Canada Pre-World Cup "friendlies" thread: news, gossip and speculation.

[Califax]

36 minutes ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

They can but they won't. It's not Herdman's style. He wants to keep the brotherhood strong and tight-knit it seems.

I want this narrative to go away so we can focus on getting to the knockouts. 

There are 31 other brotherhoods that are going to prepare their ass off without sacrificing the best possible fixtures.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 4, 2022 by Califax

[ADP10]

LOL its ironic how we loved the last nations league because it prepped us for WCQs and now we’re like the USA and Mexico and find it inconvenient.

Remember what the nations league does for teams like we used to be guys

[Cblake]

20 minutes ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

We can go to Europe in September but who do we play if the UEFA teams are playing Nations League?

2 African teams? 1 African team and 1 Asian team?

What is the point of going to Europe if we don't actually play a UEFA team?

The point is playing in London is its a central hub to bring everyone into. Easy for those in North America, obviosuly easy for those spread out Europe. There is a stadium for just about every level of potential match. Friendlies of all sorts are played there. I saw Brazil Italy at Emirates, Argentina Croatia at Upton Park, Jamaica Nigeria at The New Den and USA Colombia at Craven Cottage, a stadium where Canada played Australia a number of years ago. it is also extremely easy to get a training pitch setup etc. 

[nfitz]

15 hours ago, Rougeisthecolour said:

Did Herdman not directly say there would be a single friendly in June played at a location that would be travel friendly. He then followed it up by saying he "needs" to get the team to Europe in the fall. 

1 June friendly in Canada (likely Toronto) and 2 friendlies in Europe in the fall?

With European teams all having 2 Nations League matches in September, I'd think we'd be better off on a different continent. Neither Africa, Asia, nor South America have tournaments in September.

On the other hand, Estonia, Malta, and San Marino are all available in September, as they are in the only 3-team Nations League group.

Or maybe we could take Russia's place, and play friendlies against Israel and Iceland. And maybe even Albania in June - though that would be a squeeze given the Nations League games in North America.

Edited April 4, 2022 by nfitz

[Unnamed Trialist]

30 minutes ago, Cblake said:

The point is playing in London is its a central hub to bring everyone into. Easy for those in North America, obviosuly easy for those spread out Europe. There is a stadium for just about every level of potential match. Friendlies of all sorts are played there. I saw Brazil Italy at Emirates, Argentina Croatia at Upton Park, Jamaica Nigeria at The New Den and USA Colombia at Craven Cottage, a stadium where Canada played Australia a number of years ago. it is also extremely easy to get a training pitch setup etc. 

The only thing is this: we want the best possible training and prep conditions. In this case it means playing away to sides that may "feel" like our WC rivals.

I just made a long tiresome post of the sort I do then finally thought I should look at UEFA Nations League scheduling. Crap.

The only possible thing that may work is that the teams in Division B, in the Russia group are all free, or will be at least for one match. Albania, I just saw the Spain friendly against them and they were really quite good, very disciplined, played a high line to not give any space for playmaking in front of their CBs, have a great striker in Broja. Play their hearts out even in friendlies.

Then, in September, let's go play Tunisia and Algeria or Egypt, that would be showing some gumption to prep that way. 

Edited April 4, 2022 by Unnamed Trialist

[nfitz]

1 hour ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

The only possible thing that may work is that the teams in Division B, in the Russia group are all free, or will be at least for one match. Albania, I just saw the Spain friendly against them and they were really quite good, very disciplined, played a high line to not give any space for playmaking in front of their CBs, have a great striker in Broja. Play their hearts out even in friendlies.

Then, in September, let's go play Tunisia and Algeria or Egypt, that would be showing some gumption to prep that way. 

We could play against Group B teams in September, but Albania isn't available because they are playing both Iceland and Israel in that window.

With Canada playing two Nations League matches in North America in June, playing in Europe isn't an option.

Edited April 4, 2022 by nfitz

[VinceA]

Looks like the US will try to get two friendlies in for June. 

 

This confuses me though, So Canada is only going to play two Nations League games in June, I thought they were doing four? Home and Away against the other two teams.

If we're only doing two then they need to try and get to friendlies against SA competition.

[theaub]

CNL is two games in June and two next March.

[nfitz]

35 minutes ago, theaub said:

CNL is two games in June and two next March.

Yes 

 

Edited April 4, 2022 by nfitz

[narduch]

9 minutes ago, nfitz said:

No, it's 4 in June and 2 next march. It's a round-robin in a group of 4. That's six matches.

Berhalter must be on crack or something.

 

League A is a group of 3

[nfitz]

1 minute ago, narduch said:

League A is a group of 3

Ah ... I must be on crack or something.

[nfitz]

Delete duplicate

Edited April 4, 2022 by nfitz

[Unnamed Trialist]

Geez, I'm so confused about how this is set up, but there is this: all qualified teams plus Costa Rica should petition for the two match first round of NL be held in March 2023, or sometime before the semi finals. And not this year. It is completely assinine and counterproductive to the region's success at Qatar.

[narduch]

7 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Geez, I'm so confused about how this is set up, but there is this: all qualified teams plus Costa Rica should petition for the two match first round of NL be held in March 2023, or sometime before the semi finals. And not this year. It is completely assinine and counterproductive to the region's success at Qatar.

Been thinking this too.

[Jedi Ram]

4 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Geez, I'm so confused about how this is set up, but there is this: all qualified teams plus Costa Rica should petition for the two match first round of NL be held in March 2023, or sometime before the semi finals. And not this year. It is completely assinine and counterproductive to the region's success at Qatar.

Gold Cup is next summer, so there is no room for them to play 4 matches before the summer as March window is only 2 matches.  There is no other international window after March.  Thus June, September, and March are international windows. 

In theory, March window could be 3 matches, but CONCACAF needs permission from FIFA to extend the window which would impact the clubs.  So it is highly unlikely.  It's just my opinion.

[Free kick]

14 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Serious question, have not heard or seen anything: what was the bonus for qualifying for the World Cup?

I understand our players get a per-game payment for NT games. I was not sure if the women and men got something similar even, if there was some sort of parity clause. I think it is just for being called up, not related to playing.

So what was the bonus for qualifying? Was there also a bonus for finishing first, or for qualifying directly and not through the playoff? Per player. And for the coaching staff.

 

This came up on the broadcast of this show below from last week.  I believe Nick Bontis mentioned the number of $15 Million. I dont recall exactly.  If you can find this podcast and scroll to the segment where they interview Nick Bontis. you should get your answer right there.  I recall them mentioning that this was a very significant sum for the CSA.     

 

EDIT>:   i just re listened to the podcast.  The interviewer speculated that it would be $15Mill.  Bontis said that this has not been announced (or known) yet and that it could be as low as 8 million or as high as 15 Million.  But he did say that its significant moreso give that they are a $20Mill organization

 

The FAN Drive Time | Podcasts - Sportsnet.ca

Mar 28, 2022

Canada Heads to Qatar! Celebrating with Iain Hume, CanMNT President & Sid!

[simplecast dark="false" id="b5119c45-c046-49c9-b91f-766b9591c5f9" type="mini"]

Ben & Stephen open today's show by looking back at celebrating in the freezing cold as Canada beat Jamaica 4-0 to qualify for the World Cup (00:58). Breakfast Television's Sid Seixeiro joins to share the history behind Canada's World Cup birth, how the qualification helps the program financially, and why there are nerves about losing head coach John Herdman one day (15:17). Later on, we speak with former Canadian National team member, Iain Hume, who describes his experience on Team Canada and being so far away from contending for years, and the leadership and culture that was created (30:02). Finally, Dr. Nick Bontis, President of Canada Soccer, weighs in on defending John Herdman's move from Canada's women's program years ago, and looks ahead to the time before Qatar and the potential for international friendlies to prepare for the World Cup (40:04).

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

Edited April 5, 2022 by Free kick

[Unnamed Trialist]

1 hour ago, Free kick said:

This came up on the broadcast of this show below from last week.  I believe Nick Bontis mentioned the number of $15 Million. I dont recall exactly.  If you can find this podcast and scroll to the segment where they interview Nick Bontis. you should get your answer right there.  I recall them mentioning that this was a very significant sum for the CSA.     

 

EDIT>:   i just re listened to the podcast.  The interviewer speculated that it would be $15Mill.  Bontis said that this has not been announced (or known) yet and that it could be as low as 8 million or as high as 15 Million.  But he did say that its significant moreso give that they are a $20Mill organization

 

The FAN Drive Time | Podcasts - Sportsnet.ca

Mar 28, 2022

Canada Heads to Qatar! Celebrating with Iain Hume, CanMNT President & Sid!

[simplecast dark="false" id="b5119c45-c046-49c9-b91f-766b9591c5f9" type="mini"]

Ben & Stephen open today's show by looking back at celebrating in the freezing cold as Canada beat Jamaica 4-0 to qualify for the World Cup (00:58). Breakfast Television's Sid Seixeiro joins to share the history behind Canada's World Cup birth, how the qualification helps the program financially, and why there are nerves about losing head coach John Herdman one day (15:17). Later on, we speak with former Canadian National team member, Iain Hume, who describes his experience on Team Canada and being so far away from contending for years, and the leadership and culture that was created (30:02). Finally, Dr. Nick Bontis, President of Canada Soccer, weighs in on defending John Herdman's move from Canada's women's program years ago, and looks ahead to the time before Qatar and the potential for international friendlies to prepare for the World Cup (40:04).

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Sports & Media or any affiliates.

Just go back and you'll see you misunderstood my post, which I clearly phrased wrongly. You're not the only one who mistook me. I refer to the bonus the CSA pays to the players for qualifying, not the quantity the CSA receives from FIFA. 

This would have been agreed upon last summer at the latest. 

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

34 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

not the quantity the CSA receives from FIFA.

Some of this money was already undoubtedly spent. The charter aircrafts for the Octagonal were NOT cheap. We may have easily spent a few mil on those.

Don't expect the CSA to start spending like drunken sailors.

Edited April 5, 2022 by Olympique_de_Marseille

[ensco]

Speaking of money.... I think the training camp location and the friendly right before the tournament starts in November is an interesting problem to ponder.

We won't gather until Monday November 14th, which gives us only 8 total days to prepare.

Where to train? We really need to minimize travel.  Given number of players in Europe, the obvious is not only to train either Europe or the Middle East, but also to train somewhere that makes sense for the "right" friendly.

Do we need to acclimate to the climate? It'll be hot in Qatar, November average high is 30 degrees. But the daily low is 20 degrees and all our games are at night. So I don't think we have to train in a hot climate. But it can be cold in northern Europe, which isn't helpful, so I would avoid that. I think we train in southern Europe or the Middle East.

For the friendly: we want to keep travel to a minimum, we want a suitable opponent, and we want to make some money. I think we want to play someone else going to Qatar, to get the right level of intensity for that game. That eliminates Turkey and Italy. I don't want to play Spain or Germany given chance we see them in round of 16, and I don't want to go to England given likely weather conditions. Also for competitive reasons. I don't want to play Brazil, Argentina or France in this game either, even if I were were offered that game in, say, Rome, because I don't want to risk a bad loss. But I do want a good team, and a hostile crowd would be good ...

My best ideas:

1.  rent the training grounds of a big club in Portugal, and play a friendly in Lisbon against Portugal 

2. train in or near Marseille and play a friendly against Tunisia in the Velodrome, if they are willing to pop over to do that. They could pack that stadium for that game.

3. train in Qatar and play, well, really any qualified non-superpower team also training in Qatar, in a friendly there. But there would be little money in this friendly, unless it were against Saudi Arabia (Qatar and Saudi are not friendly, so this is improbable). I wonder if Iran would be willing to do something like this.

Edit: others below telling me Herdman said no friendly. So ignore about half of this!!

Edited April 5, 2022 by ensco

[TOCanada115]

Maybe I heard it wrong, but after the draw, Herdman spoke to James Duthie. I remember him asking about friendlies, and John saying 1 in June, and a Europe camp in September to play 2 friendlies. But when he asked about getting a friendly in before the tournament, he said no because he only has 8 days with them to prepare for the World Cup, and needs all of them. 
 

Did anyone else hear this interview? Maybe I’m making shit up, I don’t know 🤷‍♂️ 😂

[Dmrich]

2 minutes ago, TOCanada115 said:

Maybe I heard it wrong, but after the draw, Herdman spoke to James Duthie. I remember him asking about friendlies, and John saying 1 in June, and a Europe camp in September to play 2 friendlies. But when he asked about getting a friendly in before the tournament, he said no because he only has 8 days with them to prepare for the World Cup, and needs all of them. 
 

Did anyone else hear this interview? Maybe I’m making shit up, I don’t know 🤷‍♂️ 😂

Yes you heard right. That’s what he said.

[Gian-Luca]

19 minutes ago, ensco said:

Speaking of money.... I think the training camp location and the friendly right before the tournament starts in November is an interesting problem to ponder.

We won't gather until Monday November 14th, which gives us only 8 total days to prepare

 

For European-based players, yes. Although it is worth noting that the MLS season ends October 9th and the MLS Cup final is November 5th, so our NA-based players can gather before the 14th that if the CSA chooses.

Should we be hoping that our Canadian MLS teams all miss the playoffs so that it will benefit the preparation of the World Cup team?

[ensco]

Well, never mind then!

[Ally McCoist]

Not sure how accurate this is but apparently US and Mexico playing Uruguay in June?

[snake]

Italy and Slovenia maybe Montenegro would be ideal friendly for the CMNT.