CONCACAF U20 qualifying (for the cycle ending in 2025) + preparation & news

[Vasi]

33 minutes ago, InglewoodJack said:

Quote from this summer, book it:

”we’re keeping a close eye on [insert player not called up now here], he’s a good kid with a lot of potential, we just decided to go with the players who got us here during the qualifiers” 

 

Yeah, exactly. Or Cameron over Tahid considering they play for the same team, both recently came back from total, etc. I mean, you have Kozlovskiy who is 15 (?) and whose pro experience is what, a couple 30 minute friendlies a few weeks ago?
 

We’ve won over probably the best Ghanaian-eligible player in the world already, so I would be shocked if Tahid goes that route, but strange situation in either case. 

If he is thinking about Ghana, we will find out soon. They have u-20 qualifying games in March for the African Cup. 

Who knows, maybe he has been picked for the senior game vs TnT. With this federation you never know.

[Obinna]

I am not predicting Tahid will be chosen for the full national team in March, especially considering how critical the game is, but it's the type of surprise call up you'd expect from the CSA, isn't it? I feel like we have this propensity to sometimes, out of nowhere, call a super young guy with little-to-no pro experience.

Cyle Larin was in college when he made his full national team debut against Colombia. Piette was still playing academy ball when he earned his first cap, pretty sure. Liam Millar was a youth player at Liverpool when he made his debut. Rutty was called into a camp at like 16 years old, or something like that, etc.

Tahid does have that CPL season under his belt, but at 16 years old with his upside the CSA/Biello may just want to get him integrated sooner than later. 

[VinceA]

Was Olivieri asked about Khadim Kane?

[Ivan]

I guess Juricic chose Croatia over us?  After after all the hype about Sali switching back to us, he's not on the roster either.

[Nate3322]

6 minutes ago, Ivan said:

I guess Juricic chose Croatia over us?  After after all the hype about Sali switching back to us, he's not on the roster either.

I don't think sali can play for us yet cause he'd have to wait till he's eligible for his one time switch in November. 

[Obinna]

13 minutes ago, Ivan said:

I guess Juricic chose Croatia over us?  After after all the hype about Sali switching back to us, he's not on the roster either.

Nate3322 beat me to it. Sali isn't eligble until fall, as far as I know. 

[Vasi]

28 minutes ago, Ivan said:

I guess Juricic chose Croatia over us?  After after all the hype about Sali switching back to us, he's not on the roster either.

We will find out about Sali in November. Still too early for him. 

[red card]

Olivieri was on NextPod. Starts around 23:25. More big picture talk than specifics as it was done before squad release. 

He emphasized selecting players already in training/playing this year. Mentioned European-based players were only scouted by video. Only has a handful of people to do the work. Additional staff brought in for tourney are on contract. Looked back on u17 World Cup - appears he thought Uzbekistan was most beatable but allowing first goal killed it.

 

Edited February 13 by red card

[SpursFlu]

4 hours ago, InglewoodJack said:

Quote from this summer, book it:

”we’re keeping a close eye on [insert player not called up now here], he’s a good kid with a lot of potential, we just decided to go with the players who got us here during the qualifiers” 

 

Yeah, exactly. Or Cameron over Tahid considering they play for the same team, both recently came back from total, etc. I mean, you have Kozlovskiy who is 15 (?) and whose pro experience is what, a couple 30 minute friendlies a few weeks ago?
 

We’ve won over probably the best Ghanaian-eligible player in the world already, so I would be shocked if Tahid goes that route, but strange situation in either case. 

From watching them play together I think Cameron is a better player at the moment. Different positions but more effective on the field. You do need to consider he's got a couple of crucial years on Tahid but that's irrelevant when you need to win. I wouldn't mind Tahid being left off the team but I think he's better than Tavernier so that's curious. Tahid just may value getting ready for a very important season rather than playing a couple qualifiers. I wouldn't fully blame him. He's probably our most exciting project at his specific age so he can obviously jump back in for Canada at any time 

Edited February 13 by SpursFlu

[nolando]

3 minutes ago, SpursFlu said:

From watching them play together I think Cameron is a better player at the moment. Different positions but more effective on the field. You do need to consider he's got a couple of crucial years on Tahid but that's irrelevant when you need to win. I wouldn't mind Tahid being left off the team but I think he's better than Tavernier so that's curious. Tahid just may value getting ready for a very important season rather than playing a couple qualifiers. I wouldn't fully blame him. He's probably our most exciting project at his specific age so he can obviously jump back in for Canada at any time 

TJ and his family have never been the types to just go with the flow, and his personal development will always be first and foremost. I suspect something came up in the last camp that was less than ideal, or maybe they weren't thrilled with the staff choices for the U20 level, as any chance to pull on a national jersey builds more value for a player destined to sign abroad the minute he hits 18.

[SpursFlu]

26 minutes ago, nolando said:

TJ and his family have never been the types to just go with the flow, and his personal development will always be first and foremost. I suspect something came up in the last camp that was less than ideal, or maybe they weren't thrilled with the staff choices for the U20 level, as any chance to pull on a national jersey builds more value for a player destined to sign abroad the minute he hits 18.

Or maybe he doesn't want to be flying all over the place for a couple tap ins when he's spent the entire off season flying all over the world. I wouldn't. Its not healthy for young players development to be carrying on all around to world in constant upheaval and hoopla. He probably wants to settle back in and get ready for a big breakout season with some home cooking. He's only 17

Why is everything got to paint somebody somewhere in such a negative light. Not everything is a scandal

Edited February 13 by SpursFlu

[nolando]

5 minutes ago, SpursFlu said:

Or maybe he doesn't want to be flying all over the place for a couple tap ins when he's spent the entire off season flying all over the world. I wouldn't. Its not healthy for young players development to be carrying on all around to world in constant upheaval and hoopla. He probably wants to settle back in and get ready for a big breakout season with some home cooking. He's only 17

Why is everything got to paint somebody somewhere in such a negative light. Not everything is a scandal

I dont see it as negative, man. And I'm one of the kid's biggest fans, fwiw.

The vague media and lack of transparency over the statement on his omission naturally lands itself to further speculation. You may find my speculation wild, uninformed, or unnecessarily negative but I'd respectfully disagree. This is a forum to freely speculate as I see.

[SpursFlu]

3 minutes ago, nolando said:

I dont see it as negative, man. And I'm one of the kid's biggest fans, fwiw.

The vague media and lack of transparency over the statement on his omission naturally lands itself to further speculation. You may find my speculation wild, uninformed, or unnecessarily negative but I'd respectfully disagree. This is a forum to freely speculate as I see.

How is this not negative?

 I suspect something came up in the last camp that was less than ideal, or maybe they weren't thrilled with the staff choices for the U20 level,

[Borjans Sweatpants]

I think the ‘negativity’ is more just pessimism based on previous dual nationals having scarred us. Learned helplessness 🤣😭

[InglewoodJack]

1 hour ago, SpursFlu said:

From watching them play together I think Cameron is a better player at the moment. Different positions but more effective on the field. You do need to consider he's got a couple of crucial years on Tahid but that's irrelevant when you need to win. I wouldn't mind Tahid being left off the team but I think he's better than Tavernier so that's curious. Tahid just may value getting ready for a very important season rather than playing a couple qualifiers. I wouldn't fully blame him. He's probably our most exciting project at his specific age so he can obviously jump back in for Canada at any time 

For all of our faults, Canada has been relatively good at bringing in our brightest prospects into camp pretty early as of late (Koleosho, LDF, Tom McGill, Owen Goodman, Aidan Morris, so on), and I don't think Tahid is completely out of depth at the U20 level to the point where he wasn't selected based on skill, so I'd be surprised if Canada didn't call him because we think he can't contribute on the field.

39 minutes ago, SpursFlu said:

Or maybe he doesn't want to be flying all over the place for a couple tap ins when he's spent the entire off season flying all over the world. I wouldn't. Its not healthy for young players development to be carrying on all around to world in constant upheaval and hoopla. He probably wants to settle back in and get ready for a big breakout season with some home cooking. He's only 17

Why is everything got to paint somebody somewhere in such a negative light. Not everything is a scandal

U20 is realistically the highest level Tahid can play at outside of the senior team. Taking this time off at a time where he's pretty openly being shopped around to various European clubs and he has full intention to get a big move within the year, would be a strange move, and for a kid who made the decision to play CPL to up his stock, has secured all these great trials in Europe, it would be very surprising if he chose to skip a potentially major step in his development because he was tired of travelling- something he'll probably have to do once he's playing for a team that competes across Europe.

FWIW I don't blame the kid for not being on the roster and even if he rejected the call because he's going to get called up to Ghana's U20 later this year, I wouldn't blame him; his sole focus is getting the most out of his career and if he thinks he needs to turn his back on Canada to do so, I'll be as bitter as a homer can be, but he's only accountable to himself and his own success, so he has to do what he needs to do. This is just all a bit of healthy speculation because this is a message board that talks about these sorts of things. I'm curious because the omission just doesn't make sense.

In any case, maybe he gets called up to the actual tournament roster this summer, who knows. As for being a dual national, realistically, we are a better team than Ghana, we have better players, we're ranked higher than they are. Their national team has only won a single game out of their last 8, vs. Madagascar. They haven't been to the world cup since 2006, they've won a single AFCON game over the past 3 tournaments, They haven't qualified for the olympics since 2004, and their U20 team is entirely domestic save for a single player. With how poorly we view our youth teams, it's still objectively a better choice to play for us than them. Alphonso Davies agrees with that, and hopefully so does Tahid.

[SpursFlu]

1 hour ago, nolando said:

I dont see it as negative, man. And I'm one of the kid's biggest fans, fwiw.

The vague media and lack of transparency over the statement on his omission naturally lands itself to further speculation. You may find my speculation wild, uninformed, or unnecessarily negative but I'd respectfully disagree. This is a forum to freely speculate as I see.

I know you weren't being negative towards the player. Yah I get the speculation. I'm just saying it's very likely something very innocent 

[narduch]

Tavernier scored in CCC tonight. 

 

 

[SpursFlu]

Tavernier or Tahid? Is this the new argument for the next 10 years?

[An Observer]

Is this on tv anywhere? I am outside Canada so wonder if it’s on Concacaf tv

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

The Trini 🇹🇹 squad with a 🍁 keeper from Edmonton

:

 

 

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

1)

Players have begun arriving in Trinidad 🇹🇹

2)

They changed the kickoff times!

 

 

 

Edited February 17 by Olympique_de_Marseille

[Borjans Sweatpants]

4 hours ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

1)

Players have begun arriving in Trinidad 🇹🇹

2)

They changed the kickoff times!

 

 

 

I assume times are in T&T, so an hour ahead of us?

[toontownman]

On 2/13/2024 at 11:51 PM, SpursFlu said:

Tavernier or Tahid? Is this the new argument for the next 10 years?

Provided it's prefaced by "who is better than Jonathan David" I will take it. 

[Kent]

47 minutes ago, Borjans Sweatpants said:

I assume times are in T&T, so an hour ahead of us?

If "us" is in the Eastern time zone, then yes I believe you are correct. CONCACAF I believe puts the times in your local time zone. It's showing as 3pm for me and I am in the Eastern time zone.

https://www.concacaf.com/en/under-20s-men/schedule-results/

[Borjans Sweatpants]

47 minutes ago, Kent said:

If "us" is in the Eastern time zone, then yes I believe you are correct. CONCACAF I believe puts the times in your local time zone. It's showing as 3pm for me and I am in the Eastern time zone.

https://www.concacaf.com/en/under-20s-men/schedule-results/

Good point, narrow minded of me to say ‘us’. Meant EST