Opponent watch: Suriname (why they have the potential to be a tough team)

[Stryker911]

My point was moreso that it is not unrealistic that we dont advance, which is terrifying. It will be horrible for our program to not make the Oct. We only beat Cuba with our best players 1-0. Now, I realize they dont have Ajax and PSV players, however they do have a guy from Feyanoord and AZ. The historically 3rd and 4th best team.

On paper, Suriname is better than TNT, El Salvador, and arguably Haiti and Curacao. As optimistic as we want to be, this will be a very tough game and we will all have to explain to friends how Canada lost to a country they have never heard of.

[Alex]

10 minutes ago, Stryker911 said:

My point was moreso that it is not unrealistic that we dont advance, which is terrifying. It will be horrible for our program to not make the Oct. We only beat Cuba with our best players 1-0. Now, I realize they dont have Ajax and PSV players, however they do have a guy from Feyanoord and AZ. The historically 3rd and 4th best team.

On paper, Suriname is better than TNT, El Salvador, and arguably Haiti and Curacao. As optimistic as we want to be, this will be a very tough game and we will all have to explain to friends how Canada lost to a country they have never heard of.

I do agree with you in some aspects even though I disagreed with your prior post about how they are “terrifying.” But yes the prospect of losing to them is for sure. I just remember how we lost to Haiti because of cockiness (my view) when we shouldn’t have. Then we beat a much better American team with a Davies and David who are much better players now than they were that day. 
 

I feel Suriname is better than the teams you listed above and I do think they will be tougher to beat than the next round and maybe even some teams that make the octagon. 

[Obinna]

For as much as they have recruited, they only managed to beat Cayman 3-0 at home. However, they followed that with a 6-0 win vs Aruba. Hard to say if Aruba are 3 goals worse than Cayman, or if Suriname gelled nicely after game 1. 

The other thing is that Suriname need to win and should the game open up that should be to our advantage.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

58 minutes ago, Stryker911 said:

My point was moreso that it is not unrealistic that we dont advance, which is terrifying. It will be horrible for our program to not make the Oct....and we will all have to explain to friends how Canada lost to a country they have never heard of.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

46 minutes ago, Alex said:

Then we beat a much better American team with a Davies and David who are much better players now than they were that day. 

We had an in-form Arfield that day. We have less of a midfield now.

33 minutes ago, Obinna said:

For as much as they have recruited, they only managed to beat Cayman 3-0 at home. However, they followed that with a 6-0 win vs Aruba. Hard to say if Aruba are 3 goals worse than Cayman, or if Suriname gelled nicely after game 1.

Hard to say but they have added 3 to 4 good players since then.

48 minutes ago, Alex said:

and maybe even some teams that make the octagon. 

On paper they look better than everyone except Mexico and the USA. (If Jamaica get all their Brits, they could look better).

How would you feel about Cost Rica on neutral ground? Honduras on neutral ground? That's how I feel about this match.

 

[trc2014]

Donk’s on a yellow right?  Let’s hope for another one in the Bermuda game.

[TGAA_Star]

1 hour ago, Stryker911 said:

My point was moreso that it is not unrealistic that we dont advance, which is terrifying. It will be horrible for our program to not make the Oct. We only beat Cuba with our best players 1-0. Now, I realize they dont have Ajax and PSV players, however they do have a guy from Feyanoord and AZ. The historically 3rd and 4th best team.

On paper, Suriname is better than TNT, El Salvador, and arguably Haiti and Curacao. As optimistic as we want to be, this will be a very tough game and we will all have to explain to friends how Canada lost to a country they have never heard of.

I know right Suriname concerns me because let's say we beat them and we win our group, I still say Suriname will be a threat going forward as far as 2026. They will be best bets to qualify then because it is 48 teams starting in 2026.

[Kadenge]

With Atiba & Arfield out, Osorio not 100%, Kaye apparently not in good form & Piette not playing much, our vaunted midfield is suddenly looking razor thin. Does that alter Herdman's tactical set up?

[TGAA_Star]

31 minutes ago, Kadenge said:

With Atiba & Arfield out, Osorio not 100%, Kaye apparently not in good form & Piette not playing much, our vaunted midfield is suddenly looking razor thin. Does that alter Herdman's tactical set up?

I think so but only to a certain extent unless they insert Eustaquio with Wotherspoon in the midfield but then who else to put there?

[PopePouri]

Piette is still an great option. He was MOTM against Miami before being dropped for tactical reasons. He changed the game in the recent Chicago match. 

I'm going to assume it's Piette and Eustaquio in the double pilot. I can see Kaye, Wotherspoon and Fraser for the Aruba game.

[An Observer]

Personally, playing Piette and Eustaquio in a double pivot with David or Larin in the 10 role in front of them; and then Davies and Buchanan on the wings with either David or Larin in front of them is still a pretty good front 6.   If Osorio is fit, he could take Piette's place or he could come on in the second half if we need a goal or need take the match to them.  

[VinceA]

I don't see Larin, David and Cavs on the field at the same time. If they are all on the pitch we have no other #9 to come off the bench. Herdman didn't call up Tesho or Ricketts or anyone else that can play as a striker. Millar doesn't count.

[archer21]

11 hours ago, VinceA said:

I don't see Larin, David and Cavs on the field at the same time. If they are all on the pitch we have no other #9 to come off the bench. Herdman didn't call up Tesho or Ricketts or anyone else that can play as a striker. Millar doesn't count.

Not that I necessarily disagree with you, because we haven’t seen Larin or David at at 10 really. But I think it would work fine as far as substitutes go. If Cav needs to come off, you can move Larin or David to the 9 and bring on another player on the wing/midfield.

[johnyb]

If this was a home and away I wouldn't be concerned at all. We should beat Suriname 8 out of 10 games, but a one off in CONCACAF with this much on the line, scares the shit out of me. I'm definitely more concerned about the 1 game against Suriname then the 2 against Haiti.

[sebdeserio]

Found this on my explore and let's just say the video itself is low effort but the comments are very interesting. Seems like most Suriname fans think they have a 50/50 chance of winning and are quite confident. Not too sure why that's the case but it'll be nice to show them that we're not just David Davies and Larin.

[Alex]

1 hour ago, sebdeserio said:

Found this on my explore and let's just say the video itself is low effort but the comments are very interesting. Seems like most Suriname fans think they have a 50/50 chance of winning and are quite confident. Not too sure why that's the case but it'll be nice to show them that we're not just David Davies and Larin.

Yeah I feel like they think we drop off after those 3. 

[Obinna]

I enjoy watching outsiders assess our squad. The comments were a good read as well.

I found it interesting how they gloss over our MLS players, but get excited about their Eredivise players. For instance, none of them flagged Cavallini as a threat, despite the fact he's a Designated Player in MLS and was a consistent goal scorer in Liga MX.

Maybe it's the 1 goal in 7 games this season for Vancouver? Or maybe they haven't done their research....

They rightly notice that defense is our weak link though, but I sense from them that attack is their weak link, which is bad news for them if you ask me, considering they don't advance without scoring. 

Getting nervy about this game, but I back our team to outscore their team. It could be tight, but we should get through this test.

[youllneverwalkalone]

I hope Herdman can use his best shit to get Davies and David to steam roll them in the first half. They are an old squad, and I don't think I can take a nail bitter. We need our youthful enthusiasm. (This is what I'm telling myself really wishing Hutch and Arfield were there).

 

 

[An Observer]

6 hours ago, sebdeserio said:

Found this on my explore and let's just say the video itself is low effort but the comments are very interesting. Seems like most Suriname fans think they have a 50/50 chance of winning and are quite confident. Not too sure why that's the case but it'll be nice to show them that we're not just David Davies and Larin.

I love how when he gets to a name he can't pronounce, he just skips it! 😀

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

4 hours ago, Obinna said:

I found it interesting how they gloss over our MLS players, but get excited about their Eredivise players.

We'd do the same thing!

[CanadianSoccerFan]

 

[TGAA_Star]

14 minutes ago, CanadianSoccerFan said:

 

The opponent I am most excited about but nervous about at the same time

[shamrock]

They have good team with seasoned pro's, but our players play at bigger clubs. Should not be a problem at all, in the worse case scenario we'll get a draw. 

[Atlantic]

I know a lot is focused on right now but if Suriname can keep some of these guys around and add more guys from Europe they could be in good shape to leap far up the CONCACAF rankings. You can essentially click on most Eredivisie rosters and there is multiple players with Surinamese citizenship. It’ll be interesting to follow in the years to come for sure.

Edited June 1, 2021 by Atlantic

[Obinna]

Same YouTube channel that gave the Canadian squad review a few days ago, but go to 2:09:00 mark of the livestream and him and his guest talk about the Canada Suriname match up for about 15 minutes or so. They are not particularly up to date (they were talking about whether Hutchinson would pair with Eustaquio for this game), but they get the general idea that Canada has the better attack, Suriname has the better defense and the midfield battle should be competitive, with Canada arguably having better defensive midfielders, while Suriname has better attacking midfielders. Very interesting listen from two Jamaicans, and they even get into a debate whether Canada or Jamaica has the best attacking front 3 in CONCACAF. 

What I really wanted to say though, which I am starting to pick up from these guys and elsewhere, is that Suriname's strength going forward is in passing, not getting into a track meet. This makes sense when you look at the age of the squad and the type of players, because excluding Becker (who is 3rd fastest in the Bundesliga), there aren't too many players who will stretch the field. This was also my impression from the few minutes of the Suriname Cayman game I watched.

Should this be accurate, I think we match up very well indeed. It is the attackers with real pace that put Vitoria under pressure, but it doesn't sound like playing balls into space for attackers to run on to will be their game plan. More likely they'll try and play through the lines, which doesn't concern me a whole lot, to be honest. Piette is an expert in clogging the middle and Eustaquio is not too shabby in this regard either. 

This game is going to be a fun watch.