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WCQ: Canada vs Panama - Wednesday, Oct 13, 7:30pm Eastern / 4:30pm Pacific - Toronto


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13 hours ago, johnyb said:

Doniel still gets the award for learning how to CONCACAF, but an honorable mention goes to Jonathon David for helping himself to some Panamanian water.

If you watched the 'Caps win in Portland today, you'll have seen that Max learned some CONCACAF shithousery while he was away with Canada, too. Deep in injury time, protecting a one-goal lead, he suffered the most phantom foot injury you're likely to see. Still, taking no chances....get the trainers out there!

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On 10/17/2021 at 4:22 AM, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

His one and only appearance for Ghana (after filing his one-time-switch because he had played for England at the U20 level) was actually against....Canada!

It was the friendly in Washington D.C. in October 2015 where 6 of our guys made their debuts including Hoilett.

https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/canada-1-ghana-1-international-friendly-recap

The #CanMNT must be memorable for him in the sense that we're the only national team he has ever faced!

Maybe One Soccer'll get a mysterious tape through their mail slot.  ATTN:  HR

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  • 11 months later...

The turning point for me was the game 5 days earlier at the Azteca that ended 1-1.   When you go to the Azteca and you play Mexico the way Canada did in that in that game (AT THE AZTECA), you know that you have an unprecedented team.   In that game, Canada took it to the Mexicans and traded chances with them.  Nobody in Concacaf has ever delivered that kind of performance against Mexico at the Azteca.   We had the Mexicans (at a few times) laying back and respecting our attacking players whereas, in the past, teams that go to the Azteca, would just sit back and pray and hope to survive and limit the damage to their goal differential.  One just has to go back in history until 1930 and see how many times Mexico has dropped points in the altitude of Azteca. 

I find it hard or even odd to select the home game against Panama game as a turning point when, in the end, Panama didnt even qualify for the WC.   It was and should have been expected that we would win or get a result against Panama.  It would have been a big failure not to do so.  But the Performance at the Azteca, surprised me at how good a team we had, and I knew then that chance of going to the WC was very real.

Edited by Free kick
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I can't really disagree with you @Free kick.  We went into the Azteca and took the game to Mexico for big stretches.  Perhaps this is the game that is the turning point, but I still think that the Davies goal is the moment - it's a clip that puts it all into focus say.  I suppose you can't really do that with the Mexico game event though in the big picture it is likely more meaningful.  

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3 minutes ago, RJB said:

I can't really disagree with you @Free kick.  We went into the Azteca and took the game to Mexico for big stretches.  Perhaps this is the game that is the turning point, but I still think that the Davies goal is the moment - it's a clip that puts it all into focus say.  I suppose you can't really do that with the Mexico game event though in the big picture it is likely more meaningful.  

I think the Panama game may have been a turning point for fans, casual or otherwise and the media seeing that wonder goal by Davies hit the highlights all over the world and you could certainly feel the atmosphere at BMO erupt after that goal. But I agree with @Free kickthe Azteca game was the turning point for JH, the players and the team. No team had ever high pressed Mexico at Azteca before and it showed a level of confidence and a total lack of fear that Canada could tango with the best in Concacaf.

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9 hours ago, Kadenge said:

I think the Panama game may have been a turning point for fans, casual or otherwise and the media seeing that wonder goal by Davies hit the highlights all over the world and you could certainly feel the atmosphere at BMO erupt after that goal. But I agree with @Free kickthe Azteca game was the turning point for JH, the players and the team. No team had ever high pressed Mexico at Azteca before and it showed a level of confidence and a total lack of fear that Canada could tango with the best in Concacaf.

Yes.  I was going to allude to this.   It was for the casuals in Canada who don't really follow game or have an understanding of the game, the history of Concacaf etc....   Davies made some far greater plays and impacted the team in far greater ways throughout the WCQ cycle than with that goal against Panama.    For example, that one touch combos (plus run dribble and pass) to Larin to setup for the equalizer against the US.   The pass that split five defenders to setup the Oso goal against Mexico.    The reason that that goal got so much attention is because many people (and media) who don't follow soccer were watching that game.  If you follow the game and appreciate the game, there were other great goals (I would argue better soccer goals) scored in WCQ such as:   1) The goal by Adekugbe in Hamilton, 2) The Jonathan David goal in ES 3) The buildup of passes that led to the Atiba goal against ES 4) Larin Goal (and buildup) in Nashville.   That goal against Panama was nice goal and individual effort but it got so much attention because it was an individual effort and of the athletic skills moreso that the soccer skills involved.  And people who don't follow sport defer to or can understand athleticism more so than soccer skills.

Edited by Free kick
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While I personally agree that the Azteca match was a huge eye opener for the diehard fan that had us believing, the Davies moment was huge as the 15 minutes before that Panama was taking the game to us at home and you really started to think that the old ghosts were showing themselves and shit we could lose this match which would have been a disaster at that stage of qualifying. Davies took the team on his back with a moment of sheer brilliance which changed the whole match.  And you never really doubted the team again from there. 

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On 10/13/2022 at 11:54 PM, Ally McCoist said:

This game was exactly 1 year ago. How time flies man. I remember this like this was yesterday. This was THE turning moment.

It may have been the turning moment for getting the team into the spotlight for the nation, but I think the turning moment for the team's performance was probably the loss to Haiti in the Gold Cup.  They changed things up and have been steadily building and improving since the latter.  I don't think the trajectory has deviated much since then.

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11 hours ago, An Observer said:

While I personally agree that the Azteca match was a huge eye opener for the diehard fan that had us believing, the Davies moment was huge as the 15 minutes before that Panama was taking the game to us at home and you really started to think that the old ghosts were showing themselves and shit we could lose this match which would have been a disaster at that stage of qualifying. Davies took the team on his back with a moment of sheer brilliance which changed the whole match.  And you never really doubted the team again from there. 

Sorry but Panama was not taking the game to us. I remember local radio shows even talking about how Panama barely got over half in the second half. 
 

Davies goal was huge but you could feel it coming. It was huge in terms of bringing attention to the team. But I think there were many check points because it’s hard to say something was a “turning point” when the team was on an upward trajectory since Nashville, which would have been the turning point if there was one. 

Edited by CanadaFan123
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22 hours ago, Free kick said:

The turning point for me was the game 5 days earlier at the Azteca that ended 1-1.   When you go to the Azteca and you play Mexico the way Canada did in that in that game (AT THE AZTECA), you know that you have an unprecedented team.   In that game, Canada took it to the Mexicans and traded chances with them.  Nobody in Concacaf has ever delivered that kind of performance against Mexico at the Azteca.   We had the Mexicans (at a few times) laying back and respecting our attacking players whereas, in the past, teams that go to the Azteca, would just sit back and pray and hope to survive and limit the damage to their goal differential.  One just has to go back in history until 1930 and see how many times Mexico has dropped points in the altitude of Azteca. 

I find it hard or even odd to select the home game against Panama game as a turning point when, in the end, Panama didnt even qualify for the WC.   It was and should have been expected that we would win or get a result against Panama.  It would have been a big failure not to do so.  But the Performance at the Azteca, surprised me at how good a team we had, and I knew then that chance of going to the WC was very real.

Like others have pointed out, The Panama game was the turning point for the casuals. I think a lot of us consider it a turning point because we went down 1-0 early on and we had that feeling of "not this again," before the tying goal and then inevitably Davies' wonder goal. 

1 hour ago, CanadaFan123 said:

Sorry but Panama was not taking the game to us. I remember local radio shows even talking about how Panama barely got over half in the second half. 
 

Davies goal was huge but you could feel it coming. It was huge in terms of bringing attention to the team. But I think there were many check points because it’s hard to say something was a “turning point” when the team was on an upward trajectory since Nashville, which would have been the turning point if there was one. 

@An Observer is correct. I think "taking it to us," may be a little subjective here. They definately were controlling the game, out passing us, out possessing us for the 15 minutes prior to the Davies goal. 

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I would say the turning point was another game at BMO Field in October, but it was played 2 years before the Panama one.

The victory over the US in Nations League gave the team self-belief and also proved to everyone (fans and players) that Canada was capable of beating a big team in a game that actually counted for something. It had bee a long time since that had happened, especially given the string of crucial losses in important Gold Cup matches dating back to 2009 - since then we'd only had a couple of key wins at home against rivals who were around our level in WCQ (1-0 over Panama at BMO, 1-0 win over Honduras, but neither of those teams would be seen at the same level as the US. Plus we didn't just win the game, we dominated the Yanks, who barely had a chance to score.

That should have been seen as a "look out, here come's Canada" moment in October 2019, and I think the players and a lot of the fanbase felt so. Not so much the American pundits who said it was a "new low" for the American team in this video where the pundits debate which was the more embarrassing defeat - a loss which eliminated them from qualifying for the World Cup or losing to Canada. Funny how they weren't asking the same questions earlier this year when we beat them...

 

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5 hours ago, Kadenge said:

@Gian-Lucathe issue with the BMO game being the turning point is that we got smoked in the return fixture. It was a huge victory for the CMNT but I'm not sure I would label it as the turning point.

The players have all been quoted saying that they felt they also dominated play against the US in the return leg, so for them the previous match still would be the turning point in terms of self-belief that they could compete against the best. Plus, I'm not sure because you proved you can beat the best in the region, that this means that you have to do it on every occasion and if not, then the first time no longer counts - I'd imagine that it's less likely that this was the train of thought going through their heads.

Edited by Gian-Luca
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21 hours ago, An Observer said:

While I personally agree that the Azteca match was a huge eye opener for the diehard fan that had us believing, the Davies moment was huge as the 15 minutes before that Panama was taking the game to us at home and you really started to think that the old ghosts were showing themselves and shit we could lose this match which would have been a disaster at that stage of qualifying. Davies took the team on his back with a moment of sheer brilliance which changed the whole match.  And you never really doubted the team again from there. 

I completely agree.  While Azteca was a "Holy $%^&, maybe we are good?" moment, people forget that going into the Panama game we were actually in 4th place in the standings - we were a point down on Panama (who had just beaten the US at home), and even a draw with them in our house would've been a very bad result considering we still had to go back to their house.  This was a must-win game, and we all knew it, the team knew it, and perhaps most importantly, Alphonso Davies knew it.

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10 hours ago, Alex said:

Before our first goal off the corner didn’t we have 3 or 4 corners in a row right before? We were dominating

I remember the corners happening right after I finally got to my seat (the damn lineups were terrible) and the goal was one of the first things I saw lol.

We barely touched the ball at the start of the 2nd half though, the Davies goal really was a big turning point out of nowhere.

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On 10/17/2022 at 8:18 AM, Bdog said:

I remember the corners happening right after I finally got to my seat (the damn lineups were terrible) and the goal was one of the first things I saw lol.

We barely touched the ball at the start of the 2nd half though, the Davies goal really was a big turning point out of nowhere.

Agreed. That was my point above although seems others have forgotten that. We were the better side in the first half but to start the second when it was 1-1, they definitely were the better side which had me and my brother who I was watching it with live at BMO believing they may take the 3 points and then the Davies goal completely flipped it. 

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