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


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2 hours ago, Obinna said:

I have struck out the 3 players who will most obviously need a rest.

image.png.bdd526d34e10ccfca0836e3bfe84c247.png

If we really want to get fresh faces in here, we could stretch it and say David is out due to impending transfer. Everyone else from this list should be ready to go, barring injury.

We can make it simple and say Davies comes in for David. Who else makes the squad?

  • Hasal for Borjan?
  • Waterman for Vitoria?
  • Piette for Hutchinson?

This would omit Corbeanu, Akinola, Paton, and Brault-Guillard, not to mention finding room for Mitrovic or Jebbison if either decides now is the time to commit to Canada. While those dual nationals are very much anyone's guess, it would be very hard to leave out those 4, maybe less so for ZBG, but the other 3 are all overdue a run in the team. 

At the same time, if everyone else is available who do you leave off? Who from that list will you tell they are surplus to requirements? I know most of us want some fresh faces, but the more I think about it the harder it will be to do. Not easy for Herdman, that's for sure. 

We never want our guys injured, but a few slight knocks to some guys would make this a lot easier. 

Is calling a 32 man camp practical?  For the two NLL games, you would not include 6 of the regulars on the NLL roster, incorporate the younger guys.  Then for the friendly, the regular guys would slot back into the roster.  The benefit would be the main group has training time together, even though not playing. 

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4 minutes ago, nfitz said:

Are you thinking of Martinique?

Montserrat have actually been quite competitive lately. Pushed El Salvador to the brink twice. Beat Dominican Republic. Beat Grenada. They’re still probably slight favourites to be relegated from a group with Haiti, Bermuda and Guyana, but I wouldn’t be shocked if they stay up.

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1 hour ago, RJB said:

How quickly we forget!  We were the donkeys not so long ago.  Just as we dream of Brazil, and England, so too can these countries dream of Canada as an opponent.  We cannot let this success go to our head, and we owe it to these teams just as others owed it to us for so long.  Seriously, why the arrogance?  

Now all of a sudden we're too good for our region!?  It's time to give our collective heads a shake and remember where we came from.  

 

That’s some real spin at my point. I have no issues playing our region (I do hate Honduras though), my problem was that we are scheduling nations league matches during a short time frame when we should have a clear calendar to schedule against other competition outside of our region. We can play nations league down the road. Arrogance? Ok..

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56 minutes ago, EJsens1 said:

That’s some real spin at my point. I have no issues playing our region (I do hate Honduras though), my problem was that we are scheduling nations league matches during a short time frame when we should have a clear calendar to schedule against other competition outside of our region. We can play nations league down the road. Arrogance? Ok..

I mean, yes there's an argument friendlies would have been better for us, and maybe CONCACAF could have tinkered with the schedule so that June would have been free to do that.

However, when you actually take a look they've actually helped us out by scheduling the final two match days in the March 2023 window, instead of the September 2022 window.

This is better as far as friendlies are concerned, since September is closer to the tournament, and the closer to the actual tournament you can play these friendly prep games, the better (at least according to Herdman).

In other words, it seems that CONCACAF has actually made an effort to help it's WC teams out. 

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1 hour ago, YorkRegionFan said:

Is calling a 32 man camp practical?  For the two NLL games, you would not include 6 of the regulars on the NLL roster, incorporate the younger guys.  Then for the friendly, the regular guys would slot back into the roster.  The benefit would be the main group has training time together, even though not playing. 

It's doable, but I wouldn't bet on it. The reason why I don't think it happens is that we've been calling 24-25 men for 3 game windows for a while now, and this number of players has clearly worked for Herdman and the team.

I get the sense he doesn't like guys calling guys and not using them, but if they are brought in with the expectation they are "extras" then I can see it working.

That pretext would make sense for any dual nationals that come in, which I kind of like. You've committed after we've qualified, so now you must earn the right to play. No free rides. 

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1 hour ago, Obinna said:

I mean, yes there's an argument friendlies would have been better for us, and maybe CONCACAF could have tinkered with the schedule so that June would have been free to do that.

However, when you actually take a look they've actually helped us out by scheduling the final two match days in the March 2023 window, instead of the September 2022 window.

This is better as far as friendlies are concerned, since September is closer to the tournament, and the closer to the actual tournament you can play these friendly prep games, the better (at least according to Herdman).

In other words, it seems that CONCACAF has actually made an effort to help it's WC teams out. 

I don’t disagree with what you’re saying, but we just went through a thorough, condensed World Cup qualifying process. Now that it is finished, we turn around 8 weeks later to play some of the same teams again? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think this is the biggest outrage in sports history, but to me, it’s not the best way for concacaf to capitalize on an impending World Cup, particularly leading into 2026 where making a bit of a statement is important IMO. Again, I feel this could be pushed down the road a bit for the benefit of not just Canada, but the entire region. 

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53 minutes ago, EJsens1 said:

I don’t disagree with what you’re saying, but we just went through a thorough, condensed World Cup qualifying process. Now that it is finished, we turn around 8 weeks later to play some of the same teams again? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think this is the biggest outrage in sports history, but to me, it’s not the best way for concacaf to capitalize on an impending World Cup, particularly leading into 2026 where making a bit of a statement is important IMO. Again, I feel this could be pushed down the road a bit for the benefit of not just Canada, but the entire region. 

I hear you. It feels awkward doesn't it? This may be our perspective as a WC qualified team. Our attention is expanding away from this region, but at the same time it feels we are locked in it, having to play the same teams again. I get that.

But from the perspective of everyone else who hasn't qualified, these games cannot come fast enough. I know if it was Canada who failed to qualify, I would be chomping at the bit for nations league to get going. It was designed to avoid long stretches without anything to play for, so pushing the games back any further kind of defeats the purpose.

I feel we have to take the good with the bad here. And on the plus side, we avoided the minnows and have two games against two good sides.

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6 hours ago, EJsens1 said:

That’s some real spin at my point. I have no issues playing our region (I do hate Honduras though), my problem was that we are scheduling nations league matches during a short time frame when we should have a clear calendar to schedule against other competition outside of our region. We can play nations league down the road. Arrogance? Ok..

You called them donkeys.  That's a fairly clear "we're better than you" name calling.  It is arrogant.

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The schedule is starting to come together.

God bless FENAFUTH for leaking info as soon as they get it and bless those tabloids for publishing it.

https://www.laprensa.hn/amp/deportes/seleccion-honduras-calendario-liga-naciones-concacaf-canada-curazao-AF7135222

https://www.diez.hn/amp/laseleccion/concacaf-anuncia-las-fechas-para-los-juegos-de-la-seleccion-de-honduras-en-la-liga-de-naciones-2022-JE7134913

So we get:

Matchday #1 - Friday, June 3rd Curaçao vs Honduras

Matchday #2 - Monday, June 6th Honduras vs Curaçao

Matchday #3 - Curaçao/Canada ( host TBD but likely Canada on roughly June 10th)

Matchday #4 - Tuesday, June 14th Honduras vs Canada

Matchday #5 - Curaçao/Canada ( host TBD but likely Curaçao)

Matchday #6 - Tuesday, March 28th Canada vs Honduras

 

It looks like the opposite of what I speculated, we may play a friendly before our CNL matches.

Edited by Olympique_de_Marseille
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I bet we won’t see most of main squad for nation league. Herdman is gonna call up two teams basically. 
 

it makes sense too . 40-50 players all training together, learning the systems. Plus the fringe guys get a chance to prove themselves. Even if they don’t make the World Cup roster at first, anything can happen with injuries, covid etc. 

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I am hearing the United States are playing Uruguay as one of their two prep games in the June Nations League window. This has supposedly been confirmed by ESPN Uruguay, though no official mention from the USSF as of yet.

I have been thinking Ecuador and Tunisia would be good friendly opponents for us. I am not sure how Morocco play, but my lazy, ignorant comparison would be to liken them to fellow North Africans, Tunisia. Ecuador is another WC team we could play, not necessarily for their style of play, but just because they are the quality of side we should be playing. Plus, they may already be in North America to play Mexico (no official word, just speculating the Mexicans may want to play them), so there could be a logistical fit, whereas Tunisia may not want to come all the way across the pond to play us.

As for the order of the matches (thanks @Olympique_de_Marseille), I was hoping we'd get the opposite and have a proper send off for our final game of the window. 

Another lazy comparison (because I haven't watched Ecuador recently), but Ecuador may also serve as good prep for Honduras. Ecuadorians typically are best on the counter attack and that's the traits of Honduras also. I know we have one eye on the World Cup, but considering the friendly actually comes before the Honduras NL game, it could be the best opponent for us. 

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14 minutes ago, Obinna said:

I am hearing the United States are playing Uruguay as one of their two prep games in the June Nations League window. This has supposedly been confirmed by ESPN Uruguay, though no official mention from the USSF as of yet.

I have been thinking Ecuador and Tunisia would be good friendly opponents for us. I am not sure how Morocco play, but my lazy, ignorant comparison would be to liken them to fellow North Africans, Tunisia. Ecuador is another WC team we could play, not necessarily for their style of play, but just because they are the quality of side we should be playing. Plus, they may already be in North America to play Mexico (no official word, just speculating the Mexicans may want to play them), so there could be a logistical fit, whereas Tunisia may not want to come all the way across the pond to play us.

As for the order of the matches (thanks @Olympique_de_Marseille), I was hoping we'd get the opposite and have a proper send off for our final game of the window. 

Another lazy comparison (because I haven't watched Ecuador recently), but Ecuador may also serve as good prep for Honduras. Ecuadorians typically are best on the counter attack and that's the traits of Honduras also. I know we have one eye on the World Cup, but considering the friendly actually comes before the Honduras NL game, it could be the best opponent for us. 

Tunisia skill level is lower than Morocco I think we should face a North African team with more technical players like Algeria.

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37 minutes ago, VinceA said:

Tunisia skill level is lower than Morocco I think we should face a North African team with more technical players like Algeria.

I am all for it. I am pretty ignorant on these North African teams, though I know the Algeria players are more European based, obviously with a few standouts. Probably a better analog to Morocco, who are also pretty technical. Tunisia have a lot of players from their domestic league (many from the same few clubs, which are big clubs by CAF standards), but I can't say whether they are any less technical or not, because I haven't watched them. North African players tend to be technical in general, but skill wise individually I am assuming they (the Tunisians) are probably inferior by virtue of their players not being at big European clubs. 

Edited by Obinna
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22 hours ago, Obinna said:

I have struck out the 3 players who will most obviously need a rest.

image.png.bdd526d34e10ccfca0836e3bfe84c247.png

If we really want to get fresh faces in here, we could stretch it and say David is out due to impending transfer. Everyone else from this list should be ready to go, barring injury.

We can make it simple and say Davies comes in for David. Who else makes the squad?

  • Hasal for Borjan?
  • Waterman for Vitoria?
  • Piette for Hutchinson?

This would omit Corbeanu, Akinola, Paton, and Brault-Guillard, not to mention finding room for Mitrovic or Jebbison if either decides now is the time to commit to Canada. While those dual nationals are very much anyone's guess, it would be very hard to leave out those 4, maybe less so for ZBG, but the other 3 are all overdue a run in the team. 

At the same time, if everyone else is available who do you leave off? Who from that list will you tell they are surplus to requirements? I know most of us want some fresh faces, but the more I think about it the harder it will be to do. Not easy for Herdman, that's for sure. 

We never want our guys injured, but a few slight knocks to some guys would make this a lot easier. 

In addition to your 3, I think there is a few more guys who will need extended rest in preparation for their new season.
Remember a lot of leagues will start earlier this year due to the November WC start. 
(EFL - July 30, EPL - August 13, Belgian League - July 23, Primeria Liga - August 8th, Ligue 1 - August 6th, 

Laryea - Has had a really long season and a half. He will need to be fresh by the time Forrest start training in July, to cement his place in the lineup. He deserves a summer break. 

Eustaqiuo - Although an ironman for Canada, it's the same scenario as Richie.  He too will need a break to reset and comeback sharp to cement his place at his new club.

Larin - Chances are he will be at a new club. Does he want to show up with a headstart from playing with Canada, or does he show up to his new club jaded and needing rest. I think he needs the rest.

David - Another guy who could be due for a move, and if he is. He'll need the same rest that the others require.

Hoilett - Could use a break as well considering the Championship will start July 30, which would virtually give him no time off. 

So John Herdman might talk about bringing his strongest team, but he understands the psychology and biology aspect of guys needing a refresh/recharge. 

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13 minutes ago, Shway said:

In addition to your 3, I think there is a few more guys who will need extended rest in preparation for their new season.
Remember a lot of leagues will start earlier this year due to the November WC start. 
(EFL - July 30, EPL - August 13, Belgian League - July 23, Primeria Liga - August 8th, Ligue 1 - August 6th, 

Laryea - Has had a really long season and a half. He will need to be fresh by the time Forrest start training in July, to cement his place in the lineup. He deserves a summer break. 

Eustaqiuo - Although an ironman for Canada, it's the same scenario as Richie.  He too will need a break to reset and comeback sharp to cement his place at his new club.

Larin - Chances are he will be at a new club. Does he want to show up with a headstart from playing with Canada, or does he show up to his new club jaded and needing rest. I think he needs the rest.

David - Another guy who could be due for a move, and if he is. He'll need the same rest that the others require.

Hoilett - Could use a break as well considering the Championship will start July 30, which would virtually give him no time off. 

So John Herdman might talk about bringing his strongest team, but he understands the psychology and biology aspect of guys needing a refresh/recharge. 

Good points.

I hadn't considered Laryea needing to be fresh and ready to start training in July. I was looking at it from the perspective of Richie not having played and thus not needing a break, but it will be critical for him to get a full preseason. The window will be done by the 14th of June though, so he'll roughly have 2 weeks off, so the window may not impact his preseason. 

Ditto Larin and David, although I would be more cautious with Larin in particular, since he's had a lot of niggles.

The other factor is the timing of joining a new club in the transfer window. Does that change things? I mean, we want both to get a full preseason, but neither may not have signed a new deal with a new club until after June 14th. Something to consider.

Eustaquio is tricky as well. Again, like Laryea, I never looked at it from that perspective. Arguably better for him to remain at Porto to start the pre-season well. Conversely, the June window concludes on the 14th, giving him a few weeks at minimum to recover. 

Hoilett I actually debated including in those 3, so I am alright with putting him in there now. He's fit at the moment, but his fitness is more fragile than the other guys

........

If we are missing all of these guys, in addition to Hutchinson, Borjan and Vitoria, we are no longer talking about an A team. That may be the reality we are facing though, because the biology and psychology are what they are. He'll be leaning on his experts to assess the fitness of players, but at the same time he's mentioned how the human will can stretch the physiological limits (or something to that effect), so we'll see.

From the names mentioned here, here's how I will rank from most to least likely to miss out:

  1. Hoilett (fitness)
  2. Larin (fitness and will be joining a new club on a free, and having a full preseason with the new club is key)
  3. David (club future uncertain, but technically under contract at Lille. Unclear when or if a move happens, despite his intentions. Has also played virtually more than anyone)
  4. Eustaquio (club future uncertain and good preseason critical if returning to Porto, but has played sparingly and may not need the break as badly as David)
  5. Laryea (I think we see him. I get he needs to have a good preseason to break into Forest, but he should have time to recover and out of everyone is least in need of recovery, because he hasn't played. If anything you can flip it and say this gives him a jump start for his fitness heading into preseason. 
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14 minutes ago, narduch said:

Our schedule is out.

The Honduran tabloids got it right! :D

So who has the best availability June 10th?

I still say we should have at least either the friendly or the CNL match at Saputo.

The Davies debut was vs Curaçao in Montreal. 😊

It would be funny to play them there again. I bet we would get more than 6000 this time.

 

EDIT:

The full schedule document can be found here:

https://www.concacaf.com/nations-league/news/concacaf-announces-schedule-for-2022-23-concacaf-nations-league-presented-by-qatar-airways/

Edited by Olympique_de_Marseille
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