Friendly: Japan vs Canada - Friday, October 13th - 6:35am Eastern / 3:35am Pacific - Niigata, Japan

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

Japan vs Canada
Friendly match
Friday, October 13, 2023
7:35pm local time
6:35am Eastern / 3:35am Pacific
Denka Big Swan Stadium [デンカビッグスワンスタジアム]
Niigata, Japan

Broadcast in Canada:
ONESOCCER [online]
Telus Optik [TV, channel 980]

Broadcast in Japan:
ABEMA [online]
Asahi [TV]

Canada's roster:
https://canadasoccer.com/news/canada-soccer-unveils-mens-national-team-squad-for-japan-friendly/
Since the announcement, Eustáquio has been ruled out due to injury.
https://twitter.com/CanadaSoccerEN/status/1712106413449957631

Japan's roster:
https://jfa.jp/samuraiblue/news/00032955/
Daizen Maeda out and replaced by Hayao Kawabe
Kaoru Mitoma out and replaced by Kanji Okunuki
Daiya Maekawa out and replaced by Ryosuke Kojima

Tickets:
Tickets are sold out, so if you are going, I hope you already bought yours!
If not, contact the CSA perhaps?

Weather:
Around 16 °C , clear skies

 

Edited October 13, 2023 by Olympique_de_Marseille

[JamboAl]

If anyone is looking for tickets, please send me a DM.  Canada Soccer may be able to help out for a small number of tickets.

[Kadenge]

Denka stadium is +42,000 capacity. If the game is already sold out  that's pretty amazing. 

[Ottawafan]

Please no Brym please.

[VinceA]

Disappointing we didn't get a second game.

[blueseeka]

22 minutes ago, Ottawafan said:

Please no Brym please.

Have you watched Brym this year. He is in better form than Larin, Ugbo, Russell- Rowe and Cavallini. I fully expect this to be his break through year with the CMNT provided we play games. He has definitely stepped up with Sparta

[Obinna]

1 hour ago, blueseeka said:

Have you watched Brym this year. He is in better form than Larin, Ugbo, Russell- Rowe and Cavallini. I fully expect this to be his break through year with the CMNT provided we play games. He has definitely stepped up with Sparta

To be fair though since he opened the season with a brace against the defending champs he's mostly come off the bench, with of course the exception of last match where he basically went the distance. He also hasn't scored since opening day, but 2 goals for an upper half Eredivisie club probably warrants a call.

[Obinna]

As mentioned, Brym has probably done enough to earn a look for the Japan camp. Ugbo started hot and has gone cold, but 3 goals already in the English Championship and it's only October - that's likely enough. David and Larin are givens despite their struggles.

Do we take any more forwards than that? If so, I wonder if we go with a promising bench player in Russell Rowe, or the Liga MX veteran in Cavallini. I feel it makes the most sense to give Rowe a call, especially given its a friendly, but as long as Lucas is getting minutes in Mexico and scoring it may be tempting to bring him. 

[Ottawafan]

1 hour ago, blueseeka said:

Have you watched Brym this year. He is in better form than Larin, Ugbo, Russell- Rowe and Cavallini. I fully expect this to be his break through year with the CMNT provided we play games. He has definitely stepped up with Sparta

He's got you fooled

[Bigandy]

Here is my best 23. Since its a friendly, I wouldnt be surprised to see adekugbe and vitoria drop out for Ali and Saliba (bombito provides cb coverage). 

Bolded means position is full. 

Locks: 10
GK: 
RB: AJ Laryea
LB: adekugbe, davies
CB: Miller
CM: Staq, Kone
Winger: Buchanan
FW: David, Larin

Probables: 9 (+10)
GK: Borjan, DSC, Creapue
CB: Vitoria, Cornleius, ZMG
CM: Oso
Winger: Millar
FW: Ugbo

Unknowns: 4 (+19)
CM: Choiniere, Bombito
Winger: Corbeanu 
FW: Brym

Dropped:
Kennedy, Piette, Ali, Cav, Kaye, Mcgill, Shaf, JRR, hoilett, nelson, loturi, fraser, zator, edwards, zbg, saliba. 

[DeRo_Is_King]

43 minutes ago, Obinna said:

As mentioned, Brym has probably done enough to earn a look for the Japan camp. Ugbo started hot and has gone cold, but 3 goals already in the English Championship and it's only October - that's likely enough. David and Larin are givens despite their struggles.

Do we take any more forwards than that? If so, I wonder if we go with a promising bench player in Russell Rowe, or the Liga MX veteran in Cavallini. I feel it makes the most sense to give Rowe a call, especially given its a friendly, but as long as Lucas is getting minutes in Mexico and scoring it may be tempting to bring him. 

Agree with most of this. The barrier to entry this camp is pretty soft because of how poorly our key forwards are playing. I still can't advocate for a JRR call, though. He's been stapled to the bench for Columbus. Since it's only one game, maybe we go with four forwards instead of five and bring another winger. 

[Bigandy]

5 minutes ago, DeRo_Is_King said:

Agree with most of this. The barrier to entry this camp is pretty soft because of how poorly our key forwards are playing. I still can't advocate for a JRR call, though. He's been stapled to the bench for Columbus. Since it's only one game, maybe we go with four forwards instead of five and bring another winger. 

We never bring in 5 forwards, do we?  It was always david larin ugbo and cav. 

Arguably cav drops for brym now. 

[DeRo_Is_King]

1 minute ago, Bigandy said:

We never bring in 5 forwards, do we?  It was always david larin ugbo and cav. 

Arguably cav drops for brym now. 

Thinking back, and yeah. I haven't thoroughly reviewed each roster in the recent past, but I don't remember there normally being five anyway. Brym still has a lot to prove for me, but I get why some would rather see him over Cav. He's younger, in a better league and still has some room to grow. He scored two great goals against tough opposition, but as @Obinna said, that was at the start of the season. As long as he's in the Eredivisie and getting minutes, he'll be worth a look. I keep going back and forth on this, though, as he's not been good for us. 

[Bigandy]

3 minutes ago, DeRo_Is_King said:

Thinking back, and yeah. I haven't thoroughly reviewed each roster in the recent past, but I don't remember there normally being five anyway. Brym still has a lot to prove for me, but I get why some would rather see him over Cav. He's younger, in a better league and still has some room to grow. He scored two great goals against tough opposition, but as @Obinna said, that was at the start of the season. As long as he's in the Eredivisie and getting minutes, he'll be worth a look. I keep going back and forth on this, though, as he's not been good for us. 

I feel like you too. Tbh, I drop cav and have brym fighting with a guy like corbeanu or shaf for the last spot. 

[vancanman]

1 hour ago, Obinna said:

As mentioned, Brym has probably done enough to earn a look for the Japan camp. Ugbo started hot and has gone cold, but 3 goals already in the English Championship and it's only October - that's likely enough. David and Larin are givens despite their struggles.

Do we take any more forwards than that? If so, I wonder if we go with a promising bench player in Russell Rowe, or the Liga MX veteran in Cavallini. I feel it makes the most sense to give Rowe a call, especially given its a friendly, but as long as Lucas is getting minutes in Mexico and scoring it may be tempting to bring him. 

  I would say so.  He has the national team's third all-time best strike rate after David and Gerba.

[DeRo_Is_King]

1 hour ago, Bigandy said:

I feel like you too. Tbh, I drop cav and have brym fighting with a guy like corbeanu or shaf for the last spot. 

If you drop Cav, you can still bring Brym and have room for Corbeanu or Shaf.

I feel like both Corbeanu and Shaf have excellent work rates / have done well for both Canada and their clubs. Frankly, I would try to find a way to bring both players to this camp, giving the slight edge to Corbeanu for his great start with Grasshopper. I have watched him week in and out, and it's so fun.

Grasshopper's defending is abysmal, and other than Ndenge / Morandi, the attack would be pretty useless without Corbeanu. He takes penalties, corners and set pieces, serves passes on a plate, runs at and outdribbles defenders... He could basically be their captain at this point. 

Edited October 3, 2023 by DeRo_Is_King

[costarg]

3 hours ago, Bigandy said:

Here is my best 23. Since its a friendly, I wouldnt be surprised to see adekugbe and vitoria drop out for Ali and Saliba (bombito provides cb coverage). 

Bolded means position is full. 

Locks: 10
GK: 
RB: AJ Laryea
LB: adekugbe, davies
CB: Miller
CM: Staq, Kone
Winger: Buchanan
FW: David, Larin

Probables: 9 (+10)
GK: Borjan, DSC, Creapue
CB: Vitoria, Cornleius, ZMG
CM: Oso
Winger: Millar
FW: Ugbo

Unknowns: 4 (+19)
CM: Choiniere, Bombito
Winger: Corbeanu 
FW: Brym

Dropped:
Kennedy, Piette, Ali, Cav, Kaye, Mcgill, Shaf, JRR, hoilett, nelson, loturi, fraser, zator, edwards, zbg, saliba. 

Great list/choices.  Only one point: Sirois must be miles ahead of both Dayne and Crepeau.

[Bertuzzi44]

I hope Crépeau gets the start. Arguably playing better and at a higher level than Borjan. Plus it might be time to pass the baton...

[VinceA]

14 minutes ago, Bertuzzi44 said:

I hope Crépeau gets the start. Arguably playing better and at a higher level than Borjan. Plus it might be time to pass the baton...

Borjan shouldn't be near this team anymore. The Slovak league is not better than what any of our other guys are playing in.

[Bigandy]

1 hour ago, costarg said:

Great list/choices.  Only one point: Sirois must be miles ahead of both Dayne and Crepeau.

100%.  I missed that.  TBH i dont really think too hard about gk selection which is awful to say. 

[Bigandy]

New coach, new qualification period. Borjan, hoilett, spoony, cava and vitoria all out of form/playing at a lower level. It really is the perfect time to pass the baton. Oso still deserves to be in the conversation. Even out of form, hes really our only attacking midfield option and hes not sooo bad that hes way down the charts like spoony is. 

[Obinna]

I'd like to see us leave out Borjan, Vitoria and Hoilett for this one.

I think Borjan should be part of the pool until his performances or club level drop him out. For me that time hasn't come (yet) but since this is a friendly I think we are better off giving the minutes to Crepeau or St. Clair. Can't really argue either is at an inferior league or club. I suspect Borjan wouldn't appreciate coming to sit on the bench anyway.

Vitoria I would be totally fine with, but we suddenly have a lot of CB options and leaving out Vitoria would like us to give one of them a run out. Any one of McGraw, McNaughton, Waterman, Zator or Bombito could be an option here, and I will extend this to Nimick just for fun. Miller, Cornelius and Kennedy should be included, so leave Vitoria out and pick one more (or I guess two more if one is Bombito).

Hoilett I would like to see remain in Vancouver. He's played so much football for club and country, I really don't think leaving him will change anything, but it will give him more time to get used to his new West Coast surroundings ahead of a playoff run. Leaving out Junior could be the difference between bringing Corbeanu or leaving him in Zurich.....and I really want to see Theo... it's been too long.

[Kadenge]

Hopefully with no games in Sept, the squad will be extended from the usual +/- 24 players. Biello as new Head coach may want to have a few "new" players in camp before NL. Not expecting many changes given the quality of the opponent, but perhaps a few tweaks, both in players &   formation. With David & Larin not in their usual form, we may not see both start.  I suspect we are not going to have much possession and will need players with legs out there. It should help that we get more than the usual # of subs. I guess Biello names his assistant coaches on Thursday with the squad.  I'd call LDF to train with the team.

[Free kick]

1 hour ago, Obinna said:

I'd like to see us leave out Borjan, Vitoria and Hoilett for this one.

I think Borjan should be part of the pool until his performances or club level drop him out. For me that time hasn't come (yet) but since this is a friendly I think we are better off giving the minutes to Crepeau or St. Clair. Can't really argue either is at an inferior league or club. I suspect Borjan wouldn't appreciate coming to sit on the bench anyway.

I would go further and state that if now isn't the time to audition the goalkeepers of the future, then when is that time?  Goal keeping was one of our weaknesses at the WC.  Perhaps even our number 1 weakness.   If we don't take that opportunity to learn and adjust for 2026, then what is the point of playing friendlies.

[blueseeka]

6 hours ago, Bigandy said:

Here is my best 23. Since its a friendly, I wouldnt be surprised to see adekugbe and vitoria drop out for Ali and Saliba (bombito provides cb coverage). 

Bolded means position is full. 

Locks: 10
GK: 
RB: AJ Laryea
LB: adekugbe, davies
CB: Miller
CM: Staq, Kone
Winger: Buchanan
FW: David, Larin

Probables: 9 (+10)
GK: Borjan, DSC, Creapue
CB: Vitoria, Cornleius, ZMG
CM: Oso
Winger: Millar
FW: Ugbo

Unknowns: 4 (+19)
CM: Choiniere, Bombito
Winger: Corbeanu 
FW: Brym

Dropped:
Kennedy, Piette, Ali, Cav, Kaye, Mcgill, Shaf, JRR, hoilett, nelson, loturi, fraser, zator, edwards, zbg, saliba. 

I think your list is pretty spot on.

I think Ugbo would be in the unknown section. If it comes down to Ugbo or Brym, i think Brym makes it.

I want to see either Ali or Saliba get a shot. Corbeanu and Millar should both make it. Shaf just misses out.

Choiniere hopefully gets a shot. I do have a hard time thinking that Hoilett doesn't make the team(no matter his form).

It truly sucks only having one game.