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Gareth Wheeler

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Gareth Wheeler  

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  1. 1. Should Gareth Wheeler be doing the play-by-play for Canada games

    • Yes
      93
    • No
      111

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AvroArrow
AvroArrow

Fact: Canada is undefeated in WCQ games where Gareth Wheeler was the play by play man. Conclusion: Gareth Wheeler is our talisman. Facts are science and you can't argue science.

VanMetropole
VanMetropole
Floortom
Floortom

I'm actually amazed that people care about this issue so much one way or the other. I must be the weird one - I couldnt care less about Wheeler. He has no positive or negative impact on my enjoyment o

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An Observer Veteran

An Observer

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, El Hombre said:

^ I remember watching that game in the Lieutenant's Pump in Ottawa with one other guy and we both went crazy, first with the goal and then at the call.

Now, if that guy (I can't remember his name, but he was on here for a hot second) then turned to me and said: "Well, by the letter of the law Hutchinson was offside, plus the game is so fast nowadays that you can't blame the linesman blah blah blah..." I probably would've thrown him thru a window.

I remember watching it in a bar in NYC with my wife and a work colleague which was where all the US fans congregated.  My colleague had recommended the place.  I was the only Canadian fan so needless to say was the only one outraged and the US fans didn’t seem to care in the least. It actually infuriated me and was the start of my hatred of them. 

The other thing I remember was my colleague spent the whole match hitting on the US fans with my wife playing a none consensual “wingman” to her.  Clearly, my colleague had different priorities when she picked that bar as the ratio of men to women was clearly in her favour. 

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dyslexic nam Grand Master

dyslexic nam

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, El Hombre said:

Just curious, but what were people's thoughts on Wheeler for the TFC-CFMTL Vees cup game?  His bias leaned a little towards TFC, but seemed more subdued overall.

I found that one a bit weird TBH.  As you know, I am no hater when it comes to Wheels, and despite the eye-rolling puns I enjoy the overall vibe when it comes to Canada games.  But I find that same bias pretty misplaced when it comes to the V Cup.  That seems like a context where you def need to park your personal views and just call the game (maybe showing preference or bias towards Canadian players).   Dunfield I can understand as a former TFC guy (though maybe just makes him a poor choice for a game involving them) but having two guys subtly rooting for TFC during the final seemed a bit odd.  For sure it was toned down as you noted, but I think that is more a byproduct of the fact that it would be farcical to have them blatantly and obviously cheering against one of the Canadian teams in the V Cup.  There is already a perception of strong Toronto-centric bias in the Canadian sports media landscape.  I think OS would be smart to try and steer clear of that in something as national in scope as the V Cup.  

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CanadaFan123 Grand Master

CanadaFan123

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5 minutes ago, dyslexic nam said:

I found that one a bit weird TBH.  As you know, I am no hater when it comes to Wheels, and despite the eye-rolling puns I enjoy the overall vibe when it comes to Canada games.  But I find that same bias pretty misplaced when it comes to the V Cup.  That seems like a context where you def need to park your personal views and just call the game (maybe showing preference or bias towards Canadian players).   Dunfield I can understand as a former TFC guy (though maybe just makes him a poor choice for a game involving them) but having two guys subtly rooting for TFC during the final seemed a bit odd.  For sure it was toned down as you noted, but I think that is more a byproduct of the fact that it would be farcical to have them blatantly and obviously cheering against one of the Canadian teams in the V Cup.  There is already a perception of strong Toronto-centric bias in the Canadian sports media landscape.  I think OS would be smart to try and steer clear of that in something as national in scope as the V Cup.  

Who would have ever thought that two guys that run a TFC podcast would be biased toward TFC? ;) 

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/256-coyr-toronto-fc-podcast-43059898/

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Greatest Cockney Rip Off Proficient

Greatest Cockney Rip Off

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On 11/16/2021 at 6:03 PM, Kent said:

On the topic of British commentators, I can't stand the use of "just about". I've always understood that to mean "it almost happened, but didn't quite happen", but at least half of the British commentators (maybe all?) use it to mean "it happened, but only just barely". I can't blame them because I'm sure it's just a matter of where you grew up, but it still bothers me.

This x 1000. Really annoys me. Which way is correct?

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WestHamCanadianinOxford Grand Master

WestHamCanadianinOxford

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2 minutes ago, Greatest Cockney Rip Off said:

This x 1000. Really annoys me. Which way is correct?

I looked into it proffessionally a bit once.  It is not as clear a case as Aluminium vs. aluminum, where two groups of English speakers conciously decided to go different ways at the word's coinage.  But is a case of different word usage from different regions. 

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RS Grand Master

RS

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Posted
13 minutes ago, Greatest Cockney Rip Off said:

What ever happened to Bob Iarusci?  I always enjoyed him.

I am also a big fan of Craig Forrest and Jason De Vos. Getting my Forrest fix from his pod but will JVD’s pod ever return?

De Vos works for the CSA, so that's not happening.

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jonovision Grand Master

jonovision

Posted
Posted

Not Wheeler-related (though I will chime in and say his TFC bias was obvious in the V-Cup call), but if I was a Whitecaps fan, I'd be quite annoyed that TSN had Wileman and Caldwell on the broadcast for their playoff match instead of the usual crew that calls the Whitecaps games. I know that's TSN's #1 pairing, but I'd prefer to hear from people that actual know the team and its players.

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rkomar Experienced

rkomar

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, narduch said:

Aren't they both literally still TFC employees?

They do freelance for One Soccer basically 

That's an interesting question for me.  There was a break in the COYR podcasts, they stopped appearing on the TFC website for a while (most seem to have been added since), and Wheeler made a comment somewhere that he wasn't allowed on the training grounds anymore.  Maybe it was all tongue-in-cheek, or maybe there was some kind of rift.  Enquiring minds want to know!

Dunfield is an employee of the academy, so he definitely has to watch his step when commenting on TFC and its players.  You can often hear him pausing for a few seconds while constructing a comment that won't get him into trouble during the broadcasts (both games and COYR podcasts).  He seems much more free when covering CPL games.

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MM3/MM2/MM Mentor

MM3/MM2/MM

Posted
Posted
17 minutes ago, rkomar said:

 

Dunfield is an employee of the academy, so he definitely has to watch his step when commenting on TFC and its players.  You can often hear him pausing for a few seconds while constructing a comment that won't get him into trouble during the broadcasts.

I was annoyed when  Dunfield praised TFC for playing their young Canadian prospects, at the time I forgot he was a TFC academy coach, so that explains it

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Ruffian Mentor

Ruffian

Posted
Posted
26 minutes ago, MM3/MM2/MM said:

I was annoyed when  Dunfield praised TFC for playing their young Canadian prospects, at the time I forgot he was a TFC academy coach, so that explains it

But why did it annoy you? This year's TFC has given young academy prospects more playing time than any of the Canadian MLS and CPL teams have and likely more minutes than any CPL or MLS team ever has.

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dyslexic nam Grand Master

dyslexic nam

Posted
Posted
10 minutes ago, Ruffian said:

But why did it annoy you? This year's TFC has given young academy prospects more playing time than any of the Canadian MLS and CPL teams have and likely more minutes than any CPL or MLS team ever has.

Can’t speak for MM, but for me it was annoying because they really only started doing it when games became meaningless.  I don’t have the stats to back it up, but it seems like JMR, Nelson and Okello got a few token minutes during the regular season before TFC were eliminated from the playoffs and only got decent playing time once the games were dead rubber matches.   Plus we then heard how they were all individually apparently ready to play at the level - even though that clearly did not seem to be the sentiment during the meaningful games.   

And I know TFC catches a fair bit of flack which probably bugs many of their supporters (and clearly does in a few cases) but I think one of the reasons for the focus on them is because of the youth prospect they have and almost seem to hoard.  In Nelson, Okello, JMR and Priso, they have 4 of the more exciting domestically-based prospects we have.   And yet for the meaningful part of the year, it was only Priso who forced his way into their plans by playing so well that they couldn’t drop him prior to his injury.   The other 3 were never heard from and I (and many others) found it pretty frustrating.

Just my $0.02. 

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Ruffian Mentor

Ruffian

Posted
Posted
23 minutes ago, dyslexic nam said:

Can’t speak for MM, but for me it was annoying because they really only started doing it when games became meaningless.  I don’t have the stats to back it up, but it seems like JMR, Nelson and Okello got a few token minutes during the regular season before TFC were eliminated from the playoffs and only got decent playing time once the games were dead rubber matches.   Plus we then heard how they were all individually apparently ready to play at the level - even though that clearly did not seem to be the sentiment during the meaningful games.   

And I know TFC catches a fair bit of flack which probably bugs many of their supporters (and clearly does in a few cases) but I think one of the reasons for the focus on them is because of the youth prospect they have and almost seem to hoard.  In Nelson, Okello, JMR and Priso, they have 4 of the more exciting domestically-based prospects we have.   And yet for the meaningful part of the year, it was only Priso who forced his way into their plans by playing so well that they couldn’t drop him prior to his injury.   The other 3 were never heard from and I (and many others) found it pretty frustrating.

Just my $0.02. 

But it wasn't just at the end of the season.

These were numbers calculated from @Corazon's MLS minutes stats at the beginning of August.

Canadian club homegrown teenagers played this year

- Ralph Priso  (19) 506 minutes
- Jayden Nelson (18) 113 minutes
- Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty  (17) 35 minutes
- Kamron Habibullah (17) 30 minutes
- Rida Zouhir (17) 15 minutes

1. Toronto 654 minutes
2. Vancouver 30 minutes
3. Montreal 15 minutes


Canadian club homegrown U21 played this year

- Ralph Priso  (19) 506 minutes
- Luke Singh (20) 395 minutes
- Jayden Nelson (18) 113 minutes
- Jordan Peruzza (20) 64 minutes
- Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty  (17) 35 minutes
- Kamron Habibullah (17) 30 minutes
- Rida Zouhir (17) 15 minutes

1. Toronto 1113 minutes
2. Vancouver 30 minutes
3. Montreal 15 minutes


Canadian club U22 played this year

- Michael Baldisimo (21) 850 minutes
- Ayo Akinola (21) 649 minutes
- Ralph Priso  (19) 506 minutes
- Luke Singh (20) 395 minutes
- Jacob Shaffelburg (21) 299 minutes
- Noble Okello (21) 187 minutes
- Jayden Nelson (18) 113 minutes
- Jordan Peruzza (20) 64 minutes
- Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty  (17) 35 minutes
- Kamron Habibullah (17) 30 minutes
- Theo Bair (21) 27 minutes
- Rida Zouhir (17) 15 minutes

1. Toronto 2248 minutes
2. Vancouver 907 minutes
3. Montreal 15 minutes


Toronto 9 players
Vancouver 2 players
Montreal 2 players

As was discussed when these numbers were originally posted that the stats look good because they are cherry picked for age, but that is what is being discussed, young academy products. Montreal and Vancouver likely do a better job with just straight Canadian player minute comparison.

I haven't done the calculations for the end of the year but I am sure TFC was able to give at least 1,500 minutes of combined playing time to domestic players under the age of 21 as required by CPL.

Now when we get into specifics about players like Dwyer and Mullins over Peruzza I am right there standing hand in hand with all you biased TFC haters 😋.

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MM3/MM2/MM Mentor

MM3/MM2/MM

Posted
Posted (edited)
3 hours ago, Ruffian said:

But why did it annoy you? This year's TFC has given young academy prospects more playing time than any of the Canadian MLS and CPL teams have and likely more minutes than any CPL or MLS team ever has.

Now when we get into specifics about players like Dwyer and Mullins over Peruzza I am right there standing hand in hand with all you biased TFC haters 😋.

I think your 2nd point is the key to me, not that TFC didn't give minutes to their prospects, but the opportunity to give them more minutes, it is not like they were defending leads late in the games this season.

For example, Bradley playing 90 minutes every game (and I like what Bradley still brings to the team), Bradley might have been more effective playing 70/80 minutes a game, Priso could have picked up some of those minutes, same with the garbage minutes given to Dwyer, Mullins and Endoh ( you could include DeLeon) those minutes could have gone to help develop the prospects for next season.  I don't think Mullins, Dwyer and Endoh will get any better by been giving these minutes.

 

Edited by MM3/MM2/MM
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