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


Califax

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I understand the lack of time to schedule another November game. At the time of posting I meant I strongly believed we needed another quality prep match. After watching us play Uruguay, I believeve that more so. 

We have been so starved of top quality games for so many years. These are the kinds of games we need tenfold of leading up to the 2026 tournament. We gave Uruguay a little too much respect on and off the pitch. The media (mostly OneSoccer) narrative of fawning over Uruguay drove me nuts. Who cares how good any of our opponents are on paper? Who cares how many of their players are at top clubs? This is a continuation of the old years when we are supposed to be star struck and just eternally grateful just to be on the same pitch as the legends of the game. 

But that narrative too comes from not being used to playing quality international opponents. We need to break this going forward from the WC, no matter what happens. If not, we stagnate. 

It shouldnt be this rare for us to play these matches. It should become the norm if we are trying to become a top football nation. Keep in mind many other concacaf opponents play matches like these more often or regularly.  We need to raise our profile and confidence. 

I may be alone on this, but I think our Nations League matches should have been posponed. If we could have had three decent to top quality prep matches plus our september and november three, we would be a different team heading to Qatar. 

 

Globally, in World Cup years, the Nations Leagues format needs to be rethought.

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11 hours ago, Joe Keeper said:

I understand the lack of time to schedule another November game. At the time of posting I meant I strongly believed we needed another quality prep match. After watching us play Uruguay, I believeve that more so. 

We have been so starved of top quality games for so many years. These are the kinds of games we need tenfold of leading up to the 2026 tournament. We gave Uruguay a little too much respect on and off the pitch. The media (mostly OneSoccer) narrative of fawning over Uruguay drove me nuts. Who cares how good any of our opponents are on paper? Who cares how many of their players are at top clubs? This is a continuation of the old years when we are supposed to be star struck and just eternally grateful just to be on the same pitch as the legends of the game. 

But that narrative too comes from not being used to playing quality international opponents. We need to break this going forward from the WC, no matter what happens. If not, we stagnate. 

It shouldnt be this rare for us to play these matches. It should become the norm if we are trying to become a top football nation. Keep in mind many other concacaf opponents play matches like these more often or regularly.  We need to raise our profile and confidence. 

I may be alone on this, but I think our Nations League matches should have been posponed. If we could have had three decent to top quality prep matches plus our september and november three, we would be a different team heading to Qatar. 

 

Globally, in World Cup years, the Nations Leagues format needs to be rethought.

No question, I posted just that back when we were playing them. In a WC leadup we need flexibility to choose opponents.

Indeed many European teams have said similar things, even though most going to the WC are in the A division and play good rivals. I think only Serbia was in the B. 

We've also missed options to play more friendlies, and not just because of Covid. We need to play top 20 teams, at home for the fans and away to avoid what the Americans do, ending up soft as soon as they are away from 'merica.

Edit: just realised, we were given a "gift" by Concacaf along with the other qualifiers for the World Cup: we only had 2 Nation's League matches, while the others in the group had three. Next year we have two NL matches left to win the group and go to semis.

So we were given an extra match day to have a quality friendly. Which we all know we screwed up between Iran and Panama.

Edited by Unnamed Trialist
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I know people don't think it counts but we did have 6 games against Mexico and USA in the past year+. 4 of which were full on away games. Also think Costa Rica are underrated a bit as opposition.

One or two more games against top opposition would have been nice but I'd argue the mass accumulation of games over the past year and a half was just as if not more valuable.

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14 hours ago, Joe Keeper said:

We gave Uruguay a little too much respect on and off the pitch.

You think so?

Perhaps some media outlets did, although in OneSoccer's case they were selling the game so it's understandable. But on the field I didn't see the Canadian team giving Uruguay too much respect at all.

There was no bunkering by Canada, even after Uruguay went up by two, and we obviously saw guys like Laryea and Miller get up close and personal in their challenges. After the match, the coach and players seemed pissed off that they didn't get a better result from the game, which doesn't scream "too much respect for Uruguay" to me.

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35 minutes ago, mpg_29 said:

I know people don't think it counts but we did have 6 games against Mexico and USA in the past year+. 4 of which were full on away games. Also think Costa Rica are underrated a bit as opposition.

One or two more games against top opposition would have been nice but I'd argue the mass accumulation of games over the past year and a half was just as if not more valuable.

One thing I’ll say regarding Costa Rica. That away game we lost in March really showed me either how much we’ve improved. We went down a man and dominated the 2nd half in Costa Rica.

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7 minutes ago, MtlMario said:

What I would of liked to see is if we went up by 2 goals on Uruguay in the first half and see how we can defend for 60 or 70 minutes against a very good offense team.

I think we should try this strategy at the world cup.  I think it has a higher chance of success than conceding two goals in the first half.

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5 hours ago, RS said:

You think so?

Perhaps some media outlets did, although in OneSoccer's case they were selling the game so it's understandable. But on the field I didn't see the Canadian team giving Uruguay too much respect at all.

There was no bunkering by Canada, even after Uruguay went up by two, and we obviously saw guys like Laryea and Miller get up close and personal in their challenges. After the match, the coach and players seemed pissed off that they didn't get a better result from the game, which doesn't scream "too much respect for Uruguay" to me.

I agree.

We lost to two individual plays that weren't even part of a pattern against us. 

Borjan should have had that first one, or at least been a bit closer (giving the free kick some credit)

Then between Vitoria and Johnston, and the guys covering in the corner, we got hit for the 2nd, at a critical time as well. 

Though I am bothered by how we managed the game, the subs, and the window, I still felt at m. 80 that if we could get one we could get another and draw it.

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13 hours ago, RS said:

You think so?

Perhaps some media outlets did, although in OneSoccer's case they were selling the game so it's understandable. But on the field I didn't see the Canadian team giving Uruguay too much respect at all.

There was no bunkering by Canada, even after Uruguay went up by two, and we obviously saw guys like Laryea and Miller get up close and personal in their challenges. After the match, the coach and players seemed pissed off that they didn't get a better result from the game, which doesn't scream "too much respect for Uruguay" to me.

Overall, yes I do think we gave them just a bit too much respect because we could have gotten a better result out of that game. I agree the team knows it too. I didnt mean we were completly overwhelmed nor that we gave them unending respect etc. We were (and im literal with my qualifier) a little bit too respectful. 

However, "not bunkering" and doing what we did in the qualifiers and showing we were not intimidated personally is not the only gage of giving too much respect. Those things should be done anyway, regardless of who we play. 

The entire team looked just a bit nervous to finally play a high caliber opponent ( not counting the top concacaf teams) and it showed in their individual teqniques, tactically and in game execution.  I extend this to coaching staff as well. 

We did not play a bad game but we were not fully prepared for this level opponent. Nor were we able to adapt in game in a variety of ways.

Edited by Joe Keeper
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13 hours ago, mpg_29 said:

I know people don't think it counts but we did have 6 games against Mexico and USA in the past year+. 4 of which were full on away games. Also think Costa Rica are underrated a bit as opposition.

One or two more games against top opposition would have been nice but I'd argue the mass accumulation of games over the past year and a half was just as if not more valuable.

I agree totally with the mass accumulation argument. Its a simple fact that, as the mens program has been starved for games over all for years, it has prevented however many iterations of the team from forming cohesion and momentum on and off the pitch. We often used to go into Gold Cups and WCQs with the team very underprepared. They just needed more games together and played better in tournaments when we got them. 

I dont think its coincidental that we built momentum for the final 8 and won the qualifiers and had to play those preliminary games. Those early matches helped us so much. The guys just had more time together. 

I disagree on WCQ being just as or more important. Concacaf matches are never going to take us forward to the full global level of playing the top game let alone succeeding there which is what we are trying to do after so long. 

Its just a totally different game and level in every way ( not even counting the concacaf corruption and on field cheating which further holds us back). The Uruguay match was really our step into a bigger world. We need top quality friendlies as much as possible in years to come or our national team will not improve to higher levels let alone stay there.

We have come so far, but now need to focus on what takes us further still. We hopefully learned a lot from that last window however. Without the chances (i.e. games) to learn and then practice regularly, we cant reinforce anything at that level.

Edited by Joe Keeper
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22 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

No question, I posted just that back when we were playing them. In a WC leadup we need flexibility to choose opponents.

Indeed many European teams have said similar things, even though most going to the WC are in the A division and play good rivals. I think only Serbia was in the B. 

We've also missed options to play more friendlies, and not just because of Covid. We need to play top 20 teams, at home for the fans and away to avoid what the Americans do, ending up soft as soon as they are away from 'merica.

Edit: just realised, we were given a "gift" by Concacaf along with the other qualifiers for the World Cup: we only had 2 Nation's League matches, while the others in the group had three. Next year we have two NL matches left to win the group and go to semis.

So we were given an extra match day to have a quality friendly. Which we all know we screwed up between Iran and Panama.

Im glad to hear the Uefa countries think it may need some tweaking too. I do like how NL gives smaller countries a chance to play more though. 

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4 hours ago, Joe Keeper said:

Im glad to hear the Uefa countries think it may need some tweaking too. I do like how NL gives smaller countries a chance to play more though. 

Have to say, it's become consequential. England relegated, Hungary close to the final 4. Turkey in the dregs and faltering vs half minnows. Coaches are changing and conclusions being made. Spain beat Portugal in Braga very late to make the Final 4 and Cristiano was poor, not a liability but close; the Portuguese were upset.

Just think, they have to be flexible to allow a team to design its own leadup to the WC, in this sense I'd say the South American teams have the best set up.

 

Edited by Unnamed Trialist
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  • 3 weeks later...
16 minutes ago, narduch said:

Has the broadcaster for the Japan game been confirmed?

We will need an extended roster for the Bahrain matche as the Euro based players won't be available. Will be interested to see who is called

This friendly was planned specifically for Arfield. Rangers play November 6, 9 and 12 so he needs to recommit himself by missing those matches. 

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2 hours ago, narduch said:

Has the broadcaster for the Japan game been confirmed?

We will need an extended roster for the Bahrain matche as the Euro based players won't be available. Will be interested to see who is called

I thought I saw onesoccer claimed during the HT of the Uruguay match that they would be showing the Japan game. 
 

As for this match, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since Victor M said a few months back that the team would have two friendlies just prior to the World Cup, so we’ll done to the CSA for coming through in that. My guess is that we’d probably have an 18 man roster for this friendly rather than 26, though I am struggling to think who else other than Cavallini will play up top in a front three from our usual NA based players who have been called in the past year. Perhaps he will call in the likes of Shaffelburg and Nelson even though the chances of them being with the team me week later are fairly slim unless their is a horrific rash of injuries in the attacking winger positions. This match might also explain why Brym saw action ahead of Cav in the Sept friendlies 

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Just now, Gian-Luca said:

I thought I saw onesoccer claimed during the HT of the Uruguay match that they would be showing the Japan game. 
 

As for this match, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since Victor M said a few months back that the team would have two friendlies just prior to the World Cup, so we’ll done to the CSA for coming through in that. My guess is that we’d probably have an 18 man roster for this friendly rather than 26, though I am struggling to think who else other than Cavallini will play up top in a front three from our usual NA based players who have been called in the past year. Perhaps he will call in the likes of Shaffelburg and Nelson even though the chances of them being with the team me week later are fairly slim unless their is a horrific rash of injuries in the attacking winger positions. This match might also explain why Brym saw action ahead of Cav in the Sept friendlies 

I figure Akindele would be at this.

I would consider calling a CPL striker. Maybe Paciuis from Forge

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This could be a roster and possible starting squad

Crepeau

Johnston Waterman Miller

Laryea Piette Osorio Kone Shaffleburg

Cavallini Akinola


Bench

St. Clair

Henry

Brault Guillard

Edwards

Nelson

Kaye

Choiniere

Russel Rowe

Even if Montreal gets to the final, that’s the 5 November so plenty of time for them to get on a flight to the Middle East and get over the jet lag

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