The Road to Qatar.

[Alex]

1 hour ago, BedBugs said:

The CSA is flying these players like Alphonso Davies out from Germany, Jonathan David out from Belgium, and Milan Borjan out from Serbia to play an international friendly behind closed doors in Langford, British Columbia???

No, they are playing Trinidad in front of a packed house March 27 to try to get into the hex. 

[N1ckbr0wn]

My lord can we just be happy we got friendlies and both are at home? Let’s talk some footy instead of constantly finding something to complain about

Edited February 18, 2020 by N1ckbr0wn

[BuzzAndSting]

1 minute ago, N1ckbr0wn said:

My lord can we just be happy we got friendlies and both are at home? Let’s talk some footy instead of constantly finding something to complain about

You don't know Robert, aka @BedBugs, he's not a Canada fan, he's a Dutch fan. 

[trc2014]

Robert are you the guy from Toronto who was SCREAMING at the TV at Duke when Canada blew the lead against Haiti?  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a human being more mad haha.

[BuzzAndSting]

8 minutes ago, trc2014 said:

Robert are you the guy from Toronto who was SCREAMING at the TV at Duke when Canada blew the lead against Haiti?  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a human being more mad haha.

Unlikely, Robert lives in Victoria. Which, if you were a rational Canadian soccer fan would mean you were happy to have Canada playing a meaningful friendly in your awesome, new soccer stadium, but this is Robert... who is not a Canada soccer fan and is not rational.

[ted]

On 2/15/2020 at 5:04 PM, lenny said:

Can anyone tell me how to access the presale tickets?  It says, " Canada Soccer Insiders " will be able to buy tickets the day before they go on sale to everyone else but no further info is provided.

The Voyageurs will be doing the Supporters Section tickets.

[BuzzAndSting]

2 minutes ago, ted said:

The Voyageurs will be doing the Supporters Section tickets.

I'm very excited for this. I have a feeling its going to look amazing on the broadcast.

[ted]

Just now, BuzzAndSting said:

I'm very excited for this. I have a feeling its going to look amazing on the broadcast.

We sure hope so. Lake Side Buoys are hoping to get some tifo together and we are probably hosting a pre-game tailgate. (details closer to the event.)

[Kent]

19 hours ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

It is a sad day indeed when Robert returns but STILL FEELS THE NEED TO COPY PASTE ENTIRE TABLES ON THE FORUM! It is bad etiquette. The formatting is dreadful. Just stop. It isn't necessary to make your point. Use some esthetic discretion please.

The formatting actually looks OK on my devices, and I don't think it's unnecessary (and I am familiar with some unnecessary data dumps that Robert has done in the past).

I don't think he is out of line with anything he has said here so far (just realized I haven't seen page 68 yet. Hopefully he doesn't make me look foolish!  )

[Kent]

39 minutes ago, BuzzAndSting said:

Unlikely, Robert lives in Victoria. Which, if you were a rational Canadian soccer fan would mean you were happy to have Canada playing a meaningful friendly in your awesome, new soccer stadium, but this is Robert... who is not a Canada soccer fan and is not rational.

Another way of looking at it. The CMNT doesn't play in your city for 27 years, then finally announces they will play 2! But by the way, you can't go to 1 of them. Maybe in 27 more years.

I can understand the frustration. I'm frustrated by it even though there is no chance of me going to either game.

[BuzzAndSting]

1 minute ago, Kent said:

Another way of looking at it. The CMNT doesn't play in your city for 27 years, then finally announces they will play 2! But by the way, you can't go to 1 of them. Maybe in 27 more years.

I can understand the frustration. I'm frustrated by it even though there is no chance of me going to either game.

Sure, glass half empty or half full.

BTW I think the second game will be opened up to the public if the ticket sales for the first game go well.

[Unnamed Trialist]

3 hours ago, Alex said:

No, they are playing Trinidad in front of a packed house March 27 to try to get into the hex. 

No, because that is not enough to get into the HEX, they have to win both. March 27 is not enough, there would be no point playing it if it were.

The idea that it is easier to win without home support than with goes against stats, common sense, supporter culture, the Voyageurs as an entity, and common practice in world football. Imposing closed doors for a home friendly with Fifa points on the line is unheard of.

[costarg]

1 hour ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

No, because that is not enough to get into the HEX, they have to win both. March 27 is not enough, there would be no point playing it if it were.

The idea that it is easier to win without home support than with goes against stats, common sense, supporter culture, the Voyageurs as an entity, and common practice in world football. Imposing closed doors for a home friendly with Fifa points on the line is unheard of.

Yes, agreed, but T&T also has a say in it, right? 

It would make sense that CANMNT approached them and said "we want to play, 2 games both at home, because we have no money to fly a team, with soccer balls and water bottles to Trinidad".  T&T thinks about the offer for all of 4 seconds and says, "why should we accept 2 back to back road games, against stronger opposition?"  So their retort is "fine, we accept, but one of the games must be on neutral ground, since neither of us have money to travel to said neutral ground, lets have it in Canada, but with no fans".  So less of an advantage to CANMNT.  

It makes total sense.  I must be missing something, because I don't understand why so many are getting all bent about this.  We have two games that can bring us points, whats the problem?

[Kent]

4 hours ago, BuzzAndSting said:

Sure, glass half empty or half full.

BTW I think the second game will be opened up to the public if the ticket sales for the first game go well.

Maybe it will be, and maybe it won’t be. It’s all just speculation.

[Unnamed Trialist]

2 hours ago, costarg said:

Yes, agreed, but T&T also has a say in it, right? 

It would make sense that CANMNT approached them and said "we want to play, 2 games both at home, because we have no money to fly a team, with soccer balls and water bottles to Trinidad".  T&T thinks about the offer for all of 4 seconds and says, "why should we accept 2 back to back road games, against stronger opposition?"  So their retort is "fine, we accept, but one of the games must be on neutral ground, since neither of us have money to travel to said neutral ground, lets have it in Canada, but with no fans".  So less of an advantage to CANMNT.  

It makes total sense.  I must be missing something, because I don't understand why so many are getting all bent about this.  We have two games that can bring us points, whats the problem?

If not having fans makes that neutral ground, we could get more Fifa points. But it's not, it is a home game, the potential for points is still less for a result, only that you lose the advantage that playing at home gives you, which is the Lake Side Buoys and Voyageurs in the area and plenty of other footie fans pushing you.

I can easily argue why this is even more ridiculous: Rugby Canada hosts the women's 7s international tournament at Langford, and fans come out to watch Canada 2 days in a row, Saturday and Sunday. So fans in Victoria are perfectly used to going to Westhills for more than one match or day to support Canada. It is not at all strange (first weekend of May this year).

[BuzzAndSting]

1 hour ago, Kent said:

Maybe it will be, and maybe it won’t be. It’s all just speculation.

Correct, that’s what we do here.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

6 hours ago, Kent said:

The formatting actually looks OK on my devices...

On desktop/laptop it's OK , you're right. On mobile...not so much. The post was more of a rant and an attempt to stop Robert from going any further. The man really does love to copy-paste marginally relevant or even extraneous information in giant tables when a simple URL link to the original source will do.

 

6 hours ago, BuzzAndSting said:

I think the second game will be opened up to the public if the ticket sales for the first game go well.

This is what Richard Scott from the CSA seemed to imply.

Edited February 18, 2020 by Olympique_de_Marseille

[archer21]

28 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

If not having fans makes that neutral ground, we could get more Fifa points. But it's not, it is a home game, the potential for points is still less for a result, only that you lose the advantage that playing at home gives you, which is the Lake Side Buoys and Voyageurs in the area and plenty of other footie fans pushing you.

I can easily argue why this is even more ridiculous: Rugby Canada hosts the women's 7s international tournament at Langford, and fans come out to watch Canada 2 days in a row, Saturday and Sunday. So fans in Victoria are perfectly used to going to Westhills for more than one match or day to support Canada. It is not at all strange (first weekend of May this year).

There’s no difference in points based on who is the home team.

[Kadenge]

Tickets go on sale tmr at 10 am PT to Canada soccer insiders

[CanadianSoccerFan]

8 hours ago, Alex said:

Go a few pages back and @Kyle_The_Hill posted it. If we win both games we get 7.5 points and if Panama beats El Salvador, El Salvador loses 5.4 points 

So if we're on 1332 points after the January camp, this 13 point swing would put us just over a point back heading into June.  Not bad

I think that could be enough to get El Salvador to agree to play us in the final window.

[Unnamed Trialist]

7 minutes ago, archer21 said:

There’s no difference in points based on who is the home team.

Sorry, I thought there was. It used to be the case with Fifa points, an away win was worth more than a home win. Is it really not like that any more?

 

[Aird25]

I'm almost positive that I read somewhere that tickets for the second game would go on sale if game 1 sold well, which to me just seems like a ploy to increase demand for game 1. Based on personal observations I think this game is already attracting far more interest than Pacific matches last year, so I can't imagine selling out being an issue. I'm not sure all this ire is needed at this point but I will also be choked if game 2 ends up being behind closed doors. Unless there's a very good reason for it. 

[costarg]

2 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

If not having fans makes that neutral ground, we could get more Fifa points. But it's not, it is a home game, the potential for points is still less for a result, only that you lose the advantage that playing at home gives you, which is the Lake Side Buoys and Voyageurs in the area and plenty of other footie fans pushing you.

I can easily argue why this is even more ridiculous: Rugby Canada hosts the women's 7s international tournament at Langford, and fans come out to watch Canada 2 days in a row, Saturday and Sunday. So fans in Victoria are perfectly used to going to Westhills for more than one match or day to support Canada. It is not at all strange (first weekend of May this year).

Yes, I understand your point.  It makes total sense, 100% correct.  However, we all need to understand that CANMNT is strapped for cash.  There is no money for travel, we can't go to Europe and aim for more points.  This is very likely the best they could do.  Lets take it and make the most of it.

[SthMelbRed]

5 hours ago, BedBugs said:

 

Almost forgot. I sure hope I didn't make you look foolish Kent.

 

If you really wanted to make him look foolish, you should have got him to run for CSA President but not actually get any votes.

[SthMelbRed]

2 hours ago, Lofty said:

Didn't he get a permanent ban under his previous incarnation as @Binky? And for good reason after going full on radio rental. And now he is back? That is not good. The mods should be able to sort it out by tracking the IP address.

@admin might want to weigh in on whether or not he'd like to ban this serial pest for the 4th time now, or wait until the inevitable next meltdown.