canadianbacons Posted June 12, 2023 Share Posted June 12, 2023 Had a strong game last night, including his team getting the clean sheet. Looked imposing on the backline and made several key plays to thwart attacks. Seemed to be very mobile for his size. I think he earns a look at the GC with some injuries (Cornelius) and age (Vitoria) possibly in play. narduch, johnyb and aredding77 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dyslexic nam Posted June 12, 2023 Share Posted June 12, 2023 9 hours ago, sebdeserio said: Have the Portland game on in the background and there was just a pretty big scrum where he kept his composure and was focused on keeping his teammates away from trouble. Good leadership from a relatively green pro. The anti-Laryea. Brethers8, sebdeserio, Olympique_de_Marseille and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
costarg Posted June 12, 2023 Share Posted June 12, 2023 1 hour ago, canadianbacons said: Had a strong game last night, including his team getting the clean sheet. Looked imposing on the backline and made several key plays to thwart attacks. Seemed to be very mobile for his size. This gave me goosebumps. So exciting. replace cowbell with centerback Olympique_de_Marseille, nolando, Strait Red and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FC_Hali Posted June 12, 2023 Share Posted June 12, 2023 Any idea if he’s naturally left-footed? Or is he right-footed playing left CB? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olympique_de_Marseille Posted June 13, 2023 Share Posted June 13, 2023 On 6/1/2023 at 3:12 PM, Olympique_de_Marseille said: We found our new Doneil Henry! 10 hours ago, dyslexic nam said: The anti-Laryea. Or is he the anti - Doneil Henry? 🤔 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MauditYvon Posted June 13, 2023 Share Posted June 13, 2023 2 hours ago, FC_Hali said: Any idea if he’s naturally left-footed? Or is he right-footed playing left CB? According to FIFA (the video game), he’s right footed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floortom Posted June 18, 2023 Share Posted June 18, 2023 Another strong performance last night in a nil-nil draw vs San Jose. He’s not particularly great on the ball (or maybe he’s not being asked to do too much) but he’s very solid defensively and in the air. He’s also huge and uses his body very well. I think we’ll see him start in the Gold Cup. for him to come out of nowhere for us is pretty huge. He’s already 25 but if he keeps this trajectory he can be a top tier MLS CB. Corazon, cronaldo7, Xavier. and 11 others 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BearcatSA Posted June 18, 2023 Share Posted June 18, 2023 Does he have some wheels? Does Bombito have recovery pace/quickness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phresh Posted June 18, 2023 Share Posted June 18, 2023 2 hours ago, BearcatSA said: Does he have some wheels? Does Bombito have recovery pace/quickness. Haven't watched McGraw but Bombito's easily amongst the fastest CB's in the senior pool Canuckia and johnyb 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
narduch Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 (edited) https://www.oregonlive.com/timbers/2023/06/portland-timbers-zac-mcgraw-called-up-to-canada-national-team-its-a-great-opportunity.html?s=09 Pretty wild story on how he was discovered Edited June 21, 2023 by narduch Kadenge, Corazon, Ivan and 24 others 14 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maplebanana Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 At Christmas time I said to my Qatar roommates that I wished for Santa to bring a 6'4" speedy CB with a Canadian grandma. I've never seen him play so I don't know if he's fast, but he's 6'4" with a Canadian mom. Thanks, Santa! Ruffian, Approve My Account Pls, johnyb and 16 others 6 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dominic94 Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 Our midfield depth is temporarily going to shit but CB is emerging.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YorkRegionFan Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 48 minutes ago, Dominic94 said: Our midfield depth is temporarily going to shit but CB is emerging.. Let's see how Loturi and Ahmed play during the tournament. Ahmed seems pretty promising base on his season so far with the Whitecaps. Canuckia, Corazon, PegCityCam and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoppage Time Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 27 minutes ago, YorkRegionFan said: Let's see how Loturi and Ahmed play during the tournament. Ahmed seems pretty promising base on his season so far with the Whitecaps. But, we needed Choiniere too. dyslexic nam, Corazon, king1010 and 5 others 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadaFan123 Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 This guy could be a major coup but no one is overly excited because he never waffled on his choice or held out for the US. Makes me more excited. We now have about 10 CBs playing regularly at good levels plus Johnston. We certainly don’t have a lack of depth so we need to be testing all options. Shway, El Hombre, narduch and 7 others 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kadenge Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 19 minutes ago, CanadaFan123 said: This guy could be a major coup but no one is overly excited because he never waffled on his choice or held out for the US. Makes me more excited. We now have about 10 CBs playing regularly at good levels plus Johnston. We certainly don’t have a lack of depth so we need to be testing all options. Depth is good but we need at least 1 of the newbies to emerge with the quality we lack. Our current pool of CBs are good enough to face lower Concacaf teams but not the US or probably Mexico/Jamaica narduch, Canuckia, cronaldo7 and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadaFan123 Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 24 minutes ago, Kadenge said: Depth is good but we need at least 1 of the newbies to emerge with the quality we lack. Our current pool of CBs are good enough to face lower Concacaf teams but not the US or probably Mexico/Jamaica I agree, but also with 10.5 CBs I like our odds of finding the right mix, which is just as if not more important than finding just pure talents. We really need camps to assess these players as our current match load isn’t enough. Particularly we need domestic camps. Corazon, narduch, Shway and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
costarg Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 1 hour ago, CanadaFan123 said: This guy could be a major coup but no one is overly excited because he never waffled on his choice or held out for the US. Makes me more excited. Sure he never waffled, and this is a great catch given our current situation. However, reading the article makes it sound like he always knew he was eligible, but he just never bothered to actually look into it until Dayne kicked off the process. This might say something about his level of pride in putting the shirt on. narduch 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InglewoodJack Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 14 minutes ago, costarg said: Sure he never waffled, and this is a great catch given our current situation. However, reading the article makes it sound like he always knew he was eligible, but he just never bothered to actually look into it until Dayne kicked off the process. This might say something about his level of pride in putting the shirt on. He talks about how his mom was so happy when she found out that she cried- I don’t buy that players wear our shirt out of some sense of patriotic duty, but I’m a lot more inclined to buy a player representing us to make his mom proud as a genuine reason to play for Canada. I’m a fan. I think people aren’t that excited because he’s not a young player with potential for Europe in the future; he’s just a solid MLS CB, and that’s okay for us. He’s the type of guy you want to be able to call up for tournaments exactly like this gold cup where some of our best guys are missing. None of our CBS are for this tournament, but I think he’ll be really useful as Vitoria eventually phases out at some point and until the next (first?) great CB comes through the system. canuckgbp, frmr, PegCityCam and 9 others 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
costarg Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 9 minutes ago, InglewoodJack said: He talks about how his mom was so happy when she found out that she cried- I don’t buy that players wear our shirt out of some sense of patriotic duty, but I’m a lot more inclined to buy a player representing us to make his mom proud as a genuine reason to play for Canada. I’m a fan. I think people aren’t that excited because he’s not a young player with potential for Europe in the future; he’s just a solid MLS CB, and that’s okay for us. He’s the type of guy you want to be able to call up for tournaments exactly like this gold cup where some of our best guys are missing. None of our CBS are for this tournament, but I think he’ll be really useful as Vitoria eventually phases out at some point and until the next (first?) great CB comes through the system. Absolutely agree, I was also gonna make a comment about the "Mom factor". The other thing is, these guys are all competitive athletes at heart, their ultimate goal and instinct is to win and aim to lift the trophy. Fans and teammates play a huge part and factor, however i question the actual shirt factor. Sure CR is fantastic and passionate playing for Portugal, but does he actually play better than when he plays with Madrid or United? If anything, I feel Davies tries to do too much for Canada and prefer the Bayern version, but that might be a coaching and system issue rather than a Davies issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shorty Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 6 minutes ago, costarg said: If anything, I feel Davies tries to do too much for Canada and prefer the Bayern version, but that might be a coaching and system issue rather than a Davies issue. I think it's both. He knows he isn't, and doesn't have to be, the big dog at Bayern and so he plays his role. Maybe Herdman needs to use and prep Davies better for the MNT, but Phonzie is a clever, talented, caring and highly responsible oldest child of an immigrant family who is used to putting the world on his back to help out, and I think that's hard to shut off. You can blame Herdman for "let Phonzie be Phonzie" and I'd agree to a point, but I suspect even if Herdman's approach was to say: "you don't have to do it all, play this role and trust your teammates" it would still be an uphill battle for a number of reasons, Phonzie's personality being one, not having Bayern's depth and tactics is another, etc. Back to McGraw, I agree on the Mom factor. Motivation, like with Davies or David (or Mitrovic or Flores for that matter), is deep rooted in upbringing. Getting an Akindele vibe from McGraw -- American/Canadian, smart kid, kind, thoughtful, will do a job for us. If his ceiling ends up higher than MLS, that's a bonus. If not, happy to have another solid, good guy to join the ranks. Ivan and Obinna 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Obinna Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 13 hours ago, narduch said: https://www.oregonlive.com/timbers/2023/06/portland-timbers-zac-mcgraw-called-up-to-canada-national-team-its-a-great-opportunity.html?s=09 Pretty wild story on how he was discovered That is truly awesome, thanks for sharing that. However, I don't know whether I should feel elated about his genuine Canada connection, intrigured amd impressed that Dane took the initiative to make that happen, or concerned he was not on the CSA radar to begin with. 13 hours ago, maplebanana said: At Christmas time I said to my Qatar roommates that I wished for Santa to bring a 6'4" speedy CB with a Canadian grandma. I've never seen him play so I don't know if he's fast, but he's 6'4" with a Canadian mom. Thanks, Santa! St. Clair....more like St. Nick. Plus Minnesota is bascially the North Pole for most Americans, so the geography checks out. narduch and Corazon 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trc2014 Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 masster, dyslexic nam, PegCityCam and 7 others 9 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kadenge Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 We have been using 2 undersized CBs in our back 3...2 of which lack pace, because we didn't have options other than Kennedy, who btw has always been solid playing LCB. Any wonder we suck at set pieces for/against? Let's hope that's about to change with McGraw and Bombito. I really hope that they get solid mins at the GC. JH cant simply roll out the same group of defenders and expect different results vs top teams. With no friendlies, it's GC. YorkRegionFan, PegCityCam, Northvansteve and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VinceA Posted June 21, 2023 Share Posted June 21, 2023 3 hours ago, trc2014 said: He comes off as a really great dude with a wonderful family. Happy to have him in the fold. Obinna, h coach and Corazon 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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