Gold Cup 2021

[ray]

30 minutes ago, Alex said:

Bermuda isn’t an independent country either. Neither is New Caledonia which is also a French overseas department. 

Puerto Rico, FIFA member despite being U.S. Citizens, seems a strange one as well.

Makes me think you can become a FIFA member unless your "parent" country objects.

[Gian-Luca]

Call me cynical, but I think the main difference is the Guadaloupe, Martinique  and French Guiana can supply France with the likes of Lilliam Thuram, Thierry Henry and Florent Malouda, that's why they aren't allowed to be their own FIFA nations. Not sure how many world class players have come out of New Caledonia.

[MtlMario]

5 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

I see Spain at the Eurocup was wearing a shirt with one star, for the WC. Not for the 3 Eurocups they've won. So I guess this is a decision of each team. Some European sides wear stars for their European Cup/Champions wins, but I can assure you Real Madrid does not.

If it were up to me, I'd put a single star on our shirt only for our GC games, it would be a nice touch and a statement that we are going for more.

Off topic but nobody from Spain's group (players and entourage) sang the national anthem. Are there no words or everyone forgot them?😄 Curios?

[Obinna]

13 minutes ago, Gian-Luca said:

Call me cynical, but I think the main difference is the Guadaloupe, Martinique  and French Guiana can supply France with the likes of Lilliam Thuram, Thierry Henry and Florent Malouda, that's why they aren't allowed to be their own FIFA nations. Not sure how many world class players have come out of New Caledonia.

Did they "supply" those players to France, or is that just their heritage? Big difference, no?

[VinceA]

Aren't Guardeloupe, FG and Martinique basically extensions of France, on Wikipedia they're listes as overseas departments.

New Caledonia seems to be a unique thing.

Will be said though all three seem to have independence movements that have gained steam over the years so that's something to look out for.

[Ivan]

38 minutes ago, MtlMario said:

Off topic but nobody from Spain's group (players and entourage) sang the national anthem. Are there no words or everyone forgot them?😄 Curios?

There are no words to their anthem.  But when their fans are harmonizing the anthem in a full stadium - awesome!

UT, please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Shway]

39 minutes ago, Obinna said:

Did they "supply" those players to France, or is that just their heritage? Big difference, no?

It think it's a bit of supplying/scouting, and guys leaving to seek opportunities.

Malouda was scouted.
Thuram moved to the mainland when he was 9.
Thomas Lemar scouted from Guadeloupe.
Bernard Lama left French Guiana in his early twenties.
Maignan, Todibo, and Edouard migrated from French Guiana to the mainland at a young age.

I'm sure there's a lot more. 

What's interesting about French Guiana is that people say they are more Caribbean than South American. But a lot of their culture has been intertwined from the neighbours migrating to the land. They say that where their yellow and green colours have derived from.

It's almost as if those countries (French Guiana, Suriname, and Guyana) are too small for Conembol to claim them. 
 

[MtlMario]

1 hour ago, Ivan said:

There are no words to their anthem.  But when their fans are harmonizing the anthem in a full stadium - awesome!

UT, please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

This reminds me of the old joke "why do hummingbirds hum?" answer "they forgot the words"😃

[lenny]

7 hours ago, An Observer said:

ah.  everytime I hear Guatemala, I have nightmares that we lost to them in a 2 leg match in the 1990 World Cup qualifying.  And this was after we had qualified for the 1986 World Cup.  I still cant believe we lost to them.  Crazy 

It's not that crazy.  The US lost to them in Qualifying in the last cycle.  

[CanadianSoccerFan]

2 hours ago, ray said:

 you can become a FIFA member unless your "parent" country objects.

This is it.  Gibraltar and Kosovo had to fight the objections of Spain and Serbia.  Obviously Spain is not the parent in this context but it's more the objections that carry weight.

Edited July 7, 2021 by CanadianSoccerFan

[Obinna]

5 minutes ago, Shway said:

It think it's a bit of supplying/scouting, and guys leaving to seek opportunities.

Malouda was scouted.
Thuram moved to the mainland when he was 9.
Thomas Lemar scouted from Guadeloupe.
Bernard Lama left French Guiana in his early twenties.
Maignan, Todibo, and Edouard migrated from French Guiana to the mainland at a young age.

I'm sure there's a lot more. 

What's interesting about French Guiana is that people say they are more Caribbean than South American. But a lot of their culture has been intertwined from the neighbours migrating to the land. They say that where their yellow and green colours have derived from.

It's almost as if those countries (French Guiana, Suriname, and Guyana) are too small for Conembol to claim them. 
 

Fair enough. It still seems to me that most of those guys would still would have been scouted for France regardless of whether their countries of origin had FIFA status or not, so I don't think there is any merit to the cynical reasoning from @Gian-Luca

[Shway]

1 minute ago, Obinna said:

Fair enough. It still seems to me that most of those guys would still would have been scouted for France regardless of whether their countries of origin had FIFA status or not, so I don't think there is any merit to the cynical reasoning from @Gian-Luca

But maybe there is… if this is true:

2 minutes ago, CanadianSoccerFan said:

This is it.  Gibraltar and Kosovo had to fight the objections of Spain and Serbia

Like I said there’s a substantial/significant amount of guys that could be pulled from their player pools - albeit very unlikely. But it’s the proposition, its the opportunity to entice guys with the WCQ cookie.

Guadeloupe, and French Guiana are both in group B of the nations league, through independence it’s very possible for them to be a Suriname.

 

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

5 hours ago, mrstepp817 said:

Breaking out of Haiti

That is not sad news btw.

[gator]

7 hours ago, An Observer said:

ah.  everytime I hear Guatemala, I have nightmares that we lost to them in a 2 leg match in the 1990 World Cup qualifying.  And this was after we had qualified for the 1986 World Cup.  I still cant believe we lost to them.  Crazy 

That tie still haunts me to this day, we got CONCACAFED in the first leg with a phantom penalty but I think we were all confident the result would be over turned in the home leg, some bad defending on the counter and waiting too long to bring on John Fitzgerald were our downfall! After qualifying in 86 I figured qualification would be a regular occurrence, it has worked out that way so far!

[Chad_Impact]

This has probably already been discussed but wow would finishing 1st make our path to the final much easier (on paper)

 

Edited July 7, 2021 by Chad_Impact

[Gian-Luca]

1 hour ago, Obinna said:

Did they "supply" those players to France, or is that just their heritage? Big difference, no?

The bigger issue I think is not whether supply or draft is the right word, but that France wouldn't want those countries to become independent and thus lose the pipeline of talent that those countries provide. Presumably players from those countries would only become eligible for France going forward if they had French ancestry (ie. their parents or grandparents were French rather than from say, Guadeloupe) or if they move to France to obtain French citizenship if they have a soccer career there for 5 years or whatever. My self-admitted cynicism comes from the point of view of France's intentions, not the intentions of the individual players in question. Why would France want to lose a pipeline (or rather, several pipelines) of talent that have previously helped them to win the World Cup? I mean, I can't think of any country that would prefer to lose such a pipeline if they had it.

[Shway]

7 minutes ago, Chad_Impact said:

This has probably already been discussed but wow would finishing 1st make our path to the final much easier (on paper)

You gotta think Herdman is stressing this to the boys. If we don't play a friendly prior to Martinique we may see a strong lineup. And although we got a our redemption from Haiti in the WCQ, I'm sure our game against them will be the real redemption as it's in the same competition.

[Obinna]

1 minute ago, Gian-Luca said:

The bigger issue I think is not whether supply or draft is the right word, but that France wouldn't want those countries to become independent and thus lose the pipeline of talent that those countries provide. Presumably players from those countries would only become eligible for France going forward if they had French ancestry (ie. their parents or grandparents were French rather than from say, Guadeloupe) or if they move to France to obtain French citizenship if they have a soccer career there for 5 years or whatever. My self-admitted cynicism comes from the point of view of France's intentions, not the intentions of the individual players in question. Why would France want to lose a pipeline (or rather, several pipelines) of talent that have previously helped them to win the World Cup? I mean, I can't think of any country that would prefer to lose such a pipeline if they had it.

That's a good point.

My thinking was that players would still find a way into the France set up if they were good enough, but I agree that France would have nothing to gain by compromising pipelines.

That's the kind of thing radical environmentalists in Canada would do.

But seriously though, jokes aside, I agree with what you are saying here.

[Soro17]

2 hours ago, Gian-Luca said:

Call me cynical, but I think the main difference is the Guadaloupe, Martinique  and French Guiana can supply France with the likes of Lilliam Thuram, Thierry Henry and Florent Malouda, that's why they aren't allowed to be their own FIFA nations. Not sure how many world class players have come out of New Caledonia.

Christian Karembeu. Not sure why I remember that. 

[JohnnyFranchise]

9 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

I see Spain at the Eurocup was wearing a shirt with one star, for the WC. Not for the 3 Eurocups they've won. So I guess this is a decision of each team. Some European sides wear stars for their European Cup/Champions wins, but I can assure you Real Madrid does not.

If it were up to me, I'd put a single star on our shirt only for our GC games, it would be a nice touch and a statement that we are going for more.

Every country that has won world cups has that many stars on their logo.

I've never noticed clubs doing it for european cup wins, but maybe I'm just not paying attention to it.

Edit: some African and Asian countries wear stars for their continental wins, but only for those competitions. 

Don't get me wrong, I think it's a cool idea. But only if the US and Mexico do the same and make it a continental thing. If we were the only ones doing it we'd be wide open for ridicule. like "do you have a star for the one time you made the world cup?", or "do you have a star for every goal you've ever scored at a world cup, oh wait.".

Edited July 7, 2021 by JohnnyFranchise

[Free kick]

4 hours ago, Alex said:

Bermuda isn’t an independent country 

It is most definitely an independant country.

Edited July 7, 2021 by Free kick

[Unnamed Trialist]

4 hours ago, MtlMario said:

Off topic but nobody from Spain's group (players and entourage) sang the national anthem. Are there no words or everyone forgot them?😄 Curios?

No words, hilarious fact. 

[JohnnyFranchise]

4 hours ago, MtlMario said:

Off topic but nobody from Spain's group (players and entourage) sang the national anthem. Are there no words or everyone forgot them?😄 Curios?

no words, the fans literally sing "lo lo lo lo lo lo" 🤣

[JohnnyFranchise]

3 hours ago, Ivan said:

There are no words to their anthem.  But when their fans are harmonizing the anthem in a full stadium - awesome!

UT, please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

you are correct on both points, there are no words and it sounds awesome!

[Blackjack15]

Episode 19 – Previewing Canada's Gold Cup campaign