September and October 2023 friendly matches (plans, speculation, rumours etc.)

[trc2014]

Funny, listening to the latest NF podcast and as usual Peter doesn’t comment on the proposed October roster.  Really worried about burning any kind of bridge with the team or players it seems.  I honestly find his opinion the most valuable on the podcast so pretty disappointing.

[grigorio]

7 minutes ago, trc2014 said:

Funny, listening to the latest NF podcast and as usual Peter doesn’t comment on the proposed October roster.  Really worried about burning any kind of bridge with the team or players it seems.  I honestly find his opinion the most valuable on the podcast so pretty disappointing.

yeah all the times he's had to stay mum while AGR and Steiner try and piece together some points of view while knowing Galindo ACTUALLY knows what's up is a little awkward. 

[narduch]

1 hour ago, trc2014 said:

Funny, listening to the latest NF podcast and as usual Peter doesn’t comment on the proposed October roster.  Really worried about burning any kind of bridge with the team or players it seems.  I honestly find his opinion the most valuable on the podcast so pretty disappointing.

I desperately need a new Canada soccer podcast 

[FreddyCanuck]

15 hours ago, Watchmen said:

The initial proposal was a game against Saudi Arabia for $500k, a game against South Korea, and a bit of a camp, and the out lay by the CSA would have been $200k.  How that all breaks down, I don't know.

If we stood to earn a six-figure profit, let alone any profit, and the supposed reason why we didn't have any September friendlies was mainly financial (because Herdman/the coaching staff must've been ok with those opponents if it was on the table), then we deserve an explanation because that is lunacy.

1 hour ago, trc2014 said:

Funny, listening to the latest NF podcast and as usual Peter doesn’t comment on the proposed October roster.  Really worried about burning any kind of bridge with the team or players it seems.  I honestly find his opinion the most valuable on the podcast so pretty disappointing.

With all the outgoing staff joining Herdman at TFC, I wonder if he's going to be brought in permanently and then steps back from the pod. Surely if he was full-time, he'd step back.

[spitfire]

31 minutes ago, narduch said:

I desperately need a new Canada soccer podcast 

Maybe i'll start one lol...

[Bigandy]

24 minutes ago, FreddyCanuck said:

If we stood to earn a six-figure profit, let alone any profit, and the supposed reason why we didn't have any September friendlies was mainly financial (because Herdman/the coaching staff must've been ok with those opponents if it was on the table), then we deserve an explanation because that is lunacy.

With all the outgoing staff joining Herdman at TFC, I wonder if he's going to be brought in permanently and then steps back from the pod. Surely if he was full-time, he'd step back.

I'm not sure theres any evidence we were going to profit from these games based on the figures. My guess is hosting the game costs us 700k with SA giving us 500k to offset the costs. Therefore, we would lose 200k. 

We would then gain ticket revenues etc. 

However, I believe that hosting camps costs several million (as quoted on this board? Maybe someone remembers a more accurate number).

Therefore, we could conceivably lose no more than 200k and potentially profit on the SA game alone, but then we likely would lose a bunch paying for the actual camp that is required to perform a game. 

In either case, I dont think it was a financial reason. I think the CSA was in turmoil with so much drama etc that they didnt have the logistical resources to pull it off. 

[Bison44]

44 minutes ago, FreddyCanuck said:

If we stood to earn a six-figure profit, let alone any profit, and the supposed reason why we didn't have any September friendlies was mainly financial (because Herdman/the coaching staff must've been ok with those opponents if it was on the table), then we deserve an explanation because that is lunacy.

With all the outgoing staff joining Herdman at TFC, I wonder if he's going to be brought in permanently and then steps back from the pod. Surely if he was full-time, he'd step back.

The fee from Saudi is to offset our costs, we still would have had to fly europe etc etc.   I doubt there would have been enough to get us a free camp as it were. We arent a big draw where the host pays us a couple million for the privledge eh.  I still think when they are saying it was financial, it was still tied up in the equal outlay of spending on men vs womens programs.  I bet we could have swung it cash wise, but then you open up a can of worms why that tips the scales in favor of the men etc etc...equality etc.  Ie 2 kids, money for 1 ice cream cone, they wont share, either buy 2, keep them happy or buy none and dont create hard feelings.  And Mom (everyone that hates the csa) is just sitting there in the passenger seat waiting to bitch you out whichever decision you make.  

[Obinna]

53 minutes ago, spitfire said:

Maybe i'll start one lol...

The "know but can't tell" podcast 

[Watchmen]

1 hour ago, Bigandy said:

I'm not sure theres any evidence we were going to profit from these games based on the figures. My guess is hosting the game costs us 700k with SA giving us 500k to offset the costs. Therefore, we would lose 200k. 

We would then gain ticket revenues etc. 

We were not going to host. There would have been no ticket revenue for us. This would have been the game Costa Rica played against them in Newcastle.

[Watchmen]

2 hours ago, FreddyCanuck said:

If we stood to earn a six-figure profit, let alone any profit, and the supposed reason why we didn't have any September friendlies was mainly financial (because Herdman/the coaching staff must've been ok with those opponents if it was on the table), then we deserve an explanation because that is lunacy.

With all the outgoing staff joining Herdman at TFC, I wonder if he's going to be brought in permanently and then steps back from the pod. Surely if he was full-time, he'd step back.

They already explained it. The 2 games + a camp would have cost the CSA $200k, but they would have also had to provide a similar experience to the women's team and they couldn't come up with the money for this on short notice. This isn't a secret. Jason  DeVos discussed it openly.

[Bigandy]

1 minute ago, Watchmen said:

We were not going to host. There would have been no ticket revenue for us. This would have been the game Costa Rica played against them in Newcastle.

that was dumb of me. Thanks for the clarification!

[FreddyCanuck]

18 hours ago, Watchmen said:

They already explained it. The 2 games + a camp would have cost the CSA $200k, but they would have also had to provide a similar experience to the women's team and they couldn't come up with the money for this on short notice. This isn't a secret. Jason  DeVos discussed it openly.

Ok, fair enough. That all makes sense. I missed it and got confused by some of the messages on here RE: costs and what we stood to earn.

[InglewoodJack]

22 hours ago, trc2014 said:

Funny, listening to the latest NF podcast and as usual Peter doesn’t comment on the proposed October roster.  Really worried about burning any kind of bridge with the team or players it seems.  I honestly find his opinion the most valuable on the podcast so pretty disappointing.

It's tough what they're trying to do. To make a podcast about Canadian soccer and have episodes weekly, you need to have the free time to scout all these different obscure players and leagues and know how to speak intelligently about them, but if you actually want to make a career out of soccer in Canada, you need to be somewhat involved with the national program, and if you do that, you can't exactly speak freely on it. The deeper you get into that world, the more you either have to cozy up to Canada Soccer or to the media that surrounds the team. Feels like Galindo is gunning hard for a CAMNT job, AGR and Steiner are gunning for media jobs, and at their age and with their resumes, you obviously can't blame them, but I remember circa 2021 going into 2022, they'd talk a lot more freely on prospects, and I still remember Nef going at it with Mitrovic's dad about the type of club offers he was actually getting based on insider info, and that's stuff that those guys obviously can't discuss as much anymore.

Not sure if it's because I post on here where every one of their topics is already discussed here before their episode comes out, or maybe because we're in a relatively dry period in terms of national team news because the transfer window is closed and our team doesn't play many games, but I find myself skipping over more segments than I used to when I listen to their show. I think unless they found a way to get paid a good salary doing this show and Galindo was more interested in a career in media vs. analytics (I think that's what he does for Canada?), a show of their type has a very short shelf life. Eventually these guys need to take their careers in the sport seriously and that isn't compatible with running a podcast with insider information or expert takes.

[FreddyCanuck]

18 minutes ago, InglewoodJack said:

It's tough what they're trying to do. To make a podcast about Canadian soccer and have episodes weekly, you need to have the free time to scout all these different obscure players and leagues and know how to speak intelligently about them, but if you actually want to make a career out of soccer in Canada, you need to be somewhat involved with the national program, and if you do that, you can't exactly speak freely on it. The deeper you get into that world, the more you either have to cozy up to Canada Soccer or to the media that surrounds the team. Feels like Galindo is gunning hard for a CAMNT job, AGR and Steiner are gunning for media jobs, and at their age and with their resumes, you obviously can't blame them, but I remember circa 2021 going into 2022, they'd talk a lot more freely on prospects, and I still remember Nef going at it with Mitrovic's dad about the type of club offers he was actually getting based on insider info, and that's stuff that those guys obviously can't discuss as much anymore.

Not sure if it's because I post on here where every one of their topics is already discussed here before their episode comes out, or maybe because we're in a relatively dry period in terms of national team news because the transfer window is closed and our team doesn't play many games, but I find myself skipping over more segments than I used to when I listen to their show. I think unless they found a way to get paid a good salary doing this show and Galindo was more interested in a career in media vs. analytics (I think that's what he does for Canada?), a show of their type has a very short shelf life. Eventually these guys need to take their careers in the sport seriously and that isn't compatible with running a podcast with insider information or expert takes.

Bang on.

The big difference in recent months is Galindo taking a back seat more often. When he was regularly doing media up until the World Cup ended, he discussed everything with in-depth analysis, occasional nuggets of insider info, etc. and that added a lot of value to the show.

Yeah, the men not playing probably leaves them dry for content but even when the MNT were routinely playing qualifiers in 2021 or 2022 and we had to wait a couple months before the next window, they'd have long segments about our youth prospects abroad, our big names abroad and other topics in so much detail and you just don't see that in Canadian media.

Take that away and I'm not as fussed... it's what drew me to the podcast in the first place.

Edited September 29, 2023 by FreddyCanuck

[Watchmen]

1 hour ago, InglewoodJack said:

It's tough what they're trying to do. To make a podcast about Canadian soccer and have episodes weekly, you need to have the free time to scout all these different obscure players and leagues and know how to speak intelligently about them, but if you actually want to make a career out of soccer in Canada, you need to be somewhat involved with the national program, and if you do that, you can't exactly speak freely on it. The deeper you get into that world, the more you either have to cozy up to Canada Soccer or to the media that surrounds the team. Feels like Galindo is gunning hard for a CAMNT job, AGR and Steiner are gunning for media jobs, and at their age and with their resumes, you obviously can't blame them, but I remember circa 2021 going into 2022, they'd talk a lot more freely on prospects, and I still remember Nef going at it with Mitrovic's dad about the type of club offers he was actually getting based on insider info, and that's stuff that those guys obviously can't discuss as much anymore.

Not sure if it's because I post on here where every one of their topics is already discussed here before their episode comes out, or maybe because we're in a relatively dry period in terms of national team news because the transfer window is closed and our team doesn't play many games, but I find myself skipping over more segments than I used to when I listen to their show. I think unless they found a way to get paid a good salary doing this show and Galindo was more interested in a career in media vs. analytics (I think that's what he does for Canada?), a show of their type has a very short shelf life. Eventually these guys need to take their careers in the sport seriously and that isn't compatible with running a podcast with insider information or expert takes.

This is why I appreciate Westhead dragging some the CSA issues in to the spotlight. He has no vested interest in working in soccer long term, so he has nothing to lose by openly discussing some of the problems. I'm not saying he's the most knowledgeable about some aspects of it, simply that he was willing to discuss parts i think regular soccer media wouldn't.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

1 hour ago, Watchmen said:

This is why I appreciate Westhead dragging some the CSA issues in to the spotlight.

Agreed.

1 hour ago, Watchmen said:

He has no vested interest in working in soccer long term

He is paid by those who didn't get the broadcast rights so I would say that isn't 100% true.

Westhead's stuff is ~90% good journalism and exposing reckless spending, foolishness and mismanagement by the CSA but there is a ~10% of his attacks that I find unwarranted or exaggerated.

Edited September 29, 2023 by Olympique_de_Marseille