistoso-agosto-previa-octogonal-hugo-carrillo-fesfut-lmf.html

https://www.laprensagrafica.com/amp/deportes/El-Salvador-y-Costa-Rica-jugarian-amistoso-en-agosto-20210719-0056.html

Obviously outside of FIFA dates.

 

On 7/20/2021 at 2:08 PM, dyslexic nam said:

I am assuming they are both taking C- teams to eliminate the risk of injury.  
 

Sorry…

El Salvador will play Venezuela on August 27th.

https://www.elgrafico.com/futbol/El-Salvador-jugara-amistoso-ante-Venezuela-20210802-0018.html

and yes, it will be an -A / B team because it falls outside of the FIFA dates.

[Ngravs]

It's funny I've always wanted a fall/winter game in Winnipeg for weather advantage, but with our talent i don't even know if it would be advantageous anymore as we can compete with the best of Concacaf on neutral ground. (That said I would do a lot for a November game in Winnipeg) 

Edited August 3, 2021 by Ngravs

[gigi riva]

10 hours ago, Shway said:

Predicting the WCQ roster may be more  predictable than we think. I’ll start with the Goal Keepers…

Milan Borjan - Although he missed the Gold Cup, I will still suspect that he’s still our number 1. That doesn’t mean it’s not possible for him to be rotated with…

Maxime Crepeau- Solid Gold Cup tournament where he showed his great shot stopping abilities, and his no nonsense approach to the game. Something that we as fans, and the coaching staff should take into consideration when comparing him to Borjan-susceptible-to-a-mistake. Hes definitely should be considered for the number 1 at some point, but again I won’t be surprised if he plays a few games this round. 

Pantemis/St. Clair - Very tough decision considering St Clair has been in all of the recent camps this year, but he hasn’t played much minutes at the club or national team level. Pantemis had a great performance earlier this year, and he has been staking his claim to be the number 1 in Montreal. All in all they would be the third option, and I’ll highly doubt that they will play but if I’m picking Im calling James.

 

My GK s 

1 Borjan

2 Maxim Crepeau.

3. Pantemis .

Future watch. Hasal and Jonathan Sirois

[CanadaFan123]

If we’re taking 26-28 players it won’t be a tough selection really. 

6 hours ago, Shway said:

Attackers:

Alphonso Davies, Jonathan David, Cyle Larin, Tajon Buchanan, Junior Hoilett, Lucas Cavallini, Theo Corbeanu, Tesho Akindele, Daniel Jebbison*
 

Don’t forget Liam Millar.

I don’t think we see any surprises like Jebbison. It won’t matter really anyhow.

If we can call 28~ then we can basically call the Gold Cup squad and add in the missing guys from WCQ.

[ADP10]

Honestly after this Gold Cup, i'm not afraid of any team. We proved we can compete with everyone else, I think we can get a win against any team at home and snag at least a point away.