CONCACAF Nations League 2022/2023 - General Thread - Group Stage

[theaub]

1 hour ago, Vasi said:

Prices would have been the same. The cost is the issue. Its not a city thing.  

You would have the same issues in any city. 

The CSA is broke and dumb!

Not to detract from the clown pricing but it is a bit of a city thing.  Toronto is an event city and this is not an event.

 

[Vasi]

3 hours ago, theaub said:

Not to detract from the clown pricing but it is a bit of a city thing.  Toronto is an event city and this is not an event.

 

I believe it is a sporting event. 

But even events can be overpriced. 

Do you believe that they would sell this out at the same prices in Montreal or Vancouver? 

[SthMelbRed]

2 hours ago, Vasi said:

I believe it is a sporting event. 

But even events can be overpriced. 

Do you believe that they would sell this out at the same prices in Montreal or Vancouver? 

We'll never know, since the CSA and/or Herdman have decided that the rest of the country can fuck right off.

[CanadianSoccerFan]

5 hours ago, JamboAl said:

If true, looks like we will be the appetizer for Curacao at the end of March.

Panama is playing Argentina a few days earlier at the Monumental.  NGL I'm kinda jealous.  That'll be a special occasion with Messi playing his first home match since the World Cup.  However, I'm sure Panama will do just as well as we did last time

 

 

[Stryker911]

What I never understand is the reason we are told we can't play high profile friendlies is because we can't afford it. Then how does Curscao and Panamaanage to do so?

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

13 minutes ago, Stryker911 said:

What I never understand is the reason we are told we can't play high profile friendlies is because we can't afford it. Then how does Curscao and Panamaanage to do so?

Because Argentina is paying them to travel down there.

[blueseeka]

Looks like they blocked off the upper deck for the game on ticketmaster.

[Stryker911]

30 minutes ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

Because Argentina is paying them to travel down there.

So why dont we do that? Noone said then high profile friendly had to be at home.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

12 minutes ago, Stryker911 said:

So why dont we do that? Noone said then high profile friendly had to be at home.

Because we have two matches during the March window and they only have one.

[Rougeisthecolour]

1 hour ago, blueseeka said:

Looks like they blocked off the upper deck for the game on ticketmaster.

I see that. I also noticed that after the Canada RED+ White presale the top half of the upper deck was blocked for the next two pre sale events. Now the entire upper deck is blocked off. Looks like someone at the CSA over estimated fans apetite for the match or prices are too high. I would expect that if it is announced Davies is playing ticket sales will pick up.

[InBorjanWeTrust]

Anyone understand the changes made to Concacaf nations league for this edition and the next? Personally I’m not a fan. Seems like we’ll have to play some useless friendlies in the fall. ( that is if the CSA can get their shit together).

 

and depending on the draw for the quarters, we might face a stern test to qualify for copa america. 

[JamboAl]

30 minutes ago, InBorjanWeTrust said:

Anyone understand the changes made to Concacaf nations league for this edition and the next? Personally I’m not a fan. Seems like we’ll have to play some useless friendlies in the fall. ( that is if the CSA can get their shit together).

 

and depending on the draw for the quarters, we might face a stern test to qualify for copa america. 

You’re assuming we are Top 4 in CONCACAF by end of March.  Otherwise, we will be too busy to have friendlies.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

34 minutes ago, JamboAl said:

You’re assuming we are Top 4 in CONCACAF by end of March.  Otherwise, we will be too busy to have friendlies.

"where they will join the four top-ranked League A national teams (based on the Concacaf Rankings as of March 2023)."

https://www.concacaf.com/news/concacaf-announces-formats-for-men-s-national-team-competitions-for-the-2023-2026-cycle/

Is it end of March or the beginning of March?

CONCACAF tends to publish these rankings on the first day of the month.

https://www.concacaf.com/rankings/men-s-national-team/

 

Edited February 28, 2023 by Olympique_de_Marseille

[JamboAl]

1 hour ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

"where they will join the four top-ranked League A national teams (based on the Concacaf Rankings as of March 2023)."

https://www.concacaf.com/news/concacaf-announces-formats-for-men-s-national-team-competitions-for-the-2023-2026-cycle/

Is it end of March or the beginning of March?

CONCACAF tends to publish these rankings on the first day of the month.

https://www.concacaf.com/rankings/men-s-national-team/

 

Ooh, beginning of March would be Mont Vic helping us CONCACAF at its best.

[Stryker911]

Very curious what the roster for this squad will look like. If ever there was a camp that a player(s) wanted to make a point that they aren't happy this is it. 

With the changes to Nations league we can finish last in our group and still have a shot at Copa. I can't imagine there are too many players that invested in winning Nations League. Just to be clear I am not advocating for it, but it could easily happen.

[Kent]

1 hour ago, Stryker911 said:

Very curious what the roster for this squad will look like. If ever there was a camp that a player(s) wanted to make a point that they aren't happy this is it. 

With the changes to Nations league we can finish last in our group and still have a shot at Copa. I can't imagine there are too many players that invested in winning Nations League. Just to be clear I am not advocating for it, but it could easily happen.

Just in case any players are lurking and thinking of that, I'll remind them that it will be a whole lot easier to qualify for Copa America if we are ranked top 4 in CONCACAF, and we are currently in 4th, only 63 points ahead of Panama. So best to kick ass in March.

[Kent]

1 hour ago, Stryker911 said:

Very curious what the roster for this squad will look like. If ever there was a camp that a player(s) wanted to make a point that they aren't happy this is it. 

With the changes to Nations league we can finish last in our group and still have a shot at Copa. I can't imagine there are too many players that invested in winning Nations League. Just to be clear I am not advocating for it, but it could easily happen.

Ooh, I found a new way to double post that I didn't know about. Exciting.

Edited March 2, 2023 by Kent

[Redpunkfiddle]

8 hours ago, Kent said:

Just in case any players are lurking and thinking of that, I'll remind them that it will be a whole lot easier to qualify for Copa America if we are ranked top 4 in CONCACAF, and we are currently in 4th, only 63 points ahead of Panama. So best to kick ass in March.

There is no way Panama can catch up to us by end of March. Not even if we lose both our games and Panama wins their game (roughly 15 point swings each). They’d have to fit in multiple friendlies and win them all.

 

[Metro]

12 hours ago, Kent said:

Just in case any players are lurking and thinking of that, I'll remind them that it will be a whole lot easier to qualify for Copa America if we are ranked top 4 in CONCACAF, and we are currently in 4th, only 63 points ahead of Panama. So best to kick ass in March.

 

3 hours ago, Redpunkfiddle said:

There is no way Panama can catch up to us by end of March. Not even if we lose both our games and Panama wins their game (roughly 15 point swings each). They’d have to fit in multiple friendlies and win them all.

 

Listening to Northern Futbol this morning, the boys suggested that CONCACAF deliberately used the rankings this way to ensure the three WC 2026 qualifiers have the easiest way to qualify for the Copa, and well, the qualifying process is a bit crazy...

[Obinna]

9 minutes ago, Metro said:

 

Listening to Northern Futbol this morning, the boys suggested that CONCACAF deliberately used the rankings this way to ensure the three WC 2026 qualifiers have the easiest way to qualify for the Copa, and well, the qualifying process is a bit crazy...

This was the first thing I thought of when I saw the format, specifically in regards to Canada though. Felt like the WCQ fornat change all over again.

[JamboAl]

 

Note: kickoff is now at 9 pm.  

I have received a little over 50 ticket requests, 40 of whom come from the expats and visitors who will be in Curacao that time (not necessarily soccer fans, but that’s perfectly okay).  If anyone has not already contacted me about tickets and is going, please do so.  I will be organizing a pregame event with the help of some locals.

[Kent]

4 hours ago, Redpunkfiddle said:

There is no way Panama can catch up to us by end of March. Not even if we lose both our games and Panama wins their game (roughly 15 point swings each). They’d have to fit in multiple friendlies and win them all.

 

I was never able to crack the code for how the probability of a win/loss is calculated by CONCACAF. I haven't paid much attention to how many points we were getting/losing for various results. You could very well be right.

I just checked now. Grenada and Barbados played each other in 3 friendlies in February, and drew all 3. Grenada had 842 ranking points going into the first game and Barbados had 616 ranking points going into the friendlies. Grenada lost 26 points and Barbados gained 25 (I assume the difference is due to rounding) which would be a bit more than 8 points per match. Friendly matches have an importance factor of 17.5 and CONCACAF matches have an importance factor of 35, so double. So a difference of ~225 ranking points would correlate to a loss of ~16 points for the favoured team in a draw in Nations League. Canada is currently more than 300 points ahead of Honduras and about 525 points ahead of Curacao. so if we lose to those 2 teams it seems like we would stand to lose significantly more than 16 points per game (but less than 35 points). How many points, I don't know.

I'm curious if you have a way of calculating the points or if you are just going off of historical typical changes in ranking points?

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

7 minutes ago, JamboAl said:

Note: kickoff is now at 9 pm.  

I have received a little over 50 ticket requests, 40 of whom come from the expats and visitors who will be in Curacao that time (not necessarily soccer fans, but that’s perfectly okay).  If anyone has not already contacted me about tickets and is going, please do so.  I will be organizing a pregame event with the help of some locals.

The later kickoff time has been confirmed by CONCACAF:

https://www.concacaf.com/nations-league/news/schedule-set-for-2022-23-cnl-group-stage-matches-in-march/

Out home match on Tuesday night will kickoff at 8pm.

 

[Redpunkfiddle]

10 hours ago, Kent said:

I was never able to crack the code for how the probability of a win/loss is calculated by CONCACAF. I haven't paid much attention to how many points we were getting/losing for various results. You could very well be right.

I just checked now. Grenada and Barbados played each other in 3 friendlies in February, and drew all 3. Grenada had 842 ranking points going into the first game and Barbados had 616 ranking points going into the friendlies. Grenada lost 26 points and Barbados gained 25 (I assume the difference is due to rounding) which would be a bit more than 8 points per match. Friendly matches have an importance factor of 17.5 and CONCACAF matches have an importance factor of 35, so double. So a difference of ~225 ranking points would correlate to a loss of ~16 points for the favoured team in a draw in Nations League. Canada is currently more than 300 points ahead of Honduras and about 525 points ahead of Curacao. so if we lose to those 2 teams it seems like we would stand to lose significantly more than 16 points per game (but less than 35 points). How many points, I don't know.

I'm curious if you have a way of calculating the points or if you are just going off of historical typical changes in ranking points?

Oh, shoot. I forgot this was CONCACAF points. I have no idea how this system works, I was talking FIFA ranking points. 

[Shway]

So we are 3 weeks away from their first game in 2023. (it's funny because I would typically say "our" but it doesn't feel like this right now)
We know there will be some change over in the squad due to some injuries from the 26 that last appeared at the WC in December. 

Here's a look at the World Cup Squad.



Out Injured:
Junior Hoilett
James Pantemis

Short of minutes/match fitness:
Ike Ugbo - has played 37 mins from a possible 990 mins scoring 1 goal
Joel Waterman - hasn't been in MTL squad this season
Liam Fraser - has played 179 mins from a possible 810 mins with his team fighting relegation
Liam Millar - has played 207 mins from a possible 540 mins while experiencing a hand fracture
David Wotherspoon - has played 214 mins from a possible 1080 mins

*I have projected 19 guys from the 26 that are locks for call ups, the one's highlighted in yellow are cusp players, and red is players who are out.

...Here's a look at guys who missed the World Cup Squad.

Jacob Shaffelburg - If he continues his run of minutes, and contributions I think he will earn this call-up due
Charles-Andreas Brym - has been in a good run of form and the coaching staff likes him.
(I have them as green as I think they will be called)

*The rest are on the cusp (yellow) or out (red).

Out Injured/Ineligible:
Maxime Crepeau
Doneil Henry 
Luca Koleosho

Short of minutes/match fitness:
Scott Kennedy - has played 21 mins since serving a red card suspension and suffering a facial injury
Raheem Edwards - played 71 mins in his teams season opener.
Thomas Hasal - Has been relegated to the #2 spot for the Whitecaps this year, and hasn't featured.
Theo Corbeanu - has played 74 mins of a possible 540 mins since arriving on loan at his new club
Jayden Nelson - season hasn't started yet.
Ayo Akinola - played 84 mins from a possible 180, and picked up a small injury in the last game
Matthieu Choiniere - has played played 135 mins from a possible 180. Started 1 game.
Zachary Brault-Guillard - Started his clubs first game and played 61 mins, and then didn't appear in the next game.
Lukas MacNaughton - on the bench for both his clubs games.
Cristian Gutierrez - Not in his squad. Hasn't made the bench for both games.

...Here's some names who have been featuring for their clubs since the World Cup.

Victor Loturi  - has played 725 mins from a possible 1170 mins while his team is fighting relegation)
Dominik Zator - has played in all but 19 mins of his teams first 6 matches  since the return of the break.
Kyle Hiebert - has played every minute in his new franchise clubs first two games. Both games were wins.
Diyaeddine Abzi - has played in 432 min from a possible 990 mins. Was his teams PotMonth for January.
Mohamed Farsi - has had consecutive starts to the season playing in 166 from a possible 180.
Ralph Priso - has played 125 mins of 180 mins in his teams first two games of their season.
Luca Petrasso - has played 109 mins from 180 in his teams first two games. He started their first game in which they won.
Marcus Godinho - has played 105 mins from a possible 540 mins. 
Nathan Saliba - started both games for his teams season. Playing in 117 mins of a possible 180.
Sean Rea - has played 95 mins from a possible 180 mins so far this season.

From this information who do you think will be in the 26 man squad?

Edited March 6, 2023 by Shway