GC: Canada vs Costa Rica - Sunday, July 25th, 7pm Eastern / 4pm Pacific - Arlington TX

[N1ckbr0wn]

38 minutes ago, CanadaFan123 said:

Let's see your starting XIs:

 

------------Cavallini----Hoilett--------------

-------------------Osorio--------------------

------------Piette--------Eustaquio----------

Buchanan----------------------------Laryea

------------Miller--Vitoria--Henry----------

-----------------Crepeau-----------------

Pretty much exactly what I would have. I would just have Johnston in for Henry simply for the fact that it makes it easy for a formation change to a 4-4-2/4-3-3 if we’re having troubles with our back line getting penetrated on the counter

[MauditYvon]

Thing is Costa Rica will probably park the bus and we could definitely get an early goal, but not with Piette. And I’d go for it, after that they’d need a goal and if it happens our full backs would crush them on the counter

[MauditYvon]

Thank God we don’t have to play Godinho anymore.

[dyslexic nam]

51 minutes ago, CanadaFan123 said:

Let's see your starting XIs:

 

------------Cavallini----Hoilett--------------

-------------------Osorio--------------------

------------Piette--------Eustaquio----------

Buchanan----------------------------Laryea

------------Miller--Vitoria--Henry----------

-----------------Crepeau-----------------

That is the one I posted a couple of days ago as well.  

[archer21]

15 minutes ago, Obinna said:

The flip side is that if you start Piette and need a goal, Kaye would be a great replacement. 

The other thing I missed on @CanadaFan123's line up was Henry instead of Johnston. I would definitely go for Johnston. 

For me Henry shouldn't be first choice for RCB. He doesn't look comfortable when out wide, especially in possession. Against Costa Rica I want someone like Johnson who is able to find consistently the feet of our midfielders and attackers. He often takes up RB positions when doing so, playing little two v ones with our midfielders to advance the ball. That's where is ability as a RB comes in handy. Same for Miller on the other side, though I believe Johnston does it better. 

Has to be Johnston. Gonna be Johnston. Would be shocked if it wasn't.

I agree with you. I like Johnston at RCB for his ball playing ability. The only exception I have for that is if the opposition have a very big, physical attacker that is too big of a mismatch for Johnston. In that case, Henry can fill in at RCB. Otherwise, I like Henry as another option in the middle, where he can start over Vitoria if the matchup is more favourable. 

[JohnnyFranchise]

4 minutes ago, dyslexic nam said:

That is the one I posted a couple of days ago as well.  

i do like the idea of buchanan playing on the right because that's where he'll probably be in wcq.

[Obinna]

7 minutes ago, archer21 said:

I agree with you. I like Johnston at RCB for his ball playing ability. The only exception I have for that is if the opposition have a very big, physical attacker that is too big of a mismatch for Johnston. In that case, Henry can fill in at RCB. Otherwise, I like Henry as another option in the middle, where he can start over Vitoria if the matchup is more favourable. 

Me too. Herdman seems to see it this way, because Henry played there against Haiti (Antoine is quite physical). In WCQ he played there in the home leg against Haiti too. Johnston played there in Haiti, but the game was on turf and we may have been protecting Henry from the surface. 

[Obinna]

19 minutes ago, dyslexic nam said:

That is the one I posted a couple of days ago as well.  

Curious, what's your case for Henry over Johnston?

[Miche]

43 minutes ago, N1ckbr0wn said:

Pretty much exactly what I would have. I would just have Johnston in for Henry simply for the fact that it makes it easy for a formation change to a 4-4-2/4-3-3 if we’re having troubles with our back line getting penetrated on the counter

Yeah, I find it harsh not to find a spot for Johnston. Been quite quietly good, hope he gets the start.

[dyslexic nam]

2 hours ago, Obinna said:

Curious, what's your case for Henry over Johnston?

I am pretty ambivalent TBH, but I just tend to think of Henry as a top3 CB for us at this point.  If it was a true outside back position it is Johnston, but when the position functions as a CB (and the wingbacks to the attaching in a 3-5-2) I tend towards Henry.  

But it definitely isn’t a hill to die on for me.  

[Gian-Luca]

Not sure if Herdman is waiting to see if Akindele will escape tonight’s match without getting injured before calling him but he is on the bench tonight for Orlando with 25 minutes to go, his team leading Philly 2-0 without using Tesho at all so far. 

[BuzzAndSting]

I have a feeling there won’t be any injury replacements. Would be the CSA thing to do.

[toontownman]

I would be pretty shocked if Tesho or someone extra isn't on the new list. Even if we dont actually end up using them and bringing them to train.  If we do get past Costa Rica and Cavs gets a yellow we wont have a true striker in the squad for playing Mexico.

 

[Gian-Luca]

During the broadcast of the Orlando game after Tesho came on the play by play guy said either that “Akindele is now part of the Canada Gold Cup team” or “Akindele is not part of the Canada Gold Cup team”, but I couldn’t tell which!

There was an article on Sportsnet from two days ago which quoted Herdman saying they were trying to bring another forward in, so I expect we will see someone called. 

[Lansdude]

10 hours ago, Obinna said:

The flip side is that if you start Piette and need a goal, Kaye would be a great replacement. 

The other thing I missed on @CanadaFan123's line up was Henry instead of Johnston. I would definitely go for Johnston. 

For me Henry shouldn't be first choice for RCB. He doesn't look comfortable when out wide, especially in possession. Against Costa Rica I want someone like Johnson who is able to find consistently the feet of our midfielders and attackers. He often takes up RB positions when doing so, playing little two v ones with our midfielders to advance the ball. That's where is ability as a RB comes in handy. Same for Miller on the other side, though I believe Johnston does it better. 

Has to be Johnston. Gonna be Johnston. Would be shocked if it wasn't.

I also like Johnston playing combos with Tajon/Laryea or playing early crosses or knock downs for Cavallini. That's a part of his game that's pretty solid but we haven't seen a ton of for Canada because we tend to want to dribble to the end line or try and triangle our way into the box. A bit more mixture and we'll have more success imo, and he's the guy to provide that extra option from the right.

[Kadenge]

We started with 20 outfield players...Davies, Larin and Ayo are out injured. That leaves 17.  Sturing and Paton, who just started training with the squad, have not played yet. Theo and Pasher have barely played...so 13 players  left. That leaves 2 players on the bench  who have had decent minutes  (Piette or Kaye and Henry or Miller if Johnston starts at RCB).  Unless Paton really impresses in training, I cannot see him thrown in vs CR.   We would be crazy to not call in Tesho and one of Guti/ZBG

[BearcatSA]

I thought Hoillet looked pretty good out there vs the States and I hope that he can continue the pace in partnership with Cavallini up top.  The Ticos have shown in the past that they can park a bus  with the best of them (a run to the QF at the 2014 World Cup stands out) and I don't see anything different happening here because I think they are going to look to expose us on the counter and then settle for penalties.  And with that,  I am curious to see how our team has prepped for that scenario.

[toontownman]

10 minutes ago, BearcatSA said:

I thought Hoillet looked pretty good out there vs the States and I hope that he can continue the pace in partnership with Cavallini up top.  The Ticos have shown in the past that they can park a bus  with the best of them (a run to the QF at the 2014 World Cup stands out) and I don't see anything different happening here because I think they are going to look to expose us on the counter and then settle for penalties.  And with that,  I am curious to see how our team has prepped for that scenario.

Let's hope we don't find out. Win in normal time please!

[BearcatSA]

20 minutes ago, toontownman said:

Let's hope we don't find out. Win in normal time please!

I hope so, too, but we need to be realistic here.  The odds seem pretty high.  That's the nature of knockout round tournament play.  A problem emerges for us with Hoillet because I am not convinced he can go the full 90 and extra time and yet he is probably our best penalty taker.  

[archer21]

46 minutes ago, BearcatSA said:

I thought Hoillet looked pretty good out there vs the States and I hope that he can continue the pace in partnership with Cavallini up top.  The Ticos have shown in the past that they can park a bus  with the best of them (a run to the QF at the 2014 World Cup stands out) and I don't see anything different happening here because I think they are going to look to expose us on the counter and then settle for penalties.  And with that,  I am curious to see how our team has prepped for that scenario.

If Costa Rica thinks they have to park the bus against this weakened Canada squad, I’ll be pretty confident in our chances against them in the Oct.

[Obinna]

7 minutes ago, archer21 said:

If Costa Rica thinks they have to park the bus against this weakened Canada squad, I’ll be pretty confident in our chances against them in the Oct.

I'll only be confident if they park the bus and we break through it.

If they are successful that's a reason to be concerned, not confident. 

[BearcatSA]

17 minutes ago, archer21 said:

If Costa Rica thinks they have to park the bus against this weakened Canada squad, I’ll be pretty confident in our chances against them in the Oct.

They played a comfortable defensive shape here in Edmonton in 2013, sitting back and allowing us wonderful 20+ pass sequences that resulted in no scoring opportunities.  And then they got a penalty and won.  I don't see them opening it up:  they would probably want to be compact in defence then expose us off the counter. 

[archer21]

15 minutes ago, Obinna said:

I'll only be confident if they park the bus and we break through it.

If they are successful that's a reason to be concerned, not confident. 

I get what you’re saying but my point is, if you think you’re the better team, you don’t park the bus. I’d think they expect to be the better team than us when we’re missing so many of our stars. I believe they pretty much have their strongest squad, don’t they?

[Obinna]

1 minute ago, BearcatSA said:

They played a comfortable defensive shape here in Edmonton in 2013, sitting back and allowing us wonderful 20+ pass sequences that resulted in no scoring opportunities.  And then they got a penalty and won.  I don't see them opening it up:  they would probably want to be compact in defence then expose us off the counter. 

I know we were missing players against the USA that we'll have in qualifying, but it certainly felt like we had a few +20 pass sequences versus the states. I neve really see us breaking them down and I am concerned it will be similar against Costa Rica. That's why I am thinking about this:

---------Cavallini--Buchanan----------

----------------Osorio------------------

--------Kaye--------Eustaquio-----------

Gutierrez-----------------------Laryea

------Miller----Vitoria---Johnston--------

--------------Crepeau-------------- 

Key here would be to play quickly and get balls in behind that Buchanan can run into. The long passing of Kaye and Eustaquio will be key, as would the hold up play from Cavallini. Guiterrez would come into the side (he's not in camp, but fingers crossed he will be).

[Obinna]

7 minutes ago, archer21 said:

I get what you’re saying but my point is, if you think you’re the better team, you don’t park the bus. I’d think they expect to be the better team than us when we’re missing so many of our stars. I believe they pretty much have their strongest squad, don’t they?

Yes, except for Navas and Leal, they are pretty much at full strength. You could make a case for Gamboa and Oviedo over Fuller and Matarrita, but that's probably it. 

To your point, I don't think parking the bus is a matter of thinking you are the better team or not, it's about getting the result you need. Bunkering has gotten results from much better sides than Canada. They'll do what they must.  

If we are talking about Mexico then okay, it's not really in their DNA to bunker. Everyone else in this region can, should, and probably will bunker to get what they need, especially Costa Rica.