The Road to Qatar.

[RS]

13 hours ago, Ove said:

The well-spoken head of CONCACAF said: "Uuuuh, we haven't made the HEX in God knows how long. I think uhh since we were in high school."

Mr. Montagliani continued by telling us that CONCACAF only had a "small window to fit World Cup qualifiers," "and umm that this was in consultation with all our members." "This has been a 3-year process (what happened to that small window?)." "This is not something that was concocted out of somebody's office." "It was full-disclosure, uuuh, full-communication." In closing he goes on "to be quite honest. the thing I'm most proud about is my passport (which he sure uses a lot). and my flag, which is undeniable

Like Christ man, "What in the name of Bruno Gerussi were you thinking of during that "small window" or "3-year process" when you were drafting up this F*** ing CONCACAF World Cup qualifying format? Your passport? Your undeniable flag???

Fuck off Robert

[Obinna]

13 hours ago, costarg said:

Blame for the Haiti game remains solely on Godinho.  I can't let it go!

 

I am okay with you holding that loss over Godinho's head. I think Davies failure to mark on the winning goal deserves an honorable mention though. 

And we shouldn't let Herdman off the hook so easily either. He was the one who decided to play both at fullback in the first place.

That's right, I am turning this into a no Davies at left back discussion. I can't say it enough.

The Haiti game was not the only one where Davies at left back cost us fifa points. All the supporters of him playing back drool over his potential there, but if we blame Godinho for messing up, we should hold Davies to the same standard. Hell, we should hold him to a higher standard. He's a Bayern player.

If you can't do your defensive job, get the hell out of the backline!

Edited December 4, 2019 by Obinna

[Obinna]

The more I think about it, the more I question whether Herdman actually came up with the tactics against the USA at BMO.

I bet it was Biello and co.

I still can't wrap my head around the decision to change a winning strategy for Orlando. It sickens me, honestly. 

[Kent]

13 hours ago, Ove said:

I want to bring up one more soundbite from the Victor Montagliani's interview, which shows that even as late as two days ago, the Canadian head of CONCACAF "STILL DOESN'T GET IT!"

The soundbite starts at the 7:04 mark of the podcast and goes as follows:

Victor Montagliani - "...forcing, I guess, our countries to start playing more meaningful games, uh LESS MEANINGLESS FRIENDLIES..."

I didn't listen to the podcast, but from the quote you have there he sounds correct. With Nations League games there are less friendlies needed, and with the new World Cup qualifying format, at least for the teams on the bubble, the friendlies that are being played are more meaningful, i.e. less meaningless.

[SpursFlu]

I actually listened to the podcast and thought everything Vic said made a lot of sense. Seems they wanted the Nations League to serve as World Cup qualifying but couldn't because of the complicated tv rights contracts which theyre trying to fix

One amazing thing was the figure he shared regarding Concacaf teams last cycle combined had played roughly 100 games and this cycle roughly 400 games. Thats a huge success

I think everyone bitching and moaning are gonna be glued to their tv's once the actual qualifying starts regardless of where Canada sits and it's gonna be great once we get out of that group stage vs the minnows. And if people don't like are current state, deal with it. It all comes down to the fact that we lost to Haiti in Gold Cup. You get what you deserve in life. Words to live by

[SpursFlu]

I would rather be in the in minnows group stage with Alphonso Davies than be in the HEX with a terrible team. The good news is reality seems to be on our side

Edited December 4, 2019 by SpursFlu

[TFC2017]

The more I look at our squad I realize we have a very good problem. I can come up with maybe 2 different lines from the midfield and up where I can't decide what team is better. Better yet, our best players are all under 24 years old. 

[SpursFlu]

7 minutes ago, Ove said:

So you, and all those who agree with you, must have been quite pleased with the Orlando result.

No because I'd rather be in the HEX with Alphonso Davies than in a minnows group with Alphonso Davies. (please read this very slowly like your expaining something to a very small child)

[dyslexic nam]

32 minutes ago, Ove said:

What happened to the terrible team?

That is El Salvador.

[TOCanada115]

4 hours ago, Obinna said:

The more I think about it, the more I question whether Herdman actually came up with the tactics against the USA at BMO.

I bet it was Biello and co.

I still can't wrap my head around the decision to change a winning strategy for Orlando. It sickens me, honestly. 

I haven’t seen this written anywhere on here, but apparently he asked the team if they wanted to attack the US, or sit back and hit on the counter. The team wanted to attack. Here’s a question for you John:

You’re the fucken head coach. You should be the one making these decisions, not the players, otherwise there’s no use for you as a head coach. I still can’t wrap my head around that he actually didn’t know what to do, and asked the players to vote. That plus Davies at LB again (Haiti wasn’t enough to prove to him), and that’s your 4-1 right there. 

[Obinna]

3 minutes ago, TOCanada115 said:

I haven’t seen this written anywhere on here, but apparently he asked the team if they wanted to attack the US, or sit back and hit on the counter. The team wanted to attack. Here’s a question for you John:

You’re the fucken head coach. You should be the one making these decisions, not the players, otherwise there’s no use for you as a head coach. I still can’t wrap my head around that he actually didn’t know what to do, and asked the players to vote. That plus Davies at LB again (Haiti wasn’t enough to prove to him), and that’s your 4-1 right there. 

This times 1 million.

[TFC2017]

9 minutes ago, TOCanada115 said:

I haven’t seen this written anywhere on here, but apparently he asked the team if they wanted to attack the US, or sit back and hit on the counter. The team wanted to attack. Here’s a question for you John:

You’re the fucken head coach. You should be the one making these decisions, not the players, otherwise there’s no use for you as a head coach. I still can’t wrap my head around that he actually didn’t know what to do, and asked the players to vote. That plus Davies at LB again (Haiti wasn’t enough to prove to him), and that’s your 4-1 right there. 

I forsure understand and agree with you to an extent. At the same time, as the coach he needs to know what his players think as him seeing it from the sidelines isn't the same as the way the players see it on the field. The players must've believed that if they took the game to the USA they could've come out on top instead of sitting back and countering. 

 

I think at the end of the day though, Herdman should've used that info to come up with his own plan/tactics for how he approached the game and not rely solely off the players' emotions. 

[Kadenge]

I find it hard to believe that our captain Scotty who played many games with Burnley getting results in the EPL against superior teams with a defence first approach and countering would agree to go all out attack away to the USA. Plus guys like Vitoria and Borjan have been around long enough to know that approach is madness. Herdman needs to stop trying to hit home runs every time we play. His job is secure for now. After almost 2 years its time for him to settle down and just get results that reflect the quality of our players

[Obinna]

1 hour ago, Kadenge said:

I find it hard to believe that our captain Scotty who played many games with Burnley getting results in the EPL against superior teams with a defence first approach and countering would agree to go all out attack away to the USA. Plus guys like Vitoria and Borjan have been around long enough to know that approach is madness. Herdman needs to stop trying to hit home runs every time we play. His job is secure for now. After almost 2 years its time for him to settle down and just get results that reflect the quality of our players

Well if it were a vote I imagine it's majority rules, right? 

Didn't this come from Cornelius? He's a defender so he was probably in the camp which lost the vote. Hence he was one who brought it up. I doubt any of the players who got their way would dare go on record about the vote.

And another thing, when a team votes to go all-out-attack, it is no surprise the game was lost on defensive mistakes.

How can you be mentally prepared to be sharp defensively if you vote as a team to go out and attack? 

Herdman gets a big fat F for this. I never ever want to hear anything about a vote on tactics under his watch, ever again!

Edited December 4, 2019 by Obinna

[Kadenge]

5 minutes ago, Obinna said:

Well if it were a vote I imagine it's majority rules, right? 

Didn't this come from Cornelius? He's a defender so he was probably in the camp which lost the vote.

I would have thought that JH consulted the leadership group?. Seems daft to have all players vote. Crazy stuff.

[Obinna]

16 minutes ago, Kadenge said:

I would have thought that JH consulted the leadership group?. Seems daft to have all players vote. Crazy stuff.

I'm just speculating. I don't know if there was a vote, but it sounds very probable there was. 

He left it in the hands of the players either way.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

On 12/1/2019 at 5:40 PM, Canadamnt said:

https://twitter.com/gwolff_sports/status/1200936493465780229?s=20

Could this possibly be true. A Canada vs Costa Rica friendly in January?

Here are the key MLS dates, 

http://mobile.twitter.com/SoccerInsider/status/1202394672854978560

If we do have a Camp Poutine of some sort, it would be when players would otherwise report to their MLS teams.

[Rivaldo]

On 11/29/2019 at 8:09 PM, SpursFlu said:

All you have to is look at the data that was shared in another thread comparing revenue between Canada and Australia. There just isn't enough revenue being generated by the national team

Can you help me find that?

A January friendly would be good, but aren't matches outside of a FIFA window worth less ranking points? If we can only have a limited number of friendlies, shouldn't the focus be on matches in those windows?

On 12/3/2019 at 3:35 PM, dyslexic nam said:

If we had simply done the job against Haiti in the GC, we would have gained valuable points and had another high point game to cement our spot in the hex.

But that high point game would have been against Mexico. A slim chance of getting any points.

13 hours ago, SpursFlu said:

It all comes down to the fact that we lost to Haiti in Gold Cup.

The loss to the USA in Orlando was more damaging.

[BuzzAndSting]

49 minutes ago, Ove said:

The loss to the USA in Orlando was the greatest illustration of Herdman's incompetence as a coach of a men's national team. Here's why.

After the victory of the USA in Toronto the TED-speaker's head was in the clouds. Mr. Rah, Rah, Rah only needed a draw in the final away match against the USA to advance to the final 4 of the CONCACAF Nations League. A tough match, no doubt, but definitely doable. So we fall behind in the second minute to the Morris. Not a good start, but also not the end of the world, cause we only need a tie, right? Just keep parking the bus John, and keep the game close as long as possible. Then Zardis makes 2 nil in the 23rd minute. Now this is the point where you separate the boys from the men in the coaching world. You cannot not afford to fall three goals down because then its game over. So your number one priority is not to panic and continue parking the bus and wait for you chance to come to pull a goal back and bring yourself back in the game. Oh no, not dear John. His flawed game strategy now really goes astray with the revised all out attack plan and Long settles the match after 34 minutes. Like how quick can you screw up?

By comparison, one year earlier the Dutch found themselves in an exactly similar position, needing only a draw going into their final UEFA Nations League group match, away in Germany. Same thing as in Orlando happened to the Dutch, they fall behind to an early Werner goal and after 20 minutes Sane does the same thing that happened against Canada by putting the home team in front by two goals. However, Koeman and Dwight Lodeweges, that good old boy from Turner Valley, Alberta, keep their cool and prevent that killer blow, the third goal, and here's what happened next (note how centre-back Virgil Van Dijk reads a note with instructions from that good old boy from Turner Valley telling him to stay up front):

 

 

@admin here we go again with Robert's bullshit.

[CanadaFan123]

@Ove sorry to burst your bubble but Long's 3rd goal came off a set piece...

So, you're trying to say Herdman's tactical strategy in open play was the reason for us conceding on a set piece?  Even if we parked the bus... you still concede corners and free kicks my friend.

[Bison44]

1 hour ago, BuzzAndSting said:

@admin here we go again with Robert's ********.

It wasnt a 100% positive ID until the nonsense about the Dutch came up.  

[SoccMan]

So is the CSA going to schedule any games to try and move up the rankings . I mean If there is a chance of moving up then why wouldn’t they? What’s the worst that can happen ? They don’t get the right results and there ends up being no change in the rankings. However, if you do get the right results you could be in the Hex. 

Edited December 5, 2019 by SoccMan

[RS]

53 minutes ago, Bison44 said:

It wasnt a 100% positive ID until the nonsense about the Dutch came up.  

Hey, I called it a page ago!

[Alex]

7 minutes ago, RS said:

Hey, I called it a page ago!

Where’s ace Ventura when you need him? “Einhorn is Finkle. Finkle is Einhorn!”

[CanadianSoccerFan]

2 hours ago, Ove said:

How is it that a "terrible team" like El Salvador is able to arrange friendlies against Iceland and the United States? And why is it that after this "terrible team" decides to cancel these two matches that the CSA is not immediately jumping on the opportunity to contact both the Iceland and United States associations/federations to pick up both of these matches? Has the CSA already made the decision to try and qualify for Qatar via the minnows route? And if so, why hasn't the CSA publicly announced that they have opted for this route? Is the CSA just planning to quietly lay low as it usually does when the optics don't look that good?

Of course, it much easier to deflect from answering these question by simply saying F U to me, right?

Because El Salvador is not "arranging" the friendlies.  Match promoters are.  El Salvador is attractive to these middlemen because they consistently sell 20K tickets in the US.  

Edited December 6, 2019 by CanadianSoccerFan