World Cup Qualifying Third Round Match Day 1: Canada Honduras - Thursday, September 2nd, 2021 - BMO Field, Toronto.

[Free kick]

10 minutes ago, king1010 said:

We needed to win is a bit of a stretch in game 1 of 14. The other results do a bit to soften the blow of the draw, but yes we should have won. Its not the end of the world but it is not ideal. A loss would have been the end of the world IMO. 

To get that third spot, we will need to win at home against the sides that we expect to be battling for that or third or fourth spot.   And Honduras and CRC and Jam are those sides.  

[BearcatSA]

10 minutes ago, Approve My Account Pls said:

Thoughts from section 110: 

1. Atiba was definitely rusty, but he grew into the game

2. Not upset we tried the Davies/Buchanan experiment, but wtf was that switching sides fiasco

3. Kennedy needs to start

4. Borjan played great. Almost equally important, he single handedly got the crowd going on several occasions bringing us to our loudest points. 

He got just enough of a touch on that header to get onto the right angle of the post to keep it out.  

[BearcatSA]

I see that old man Figeroa is still doing it for his NT.  As much as I don't like the Hondurans, I always thought that this guy was top notch defender in this region on the international stage.  Still has a cannon for a left peg, too. 

[VinceA]

5 minutes ago, BearcatSA said:

I see that old man Figeroa is still doing it for his NT.  As much as I don't like the Hondurans, I always thought that this guy was top notch defender in this region on the international stage.  Still has a cannon for a left peg, too. 

I also can't hate on Najar. So many injuries throughout his career and he was balling out and made Tajon look poor. His comeback with DC United has been nice to see.

[Unnamed Trialist]

This thread full of we need this or we need that. We need to win at home or against this or that. On and on. 

As we sit, if the Ocho ended today we'd go to Qatar.

[gator]

58 minutes ago, SpecialK said:

We need …. 

Yep, in the first half when were were rattled and making mistakes all over the park this is the type of player who can calm things down, shockingly I thought Atiba was horrible, he had 4 really bad touches/giveaways early, the midfield was lost badly and part of that was formation!

[Colliedor]

This was my biggest fear, that Herdman was going to force all the players at once even if it creates the team to be unbalanced. Felt like somebody's personal FUT team.

Larin and David together feels so forced. Would like to see Hoilett in the middle like in the gold cup. Tajon could be forcing it too. If having a player like Oso to add more "steel" in the midfield is needed, do it.

It's really okay to sit these guys and use them as "super subs". Please don't force it.

[Corazon]

Sat front row, near halfway line.  Not an ideal start but it's a long qualification process.  Tactically had a very poor first half but adjusted and were the better team in the 2nd half.  Disappointing to drop points at home but the other results do make me feel a little bit better.

Borjan - Don't think he put a foot wrong today.  Made some incredible saves, came out appropriately, great on crosses, decent distribution and he continuously got the crowd going.  Great leader out there.

Vitoria - I thought he had a very solid game overall.

Miller - He got better as the game went on but had a very poor first half.  Passing was way off and got beat too often.  I would expect Kennedy to come in and start most games going forward.

Johnston - Incredible performance again. One of the best players on the pitch.  One of my American friends messaged me to tell me how good he thought our RB Johnston was.

Laryea - I thought he had a good game as well but that skied shot late hurt.

Atiba - Grew into the game but did not look his normal self tonight.

Eustaquio - I thought he was fantastic and did a great job breaking up play and distributing well.

David - Not a particularly good game from him but also think the formation did not do him any favours.

Davies - Although he was very dangerous at times and created chances I don't think he was the superstar we are used to.

Tajon - Unfortunately a very poor performance by him.  Possibly the first poor performance I've seen him in the Canada jersey.

Larin - Aside from his goal he was not great but again he did not benefit from the formation and was often left alone out of the game.

Hoilett - Changed the game and continued his good form this summer.

Kennedy - Thought he looked very good in his short appearance.

Edited September 3, 2021 by Corazon

[Bertuzzi44]

Disappointing. As others have mentioned, Herdman got the tactics all wrong. There was zero linkup in midfield. All our attacks came from the wings, and mainly thanks to Davies who is clearly world class.

Couple thoughts:

1) Ref was fine. We like to complain about refs, and often for good reason. But this ref was fine/good IMO and I think it should be mentioned.

2) Both penalties were clear IMO. Buchanan with a dumb tackle there.

3) Honduras played a very good game. How many clear chances did Canada have? How many times did Lopez have to make a good save? Not that many. Canada had lots of possession and play in the final 3rd, but did not create many chances.

4) We need more movement in the final 3rd. It was almost as though players were just waiting for Davies to beat his man before moving. We were definitely more fluid at the Gold Cup.

5) Miller had a howler. Kennedy in for him next game for sure.

6) Atiba had a poor game. Maybe he just needs to build chemistry with Esquatio or what not, but he was not good today.

7) Davies is world class, but I Canada doesn't begin to just rely on him to carry them. 

😎 Fans were awesome! Great job Toronto and anyone who travelled to support the team! Hopefully we can get the full 15k for El Salvador.

 

This draw isn't the end of the world, but now we need AT LEAST a draw in Honduras......

[An Observer]

11 minutes ago, Corazon said:

Sat front row, near halfway line.  Not an ideal start but it's a long qualification process.  Tactically had a very poor first half but adjusted and were the better team in the 2nd half.  Disappointing to drop points at home but the other results make me feel a little bit better.

Borjan - Don't think he put a foot wrong today.  Made some incredible saves, came out appropriately, great on crosses, decent distribution and he continuously got the crowd going.  Great leader out there.

Vitoria - I thought he had a very solid game.

Miller - He got better as the game went on but had a pretty poor first half.  I would expect Kennedy to come in and start most games going forward.

Johnston - Incredible performance again. One of the best players on the pitch.  One of my American friends messaged me to tell me how good he thought Johnston was.

Laryea - I thought he had a good game as well.

Atiba - Grew into the game but did not look his normal self tonight.

Eustaquio - I thought he was fantastic and did a great job breaking up play and distributing well.

David - Not a particularly good game from him but also think the formation did not do him any favours.

Davies - Although he was very dangerous at times and created chances I don't think he was the superstar we are used to.

Tajon - Unfortunately a very poor performance by him.  Possibly the first poor performance I've seen him in the Canada jersey.

Larin - Aside from his goal he was not great but again he did not benefit from the formation and was often left out of the game.

Hoilett - Changed the game and continued his good form this summer.

Kennedy - Thought he looked very good in his short appearance.

I generally agree with this but on Davies I thought he had some amazing moments where he just left people in his dust; but I do think he tried to do too much on too many occassions.  He seemed way to amped in the first half but calmed down (as did the whole team) in the second somewhat.  Still made alot of poor decisions on the ball.  

On Larin, I thought he was pretty darn good in the first half with some really great touches and flicks.

All in all, I am not sure why we didn't play with 3 midfielders. Plus both Hutch and Eustaquio were playing like 6's from the back so there was no one in the middle most of the time.  I was saying to my friend in the first 15 minutes that in spite of all the pressure on the flanks, we are getting nothing through the middle which allows them to key more on the flanks.  Hoilett made a big difference in the second half but then we had no one on the right.  Just don't get it really.  We are good but we are not Barcelona.

[A_Gagne]

Observations from tonight:

1) Reality check. Ocho games are a level above in terms of intensity and commitment. Every play matters. The young guys unfortunately learned it the hard way tonight and ended up a goal down.

2) Knocked down but not out. If we can take one positive from tonight's game is that after going down a goal the boys played with commitment, urgency and even some appropriate aggression to get back on level terms and then to find the winner. This led to sometimes forcing it but it also showed mental fortitude. Perhaps it's a good thing they were tested with some adversity early in the competition and battled back from it. If they can marry believe in their attacking skills with the mental toughness born of having been knocked down but then getting back up again, this could serve them well in later rounds when they need to grind out another result.

3) Junior is STILL the man. 'nuf said.

4) Alistair Johnston is the real deal. Seriously, can get get this guy to a bigger club/league! On a night where his MLS and age/CMNT experience peers (still counting Buchanan as such) were frankly a step behind, he showed composure well beyond his years and skill well beyond his club level.

5) Tactics. “Players lose you games, not tactics. ~Brian Clough... well, sorry but tonight the tactics were clearly wrong. Herdman had one of his worst games. Too many square pegs in round holes trying to get his best attackers all on the field football manager style. "The switch" as noted by others also contributed to the goal. Players need to learn from this game, but so does the manager.

6) Other results were favourable. Speaking of lessons learned, another young group that got some CONCACAF education tonight was our next opponent. Nations League? Gold Cup? El Salvador does not give a shit and Central America is still hard. It certainly could have been a better night for us, but Mexico being the only team to grab three points definitely helps us out.

7) Results or performance? That's often the question. Tonight the performance was bad but we at least salvaged a point. Next match we might not get a result, but we NEED a strong performance to maintain the belief within the team... because... the next game we NEED the result!

Edited September 3, 2021 by A_Gagne

[A_Gagne]

54 minutes ago, Bertuzzi44 said:

This draw isn't the end of the world, but now we need AT LEAST a draw in Honduras......

😬

[A_Gagne]

2 hours ago, Corazon said:

Sat front row, near halfway line.  Not an ideal start but it's a long qualification process.  Tactically had a very poor first half but adjusted and were the better team in the 2nd half.  Disappointing to drop points at home but the other results make me feel a little bit better.

Borjan - Don't think he put a foot wrong today.  Made some incredible saves, came out appropriately, great on crosses, decent distribution and he continuously got the crowd going.  Great leader out there.

Vitoria - I thought he had a very solid game.

Miller - He got better as the game went on but had a pretty poor first half.  I would expect Kennedy to come in and start most games going forward.

Johnston - Incredible performance again. One of the best players on the pitch.  One of my American friends messaged me to tell me how good he thought Johnston was.

Laryea - I thought he had a good game as well.

Atiba - Grew into the game but did not look his normal self tonight.

Eustaquio - I thought he was fantastic and did a great job breaking up play and distributing well.

David - Not a particularly good game from him but also think the formation did not do him any favours.

Davies - Although he was very dangerous at times and created chances I don't think he was the superstar we are used to.

Tajon - Unfortunately a very poor performance by him.  Possibly the first poor performance I've seen him in the Canada jersey.

Larin - Aside from his goal he was not great but again he did not benefit from the formation and was often left out of the game.

Hoilett - Changed the game and continued his good form this summer.

Kennedy - Thought he looked very good in his short appearance.

+1 to all of this

[Markus]

Many have already made these points but here are my thoughts for no other reason except that i hope writing them out it will aid in my catharsis. Given my need for such, I expect this might be long. 

I'll start with the negatives. 

I thought the moment got to us a bit. Even during the gold cup, there was a lot of talk that September was what mattered. Lots of talk about how this was a must win etc.. 

I know we all felt the angst, the expectation, and the importance of this one. I feel like they did too a bit.

Not sure about the game plan but I didn't feel like we built through the midfield much at all. Atiba in particular looked out of sorts. I was thinking at 30min that they would try to go into the half scoreless and bring on MAK. 

Davies is in a class by himself but for all his dominance, we couldn't really generate anything of quality. Felt like as things went on, he felt like he had to increasingly do things on his own.

Kamal Miller looked shaky but I think he can still contribute.

I thought Buchanon and Davies together were going to cause all kinds of trouble but it never materialized. The experiment switching them was useless and while I think it's great to adapt, it was weird to abandon the original game plan so early. 

It sort of felt like the gameplan was constantly shifting and nobody seemed really certain of their role or trusted their teammates to do the same. I know I keep referencing the gold cup which isn't the same but it felt like there, the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. Felt like the opposite tonight.

Larin and David had few touches and when they did, it was usually tracking back. Tajon had a really rough night. Maybe could try him and Davies on the same side, I don't know but it didn't work.

Set pieces were really poor.

Anyway here's my positives sort of.

Officiating was fine. Without VAR, he got both penalties right. The rest is fine. Not the reason we didn't get 3 points.

For all the talk of our back 3 (or 4) being a liability during the gold cup, they looked fine tonight. Johnstone especially was great. Vitoria solid but took a stupid yellow. Kennedy looked great off the bench. Miller not great.

The two subs we made were good. hoilett made us more dangerous and Kennedy was solid off the bench.

I was really high on Crepeau coming into this, also fine with Borjan starting but man Milan was as good as he could have been. Huge stop to keep it 1-1, started the attack on the play leading to the foul leading to the penalty. Guessed right on the penalty and it took a perfect shot (and a blown hammy?) to beat him.

Crowd was loud and engaged all the way through. You guys sounded great. Kudos.

I mentioned in the other thread that there would be ups and downs and we would likely drop points we thought we'd have and probably grab some we didn't think we could get and not to get too high or low. I'm trying to take my own advice.

If we were gonna have a wakeup call, at least we got it early in the oct. Reminds me a little of the gold cup loss to the USA (different circumstances obv) but we started poorly, woke up and picked things up but couldn't convert. It was frustrating but they responded really well next game. 

If we really do have the quality (and I really believe we do), I trust that it will show over the course of these matches. 

Anyway, I'm done getting my thoughts out. At least I hope so. 

 

 

 

 

[masster]

8 hours ago, The Beaver 2.0 said:

We don't need the Jesus--we got the Phonz.

Maybe could have used Jesus.

[Joe MacCarthy]

5 minutes ago, masster said:

Maybe could have used Jesus.

I tried to tell him

[masster]

4 hours ago, sebdeserio said:

5. Ref was a fraud.

Agree with your whole post, except the point above. There were moments I was screaming at the TV, only to find on the replay that the ref in fact did make the right call. On the whole, I think he did a good job. I hope we will see the same for the remaining games.

[masster]

4 hours ago, CanadaSantos said:

we have a lot of great attacking players but the problem i felt today was that they were all just kind of forced into the lineup. it sucks that a player like buchanan, larin or a laryea will have to sit, but by playing them all at once there just seemed to be some imbalance. i was never the biggest hoilett fan but i loved his role in the gold cup and think he needs to go back up front and start over one of larin or david. those 2 are just to similar and we couldnt create anything through the middle.

Forcing so many attacking players into the starting 11 was extra stupid because not only did it unbalance the squad, with the injuries to Cavallini and Akinola, it deprived us of options off the bench to change the game.

Edited September 3, 2021 by masster

[masster]

Watching our attacking intent in the second half, I really felt we missed the presence of Cavallini, the bull in the china shop type of forward in the box. I was imagining him throwing himself at some of those crosses from the wing. 

I'm not suggesting he should necessarily be a starter in our best XI, but to me, this game was crying out for his skillset. Unfortunately it arrived a handful of days too soon.

[Dominic94]

We really need a 10

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

Wasn't able to watch the game live but Tajon Buchanan's decision making has to be questioned on the penalty conceded (was he playing as an inverted wingback or something?). Far from a sure thing the guy was going to score or set up a goal from that angle so he was clearly looking for an excuse to dive.

Edited September 3, 2021 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[Macksam]

Looks like everyone minus Mexico got stifled yesterday so there's at least that. 

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

To be reductionist in the cold light of day.  In my opinion, we got too cute and too cocky in an attempt to blow them away offensively.  

The reason you play 352  is that it still gives you 3 in the middle of the park.  Laryea did not know his role and did not do it overly well.  Add to that (at least at the beginning) the ball was not sticking with Atiba at all and you handed them the centre of midfield.  

We had enough quality and athletic dominance to still cause problems on the wings but we found the centre of the box was always well defended because there was no threat in middle.  

At least we know what kind of game we need to play next. 

Edited September 3, 2021 by WestHamCanadianinOxford

[Cheeta]

2 hours ago, masster said:

Forcing so many attacking players into the starting 11 was extra stupid because not only did it unbalance the squad, with the injuries to Cavallini and Akinola, it deprived us of options off the bench to change the game.

Saw the starting 11 and thought Herdman was going for it.  And then didn't.  If you're going to throw the kitchen sink at them out of the gate, throw the kitchen sink at them out of the gate.  Spend your energy early and freely.  But that didn't happen.  Too cute by far.

A couple of years from now the only thing I'm going to remember about this underwhelming match is how Eustaquio was my MoTM for that one simple play he made against the Honduran manager Coito in the 2nd half there.  Outstanding. 

[narduch]

Still feels like an opportunity squandered. 

Partly because our manager made mistakes.