June 2024 friendly matches (plans, speculation, rumours etc.)

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

The first possibility is Uruguay in Tampa on Tuesday, June 11th.

https://www.elpais.com.uy/ovacion/futbol/seleccion-de-uruguay-el-rival-confirmado-y-otro-en-analisis-en-la-previa-de-la-copa-america-2024

Copa or no Copa this would be a nice match.

Surprised Uruguay want to play us again.

Thanks to @Rojas128 on Twitter/X for bringing this to my attention.

 

 

Edited December 15, 2023 by Olympique_de_Marseille

[Obinna]

Canada makes sense for Uruguay. We are a USA proxy for them. Additionally, we made them work for the victory last time, proving not to be a pushover. We are a team they will obviously expect to beat, so good confidence builder without being a waste of time for them.

[kacbru]

But can they afford our appearance fee? 

[Ivan]

29 minutes ago, kacbru said:

But can they afford our appearance fee? 

Maybe we should just give the appearance fee straight to the players to avoid any strikes, protests, talk of need for youth camps,  bad press, Westhead articles, etc?

Edited December 15, 2023 by Ivan
Spelling

[youllneverwalkalone]

4 hours ago, Ivan said:

Maybe we should just give the appearance fee straight to the players to avoid any strikes, protests, talk of need for youth camps,  bad press, Westhead articles, etc?

Straight to the Women's team.

[Ottawafan]

16 hours ago, Ivan said:

Maybe we should just give the appearance fee straight to the players to avoid any strikes, protests, talk of need for youth camps,  bad press, Westhead articles, etc?

Isn't it time for new suits for the suits?

[Obinna]

Gonna share my little thought experiment/break from work/distraction from work.....

I was tempted to post this in the Copa America thread, but I do not want to anger the soccer gods by counting my chickens before they hatch. We still have to get there. And...if we don't we still need to play friendlies, hence posting here instead:

Question: Would you be happy with this squad ahead of the Copa (whether we are merely playing friendlies at that time or sending this team to the big dance)?

*you'll notice I added some "colour" in terms of new clubs for a few of our guys - let's call them best case scenarios in the transfer market*

GK/Defense

I have replaced Borjan with Sirois. This is something which needs to happen. Next I replaced Vitoria with McGraw, something I am less confident about but ultimately we need to cut our reliance on Vitoria for better or worse. I could have gone with Bombito here, who has a much greater upside, but I don't trust him yet. McGraw is pretty green himself, but I think he's a little more mature with his decision making. 

Midfield

Moving onto the midfield now, you'll see I have swapped out all of the old guard. The hardest (and last) player I dropped was Hoilett, who I really debated leaving in, but figured I couldn't fit Ahmed, Paton, Choniere, AND Saliba in here otherwise. Between not playing much in 2023 and choosing to go vet-heavy vs Jamaica, we need to fast track things a bit in the midfield, I felt. Oh, and you'll see Loturi here for Piette. It would be very "CSA" for this to be Fraser instead, but this is my personal selection. 

Attack

Finally up front, the change I made was Nelson for Russel-Rowe. I am high on Rowe long term, but like Bombito I want to see him get more reps at club first. Jayden I am super high on. Is that too many wingers with Millar, Davies, and Buchanan there? Not for me, but let me know if you feel otherwise. 

Final thoughts

Anyways, to round this out, I feel that given where the program is at, this is the strongest squad on paper we can hope for, and it is beefed up by some guys moving to greener pastures (David, Buchanan, etc.). It's also the maximum squad refresh I can imagine, with everyone aside from Crepeau being under 30 come summer.

Cheers!

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

On 12/15/2023 at 3:36 PM, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

The first possibility is Uruguay in Tampa on Tuesday, June 11th.

BTW, Tampa doesn't make sense as a venue for a friendly because it is too close to the stadium in Orlando.

(Section 5 Article 37 of the rules of the Copa America competition.)

However IMG Academy in Bradenton (a venue we know well) is indeed far away enough.

[RS]

25 minutes ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

BTW, Tampa doesn't make sense as a venue for a friendly because it is too close to the stadium in Orlando.

(Section 5 Article 37 of the rules of the Copa America competition.)

However IMG Academy in Bradenton (a venue we know well) is indeed far away enough.

What about DRV PNK Stadium?

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

59 minutes ago, RS said:

What about DRV PNK Stadium?

That's the thing, it is certainly within 150km of Miami's Hard Rock stadium (a Copa America venue), so you can't play there in June.

Edit:

The rule is that you can't play at a venue that is within a 150km radius of a Copa America venue within 90 days of the start of the competition.

Edited December 19, 2023 by Olympique_de_Marseille

[Watchmen]

Mexico has announced games against Uruguay on June 4th and Brazil on June 8th, but no venues yet.

[RS]

4 minutes ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

That's the thing, it is certainly within 150km of Miami's Hard Rock stadium (a Copa America venue), so you can't play there in June.

Edit:

The rule is that you can't play at a venue that is within a 150km radius of a Copa America venue within 90 days of the start of the competition.

I forgot about Hard Rock being part of the Copa.

If they insist on Florida, they can always go to the northern part of the state. Plenty of decent sized venues to choose from.

 

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

Just now, Watchmen said:

Mexico has announced games against Uruguay on June 4th and Brazil on June 8th, but no venues yet.

One publication said the Uruguay game would be in Denver (which is obviously over 150km from all venues).

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

1 minute ago, RS said:

they can always go to the northern part of the state. Plenty of decent sized venues to choose from.

What venues have good facilities, natural grass and are not within a 150km radius from Exploria Stadium in Orlando?

[kacbru]

2 hours ago, Obinna said:

The hardest (and last) player I dropped was Hoilett, who I really debated leaving in, but figured I couldn't fit Ahmed, Paton, Choniere, AND Saliba in here otherwise. Between not playing much in 2023

Hoilett???

He played a full season in the championship -35 appearances in 2022/2023.  Then joined the Whitecaps and made 7 appearances for them.  Add in 9 appearances in 2023 with CMNT.  That's playing a whole lot more than most of the CMNT roster.  

Sure, you could say there's uncertainty about future playing, but let's see where he ends up in January.

You could make other reasons for dropping him but lack of playing time in 2023 is not one of them.

 

[RS]

1 hour ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

What venues have good facilities, natural grass and are not within a 150km radius from Exploria Stadium in Orlando?

Jacksonville’s NFL stadium meets all of those criteria, but it’s probably too big for this game.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

2 hours ago, narduch said:

Rumour we will play a friendly v Colombia in the US as a Copa warm up

 

 

Here is the original tweet:

 

The "ambos en la sede de la Copa"  part implies it would be in the USA.

 

47 minutes ago, narduch said:

I read it as a June friendly

Yes. Exactly. It's in the original tweet.

 

2 hours ago, Obinna said:

Games like this will be important even if we fail against T&T. I hope we line up 2 or 3 games like this.

Exactly.

[Obinna]

6 minutes ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

Here is the original tweet:

 

The "ambos en la sede de la Copa"  part implies it would be in the USA.

 

Yes. Exactly. It's in the original tweet.

 

Exactly.

My limited Spanish says that we are the second opponent (being negotiated) and that Colombia will play the USA first, both in the USA of course, and both in June. 

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

1 minute ago, Obinna said:

and that Colombia will play the USA first,

The way it is worded implies their USA friendly is confirmed and we are the add-on.

[Obinna]

1 minute ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

The way it is worded implies their USA friendly is confirmed and we are the add-on.

Oh yeah that's right. I was being a little lazy. I never meant to imply the order of games, but rather we are the secondary game, not specifically the 2nd game 

[MtlMario]

 

16 minutes ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

The way it is worded implies their USA friendly is confirmed and we are the add-on.

  I believe it says they are still negotiating with Canada.

Edited January 25 by MtlMario

[Kadenge]

25 minutes ago, MtlMario said:

 

  I believe it says they are still negotiating with Canada.

well that could take some time

 

[Ally McCoist]

 

 

 

[Kadenge]

[Mihairokov]

Some European countries that are free in June from not qualifying for EURO include Ireland, Norway, and Sweden, among others. Think a friendly against one of them would be valuable, in addition to just about any potential opponent in Copa America.