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

[trc2014]

12 minutes ago, narduch said:

I'm not surprised at all.

DSC hasn't really done enough and Crepeau has only recently returned from injury.

I feel like my sarcasm has not translated well into this board haha.

[Stryker911]

My ideal lineup.

[Vasi]

Borjan is starting per Biello. He will be capt. 

I would like to see LDF start. I don't care about the result. We can't let this kid slip between the cracks. That would be the pragmatic approach. 

[trc2014]

I’m honestly starting to wonder if the coaches are scared of Borjan.  Don’t think he will react well to not starting.  Sad but likely true.

[CanadaFan123]

10 minutes ago, Vasi said:

Borjan is starting per Biello. He will be capt. 

I would like to see LDF start. I don't care about the result. We can't let this kid slip between the cracks. That would be the pragmatic approach. 

Not sure having a kid get torched by Japan is the best way to keep him. Pragmatic approach is to give him minutes late on. 

[Bigandy]

57 minutes ago, Stryker911 said:

My ideal lineup.

Theres a lack of balance in this team. Its a 4-3-1-1-1 essentially with millar out wide and david playing just below larin. David out wide would be a big waste. This could shift to a 4-3-2-1 but millar is best at staying wide and running at players as opposed to finding pockets and distributing to the other strikers. Also a 4-3-2-1 requires width from your fullbacks. If thats the case, we would want millar on johnstons side as millar will naturally drift wider than david and davies will naturally attack out wide more often than johnston. 

It's a really cool concept but hoilet or oso would fill the 4-2-3-1 role better than millar IMO. 

Edited October 12, 2023 by Bigandy

[Obinna]

34 minutes ago, trc2014 said:

I’m honestly starting to wonder if the coaches are scared of Borjan.  Don’t think he will react well to not starting.  Sad but likely true.

Based on what? NFP confirmed Borjan is a stand up guy and from what I understand from them he would surrender the starting role with grace. The myth of him being selfish has grown out of proportion.

[Obinna]

3 minutes ago, Bigandy said:

Theres a lack of balance in this team. Its a 4-3-1-1-1 essentially with millar out wide and david playing just below larin. David out wide would be a big waste. This could shift to a 4-3-2-1 but millar is best at staying wide and running at players as opposed to finding pockets and distributing to the other strikers. Also a 4-3-2-1 requires width from your fullbacks. If thats the case, we would want millar on johnstons side as millar will naturally drift wider than david and davies will naturally attack out wide more often than johnston. 

I suppose his idea is to play Kone as a narrow winger which Kone could do in theory. He came up as a winger and Montreal converted him into a center player. I don't love the suggestion but that part of it is not entirely crazy. 

[Obinna]

Maybe Borjan starting and captaining means no Vitoria from the start....

[BearcatSA]

I hope the new guys (like Choiniere) or less used (Cornelius) have a good showing regardless of the result, if they are indeed starting.  They would likely get a solid 60 minutes to strut their stuff, and even then it is too easy for some to write a guy off if they don't hit the floor running, so to speak.

I don't take that much stock in sub appearances when the opponent is likely to make similar wholesale changes.  The overall play usually becomes disjointed to the point that it can distort a particular player's contribution either overly positively or negatively.

[canuckgbp]

It’s a reality of the lack of friendlies. Biello is in a tough spot, he needs a result in the qualifiers coming up. With only being handed one friendly his hands are tied. 
 

I think we need to move on from both Borjan and Vitoria but it can be argued they give us the best chance at a result. 
 

Problem is when the changeover does eventually happen, it won’t be graceful. 
 

Also, if Biello isn’t the long term hire then should he be making the decision to move on from two starters? Tough spot. 

[trc2014]

25 minutes ago, Obinna said:

Based on what? NFP confirmed Borjan is a stand up guy and from what I understand from them he would surrender the starting role with grace. The myth of him being selfish has grown out of proportion.

Not saying he’s selfish, but unrealistic about where he currently stands in light of what the team needs to prep for 2026.

[Obinna]

3 minutes ago, trc2014 said:

Not saying he’s selfish, but unrealistic about where he currently stands in light of what the team needs to prep for 2026.

Is there any evidence of that even? If there is fair enough but I can't help but feel we are being unfair to Borjan if we think he's unrealistic about his role in the team, just based on the most recent pod. Is Borjan  any more/less realistic than anyone else? 

[trc2014]

3 minutes ago, Obinna said:

Is there any evidence of that even? If there is fair enough but I can't help but feel we are being unfair to Borjan if we think he's unrealistic about his role in the team, just based on the most recent pod. Is Borjan  any more/less realistic than anyone else? 

Fair enough that there isn’t direct evidence of it.  It might be an assumption that he hasn’t retired from the national team yet (same can be said for Vitoria but at Leary in his case there isn’t someone clearly ready to take over/needing reps).

[Obinna]

1 minute ago, trc2014 said:

Fair enough that there isn’t direct evidence of it.  It might be an assumption that he hasn’t retired from the national team yet (same can be said for Vitoria but at Leary in his case there isn’t someone clearly ready to take over/needing reps).

Yeah my thoughts now are that we could apply this to anyone, including Hutchinson who gets portrayed much differently than Borjan. I know what you are saying about the other keepers being ready and I agree but at the same time it's not Borjan's fault the coaching staff keeps picking him and I don't blame him for coming in when called no more than I would blame Hutchinson or Vitoria.

Also, to flip it on it's head, have Crepeau or St. Clair done enough to be clear ahead of Borjan? Neither are playing in a top 5 league and at best I think we could say both have proven they can do the job, which is different than saying both are head and shoulders above Borjan. If this were Matt Turner for example we'd be saying okay Premier League keeper he should clearly be ahead of Borjan.

So while I want one of the backups to get picked ahead of Borjan, I don't think it's an injustice (not saying you're saying that either just airing out my thoughts).

[trc2014]

1 minute ago, Obinna said:

Yeah my thoughts now are that we could apply this to anyone, including Hutchinson who gets portrayed much differently than Borjan. I know what you are saying about the other keepers being ready and I agree but at the same time it's not Borjan's fault the coaching staff keeps picking him and I don't blame him for coming in when called no more than I would blame Hutchinson or Vitoria.

Also, to flip it on it's head, have Crepeau or St. Clair done enough to be clear ahead of Borjan? Neither are playing in a top 5 league and at best I think we could say both have proven they can do the job, which is different than saying both are head and shoulders above Borjan. If this were Matt Turner for example we'd be saying okay Premier League keeper he should clearly be ahead of Borjan.

So while I want one of the backups to get picked ahead of Borjan, I don't think it's an injustice (not saying you're saying that either just airing out my thoughts).

The problem is Borjan won’t be the keeper for 2026, so they need to rip the bandaid off with the transition, Crepeau or St. Clair in a top 5 league or not.

[Obinna]

Just now, trc2014 said:

The problem is Borjan won’t be the keeper for 2026, so they need to rip the bandaid off with the transition, Crepeau or St. Clair in a top 5 league or not.

Couldn't agree more 👍

[SpursFlu]

I dont think Borjan has been out of this world for us and he's not the youngest but I think we just need to accept the fact that we really don't have a great second option. I'm really not bothered by him starting 

My focus is the mentality and togetherness of the team. Last time we saw the full first team together it was iffy

A win or a draw would be amazing and unexpected but for me a tight game is what I'm looking for. 3-0,  4-1 or worse would raise an eyebrow 

Edited October 12, 2023 by SpursFlu

[Fullback]

We have 3 years until the World Cup. Plenty of time for someone to step up and take the starting spot from Borjan. It shouldn’t just be given, it should be earned.

[BearcatSA]

33 minutes ago, canuckgbp said:

It’s a reality of the lack of friendlies. Biello is in a tough spot, he needs a result in the qualifiers coming up. With only being handed one friendly his hands are tied. 
 

I think we need to move on from both Borjan and Vitoria but it can be argued they give us the best chance at a result. 

With this, I sense that we might see an incumbent starting line up that includes both Osorio and Laryea as well.

 

[EJsens1]

I’ve always found the team has played better when Borjan isn’t in the nets. Although I think he’s toned it down the last few years, he’s a combative talking goalie who over the years has had some pretty big blunders on the field, so you need to back it up when barking all the time. I don’t question his leadership and love of playing for this country, but I’ve seen Crepeau play enough and the eye test tells me to play him going forward. The point others made about a permanent head coach making that decision is understandable, but I don’t think Borjan is our number one anymore 

[costarg]

Lots of talk about Borjan, it ain't the end of the world if he does play/start.  The real concern is Vitoria, we need to start and play the new guys.  It's a lot easier to transition keepers than form and develop a CB partnership.  The ideal moment was immediately following the WC.  IE: Cornelius and MacGraw could have been on their 3rd or 4th game together already. 

Edited October 12, 2023 by costarg

[Bigandy]

1 hour ago, Obinna said:

I suppose his idea is to play Kone as a narrow winger which Kone could do in theory. He came up as a winger and Montreal converted him into a center player. I don't love the suggestion but that part of it is not entirely crazy. 

I see what youre saying. Thats basically a 4-4-2 then. My issue would still be balance. You play one inverted winger and one wide winger. The wide winger has an attacking fullback on their side and the inverted winger has a defensiveish Fb behind them - essentially the opposite of what you want. 

[InglewoodJack]

I think that Borjan started needs to be put into a lot better perspective. Crepeau and St. Clair are 39th and 41st in the league in goals prevented. DSC is in the bottom half of the league for avg. goals conceded. DSC's sofascore is 9th in the league and Crepeau's would be 26th (second worst) if he had the qualified number of starts. Minnesota has not been good at all this year and Crepeau has just returned from injury, but what about either of their current forms shows a guy who is ready to force themselves in the lineup? Larin hasn't scored a goal this year, but Ugbo has scored 3 and we aren't saying it's time to change the guard.

I'm not extremely confident in Borjan's abilities to win us a game at this point, but I also don't think anyone in our system has shown what it takes to take up that starting spot. To beat out a starter, you need to be much better than the guy you're replacing, and none of our guys have shown that. For our keeper depth to change, we need one of our MLS keepers to become a top 5 keeper in the league or one of our young guys to not only get a transfer, but to perform well at their new club too. I think realistically, the only way that Borjan doesn't retire as our captain and keeper is if Crepeau goes on a historic playoff run, stealing games, then comes back next year as a top 3 keeper in MLS, or if Sirois gets a similar transfer that guys like Slonina, Petrovic, or Turner got where some insane team like Chelsea buys him and loans him to the championship. Aside from that, it's one more game for Milan.

[Bigandy]

Lots of talk about moving on from the old guard. However, we have a copa to qualify for first and then play in. Should croatia move on from modric today because he wont be at the next WC. No - hes still class and is their best shot at performing at the euros. 

Borjan is likely our best GK at the moment.... maybe. I prefer him to DSC. I dont know enough of current borjan to post injury crepeau but i cant see borjan regressing more than crepeau has in the last year. I want crepeau in net but it may take a little while longer before hes outright earned it. 

The same applies to vitoria except I have seen some of his regression. I would take him over ZMG today. It will be interesting to see how cornelius would do in the central of a back 3. I believe the team plays better in a back 3 with vitoria and better in a back 4 without him. 

Hoilett still 100% deserves his spot on the roster IMO. With oso out of form, we need creative options. Hoilett can provide this. Theres also lots of value in having experience on a national team. I think its foolish to simply look at the best players and not what makes the best squad. Hoilett makes the squad better than shaf would at this point.  

By 2026 this can all and will likely change but with less than a month to go before copa qualifiers and an interim manager, continuity is likely more important than refreshing our squad for 2026.