Olympic Qualifying U24 Tournament - Guadalajara Mexico - March 18 to 30 2021

[Gian-Luca]

Not much to choose from between Honduras & El Salvador so far, 0-0 coming up towards the end of the 1st half.

[LeoH037]

so whats better, a Honduras & El Salvador draw, or for El Salvador to win this? I'm personally rooting for El Salvador here cause... its Honduras haha

[narduch]

3 minutes ago, LeoH037 said:

so whats better, a Honduras & El Salvador draw, or for El Salvador to win this? I'm personally rooting for El Salvador here cause... its Honduras haha

I'm not totally sure. 

A Honduras win guarantees them a place in the next round and they may not care about the next match.

[Gian-Luca]

1 minute ago, LeoH037 said:

so whats better, a Honduras & El Salvador draw, or for El Salvador to win this? I'm personally rooting for El Salvador here cause... its Honduras haha

If Honduras wins it means ES can't possibly catch us for a spot. But then it also means that they have a meaningless 3rd game against Haiti who could in theory win by a greater margin over ES than we did.

If ES wins then the whole group is still alive, but Canada would be in first place going into the final game for all teams in the group.

If they remain tied, either Haiti or ES could catch us in points if we lose to Honduras but ES would have to get a superior goal differential as presumably if we are even in GD we get the tiebreaker having beaten them.

I think we will know what we have to do by the time we take the field after the Bermuda game. I am glad we are playing in the evening for several reasons, including fitness & fatigue in the heat.

[dyslexic nam]

Yeah, was just thinking about the permutations.  Hard to say.  If ES could ever hold Honduras to a draw the group gets pretty interesting. 
 

1 minute ago, narduch said:

I'm not totally sure. 

A Honduras win guarantees them a place in the next round and they may not care about the next match.

But an ES loss means they have nothing to pay for in the last match against Haiti.  I think I would rather them cling to a sliver of hope and play like hell.  
 

 

[lamptern]

A ES win will be slightly favor us. If ES vs Haiti was a draw on Thursday, another draw between us and Haiti will put Canada in the 1st place of the group

[Gian-Luca]

It's also a question of whether you care most of all about qualifying for the semis or getting 1st place. Let's say the US upsets Mexico despite being badly outplayed and finishes first in the group, would you rather finish 1st or be happier to finish 2nd? We'll know what order the other group will be in by the time we play on Thursday. There's a chance we could have already qualified for the semis by the time we play - if ES doesn't win tonight and then ES & Haiti draw before we play, we're already through by the time we take the field.

[Gian-Luca]

Honduras score 20 seconds into the 2nd half

[CanadaFan123]

You’re facing the US or Mexico, I’m not sure it matters much. We need to continue keeping clean sheets and working on our shape. We will be dangerous on the counter. 

[dyslexic nam]

So I was thinking we would need at least a draw against Honduras after tonight’s result but I think I was wrong - as long as Honduras do the job against ES.  That would leave the table:

Honduras - 6

Canada - 4  (GD +2)

Haiti - 1  (GD -3)

ES - 0

if it looks like that, Haiti would need to make up 5 goals on us.  Very possible but we could still move on to the semis with a loss as long as the score lines aren’t crazy.  
 

Not how I want us to get there mind your but it is at least good to know.  

[Gian-Luca]

3 minutes ago, dyslexic nam said:

So I was thinking we would need at least a draw against Honduras after tonight’s result but I think I was wrong - as long as Honduras do the job against ES.  That would leave the table:

Honduras - 6

Canada - 4  (GD +2)

Haiti - 1  (GD -3)

ES - 0

if it looks like that, Haiti would need to make up 5 goals on us.  Very possible but we could still move on to the semis with a loss as long as the score lines aren’t crazy.  
 

The advantage for us being that we will also know what we have to do by the time we play (assuming we have to do anything to qualify by that point).

[LeoH037]

9 minutes ago, CanadaFan123 said:

You’re facing the US or Mexico, I’m not sure it matters much. We need to continue keeping clean sheets and working on our shape. We will be dangerous on the counter. 

Compared to how Mexico are playing i rather take my chances with the USA

[sebdeserio]

Big equalizer against the run of play for ES

[JuicyHam]

25 minutes ago, CanadaFan123 said:

You’re facing the US or Mexico, I’m not sure it matters much. We need to continue keeping clean sheets and working on our shape. We will be dangerous on the counter. 

I think it definitely matters. Playing Mexico in Mexico against a good Mexican squad we will never win. We have a slim chance against the US

[red card]

23 minutes ago, CanadaFan123 said:

You’re facing the US or Mexico, I’m not sure it matters much. We need to continue keeping clean sheets and working on our shape. We will be dangerous on the counter. 

It matters, have no chance vs Mexico on paper. On the pitch, they have looked better than any team so far. Plus, they're at home albeit with limited fans.

US has been fine but nothing special. Same boat as Canada and Honduras.

[dyslexic nam]

For everyone bitching at Tabla, the Honduran guy just hit the crossbar from about 5 yards out.  

Edited March 23, 2021 by dyslexic nam

[sebdeserio]

Honduras with a FIFA like sequence and somehow not scoring.

[grigorio]

Thing I notice watching this Honduras game is every single one of these Honduran players feels like they can score the big goal and wants to go and do it. Full of energy. Full of immediate positive momentum. Now they might not score, but the belief and aggression that every one of these players have is enviable. 

Edited March 23, 2021 by grigorio

[Yohan]

ES GK with a Scott Sterling save. Off his face.

At least this game is entertaining

[sebdeserio]

Also looking at our overall tournament so far, 2 clean sheets in 2 games is not too shabby, even if most of that is thanks to Pantemis.

[CanadaFan123]

If we can beat Honduras I will consider this tournament a success. I think most would agree. US and Mexico are class but it’s clear Honduras has been just as good at the u23 level and we want that position. Also, the fact they have close to an “a” squad while we’re closer to “c” will make it even sweeter.

[Yohan]

OMG. ES soooo close to an upset but seeeeeeeee la perrrrrrrdio! Skies it way too high

[dyslexic nam]

So ES holds on for a point.  Crazy.  But credit to them- they played a really high energy game.  Hell, in the last 10 minutes they were rushing to get the ball back in play because they thought they could maybe even win it.  
 

Does some strange things to the table for our group. 

Edited March 23, 2021 by dyslexic nam

[Gian-Luca]

We have the rare opportunity for a West Germany-Austria-esque non-aggression pact with Honduras that would see both teams go through on a draw, but somehow I don't think we'll make such an overture.

[dyslexic nam]