Camp Poutine 24'

[Shway]

Beillo talked about hopefully having a camp, I think we will need one considering how the squad is probably feeling.
With a lot of teams on break or out of season, we should be able to see a lot of familiar and new faces. 

[Obinna]

Here is what I want to see:

GK - Crepeau, St. Clair, Sirois

D - Lareyea, McGraw, MacNaugton, Waterman, Miller, Cornelius, Adekugbe, Heibert

M - Choniere, Saliba, Piette, Ahmed, *Hoilett, Fraser, Bombito

F - Russel-Rowe, Kerr, Schaffleburg, Nelson, Pacius

Some tough decisions here I will expand on:

• ZBG left out:
  • First off I am a big fan of ZBG - always have been
  • And there is just 1 right back in this squad.
  • But with Laryea, Buchanan and Johnston RB capable, there's little chance he gets a look 
  • And plus we know what he is, there is nothing to learn good or bad
  • So for this camp I went with no dedicated RB backup.
  • This is just unlucky for ZBG
• Heibert included: 
  • Generally not a fan of 3 LCBs in a selection
  • But he hasn't been involved in a while, depite getting solid MLS minutes
  • His reps at LB in MLS are intriguing and worth exploring
  • So he backs up Adekugbe here and hopefully the coaches can see how he looks at LB
  • If we are going to play Davies more forward, would be good to build more depth here
  • Plus Heibert could get a look at CB of course, if desired
• Waterman & MacNaugton:
  • Should be reintegrated due to MLS form
  • Not the solution by any means, but we should keep these two engaged
  • I suspect McGraw is the one to invest most in, but may the best player earn minutes
  • Competition is good
  • I don't love calling 3 RCBs but making an exception here
• Osorio & Kaye left out:
  • We know what they are
  • Both should concentrate on their clubs in my opinion
  • Enough experience in the team to render them surplus
• Piette included:
  • Some may want to see Piette excluded here
  • We know what he is - servicable but won't get us to the next level
  • But we do need at least one destroyer in the team IMO
  • And he helps provide some veteran presence (you need some)
  • And helps us rest/drop Oso and Kaye for that reason
• Pacius included:
  • This one is out of the box - I know
  • But I think it's good to have at least ONE fresh face
  • Plus it's good for the CPL for obvious reasons
  • And he's the right age and track record for a camp like this
  • And finally, keeps him out of Haitian hands and keeps him in our system
• Hoilett thoughts:
  • I would ride with Hoilett in the midfield for guidance and yes I would start him
  • But he may be back in the UK for all we know
  • If he is who do we replace him with?
  • My idea would be Bustos - he would be available
  • Plus he's got a similar profile and had a decent season
  • Other midfield candidates could be Thompson or Metcalfe for a younger/different look

[InglewoodJack]

Some names not listed I’d like to see:

- Vilsaint

- Tom McGill

- De Fougerolles 

- Dieu Merci Michel

- Dan Nimick

- Rida Zouhir

- JMR

- Kobe Franklin

- Kosi Thompson

- TJ Tahid

- James Cameron

- Tani Oluwaseyi

Wouldn’t expect all of these guys to get the call, but if we really want to take a look at some new players, I think at least  a couple of these guys are worth getting in the mix, and I think in all likelihood, you’re going to see a few of those names on our 2026 roster. Nimick, Zouhir, Franklin, and JMR are my top picks from here. I know we’re sour on TFC’s young guys, but they’re still very young and still very much MLS calibre starters all too young to drink in the states. 

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

6 hours ago, Shway said:

hopefully having a camp

Thanks for starting this thread.

It would be nice to have to wait only 2 months to get a game instead of 4 months.

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The Austrian league breaks until at least Friday, February 9th; there is an outside chance we could get Scott Kennedy. The Austrian Cup fixtures are one week before that but sadly Kennedy's Wolfberg have already been eliminated.

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Kianz Froese will be on break until Sunday, Jan 21st (very unlikely to be able to attend)

----

While throwing out names for inclusion (as Camp Poutine is the time to experiment), it is always interesting to go back to the great threads by @Corazon & @Atlantic :

https://www.canadiansoccernews.com/forums/topic/79051-mls-player-statistics/

https://www.canadiansoccernews.com/forums/topic/79072-usl-player-statistics/

https://www.canadiansoccernews.com/forums/topic/80125-2023-ncaa-u-sports/

Not gonna happen but I would love to see Tani Olywaseyi.

----

and if he wants to return, this would be the time to bring back Scott Arfield.

 

 

Edited November 24, 2023 by Olympique_de_Marseille

[Borjans Sweatpants]

I’d also like to see Jamie Knight-Lebel, and Owen Goodman (if he’d come, not sure if he would though).

Is there a limit to the number we could try and call in if it’s just a camp?

[Obinna]

14 minutes ago, Borjans Sweatpants said:

I’d also like to see Jamie Knight-Lebel, and Owen Goodman (if he’d come, not sure if he would though).

Is there a limit to the number we could try and call in if it’s just a camp?

There's no reason why there would be a limit, far as I know.

As for Knight-Label, Goodman, and LDF - I wonder if their clubs would allow them to go. 

If they could I would be happy to bring LDF and JKL instead of Waterman and MacNaugton, since the opportunities to blood players are so few and far between now a days, but when I provided my list I just assumed any UK based player would be unavailable outside of a FIFA scheduled window.

Since both are fringe players for their clubs, they may have no problem or even be happy to see them go as it would be a growth opportunity for them. I would love for them to participate in camp poutine!

[InglewoodJack]

 

20 minutes ago, Borjans Sweatpants said:

I’d also like to see Jamie Knight-Lebel, and Owen Goodman (if he’d come, not sure if he would though).

Is there a limit to the number we could try and call in if it’s just a camp?

I thought of them but IIRC League Two definitely doesn’t stop during the international break and I believe the championship also plays through, so both of them are probably better served sticking with their clubs. 
 

I also assume LDF and McGill will be mostly with their dev squad, so they can afford to miss those games since both are top players for their teams, unless LDF is full time with Fulham by then.

Edited November 23, 2023 by InglewoodJack

[dyslexic nam]

The limiting factor:

 

[Obinna]

Is it too early to talk about what kind of opponent we could face?

2024 - ?

2023 - DNP

2022 - DNP

2021 - held camp but DNP

2020 - Barbados, Barbados, Iceland

2019 - DNP

2018 - DNP

2017 - Bermuda

2016 - USA

2015 - Iceland, Iceland

2014 - DNP

2013 - Denmark, USA

[InglewoodJack]

For some reason, the first opponent that comes to mind for me is Ireland. Similar ish ranking, player quality, and I think they could draw extremely well in Canada. They also have quite a few players with very few caps, some I assume are dual nationals they want to lock down- a friendly against us would be a good test and a good opportunity to at least provisionally cap tie some players. 

[jordan]

26 minutes ago, Obinna said:

Is it too early to talk about what kind of opponent we could face?

2024 - ?

2023 - DNP

2022 - DNP

2021 - held camp but DNP

2020 - Barbados, Barbados, Iceland

2019 - DNP

2018 - DNP

2017 - Bermuda

2016 - USA

2015 - Iceland, Iceland

2014 - DNP

2013 - Denmark, USA

Ventura County Fusion

[Obinna]

3 minutes ago, jordan said:

Ventura County Fusion

2021?

[Obinna]

6 minutes ago, InglewoodJack said:

For some reason, the first opponent that comes to mind for me is Ireland. Similar ish ranking, player quality, and I think they could draw extremely well in Canada. They also have quite a few players with very few caps, some I assume are dual nationals they want to lock down- a friendly against us would be a good test and a good opportunity to at least provisionally cap tie some players. 

Would be cool but I don't ever recall us having a camp poutine in Canada. They tend to be somewhere stateside like Florida, California or Arizona. 

[jordan]

2 minutes ago, Obinna said:

2021?

July 2013, I had the wrong time of year

[InglewoodJack]

4 minutes ago, Obinna said:

Would be cool but I don't ever recall us having a camp poutine in Canada. They tend to be somewhere stateside like Florida, California or Arizona. 

Right, yeah, why would we do a winter camp in Canada, lol. Ireland still applies to anywhere in the US as well. It would be a huge coup for them to lock in a friendly against us and a friendly against the US as well. 

[Obinna]

7 minutes ago, InglewoodJack said:

Right, yeah, why would we do a winter camp in Canada, lol. Ireland still applies to anywhere in the US as well. It would be a huge coup for them to lock in a friendly against us and a friendly against the US as well. 

Haha all good. But yeah wouldn't mind facing the Irish, I am just not sure if we'd see them. If we are talking outside of concacaf it's most likely to be a scandanavian domestic squad, since their leagues run on a parallel schedule to MLS. I think most Eastern European leagues have a little Winter break too, which is why the USA had a camp cupcake against Serbia and Bosnia in recent memory. 

I think the best "realistic" scenario would be a two-match camp playing the USA in one match and a Northern/Eastern European team, which would play their other match against the USA. I think we are strong enough domestically now that a team like Sweden could bring a domestic squad and play Canada and USA and we'd be a strong enough opponent to make it worth their while. 

Edited November 23, 2023 by Obinna

[InglewoodJack]

1 minute ago, Obinna said:

Haha all good. But yeah wouldn't mind facing the Irish, I am just not sure if we'd see them. If we are talking outside of concacaf it's most likely to be a scandanavian domestic squad, since their leagues run on a parallel schedule to MLS. I think most Eastern European leagues have a little Winter break too, which is why the USA had a camp cupcake against Serbia and Bosnia in recent memory. 

I think the best "realistic" scenario would be a two-match camp playing the USA in one match and a European team, which would play their other match against the USA. I think we are strong enough domestically now that a team like Sweden could bring a domestic squad and play Canada and USA and we'd be a strong enough opponent to make it worth their while. 

The Irish league also follows a similar schedule to MLS- their league has one more match day this season I believe, but if it’s a domestic Irish league squad, I don’t think it’s worth it for us and I don’t think it’s worth the travel for them. 
 

Would love a game against Serbia, that would be a very good test, similar to Japan (certifiably better than us, but we can still plausibly win). Bosnia too. An African team would be cool too, though most of their players are in Europe, so timing probably doesn’t work too well. 

[Shway]

3 hours ago, InglewoodJack said:

The Irish league also follows a similar schedule to MLS- their league has one more match day this season I believe, but if it’s a domestic Irish league squad, I don’t think it’s worth it for us and I don’t think it’s worth the travel for them. 
 

Would love a game against Serbia, that would be a very good test, similar to Japan (certifiably better than us, but we can still plausibly win). Bosnia too. An African team would be cool too, though most of their players are in Europe, so timing probably doesn’t work too well. 

An African team wouldn't be possible, due to the AFCON 23 taking place. Unless you want to play Ethiopia or Somalia. And at that point, we might as well play a friendly against an MLS or CPL team.

Serbia would be interesting, they were on this side of the world last year and played games against the States.

I think our best competition to face is.....wait for it.......the USA.

[Obinna]

3 hours ago, InglewoodJack said:

The Irish league also follows a similar schedule to MLS- their league has one more match day this season I believe, but if it’s a domestic Irish league squad, I don’t think it’s worth it for us and I don’t think it’s worth the travel for them. 
 

Would love a game against Serbia, that would be a very good test, similar to Japan (certifiably better than us, but we can still plausibly win). Bosnia too. An African team would be cool too, though most of their players are in Europe, so timing probably doesn’t work too well. 

I am not an Irish expert by any means, but I have never, ever seen them call a domestic squad. I believe I have seen the rare Irish league player sneak onto a roster before, but it would be very much like a CPL player getting on our roster. 

But like Shway says, don't think we'd see an African side. 

I just hope the camp happens and we have at least one game. Asking for two is probably too much to ask, which is sad. The USA would be a great opponent and we for them too.

Give me a USA side akin to the GC one and I am probably happy. Give me a European domestic side on top of that and I will be like a pig in shit.

[Atlantic]

Would be a good time not only for the players but to have a new manager get their feet wet with the program, not entirely optimistic we will have a full time manager by then though 

[BearcatSA]

2 hours ago, Shway said:

I think our best competition to face is.....wait for it.......the USA.

Yep, that would be a quality opponent for this camp.

[El Hombre]

I'm not up on NCAA as I used to be, but I would hope someone like Marcus Caldeira gets invited to this.  Kid just turned 19 and it seems like he's tearing it up.  Maybe the biggest college prospect since Tajon or Larin.  Ranked #10 in TDS top 100 nationally.

[SpursFlu]

18 hours ago, InglewoodJack said:

For some reason, the first opponent that comes to mind for me is Ireland. Similar ish ranking, player quality, and I think they could draw extremely well in Canada. They also have quite a few players with very few caps, some I assume are dual nationals they want to lock down- a friendly against us would be a good test and a good opportunity to at least provisionally cap tie some players. 

Canada Ireland at BC Place would be a huge draw. Very sizeable and young Irish community in Vancouver 

This camp should be somewhere in warm weather so I'm not sure how that would work

Edited November 24, 2023 by SpursFlu

[CanadaFan123]

Maybe a team like Iceland, Serbia, Norway or Denmark. We’ve faced Denmark and Iceland in the past - unfortunately with terrible squads and I think we would actually be a favourite against Iceland and give Denmark a run (guessing based on relative strength of their domestic players).

[Obinna]

Thinking back to the list of prospects @InglewoodJack posted and I like the idea of finding room for TJ Tahid. Getting a guy like that capped early would be great. Bright start to his pro career in CPL and seemed to impress with the U-17s at the World Cup.

The possible roster list I posted above his post was my attempt to strike a balance between having sufficient holdovers from our core squad, re-intrgrating faces we haven't seen in a while, and keeping the team on the young side, all while making sure it was guys who would actually be available.

However, what was missing was a player who is a true "for the future guy". My list had just one player above 30 (Hoilett), but nobody under 21 years old. And I mean, if you cannot bring a teenager or two during a camp poutine, when can you?

So in the spirit of that I will add TJ Tahid as the 24 player. Super young but with fantastic upside and (if all goes right) a player who maybe could find himself in the 26 WC squad, but getting him caps now would only improve his chances, so I want to see it!