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From a Canada perspective, I think he has to be seen as a starter either immediately or very soon. None of Miller, MacNaughton, McGraw or Waterman have really done anything in MLS to set themselves apart from the pack - and in that context, Bombito’s speed and offensive ability on set pieces have to give him an edge. If any of the others were top MLS CBs it would be different, but they all seem to be settling into a fairly middling group of defenders. Throw in Bombito’s age and the complete lack of pace among a few of them (mainly Miller and McGraw) and it seems like he should be worked into a starting role sooner rather than later.

He had head protection during the match. So that explains the long absence.

USL Updates: If there is anyone missing, please let me know. Player Team POS Division GP GS MP G A P% T INT Duel % Morey Doner Monterey Bay RB USLC 9 9 807 0 0 79.6% 7 2 61.8% Tyler Pasher Birmingham FW USLC 8 8 700 1 1 83.4% 3 0 46.3% Kwame Awuah Loudon United LB USLC 8 8 644 0 2 74.6% 8 11 55.4% Karifa Yao Rhode Island CB USLC 7 6 565 0 0 80.7% 7 9 66.2% Jay Chapman Hartford CM USLC 6 6 476 1 0 75.3% 4 11 40.3% Jake Morris Louisville CM USLC 7 6 444 1 3 71.3% 6 5 53.0% Dayonn Harris New Mexico W USLC 8 5 405 1 1 66.3% 2 1 42.5% Brett Levis Detroit LB USLC 5 5 371 0 0 76.8% 7 4 60.8% Hugo Mbongue (On Loan) San Antonio FW USLC 6 3 294 1 1 61.8% 0 0 41.7% Nathan Dossantos Charleston CB USLC 10 9 258 0 1 79.1% 16 16 58.0% Mohamed Omar San Antonio CM USLC 4 2 186 0 0 81.1% 8 1 46.8% Ben Norris Orange County CM USLC

^ Thanks for your take. I get where you’re coming from about the investor. And I’m not sure the league wouldn’t agree with you. The points I made earlier are just my thoughts on the matter and I could be wrong. On the point about the World Cup bump, I agree - there almost certainly won’t be one. There hasn’t been in the past and we don’t suddenly see sold out rowing or speed skating events following Olympics.

the commentators were singing his praises. In fact I hear that every game. They are really putting his name out there as are the Colorado social medial team. I feel like they are building him up for his next move abroad.

I want to see him starting against Netherlands and France at the very least.

Clean sheet vs. NYFC away. Anyone get to watch it more than I did, and say how he did? Edit - I did find this:

I am curious what this is based on? Are Atlanta, Cincinnatti, Charlotte, Nashville, and Seattle bigger than Toronto? They all had a higher average attendance than Toronto did in MLS, some of them by a lot. What about all the USL teams that outdraw our highest attended CPL teams? How about attendance at Gold Cup games hosted in US cities vs the couple times it has happened in Canada. Maybe we have more registered players per capita, or maybe TV ratings here and there are higher per capita in Canada. I remember years ago TV ratings were a talking point about how the sport is more popular in Canada than USA, but I thought it was probably more a case of Toronto and Montreal having a bigger percentage of Canada's population than any 1 American city does, so when only the local fanbase watches a game it seems like it's more popular here.

That money ain't going to launder itself.

i.e. Antonolgou, Faria, Hanson - 2 of Valour's better signings in that lot. Certainly beats the Finland crowd - Viscosi, Chantzopoulos, Sukunda. Theory checks out.

He did an amazing job at QPR, came from Hammarby in Sweden, relatively unknown in English football, QPR were 6 points away from safety when he took over and finished 6 points clear of relegation, all of this with a very limited squad due to FFP! He was able to adapt quickly to The Championship, the players bought in to what he wanted to do and it obviously worked!

Tbh, I think Herdman only got his tactics wrong against Croatia. And horribly wrong there. Against Belgium, we were the much better side, just didnt take our chances, and got burned at the back for their only real chance. Against Morocco, the xG were in our favour and we were undone by Boran’s bonehead mistake.

Maybe this has been posted before(?), but for those wondering what happened to this guy - here's a explanation from the man himself:

Sponsors and junior parents.

QPR fans have been mentioning him even going as far as calling Marc Bircham to use some influence😀 I don't follow the finances of sport closely but I do know QPR are in a much better position now that they are out of FFP restrictions and are looking to bolster the side! There is a progressive younger Spanish manager who worked wonders when he came in and saved the club from relegation, Liam would be a perfect fit in the Blue & White hoops!

Agree with this, as much as I've advocated for Ugbo in the past. Frankly, and this may be an unpopular opinion, I am even open to leaving Larin off if it means we get both Bair and Oluwaseyi in. Yes. Larin's in La Liga. He just hasn't had a good season at all. And at 29, I think he's pretty much hit his ceiling as a lower-tier La Liga player. Who knows what Bair or Oluwaseyi can do? Exposure against big national teams would come with pressure, but opportunity as well.

Ugbo has had chances and done nothing for the CMNT. Does he deserve another shot? Absolutely. But, if it is between 2 of Bair, Ugbo, Oluwaseyi, right now I'd take Bair and Oluwaseyi. Both deserve a cap or at least a camp.

Bustos came on late to help close out a 2-1 win over Hammarby. Zator played the full match in a 1-1 draw

...or his tactical ideas got a bit dated where players coming in from a league like Serie A were concerned and he should have avoided the optics of selecting his severely over the hill son rather than telling him that it was time to retire. As recently as his stint at LAFC he was getting the job done in an MLS context.

Bradley all around was just a bad manager

I don’t think I would go as far yet as saying we are contenders. We will have to start beating top teams for that to be the case. But we have certainly become a playoff team. And I agree that it is down mostly to herdman. You could even see it last night the way he was directing, encouraging, and shouting at the players in the second half to maintain the intensity and see the game out. It can be summarized by the game that Bernardeschi laid down last night. Not only did he score, but he was also back blocking shots in the box, making passes in the midfield, and running all over the pitch. Completely the opposite attitude and effort of what we saw the entire team doing under Bradley last season.

I like the confidence he showed. He beat his man quite a few times and got some crosses in to the box. Unfortunately only one of them landed in a dangerous spot but no one was making a run in to that space. It’s nice to see his teammates trying to find him as well.

Buchanan on at 69

With this talk of homegrown coaches it is interesting that the best product of the Canadian coaching landscape is a Frenchman, Wilfried Nancy. What a great story he is for Canadian soccer -- played university ball, coached amateur level in Quebec, coached their provincial team, part of the Impact academy, made it to MLS with Impact then Crew, now an MLS champion and possible CCL champion. If there was one guy who was 'perfect' for the CanMNT job, it's him.

What kinda bug regarding how bad Valour is doing is that building a descent CPL squad shouldn't be that hard really: just offer contracts to all the academy kids from the three MLS clubs who haven't made it and don't have anything else lined up in front of them. Will it be a good team? Nope. Are you likely to develop a lot of players that will get a move up? Also nope. However, you will get a squad who can at least generally perform honorably at a CPL level, and you can work from there. Dunno, obviously I am just a random fan and there is stuff I might not be understanding but to me getting a lineup that is at least competitive shouldn't rocket science for Valour...

Honestly, if you say that to an investor who want to make a team in Moncton, I'd imagine the most likely reaction would be something along the line of ''you have only eight teams and a large portion of them don't make ends meet, you are struggling to get more candidates for expansion and when I come to you with a perfectly viable business plan you tell me I should go to L1 instead because that's the ''proper level'' for Moncton? Yeah, no. Call me back when either you have a Soccer pyramid that back that take or when you have eaten some humble pie!'' This isn't to say I don't understand where you are coming from but that's still what you'll get from a potential investor if you make that argument to them at this point in time, unless they stop returning your call altogether... After all, from their pov they can probably find a way to better invest that money and their interest is partially down to them caring for the sport and loving their community so the message that a Moncton or Kelowna just doesn't have it in them is unlikely to go down well with them. As for what would happen if the scenario you outlined comes to pass (which I'd argue is far from sure, as Halifax could get 10K right now if they had the stadium and with the current growth rates Kelowna and Moncton might very well be there by the time the CPL get into those numbers...) I'd say there is two scenarios, depending on how the league rules evolve: I. If the league is still not doing pro-rel I'd imagine there will still be a hard cap. In that case the clubs from bigger markets would basically agitate all the time for the cap rules to be loosened, or at least for the cap to be raised overall. Moreover, ods are you'll have investors from bigger markets who see they could make significantly higher profits then several of the CPL's clubs by moving them. I'd imagine that the combo of having the pressure from the other clubs, and the fears of losing solid money if they get what they want, alongside the temptation of potential buyers dangling big bags of cash in front of them, will eventually lead to a defacto exodus of clubs who can truly not follow pace in their current homes. II. If pro-rel become a thing I'd imagine the salary cap is likely to be, at the very least, loosened ala MLS. I am sure there is some examples of salary cap and pro-rel cohabitating in some sports league accross the world but overall its a big ask for owners to accept rules handcuffing their teams financially to some degree when such dire consequences for their valuation await if they don't perform... In that case clubs who don't follow the pace will simply wound up being progressively relegated as time goes by. As an asside, I am fairly sceptical of the idea that there will necessarily be a boom after the World Cup. It makes more sense for the MLS, as there is still a sizable chunk of the USA who hasn't been really introduced to the sport and/or has negative misconceptions about it. I'd argue that Soccer is in fact quite a bit more popular in Canada proportionally speaking and its more Canadian soccer that remain very much a work in progress. Simply having a world cup here is unlikely to change that in and of itself. IMO the true outside help the CPL needs is for the CMNT to go on a run, as that would increase interest in Canadian soccer specifically.

I think we should make a special 3rd tier placement for Valour.

Just noticed he started and went 74' minutes for Wolfsberger today. Unfortunately this is why (via translation) he came off. "Next change for the Wolves: #Diabate gets ready and replaces #Kennedy. Who has to leave the field due to pain."