Justin Smith

[baulderdash77]

^this.  Although our quality depth is considerably better than a few years ago, we have exactly 3 Canadian Internationals playing in a top 5 league- Davies, David and Corbeanu.  
 

Any player who is getting minutes eligible for Canada is still an automatic call up for us at this point.

If he develops and is playing in Ligue 1- he’s a priority call up for us.  Let’s see him make it first though.

[Dominic94]

49 minutes ago, baulderdash77 said:

^this.  Although our quality depth is considerably better than a few years ago, we have exactly 3 Canadian Internationals playing in a top 5 league- Davies, David and Corbeanu.  
 

Any player who is getting minutes eligible for Canada is still an automatic call up for us at this point.

If he develops and is playing in Ligue 1- he’s a priority call up for us.  Let’s see him make it first though.

Yes this

[Floortom]

Smith in the starting 11 again versus Dynamo Kiev. 
Match is live here 

 

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

Am I missing something or has he played a massive amount of football the last couple days?  I see Schneiderlin has gone down injured in that central midfield recently but still. 

[Floortom]

Some positive reviews of his performance on Twitter. Really starting to get my hopes up (maybe unreasonably?) that’s he’s going to get a decent amount of minutes this year!

 

[Dominic94]

I think either he gets a Ligue 2 loan, or he stays with the first 18 all year. 
 

what position is he playing ?

[Weng]

1 minute ago, Dominic94 said:

I think either he gets a Ligue 2 loan, or he stays with the first 18 all year. 
 

what position is he playing ?

Looked to be playing CB for the parts of the match I saw

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

1 hour ago, Dominic94 said:

I think either he gets a Ligue 2 loan, or he stays with the first 18 all year. 
 

what position is he playing ?

Yesterday and in the first half today (all I saw) was central mid.  He is #33, correct?

Alongside Thuram's son. Makes me feel old. 

Edited July 17, 2021 by WestHamCanadianinOxford

[Northvansteve]

3 hours ago, WestHamCanadianinOxford said:

Yesterday and in the first half today (all I saw) was central mid.  He is #33, correct?

Alongside Thuram's son. Makes me feel old. 

These last two games, he played as a pure number 6, sitting right in front of the central defenders and not advancing very far up the field. 

[VinceA]

If he's a pure destroying #6 that's still not a bad thing, we have no one else who is like Piette who against better teams will be needed when our midfield and defense regularly coughs up balls like we did vs Haiti. Not the end of the world if he's not a CB.

[Colliedor]

Last match he started in the midfield, but did play a little bit in the CB position in the second half before getting subbed off.

He looks lively and aggressive. Still makes some rookie mistakes however but if he can get minutes this season this stuff can be ironed out over time.

[Kadenge]

I think Galtier likes Canadians 😊..and why not?

[PopePouri]

Come on at CM in the second half. Looks like he's progressing to at least make the bench for the first game. Only one more preseason game left against Milan.

Edited July 24, 2021 by PopePouri

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

1 hour ago, PopePouri said:

Come on at CM in the second half. Looks like he's progressing to at least make the bench for the first game. Only one more preseason game left against Milan.

They seemed to be short in midfield and apparently just signed Lemina from Southampton.  (Seem to have backed Galtier and brought a lot of players in). Schneiderlin hasn't play in many of their friendlies but I don't hear about a long injury.   

Hopefully, he will continue to get chances.  

[Floortom]

Smith came on in the 80th minute in Nice’s final preseason match against Milan (Tomori started). He played as a 6.

Nice brought in a defensive mid from PSV last week who will probably be the regular starter. The fact that smith featured regularly in almost every pre-season match is a big positive. He might see some league minutes this year. Pretty impressive for an ‘03.

Edited July 31, 2021 by Floortom

[Dominic94]

2 minutes ago, Floortom said:

Smith came on in the 80th minute in Nice’s final preseason match against Milan (Tomori started). He played as a 6.

Nice brought in a defensive mid from PSV last week who will probably be the regular starter. The fact that smith featured regularly in almost every pre-season match is a big positive. He might see some league minutes this year. Pretty impressive for an ‘03.

Very likely, wonder if he gets tried at CB ?

 

would have to imagine that he’s close to a call if he can those some minutes early.

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

1 hour ago, Floortom said:

Smith came on in the 80th minute in Nice’s final preseason match against Milan (Tomori started). He played as a 6.

Nice brought in a defensive mid from PSV last week who will probably be the regular starter. The fact that smith featured regularly in almost every pre-season match is a big positive. He might see some league minutes this year. Pretty impressive for an ‘03.

Also Lemina, with Thuram and Schnederlin already there.

Don't know much about their centre backs other than 37 year old Dante. 

No Europe either; as said I hope he gets minutes. 

 

Also second generation versions of Thuram, Kluivert and Maldini involved in that game.  Time marches on doesn't it. 

[VinceA]

Between him and a bunch of others I hope Canada Soccer stops with the cheapness and starts holding youth camps. We have too many talented prospects to not bring them into camp.

[dyslexic nam]

12 minutes ago, VinceA said:

Between him and a bunch of others I hope Canada Soccer stops with the cheapness and starts holding youth camps. We have too many talented prospects to not bring them into camp.

I won’t pretend to know the kind of financial constraints the CSA are under - but man it would be nice to see a more active national youth program with more regular camps and games at all levels.  

[Markoaleks]

Well said Vince A, as our team seems to be turning a corner, so should the finances for #Canmnt too

Have to think the Gold Cup result has to have some serious cash infusion to the program (anyone confirm ?)

and the various qualifiers coming up should add to the coffers as well

Time to invest in the program is at this point 

Edited August 1, 2021 by Markoaleks

[dyslexic nam]

27 minutes ago, Markoaleks said:

Well said Vince A, as our team seems to be turning a corner, so should the finances for #Canmnt too

Have to think the Gold Cup result has to have some serious cash infusion to the program (anyone confirm ?)

and the various qualifiers coming up should add to the coffers as well

Time to invest in the program is at this point 

And the reality is that we have an obligation to our players and our program to make sure we are ready as host in 2026.  We can’t rely on the double D’s to ensure we have a respectable showing in 5 years.  We will need to build into that and showcase Canadian sit at all levels.  What better way to do that than compete at youth and U23 levels to get people excited.  Hell, qualifying a team for the 2024 Olympics would do a lot to get people excited.  

[VinceA]

2 hours ago, dyslexic nam said:

I won’t pretend to know the kind of financial constraints the CSA are under - but man it would be nice to see a more active national youth program with more regular camps and games at all levels.  

 

2 hours ago, Markoaleks said:

Well said Vince A, as our team seems to be turning a corner, so should the finances for #Canmnt too

Have to think the Gold Cup result has to have some serious cash infusion to the program (anyone confirm ?)

and the various qualifiers coming up should add to the coffers as well

Time to invest in the program is at this point 

I think from the sporting perspective it is absolutely worth it

When it comes to our U20 for the 2003-2004 age group side we have a lot of interesting players who are abroad, in MLS and in the CPL.

 

don't pay too much attention to the depth chart I'm going off names I'm aware of and not so much a pecking order or anything. 

Edited August 1, 2021 by VinceA

[Dominic94]

Who’s Cleary and Son ?

 

early but man are we good at that level…

[Bison44]

2 hours ago, Markoaleks said:

Well said Vince A, as our team seems to be turning a corner, so should the finances for #Canmnt too

Have to think the Gold Cup result has to have some serious cash infusion to the program (anyone confirm ?)

and the various qualifiers coming up should add to the coffers as well

Time to invest in the program is at this point 

I think 3rd and 4th get 200 and 150 grand each past years.  So it prob wont be more than 200g.

[An Observer]

12 minutes ago, Bison44 said:

I think 3rd and 4th get 200 and 150 grand each past years.  So it prob wont be more than 200g.

Yeah. I don’t see the Gold Cup having any immediate impact on finances.  I do see the 7 home matches for qualifying having a big impact if (1) we can get fans into those matches; and (2) OneSoccer sells the tv rights to one of CBC, TSN, Sportsnet (as I suspect indirectly some of that will find its way into the CSA coffers via the agreement they have with OneSoccer.  
 

Also, qualifying for the World Cup will bring both direct cash from FIFA and increased sponsorship. 

Gold Cup itself is pretty small beer (and likely wouldn’t cover the cost of fielding the team for that competition and the proceeding World Cup qualifiers where we couldn’t put fans in the stands).