COQ | Match Thread: Canada U24 vs Honduras U24 | March 25 @ 10:00pm Eastern 7:00pm Pacific

[BearcatSA]

How long does it take One Soccer to put up the replay?

[Aird25]

1 minute ago, BearcatSA said:

How long does it take One Soccer to put up the replay?

Ages

[Aird25]

7 minutes ago, Free kick said:

Plus you got the large contingent who shill blindly for the CPL players.    

Harsh. I think Davie Norman has been pretty solid so far playing in a new position

[toontownman]

Given the final squad this tournament was always going to be based on players gelling, playing to their potential and being fit enough. 

From game one we were gassed way before the end, that was worse in game two and even worse this game. I don't know how we relate to other squads in terms of players also in pre-season but it is a huge factor for us. 

We are pretty much exactly where we thought we would be aren't we. I think lots of us, myself included hoped we would top the group and more players would show their potential. Too many haven't. Then again so many of these players are new to each other and the coach and ridiculously limited time to prepare. 

The self destruct button is broken at this stage from some of the reactions here, imo. I don't know what people expected? We are missing nearly 20 better players that could have been part of this squad and this was always a gamble of a squad. I certainly wouldn't be writing any of these players off right now based on this. We just simply don't have enough in this squad to go further in style. In 3 years we will have a fresh crop and much larger full CMNT pool that will be less reliant on the U23's. 

This is a great learning experience for all these players. I would have liked to have seen us balance better and had a couple more if the full national u23's with the Olympic squad as I think the Olympics would be a watershed moment for soccer in this country, much like it was with the Women. It is what it is though. 

[An Observer]

20 minutes ago, Shway said:

Group stage over/tournament over...tough luck. I’ll be the first to say these guys deserve credit, starting with...

Stock Up:
Norman Jr - I think he found his new position, because he looked very  comfortable back there. Albeit he is slow, his positioning and awareness was good. He wasn’t beat 1v1 all tournament.

Pantemis - 1 mistake in 3 games in which he hesitated to come off his line. Meh, he stood on his head a lot. I was also surprised by his conformity to play out the back.

Metcalfe - When everyone (including myself) was saying wtf he was doing in the team, he surprised everyone

 Played to expectations:

Baldisimo, Buchanan, and Cornelius- don’t need to say more.

Stocked Dropped:

Brym - holy shit he was horrible. Poor decision making, and no real offensive presence for the squad

 Bair - ive been big on him. Even went as far to say he was better than Akinola. But my oh my, he looked big for nothing. 

Great tournament considering who was there. We could’ve been better, but the Haitians put a fork in our road again - this time it leads to Mexico.

I would mostly agree with this although those that went up are not the ones we wanted to go up. The only thing I disagree with is Baldi. I thought he was poor on the ball, lost possession too much, over hit most of his long passes and gave the ball away to much. And we all know that he’s not a ball winner so he has to do that stuff well. 

[Aird25]

1 minute ago, An Observer said:

I would mostly agree with this although those that went up are not the ones we wanted to go up. The only thing I disagree with is Baldi. I thought he was poor on the ball, lost possession too much, over hit most of his long passes and gave the ball away to much. And we all know that he’s not a ball winner so he has to do that stuff well. 

If we could combine the Baldi brothers we'd have ourselves a player.

[Pottsy3]

does anyone know why  Mathieu Choiniere is not at this tournament?

[BearcatSA]

I just watched some of the (few) highlights on Youtube.  One question:  why is Raposo taking free kicks? 

 

[Gian-Luca]

 

[lenny]

55 minutes ago, LeoH037 said:

Dias is going to be a player, this tournament does not change the fact he will likely break into Sporting's first team in the near future... however something tells me after this tournament we will not be seeing a Maple Leaf on a red kit he dons again...

What'll he be wearing?  Portugal's U21s played today, I haven't heard anything to suggest he turned down a call from them to be with Canada.  He had all of one u16 call up with Portugal and stayed on the bench while the team subbed on 2 attacking mids ahead of him.

Also, what is the source for his being close to Sporting's first team?  I've asked someone else making the same claim and just got vague hand-waving.  It look's like he's only started one game for their U23s.

[JasonDias]

12 minutes ago, lenny said:

 It look's like he's only started one game for their U23s.

He's played 959 minutes this season / about 21 games, started 10 and was injured for a few weeks. 

Zerozero.pt provides the most up to date statistics for the u23 league in Portugal. 

[lenny]

Thanks.  Here's a link:

https://www.zerozero.pt/player_results.php?id=441011

[LeoH037]

4 hours ago, lenny said:

What'll he be wearing?  Portugal's U21s played today, I haven't heard anything to suggest he turned down a call from them to be with Canada.  He had all of one u16 call up with Portugal and stayed on the bench while the team subbed on 2 attacking mids ahead of him.

Also, what is the source for his being close to Sporting's first team?  I've asked someone else making the same claim and just got vague hand-waving.  It look's like he's only started one game for their U23s.

It's well known that his preference is still Portugal, and if we are to convince him to commit to us fully and erase any longing for that Portugal call in the future (he is only 18, a lot can happen in the next 2 years, and he is trending in the right direction) then we need to show him (and others like him, i.e. Flores) that there is an international future with Canada. Failing to make the Olympics and youth tournaments is always a hit to the program and our recruiting efforts. Even worse is failing to do so due to performances like those of today (yes, it was not a good performance, that 2nd half was painful to watch, we could not string more than 2 passes together)

Edited March 26, 2021 by LeoH037

[Reign]

The coaching has been beyond bad. I said it after the second game when we switched tactics at half and they didn’t work at all. Now tonight it was enough worse ? Why were we in a defensive shell for half the game ? Biello honestly confusing the fuck out of me. It’s like he was just hoping Buchanan would carry the offence on his own. Dias should have started no creativity attacking. Biello should never coach a Canada squad again. 

[LeoH037]

Specially the last 10 mins or so, we had NOTHING to lose and everything to gain, I'm no coach (for good reason, I'd be awful at it) but If I was logic tells me to get my players forward then. If they hit me on the counter, then at least we tried to go for it, and it would change nothing.

[ag futbol]

4 hours ago, Reign said:

The coaching has been beyond bad. I said it after the second game when we switched tactics at half and they didn’t work at all. Now tonight it was enough worse ? Why were we in a defensive shell for half the game ? Biello honestly confusing the fuck out of me. It’s like he was just hoping Buchanan would carry the offence on his own. Dias should have started no creativity attacking. Biello should never coach a Canada squad again. 

I came here to post just that. 
 

I don’t expect any miracles from this roster but Biello’s decisions suggest he’s completely out to lunch. Definitely not making the most out of the team he has available to him. 
 

Please keep him away from our players.

[SpecialK]

Again I had high hopes for Biello, I thought he did a decent/good job in MTL. Now with this team he has made some weird decisions, stupid decisions in my view. But I don’t understand though, look he’s not a dumb coach, he’s coached professional football players before and did decent job. He’s coached big games before. So why the fuck up now ? I wonder if he’s second-guessing himself. He does not having a proper coaching staff with him. Like everyone around him is saying we need to park the bus , we need to do the long balls. Like in MTL he had Enzo Concina and pro staff with Canada he’s got Peter Griffin of football and John Herdman saying play this. Now Biello is the head coach and the buck stops with him and his final decision but really concerns me that they’ve all talked about we all wanna play the same way we all want to have the same system. What happens if you don’t have the players to play that type of system? 

[costarg]

8 hours ago, Dominic94 said:

I thought Baldi has been great, but not the team around him. Daniels wasn’t brutal, neither was Metcalfe of Norman, you’re being harsh. 

My bad, I didn't mean to have Norman on that list.  He did a good job covering at CB.  Composed and positions himself well.  He seems intelligent, I feel he has a good future. 

Daniels, Raposo and Metcalfe were enjoying the ride, just happy to be there but showed no urgency, desire or skill. 

How was Baldi great exactly?  I'm curious, what did you see from him?  Do you feel he connected with a good percentage of his passes?  I'd love to have stats on Baldi and how many giveaways and turnovers he committed.  Didn't look good going forward, and didn't do much defensively.  Perhaps he would'be done better playing further up the field instead of between the CB's?

Maybe it is harsh, but its what i saw in 3 games.  Maybe its just down to the offseason and rust.  I really hope they turn it around, I just don't see it.

[gator]

8 hours ago, Free kick said:

you absolutely right on that!   People like to pump up players from teams or leagues they like. Plus you got the large contingent who shill blindly for the CPL players.    

 

 

As for the CPL player, i will not shy away.  The quality of play is way way too poor in the league for it to provide anything of value to the national teams.

You really seem to have a lack of respect for our Canadian League, I don't think I'm "blindly shilling" when I say some of these MLS players were a major disappointment and there are a few CPL players who I think would have been worth a consideration!

[Ivan]

59 minutes ago, SpecialK said:

Again I had high hopes for Biello, I thought he did a decent/good job in MTL. Now with this team he has made some weird decisions, stupid decisions in my view. But I don’t understand though, look he’s not a dumb coach, he’s coached professional football players before and did decent job. He’s coached big games before. So why the fuck up now ? I wonder if he’s second-guessing himself. He does not having a proper coaching staff with him. Like everyone around him is saying we need to park the bus , we need to do the long balls. Like in MTL he had Enzo Concina and pro staff with Canada he’s got Peter Griffin of football and John Herdman saying play this. Now Biello is the head coach and the buck stops with him and his final decision but really concerns me that they’ve all talked about we all wanna play the same way we all want to have the same system. What happens if you don’t have the players to play that type of system? 

Comments on Olivieri aside, I agree with most of this.

I think Biello is a smart guy and a good coach.  The only explanation I have is he had a bunch of gassed players that couldn't give any more.  Its why they didn't go for it in the last 10 minutes the way we (and Jenkins) were all screaming for them to do so.  I'm sure if we knew the math and what was at stake, they did as well.

[SpecialK]

2 minutes ago, Ivan said:

Comments on Olivieri aside, I agree with most of this.

I think Biello is a smart guy and a good coach.  The only explanation I have is he had a bunch of gassed players that couldn't give any more.  Its why they didn't go for it in the last 10 minutes the way we (and Jenkins) were all screaming for them to do so.  I'm sure if we knew the math and what was at stake, they did as well.

That could be true. But look at Dias. The kid been sitting on his ass for also the whole tournament. The kid is match fit and our most talented offensive midfielder. Play the kid! Also I question the roster choices and not having players like Millar and others there, doesn’t make sense.

[Ivan]

4 minutes ago, SpecialK said:

That could be true. But look at Dias. The kid been sitting on his ass for also the whole tournament. The kid is match fit and our most talented offensive midfielder. Play the kid! Also I question the roster choices and not having players like Millar and others there, doesn’t make sense.

I too think Dias should have played more.  He definitely has talent and has made some nice runs and passes.  I have no answer as to why Biello hasn't played him more - defensive awareness, lack of man-strength, lack of continuity with the rest of the team?  I don't know, just hypothesising.   

[costarg]

5 minutes ago, SpecialK said:

That could be true. But look at Dias. The kid been sitting on his ass for also the whole tournament. The kid is match fit and our most talented offensive midfielder. Play the kid! Also I question the roster choices and not having players like Millar and others there, doesn’t make sense.

He definitely got screwed by the Toronto-virus.  Missing all those players without a doubt messed up months of strategy and planning. 

Lots of the guys are just rusted and out of season, but there is no reason not to play Dias, that is a mistake.  Perhaps they just don't get along and he's trying to make a point (kinda like he did with Tabla back at IMFC). 

He also could've used Theo, Jayden and Liam.  The only break he got from CANMNT was Cornelius and maybe ZBG.

[SpecialK]

Hey Gareth  Wheeler ask a tough question. Why are you not playing Dias, you CSA ass kisser

[ag futbol]

3 minutes ago, SpecialK said:

That could be true. But look at Dias. The kid been sitting on his ass for also the whole tournament. The kid is match fit and our most talented offensive midfielder. Play the kid! Also I question the roster choices and not having players like Millar and others there, doesn’t make sense.

For the more obvious, talented choices (like Millar, Corbeanu) I’m assuming full national team involvement was prioritized. If you look outward a couple years, if these guys continue to improve at their current incline, they’ll be key parts to the program. 
 
But I really question Dias’s limited role, especially with this team struggling to provide forwards with a final pass. Both  working the ball out of the back or trying to make the final pass this team feels like it’s making it look more difficult than it should be.

At the point our best goal scoring threat was consistently drifting wide and back into midfield just to get the odd ball I had seriously downgraded my expectations. There are other things too, be it the positioning of the fullbacks or interplay in midfield that just does not look right.

I would expect Biello to start to fix these problems or for the team to improve in these areas game-to-game. What I see is improved familiarity, improved fitness, but not much in the coaching department.