GC: Canada vs Haiti - Thursday, July 15th, 7:30pm Eastern / 4:30pm Pacific Kansas City

[SpecialK]

1 hour ago, narduch said:

Kennedy.

I guess we have James and Cornelius if they can get club matches.

Ferreira

[Free kick]

1 hour ago, Floortom said:

Cavallini has not looked good lately..

I would say the same based on what we have seen of his play in MLS this year and last.   Disclaimer:  i ahve not seen all the Whitecaps games.   Some people like to say its the team (The whitecaps). But he is part of the team. And the team plays a style should very much favour his skills.  

Edited July 16, 2021 by Free kick

[MM3/MM2/MM]

The yellow doesn't make any sense, you can't get a yellow sitting on the bench. (Well technically you can).

[Floortom]

Beating Haiti 3 times in a month has really done wonders for our ELO ranking - we’re up to #39 (between Russia and Senegal). 3rd in concacaf (behind Mexico at 15 and the USA at 25 and ahead of Costa Rica at 49).

A few more good results in the tourney and and we could definitely crack the 20s.

for context the highest we have ever been was #26 in 1927 and, in the modern era, #32 in 2000.

[Stryker911]

I'm surprised about the confusion behind a tactical second yellow. If Eustaquio doesn't take a yellow and sits the US game he is still on a yellow for the QF game. Then, if he gets a yellow in that game he will be out for the SF game. If he plays the US game and gets a yellow he is out for the QF game.

Now, he will be out for sure against the US and have no cards to his name in the QF game. Even if he picks up a yellow he will still be available for the SF. The yellow cards clear after the QF, this is done so no player misses the final due to yellow card accumulation. Therefore now he can get a yellow in the QF and the SF and still not miss a game. 

Also on another topic, going through Instagram alot of the Canadian players that aren't at the tournament are still posting alot about it. David, Davies, Adekugbe, Millar, etc.. great to see the guys that aren't here are still invested in the team.

[TGAA_Star]

Canada to me last night didn't look all that impressive despite us beating Haiti 4-1. We really should have beaten a decimated Haiti by more if you ask me. But Haiti surprisingly for a team that was depleted took the game to Canada. After we scored our 2nd goal and Haiti scored to make it 2-1, I literally thought that we were going to fuck it all up. But no, we surprisingly score 2 more goals to seal the victory all be it on penalty kicks. But still I felt our guys looked sluggish especially in the 2nd half.

[TGAA_Star]

Eustaquio gets a yellow on such a stupid play too like come on you should know better

[scullion44]

10 hours ago, JohnnyFranchise said:

in which game would you have not played eustaquio tho? you needed him in the lineup tonight, and even if you sit him out on sunday he's still carrying a yellow into the quarter-finals which could get him suspended for the semi.

I thought they reset after the groups stage. Thanks for the clarification!

[rydermike]

2 minutes ago, TGAA_Star said:

Eustaquio gets a yellow on such a stupid play too like come on you should know better

He did it on purpose to get suspended for a game he wasn't going to play in anyways, so he can play in every future game

[TGAA_Star]

Just now, rydermike said:

He did it on purpose to get suspended for a game he wasn't going to play in anyways, so he can play in every future game

I get that but really on a free kick trying to send it in but he kept hesitating like no player is ever gonna do that in a game especially to get a yellow card. 

[king1010]

1 minute ago, TGAA_Star said:

I get that but really on a free kick trying to send it in but he kept hesitating like no player is ever gonna do that in a game especially to get a yellow card. 

What do you mean by this?
 

You said he should know better and that its a stupid play but he knew exactly what he was doing. 
 

Many players do this to pick up an intentional yellow. Keepers in particular

[TGAA_Star]

But despite all that Canada we almost took our foot off the gas and against the USA, we cannot afford to do that even for a minute because the Americans will take advantage 

[TOcanadafan]

I’m even more upset now that Kennedy wasn’t able to make this tourney.  More than ever I’m against this 3-5-2 formation but our personnel available seems to force us into it.  The only time I saw it work was with Johnston and Kennedy as the outside backs, as they are both quick enough and good distributors of the ball - their ability to find killer forward passes was a big plus in a number of the qualifiers. Vitoria or Henry could go in the middle but I lean towards the leadership and calmness of Vitoria.  Miller just doesn’t have the quality on the ball and Henry seems clueless. 

In today’s game, all 3 CBs couldn’t figure out their defensive responsibilities and were way too slow in their thought process - I get they were scanning options but when the press was on, the quick pass to Eustaquio was always there (Eustaquio is so positionally aware), yet they would take too long and either lose it with a bad pass forward on the wing, or pass it to Eustaquio too late where he would be under immediate pressure.  Better teams will employ the same press but will punish us on the counter attack.

For this tourney we may lack the 3rd true midfielder and a true LB to go to a 4-3-3 so it may be just a pipe dream at this point.   I do think Osorio would thrive in a middle 3 roll playing with quality players like Eustaquio and an Arfield or Hutch who isn’t there right now.  We speak a lot about hoping for a top class CB to develop in the next few years, but I also feel we need another couple of technical and creative mids to develop as well if we are to become a factor on the world stage.  

Moving forward, Laryea shows enough defensive ability and recovery speed to play as the RWB moving Johnston back to RCB.

[Ruffian]

11 hours ago, Floortom said:

I dont really think Herdman should be admitting that Eustaqiuo took that yellow on purpose

I think he did everything but admit he did it on purpose. In the post game he discussed the benefits of getting the yellow, he discussed how many yellows they have accumulated, but never actually admitted it.

[Ruud]

2 hours ago, Floortom said:

Beating Haiti 3 times in a month has really done wonders for our ELO ranking - we’re up to #39 (between Russia and Senegal). 3rd in concacaf (behind Mexico at 15 and the USA at 25 and ahead of Costa Rica at 49).

A few more good results in the tourney and and we could definitely crack the 20s.

for context the highest we have ever been was #26 in 1927 and, in the modern era, #32 in 2000.

Realistically we should be somewhere in the 40s.  So many good teams out there!  I’d like us to mirror a bit like Finland and Iceland who punched above their weight in last few tournaments.  

[JuicyHam]

2 hours ago, Floortom said:

Beating Haiti 3 times in a month has really done wonders for our ELO ranking - we’re up to #39 (between Russia and Senegal). 3rd in concacaf (behind Mexico at 15 and the USA at 25 and ahead of Costa Rica at 49).

A few more good results in the tourney and and we could definitely crack the 20s.

for context the highest we have ever been was #26 in 1927 and, in the modern era, #32 in 2000.

Where do you find an up to date list? The fifa official website is even months out of date 

[Kadenge]

Outside of Eustaquio, that was the worst performance by a Canadian midfield in recent memory. No idea what's up with Oso. Perhaps its the TFC Armas fog. Oso is normally a very vocal leader on the field, with lots of passion and work ethic. His body language is one of a player with no confidence. Head down after a poor pass, no energy/defensive hustle to win the ball back...Kaye while inconsistent is at least in the game, but thats not saying much. It was a mistake not to replace Paton....and call in Guti already. Above all, I think these 2 games have shown that we need Atiba and Arfield in our midfield for the Ocho. There is no competition to push Oso and Kaye. Notice how pumped Laryea was when he subbed in?

[youllneverwalkalone]

Did anyone else feel a huge sigh of relief when Hoilett was the first man off the bench and not Russel Teibert? What a great player. I feel like he should have his own thread discussing his importance to the program.

[El Diego]

40 minutes ago, Kadenge said:

Outside of Eustaquio, that was the worst performance by a Canadian midfield in recent memory. No idea what's up with Oso. Perhaps its the TFC Armas fog. Oso is normally a very vocal leader on the field, with lots of passion and work ethic. His body language is one of a player with no confidence. Head down after a poor pass, no energy/defensive hustle to win the ball back...Kaye while inconsistent is at least in the game, but thats not saying much. It was a mistake not to replace Paton....and call in Guti already. Above all, I think these 2 games have shown that we need Atiba and Arfield in our midfield for the Ocho. There is no competition to push Oso and Kaye. Notice how pumped Laryea was when he subbed in?

Osorio might be my favourite player, but you're spot on. He misplaced a number of passes and his reactions were really poor. Not sure if we're reading too much into one poor match, or if the TFC and injury malaise is really affecting him.

[narduch]

9 minutes ago, youllneverwalkalone said:

Did anyone else feel a huge sigh of relief when Hoilett was the first man off the bench and not Russel Teibert? What a great player. I feel like he should have his own thread discussing his importance to the program.

Whatever you think of him, we need to get Arfield back.

[Gian-Luca]

3 hours ago, Stryker911 said:

I'm surprised about the confusion behind a tactical second yellow. If Eustaquio doesn't take a yellow and sits the US game he is still on a yellow for the QF game. Then, if he gets a yellow in that game he will be out for the SF game. If he plays the US game and gets a yellow he is out for the QF game.

 

The confusion was based on half the posters on this forum quoting confusingly-written regs which were reasonably misinterpreted as stating that yellow cards were wiped out after the preliminary stage, which many people understandably thought meant the first round. Once it was pointed out that it was actually referring to the qualifying rounds to get into the Gold Cup rather than the preliminary round of the tournament itself), the confusion was cleared up and everyone understood why he did it.

[Strait Red]

1 hour ago, JuicyHam said:

Where do you find an up to date list? The fifa official website is even months out of date 

https://www.eloratings.net/

[Gian-Luca]

Cavallini’s “Holy Shit!” facial expression on Eustaquio’s goal was more hilarious to me than Herman trying not to smirk and is my vote for facial expression of the tournament.

[The Beaver 2.0]

And yet but also, it is amazing to see how high the standards for this team have risen these past couple of years. The team, us fans, even some in the media, now expect us to handle teams like Haiti, Martinique and Cuba comfortably, despite there being a time not so long ago when a victory was never assured. (I mean, victories are not, in fact, ever assured. But you get my drift.)  Even after a very uneven, incohesive and lackluster performance, we still dispatched Haiti 4 - 1, and at no point was I overly worried of the result.  I was worried about the performance, especially in midfield, but I felt confident we'd pull out the win.

We've still got far to go, but we've taken at least a couple of excellent steps forward. Next step: Beating teams like Honduras, Jamaica and Costa Rica regularly.

[JohnnyFranchise]

6 hours ago, scullion44 said:

I thought they reset after the groups stage. Thanks for the clarification!

yah it's all good, i made that same mistake a few days ago when i read "preliminary round" thinking it meant the group stage but it was referring to the qualifying rounds.