WCQ: Cayman Islands vs Canada - Monday, March 29th 6pm Eastern/3pm Pacific - IMG Academy Florida

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

We don't have a kickoff time or a venue but it will almost certainly be on a Sunday afternoon/evening in Florida.

https://www.concacaf.com/en/world-cup-qualifying-men/article/fifa-update-on-upcoming-concacaf-qualifiers-in-march-2021
https://www.caymancompass.com/2021/02/19/world-cup-qualifiers-still-on-for-cayman/

If we stick with Florida the most likely venues are:

Inter Miami CF Stadium in Ft. Lauderdale
Exploria Stadium in Orlando
IMG Academy in Bradenton

----

The Cayman Islands:
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cayman_Islands_national_football_team

We will get to see what Suriname can do against them before we play them but they are possibly our weakest opponent.

They are the weakest of the Pot 4 teams and possibly worse than our Pot 5 team Aruba.
One of their better players, Michael Martin, is actually serving a 10-year ban and so is their 2nd choice keeper Shakur Welcome.

----

 

On 2/23/2021 at 5:46 PM, toontownman said:

So... Cavallini up top then?

Yes, you can include Cavallini in your Matchday 23 man squad for this match. In fact, I'd even encourage it!  

 

I created a list of players for this match based on two things:
-It excludes all U24 eligible players because either they will be in Guadalajara with Biello, or if not with the U24s, I assume Herdman doesn't rate them (except Alistair Johnston)
-Given that many countries have quarantines that range from 5 to 14 days, assuming ALL of our top players based outside the USA/Canada called for the Bermuda match will have to fly away early to quarantine, I have excluded them as well. This is consistent with what happened to the #CanWNT during the SheBelieves Cup.

 

This gives me the following list of players:

Goalkeepers
Jayson Leutwiler ( if granted an extended leave, not regularly in the 20-man squad for Huddersfield Town)
Maxime Crépeau
Simon Thomas (Unattched FC ?)
Marco Carducci
Maybe another CPL keeper maybe one of Callum Irving/Connor James/Tyson Farago/Nathan Ingham

Leftbacks
Ashtone Morgan
Marcel de Jong ?
Nik Ledgerwood ?

Rightbacks
Richie Laryea
Alistair Johnston (U24 eligible and playing at a high level, seems to be rated by Herdman and yet not named to the 50-man squad)
Dominick Zator (Vasalunds IF, in the Swedish 2nd division, the Superettan start April 10th I believe; he may be granted extended leave)

Centrebacks
Amer Didić
Joel Waterman
Kamal Miller
Karl Ouimette
Mason Trafford
Dejan Jaković (Unattached FC )
Manjrekar James (not always in the gameday squad for PAS Lamia 1964, may be granted extended leave)
André Hainault (not recently in the gameday squad for 1. FC Kaiserslautern may be granted extended leave  - @Shway 's pick I'm sure    EDIT: ACL injury says @Nate3322 )
Adam Straith (Unattached FC)
Ricardo Ferreira (Unattached FC - is he even healthy? Why did the CSA announce his switch? Will he join the camp for this match?)
Mallan Roberts

Midfielders
Samuel Piette
Jonathan Osorio
Mark Anthony Kaye(if not at left-back)
Marco Bustos
Russell Teibert
Kyle Bekker
Raheem Edwards
Jay Chapman

Forwards
Lucas Cavallini
Tesho Akindele
Tosaint Ricketts
Tyler Pasher
Carl Haworth
Brian Wright

+ possibly other MLS/CanPL/USL players

I think Tesho Akindele, Marco Bustos, Amer Didić, Joel Waterman and Raheem Edwards all got invited to Camp Poutine 2021 because they may play a role in this match if some of our other guys can't stay.  Cavallini will be suspended for the first match and Johnston should be with the U24s but it's very likely they will both be given a role for this match as well.

 

A possible North American only, no U24 (worst case scenario) 4/4/2 based on Camp Poutine 2021 callups:

        Cavallini - Akindele
Teibert - Piette - Osorio - Bustos
Kaye- Millar - Waterman - Johnston
                     Crépeau

I think this is a starting XI that should get the job done vs the minnows that are the Caymans.

 

Thoughts on all this?

 

Will further edit this post.

Edited March 28, 2021 by Olympique_de_Marseille

[Alex]

The only problem I see with playing a weakened squad in this match is it may effect our goal differential. We may need to win by a lot of we end up tying Suriname.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

33 minutes ago, Alex said:

The only problem I see with playing a weakened squad in this match is it may effect our goal differential. We may need to win by a lot of we end up tying Suriname.

You are absolutely correct. That is the biggest factor.

Assuming we win against Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Aruba, and that Suriname win against all three as well, it's better to have a final match where a win or a draw gets us through instead of absolutely needing a win.

I'd rather have Davies, David, Arfield etc. for this match and score 15 goals but this is just to show a what if  or worst case scenario type of squad.

Edited March 1, 2021 by Olympique_de_Marseille

[N1ckbr0wn]

47 minutes ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

We don't have a kickoff time or a venue but it will almost certainly be on a Sunday afternoon/evening in Florida.

https://www.concacaf.com/en/world-cup-qualifying-men/article/fifa-update-on-upcoming-concacaf-qualifiers-in-march-2021
https://www.caymancompass.com/2021/02/19/world-cup-qualifiers-still-on-for-cayman/

If we stick with Florida the most likely venues are:

Inter Miami CF Stadium in Ft. Lauderdale
Exploria Stadium in Orlando
IMG Academy in Bradenton

----

The Cayman Islands:
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cayman_Islands_national_football_team

We will get to see what Suriname can do against them before we play them but they are possibly our weakest opponent.

They are the weakest of the Pot 4 teams and possibly worse than our Pot 5 team Aruba.
One of their better players, Michael Martin, is actually serving a 10-year ban and so is their 2nd choice keeper Shakur Welcome.

----

 

Yes, you can include Cavallini in your Matchday 23 man squad for this match. In fact, I'd even encourage it!  

 

I created a list of players for this match based on two things:
-It excludes all U24 eligible players because either they will be in Guadalajara with Biello, or if not with the U24s, I assume Herdman doesn't rate them (except Alistair Johnston)
-Given that many countries have quarantines that range from 5 to 14 days, assuming ALL of our top players based outside the USA/Canada called for the Bermuda match will have to fly away early to quarantine, I have excluded them as well. This is consistent with what happened to the #CanWNT during the SheBelieves Cup.

 

This gives me the following list of players:

Goalkeepers
Jayson Leutwiler ( if granted an extended leave, not regularly in the 20-man squad for Huddersfield Town)
Maxime Crépeau
Simon Thomas (Unattched FC ?)
Marco Carducci
Maybe another CPL keeper maybe one of Callum Irving/Connor James/Tyson Farago/Nathan Ingham

Leftbacks
Ashtone Morgan
Marcel de Jong ?
Nik Ledgerwood ?

Rightbacks
Richie Laryea
Alistair Johnston (U24 eligible and playing at a high level, seems to be rated by Herdman and yet not named to the 50-man squad)
Dominick Zator (Vasalunds IF, in the Swedish 2nd division, the Superettan start April 10th I believe; he may be granted extended leave)

Centrebacks
Amer Didić
Joel Waterman
Kamal Miller
Karl Ouimette
Mason Trafford
Dejan Jaković (Unattached FC )
Manjrekar James (not always in the gameday squad for PAS Lamia 1964, may be granted extended leave)
André Hainault (not recently in the gameday squad for 1. FC Kaiserslautern may be granted extended leave  - @Shway 's pick I'm sure    )
Adam Straith (Unattached FC)
Ricardo Ferreira (Unattached FC - is he even healthy? Why did the CSA announce his switch? Will he join the camp for this match?)
Mallan Roberts

Midfielders
Samuel Piette
Jonathan Osorio
Mark Anthony Kaye(if not at left-back)
Marco Bustos
Russell Teibert
Kyle Bekker
Raheem Edwards
Jay Chapman

Forwards
Lucas Cavallini
Tesho Akindele
Tosaint Ricketts
Tyler Pasher
Carl Haworth
Brian Wright

+ possibly other MLS/CanPL/USL players

I think Tesho Akindele, Marco Bustos, Amer Didić, Joel Waterman and Raheem Edwards all got invited to Camp Poutine 2021 because they may play a role in this match if some of our other guys can't stay.  Cavallini will be suspended for the first match and Johnston should be with the U24s but it's very likely they will both be given a role for this match as well.

 

A possible North American only, no U24 (worst case scenario) 4/4/2 based on Camp Poutine 2021 callups:

        Cavallini - Akindele
Teibert - Piette - Osorio - Bustos
Kaye- Millar - Waterman - Johnston
                     Crépeau

I think is is a starting XI that should get the job done vs the minnows that are the Caymans.

 

Thoughts on all this?

 

Will further edit this post.

This is a good lineup. Only thing is, as a Whitecaps fan, seeing Teibert starting on the wing for us in a WCQ makes me shutter LOL. I personally think a 3-5-2/5-3-2 gets our best domestic guys all on the pitch as well as playing their best positions. 
 

———-Cav—Akindele———

——Oso—————Kaye———-

Layrea——Piette——-Johnston

—Miller—Waterman—Zator—

————-Crepeau—————

do I think it will happen? Doubt it. But this looks good to me 

Edited March 1, 2021 by N1ckbr0wn

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

1 minute ago, N1ckbr0wn said:

———-Cav—Akindele———

——Oso—-Piette—Kaye———-

Layrea——————-Johnston

—Miller—Waterman—Zator—

————-Crepeau—————

do I think it will happen? Doubt it. But this looks good to me 

That looks like a solid "domestic-only + no U24" lineup to me.

I think Kaye may be stronger on the left than Oso, I might switch them places and switch Cav and Akindele places too.

[jtpc]

I never thought I'd be googling the Cayman Compass sports page as part of my daily pandemic routine to see if there's been a location confirmed for this match yet, but here we are. 😂 It just feels like one of those "life as a Voyageur" moments.

I may have even checked to see if the Cayman Islands FA and the author of the February 19th article were on Twitter (they are), and whether they accepted open direct messages (they do), so I've sent them both a message to see if they have any updates on a location. 😂

[narduch]

28 minutes ago, jtpc said:

I never thought I'd be googling the Cayman Compass sports page as part of my daily pandemic routine to see if there's been a location confirmed for this match yet, but here we are. 😂 It just feels like one of those "life as a Voyageur" moments.

I may have even checked to see if the Cayman Islands FA and the author of the February 19th article were on Twitter (they are), and whether they accepted open direct messages (they do), so I've sent them both a message to see if they have any updates on a location. 😂

In a month we will be scrambling for Cayman internet radio for match coverage because One Soccer only has the rights to our 'home' WCQ games.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

1 hour ago, jtpc said:

 😂 ....I may have even checked to see if the Cayman Islands FA and the author of the February 19th article were on Twitter (they are), and whether they accepted open direct messages (they do), so I've sent them both a message to see if they have any updates on a location. 😂

If you're going to jump into everyone's DMs, you should DM @bpugh23 (the Cayman coach) too!

[toontownman]

It is my statutory right to exclude Cavallini from my list...yeah he is back in.

If Zardorsky can play in florida Wednesday and play for Spurs a few days later I think there is hope we will see a pretty similar strong line up.

Also given Herdmans comment last week about the importance of picking and playing the strongest sides possible I think the majority of players will stick for the full camp. Guess it depends if any players have midweek games the week after. Also probably comes down to fitness levels in general. Given the majority of players will be in preseason rotation might be necessary. 

I am excited to see how our depth hopefully rises to the challenge.

 

 

 

[narduch]

The venue still hasn't been decided, but here is a piece on Cayman Island's 31 year old manager.

https://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/news/ben-pugh-cayman-islands-international-manager-from-ipswich-7802362

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

The match is 3 weeks away and we still have no announced kickoff time or venue.

CONCACAF gonna CONCACAF!

Edited March 7, 2021 by Olympique_de_Marseille

[Club Linesman]

And CSA gonna CSA!

[narduch]

2 minutes ago, Club Linesman said:

And CSA gonna CSA!

I'm all for hating on the CSA (especially they way they are currently fucking over Forge), but this isn't the CSA's fault. Its up to Cayman Islands to find a place for this match, not the CSA.

I'm wondering if the Cayman's will just forfeit the game at this point.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

1 minute ago, narduch said:

I'm all for hating on the CSA (especially they way they are currently fucking over Forge), but this isn't the CSA's fault. Its up to Cayman Islands to find a place for this match, not the CSA.

I'm wondering if the Cayman's will just forfeit the game at this point.

A forfeit would be bad for us if we assume we could get a win of more than 3 goals.

Usually FIFA assigns a 3-0 victory for the team that didn't forfeit (or didn't break the rules).

It could be bad for our goal difference.

[narduch]

1 minute ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

A forfeit would be bad for us if we assume we could get a win of more than 3 goals.

Usually FIFA assigns a 3-0 victory for the team that didn't forfeit (or didn't break the rules).

It could be bad for our goal difference.

I agree it would be bad for us.

This is my own speculation based on the fact that the final location of this match is not set.

 

[MtlMario]

Not to mention we play one less game that we need to play (we haven't exactly been very active this past year).

[narduch]

Cayman Islands confirm on their Facebook that this game will be played in Florida. Great news for us as there is essentially no travel between games.

https://m.facebook.com/CaymanIslandsFootballAssociation/

 

Edited March 8, 2021 by narduch

[TFC2017]

Goalkeepers
Jayson Leutwiler ( if granted an extended leave, not regularly in the 20-man squad for Huddersfield Town)
Maxime Crépeau
Simon Thomas (Unattched FC ?)
Marco Carducci
Maybe another CPL keeper maybe one of Callum Irving/Connor James/Tyson Farago/Nathan Ingham

Leftbacks
Ashtone Morgan
Marcel de Jong ?
Nik Ledgerwood ?

Rightbacks
Richie Laryea
Alistair Johnston (U24 eligible and playing at a high level, seems to be rated by Herdman and yet not named to the 50-man squad)
Dominick Zator (Vasalunds IF, in the Swedish 2nd division, the Superettan start April 10th I believe; he may be granted extended leave)

Centrebacks
Amer Didić
Joel Waterman
Kamal Miller
Karl Ouimette
Mason Trafford
Dejan Jaković (Unattached FC )
Manjrekar James (not always in the gameday squad for PAS Lamia 1964, may be granted extended leave)
André Hainault (not recently in the gameday squad for 1. FC Kaiserslautern may be granted extended leave  - @Shway 's pick I'm sure    EDIT: ACL injury says @Nate3322 )
Adam Straith (Unattached FC)
Ricardo Ferreira (Unattached FC - is he even healthy? Why did the CSA announce his switch? Will he join the camp for this match?)
Mallan Roberts

Midfielders
Samuel Piette
Jonathan Osorio
Mark Anthony Kaye(if not at left-back)
Marco Bustos
Russell Teibert
Kyle Bekker
Raheem Edwards
Jay Chapman

Forwards
Lucas Cavallini
Tesho Akindele
Tosaint Ricketts
Tyler Pasher
Carl Haworth
Brian Wright

 

 

 

Assuming this is the list of players to work with (Which is very light on creative offensive players) I'd like to see us line up;  

 

Cavallini

Osorio - Bustos - Akindele

Kaye - Teibert

Johnston - Miller - Waterman - Laryea

Crepeau

 

 

I mainly went for a squad who I think would be comfortable in possession. I chose Johnston to play out of position at LB mainly because I'm not convinced with any of those LB's and I think  Johnston and Laryea are both good offensively while also solid defensively. 

[Shway]

This was made with the mindset that Europe and uK players won’t be released....

[N1ckbr0wn]

3 minutes ago, Shway said:

This was made with the mindset that Europe and uK players won’t be released....

I hope so. I can think of much stronger pools that does not include all of our Europe based guys. Ouimette/Straith/Hainaut/Morgan etc are no where near the level or age to be considered anymore.

and starting Teibert over Piette.. nty

Edited March 8, 2021 by N1ckbr0wn

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

3 minutes ago, N1ckbr0wn said:

I can think of much stronger pools that does not include all of our Europe based guys.

Ya, I liked your offensive minded (North America, non-U24 ) starting 11.

7 minutes ago, Shway said:

This was made with the mindset that Europe and uK players won’t be released....

I feel like some will be released, just way fewer than we actually want.

[Floortom]

18 minutes ago, TFC2017 said:

Goalkeepers
Jayson Leutwiler ( if granted an extended leave, not regularly in the 20-man squad for Huddersfield Town)
Maxime Crépeau
Simon Thomas (Unattched FC ?)
Marco Carducci
Maybe another CPL keeper maybe one of Callum Irving/Connor James/Tyson Farago/Nathan Ingham

Leftbacks
Ashtone Morgan
Marcel de Jong ?
Nik Ledgerwood ?

Rightbacks
Richie Laryea
Alistair Johnston (U24 eligible and playing at a high level, seems to be rated by Herdman and yet not named to the 50-man squad)
Dominick Zator (Vasalunds IF, in the Swedish 2nd division, the Superettan start April 10th I believe; he may be granted extended leave)

Centrebacks
Amer Didić
Joel Waterman
Kamal Miller
Karl Ouimette
Mason Trafford
Dejan Jaković (Unattached FC )
Manjrekar James (not always in the gameday squad for PAS Lamia 1964, may be granted extended leave)
André Hainault (not recently in the gameday squad for 1. FC Kaiserslautern may be granted extended leave  - @Shway 's pick I'm sure    EDIT: ACL injury says @Nate3322 )
Adam Straith (Unattached FC)
Ricardo Ferreira (Unattached FC - is he even healthy? Why did the CSA announce his switch? Will he join the camp for this match?)
Mallan Roberts

Midfielders
Samuel Piette
Jonathan Osorio
Mark Anthony Kaye(if not at left-back)
Marco Bustos
Russell Teibert
Kyle Bekker
Raheem Edwards
Jay Chapman

Forwards
Lucas Cavallini
Tesho Akindele
Tosaint Ricketts
Tyler Pasher
Carl Haworth
Brian Wright

 

 

 

Assuming this is the list of players to work with (Which is very light on creative offensive players) I'd like to see us line up;  

 

Cavallini

Osorio - Bustos - Akindele

Kaye - Teibert

Johnston - Miller - Waterman - Laryea

Crepeau

 

 

I mainly went for a squad who I think would be comfortable in possession. I chose Johnston to play out of position at LB mainly because I'm not convinced with any of those LB's and I think  Johnston and Laryea are both good offensively while also solid defensively. 

I mean - this is awful. Also De Jong is retired lol

[N1ckbr0wn]

4 minutes ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

Ya, I liked your offensive minded (North America, non-U24 ) starting 11.

I feel like some will be released, just way fewer than we actually want.

Thank you sir. I will make a NA based MNT lineup when I’m off

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

3 minutes ago, Floortom said:

I mean - this is awful. Also De Jong is retired lol

My original post was written before De Jong announced his retirement! I also didn't know Hainault was injured until after I wrote it. De Jong's left foot is still better than any player on the Cayman Islands squad.

[jtpc]

It looks like we have the missing puzzle piece on location and kickoff time!

Location: IMG Academy, Bradenton
Kickoff time: 2:30 pm