WCQ: Canada vs Bermuda - March 25th 8pm Eastern/5pm Pacific - Orlando FL

[Obinna]

32 minutes ago, kacbru said:

Funny, I feel Henry is rated pretty poorly on here. 

Agreed. I think his mistakes in Nations League were the last straw for some on here. You don't see him as often in our preferred line ups now. I don't know if the pundits have turned sour on him yet, however. Can you imagine Wheeler not backing him to start, for example? 

[saladroit]

 

[kacbru]

16 minutes ago, Obinna said:

Agreed. I think his mistakes in Nations League were the last straw for some on here. You don't see him as often in our preferred line ups now. I don't know if the pundits have turned sour on him yet, however. Can you imagine Wheeler not backing him to start, for example? 

No, I can't. And I would still back him to start too. But that is more a reflection of our cb options than anything else. I think part of the problem in assessing Henry was that we had sky high expectations because he did relatively well as a young player for terrible TFC teams and ended up at West Ham.

[archer21]

Hard to say whether Osorio/Henry are over or under rated because the opinions on them differ so much. A lot of TFC fans may over-rate Oso a bit, but I think he gets a lot more hate than he deserves as well from TFC haters. Same goes for Henry, he gets more hate than maybe anybody on this board, so hard to say he’s over-rated. But he’s not exactly been great for us either. The problem is, the other CB’s haven’t been great either so he’s definitely still in the conversation to start when he’s healthy and in form with his club.

[Shway]

6 hours ago, saladroit said:

 

I sure hope this means he’s going to start at least one game.

[BrennanFan]

Henry giving away a penalty against Mexico last WCQ, in a crucial game, really sealed the deal for me. He cannot give us the consistency we need. 

James, on the other hand, has all of the same physical tools that Henry does, same threat on set pieces, played relatively well last WCQ and has never taken a red card or given away a penalty for us. And has had a better club career trajectory. 

Honestly don't get why James does not get more respect. He's been battling for a place in Europe his whole career, instead of taking the easy way out in MLS. He's a fighter. That's the mentality we need on the team.  

Hope he claims the spot next to Vitoria.

[Alex]

Floro putting Henry at right back unfortunately soured him in my mind. I’ll never understand that one. It was almost as bad as when he subbed Hainault on late because we needed a winner vs Costa Rica in the bmo field gold cup game. 

[TFC2017]

I've been reading on twitter that Alphonso Davies is almost a lock to be in the squad but that Jonathan David doesn't seem likely to be released. Not sure how accurate it is but I thought it'd be relevant to this discussion. 

[dyslexic nam]

11 minutes ago, TFC2017 said:

I've been reading on twitter that Alphonso Davies is almost a lock to be in the squad but that Jonathan David doesn't seem likely to be released. Not sure how accurate it is but I thought it'd be relevant to this discussion. 

Missing David would be unfortunate.  Davies is pretty key but I would definitely want them both.

[Alex]

19 minutes ago, TFC2017 said:

I've been reading on twitter that Alphonso Davies is almost a lock to be in the squad but that Jonathan David doesn't seem likely to be released. Not sure how accurate it is but I thought it'd be relevant to this discussion. 

I searched a bunch on Twitter I can’t find any information at all about either guy. Where do you see it?

[sebdeserio]

1 hour ago, BrennanFan said:

Henry giving away a penalty against Mexico last WCQ, in a crucial game, really sealed the deal for me. He cannot give us the consistency we need. 

James, on the other hand, has all of the same physical tools that Henry does, same threat on set pieces, played relatively well last WCQ and has never taken a red card or given away a penalty for us. And has had a better club career trajectory. 

Honestly don't get why James does not get more respect. He's been battling for a place in Europe his whole career, instead of taking the easy way out in MLS. He's a fighter. That's the mentality we need on the team.  

Hope he claims the spot next to Vitoria.

The same James that combined with Crepeau to gift Barbados a goal last January? He's playing at a lower level than Henry. Henry may be error prone but he's not the only one we don't have any cb that we can 100% rely on.

[TFC2017]

1 hour ago, Alex said:

I searched a bunch on Twitter I can’t find any information at all about either guy. Where do you see it?

Let me try and find it, Hasan Salihami didn't explicitly say Davies but he said players who were needed by their NT for World Cup Qualifying as long as their nations weren't redlisted due to covid cases would be free to go. 

 

As for JD apparently Lille want to keep the whole squad together as they push for the title. 

[trc2014]

3 minutes ago, TFC2017 said:

As for JD apparently Lille want to keep the whole squad together as they push for the title. 

Isn’t this essentially taking advantage of the COVID exception that FIFA included for the requirement to let players go for international duty?  I saw a post earlier showed David would be able to attend the first Canada game and leave with enough time for the quarantine requirement for Lille’s next major game.  I guess he would miss out on training.

[JasonDias]

5 minutes ago, trc2014 said:

Isn’t this essentially taking advantage of the COVID exception that FIFA included for the requirement to let players go for international duty?  I saw a post earlier showed David would be able to attend the first Canada game and leave with enough time for the quarantine requirement for Lille’s next major game.  I guess he would miss out on training.

Now this may sound crazy but what if David didn't want to go this window. 

He could be thinking... a) it's likely okay to miss these two games and Canada will be fine without him, b) in his first season in France he may actually be lifting a trophy over PSG, and c) if I stay in France I can avoid potentially catching anything.

 

[trc2014]

4 minutes ago, JasonDias said:

Now this may sound crazy but what if David didn't want to go this window. 

He could be thinking... a) it's likely okay to miss these two games and Canada will be fine without him, b) in his first season in France he may actually be lifting a trophy over PSG, and c) if I stay in France I can avoid potentially catching anything.

 

Fair point

[Obinna]

I am sort of okay with David skipping this camp in order to push for the Ligue 1 title. His Lille career started off on the wrong foot, but if he can finish strong and lift a trophy, possibly as the teams leading scorer, that's everything you could ask for from your record signing, right?

I know this is World Cup Qualifying, and we shouldn't overlook anyone (including Bermuda), but we should have the horses to win the race here. Davies reportedly participating is a massive boost, Cyle Larin is scoring freely for Besiktas, and we should have a young, talented and hungry supporting cast, with Millar and Corbeanu seemingly likely.

Perhaps we'll even have Lucas Cavallini available, depending on the suspension situation, but you'll have to defer to @Olympique_de_Marseille on that

[JuicyHam]

I would love Davies to be there but I would also hate to see him potentially miss Champions league 

[SoccMan]

2 hours ago, sebdeserio said:

The same James that combined with Crepeau to gift Barbados a goal last January? He's playing at a lower level than Henry. Henry may be error prone but he's not the only one we don't have any cb that we can 100% rely on.

The Korean league is a higher level than Greece? 

[SoccMan]

3 hours ago, Alex said:

Floro putting Henry at right back unfortunately soured him in my mind. I’ll never understand that one. It was almost as bad as when he subbed Hainault on late because we needed a winner vs Costa Rica in the bmo field gold cup game. 

Yes Floro totally agree some of his in game moves and even game day roster choices were baffling .But then again for a country who has always lacked depth something that Is finally changing thank God , there has been some baffling choices by a lot of coaches over the years , but ya Floro was something else .

[Kadenge]

4 hours ago, Shway said:

I sure hope this means he’s going to start at least one game.

Probably vs Cayman. His inclusion may mean that Crepeau is not on the squad. Hard to imagine that Borjan will not be there

[narduch]

Bermuda player(s) test positive for Covid after their Florida camp.

Wonder if this will put the window in jeopardy.

https://www.royalgazette.com/soccer/sport/article/20210312/bermuda-footballers-test-positive-after-florida-trip/

 

[SthMelbRed]

10 minutes ago, SoccMan said:

The Korean league is a higher level than Greece? 

James barely plays for a poor team in Greece. This is after he barely played for a half-decent team in Denmark. James has been an automatic starter, when fit, for his clubs in MLS and the K League for the last 5 years. In this context, it's irrelevant how good Olympiacos or PAOK might be.

[narduch]

More from the Bermuda press. Basically quoting Herdman from his recent One Soccer interview.

https://www.royalgazette.com/soccer/sport/article/20210312/canada-coach-intent-on-naming-strongest-squad-for-bermuda/

[Alex]

8 minutes ago, narduch said:

Bermuda player(s) test positive for Covid after their Florida camp.

Wonder if this will put the window in jeopardy.

https://www.royalgazette.com/soccer/sport/article/20210312/bermuda-footballers-test-positive-after-florida-trip/

 

Why the hell did Bermuda make an extra trip on an airplane to florida? I assumed they went there and were just staying until the game. Bone head decision that turned out to be. 

[narduch]

4 minutes ago, Alex said:

Why the hell did Bermuda make an extra trip on an airplane to florida? I assumed they went there and were just staying until the game. Bone head decision that turned out to be. 

They played 2 friendlies against the Bahamas there. Perhaps the Covid protocols for both nations made it easier that way?

I believe Bermuda's league is shut down. So perhaps their health authority wouldn't allow for the friendlies to be played there? They are hosting Aruba on March 30 however.

Edited March 12, 2021 by narduch