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Finally

Shows the value of the CPL, where would this this kid be without the CPL? Riding the bench in Montréal?

I noticed that he also unfollowed England on Instagram and Twitter. Fingers crossed!

I am assuming they are both taking C- teams to eliminate the risk of injury. Sorry…

Ralph has now moved ahead of Dom Dwyer and Carlos Ruiz on the all-time TFC goal scoring list.

It's a foul by Laryea, or a penalty for chopping down Laryea, or a penalty for handball. Corner kick is not one of the reasonable options.

Ayo credits Herdman, D&D and Canada for his change of mind.

Word on the street is Talba is finally back in training with CF Montreal after a long recovery from injury. Would love to see him loaned out to a CPL club, to get minutes and shake off the rust.

Have it run and reffed by any other federation other than Concacaf.

Not just Lens, it seems.

Could it not be in the US every time?

Liam makes the bench for the Europa Conference league qualifier…

Herdman isn’t fighting to keep his job. I get that you don’t like him but FFS you can’t just make shit up. He has gotten us to the Ocho and a ball won’t be kicked for over a month in that qualification process. He is on very solid ground right now whether you like it or. It.

I would rather the CSA save the 10k or whatever it would cost to bring Bair down than bring Bair down...

Surprised this went unnoticed but he signed with Stade De Reims’ (Ligue 1) B Team who play in the 4th tier of France

Scored the tying goal against the Red Bulls tonight. I believe that's his first MLS goal.

Ricketts doesn’t get the respect he deserves IMO. Sure there are lots of minnow goals- but every Canadian striker in history has padded their stats with those. The fact is that he has shown up when called and played hard every time - and gotten enough goals to still be 5th on our all time scoring chart (ahead of Bunbury). I don’t think he deserves the shade he gets around here sometimes.

Last night the president of El Salvador posted some very heartfelt and thoughtful tweets while watching the game.

I still have no idea how they played the FIBA Olympic qualifiers in BC almost a month ago but we’re struggling to host games now. Give the players an exemption and be done with it.

Agreed. Theo should be getting some minutes. He’s cracked a PL lineup, let him show what he can do against a proper team. He’s passed the minnow test, no reason not to give him an opportunity, especially since our attack is depleted.

How anyone can complain about Herdman at this point is beyond reason. I was once in that camp, but have changed that tune drastically due to what I’ve seen. He’s brought on more coaches for help, and has added a game day earpiece to receive extra help. We’ve changed/tested our formation several times, landing on what I’ve been banging the drum for in the 352 - as I still think it suits our crop of players. We had an 8 game win streak snapped against a USMNT that cleaaaarrrly didn’t deserve that win. If there’s any talk of a firing, let it be after WCQ.

Also, further to that, if I remember correctly most were worried about our top players getting chopped down by the brutes from Martinique and Haiti. Davies - Injured in training. Larin and Akinola - Injured against the US. Ergo, let's stop training and playing top teams. Fact of the matter: shit happens.

Okay, finally chipping in. Watched on GolTV Spain and the commentator was Spanish, unlike the majority of their GC announcers who are Latin American. Amazingly knowledgeable about some things, even started talking about CPL, described Forge, asked what sort of player might CPL provide to a NT set-up. So knew that, but had to check his sheet on Piette and did not grasp his Spain career. Well I was very pleased overall. And irate about that ref for the entire match. He screwed us. Or they did, including VAR. It was as if he'd decided beforehand what would happen. You absolutely have to get into a ref's face when he's playing 12th man for the gringos. Comparing to where I was not convinced last outing, Miller was really sharp, going forwards but also handling Dike most of the match--his one header when he got free there was a mix-up and someone too short was on him, maybe Richie. Vitoria as well, really bossed it. Thought Osorio coming on was a plus. Was happy with Tajon's performance, and Larin. Piette was very good and has some things that are very positive for our team. Liked Cav. Think if they'd given us the proper added time, say 7-8, we could have made a better run of it. Being one goal from winning the group was a great proposition and we needed some breaks, a free kick, but we were never going to get it with this ref and them lying deep. Their best players were Sands, Vine and that other CB, forget his name. True, since they could sit back they did, so we were not pressured up high. We played out and smoothly, with nice changes, passing accuracy and even the backs or mids pushing into space when we had it. I am not sure what we were missing to score, but I think if Larin and Ayo had been able to be together for 70 m we would have gotten one by then. Then the US would have had to push and it could have been a different game for 20 minutes. Really the only players I would not rate are Fraser, mostly because he was uninvolved for long stretches, and Pasher, who was not ready for what was being asked of him. Fair enough, first time out, cut him some slack.

Disappointed by how little Corbeanu has been used. Two goals in what... 200 minutes? He's creative with the ball and quite easily our best high crosser. A legit Premier League player and we can't find room to use him as a sub. Edit: 134 minutes.

I think In this case though Italy is home

Looks like Harry Paton is finally out of quarantine and in training, judging by pictures on the CanadaSoccer flickr

Is it on the record that he "unnecessarily forced players for this competition"? I haven't seen any evidence of that. In fact, I've seen the opposite. I find that surprising for someone who considered Miller "weak" against Haiti but then "sharp" against the US. Might lead one to think that you learned something about him. Maybe that he is a solid defensive optionshould we run into injuries now that he has played with the rest of the back line . Also: - Eustaquio has some offensive prowess and maybe should be pushed forward a bit but he needs more support in the middle. - The entire back line needs to work on concentration from minute 1, particularly those in the wingback role. - Still need to work on cutting through when the opposition is lying deep. - Cavallini/Larin partnership needs some work before its ready for primetime. - Johnston is solid defensively but moderately suspect going forward. - Pasher, despite solid club form, needs a few more reps with the team before he understands his role. I'm sure there's more.

Akinola’s injury should not factor in to any debate about whether we should have brought our best players unless someone is going to argue that once he committed to our program we should have immediately ignored him and brought Bair or Brym instead and just hope that Ayo’s club chemistry with Oso and Laryea would be enough to get him acclimated with the full team.

Just off the top of my head.. what we've learned from the GC so far: - Buchanan is a great option at LWB/RWB; - Miller is starter material on the backline; - Eustaquio is our set piece taker going forward and 3rd best player; - Crepeau is a solid option in net and comfortably #2; and - We can control games against teams not named Suriname and Haiti. The pros outweigh the cons. Of course it was the right call to bring the best squad we could. Davies rolled his ankle in training and Akinola suffered a freak injury. It happens. If not playing for Canada both things could have happened during the same week with their club teams. We are in a better position going into WCQ. Period.

So while we area all dislocating our shoulders clapping ourselves on the back for being doom sayers...where is the hate for the guys who were crying about Arfield skipping camps??? Wouldnt the same reasoning for why people wanting our best to skip the gold cup apply to him?? He catches shit, but then you guys dont want our best players to go and actually play games against decent competition?? I've listened to the whining about CSA are pricks, idiots etc for not having enough games, we need more games, play better competition, get team used to high pressure road games, develop team chemistry etc etc ad nauseum. And now we dont want our players to play in them......ugghhh. Well the guys that are going to play in WCQ need to play together, or at least a large % of them. Or else we are just throwing together a bunch of guys in the fall and we'll fail again...and again. SOme guys skip, some guys are worried about preseason club situation stuff, fine we dont need to cry about that. But going with a C team of CPL and college guys and getting our asses handed to us isnt helping anything. You might as well tie one hand behind Herdmans back.

Oh that would be something, Ricketts makes a triumphant return and scores a couple more???

Piette wins possession so often and rarely gives up possession. I’m a big fan and I think he’s our best pure defensive mid. I had to laugh when he tried that “shot” from 25 or so yards out yesterday lol… would have been one hell of a first goal for the CMNT. One thing that I didn’t care for tactically yesterday was the amount of times Piette was in the box for set pieces, I feel like he’s more useful outside the box to stop counters.

Thats the part of his rants you dont understand??

We have an absolute baller on our hands...

Panama should have had the draw. That wasn't an offside. VAR should have overturned it. @xabuep2 must be furious.

Opinion: Daniel Jebbison going on loan wouldn't be the worst idea in the world Weird coincidence.

That’s too bad. While I would always prefer a Canadian player to land in CPL over USL, a stint in any lower division would be an improvement at this point. Unless the Montreal brass plan to play him (and you never know, I still think he had a solid Olympic qualifying campaign) another season of watching from the sidelines will be unfortunate. Fingers crossed things work out for him though. Still rooting for the guy.

ACL tear….facking hell. This hurts for everyone. Rest easy, come back stronger kid.

Wow that really sucks. There was a point in time where I thought Anthony Jackson-Hamel would at the very least become an impact player at the MLS level. Him and Jordan Hamilton have always flashed at the MLS level, but never fully broke through (and were dominant at the level below). I'd imagine he has an alternative to the sport, because at the very least he could be a star in the CPL (in the mould of a better Anthony Novak). Congrats on a solid career, and good luck on your next move AJH!

Let me add one more thing before I shake this one off and move on. In a game such as this where getting to the goal is real tough, you really notice how few players we have with any confidence or danger in their shot from distance. Over the past 5 years or so it's really only been Junior and Arfield who have shown they can be a threat from outside the 18, though maybe guys like Eustaquio and Buchanan can be added to the list. For as dangerous as guys like Larin, David, Davies and Cavallini are if you can keep them outside the 18 you're pretty much guaranteed they won't shoot or if they do it's likely to be weak sauce. Then among our midfield you also won't ever really find Osorio, Kaye, Piette or Hutchinson having a meaningful crack at the ball. Contrast that to some of what you see with Honduras/Panama/Mexico and it seems like everyone on the field is equipped with the confidence to have a meaningful go and see what happens if better options don't present themselves.

Brym is currently on trial with Excelsior Rotterdam of the Eerste Divisie. https://www.voetbalrotterdam.nl/2021/07/excelsior-test-jonge-franse-talenten/ Google Translation from Dutch: The observant viewer had already seen it on Saturday's livestream: Excelsior Rotterdam currently has two players on trial. Charles-Andreas Brym (22) is a French-born striker with Canadian nationality. He played three international matches for Canada and last season played for Belgian Royal Excel Mouscron. The French Modeste Duku (20) is an attacking midfielder from Olympique Lyon. Technical director Nick Kersten: "We wanted to see both talented football players at work here in peace. That is why we are only now communicating about these players. They trained with us last week and both played a half against Willem II. It will be determined next week whether one or both boys will definitely join Excelsior Rotterdam.''

Overall quite pleased with our performance. Let's remember these teams are going to look a lot different in the fall. Definitely missed David & Davies up top, although we had a lot more shots not too many clear cut chances that Davies & David can generate. Slow start but also a terrible missed pk call in the first half. We deserved more in this game but it is what it is. I was impressed with how they boys did in the final 60 minutes. Let's also not forget that we were missing both Atiba & Arfield* in the middle. Eustaquio out suspended. That's probably our best 3 midfielders. We also rested probably our 4th and 5th best midfielders to start in Osorio & Kaye. Crepeau - I thought he was as good as can be expected. Not a save to be made but did well in all other aspects of the game. Vitoria - Was fantastic. Completely different player today than last game and his lack of speed did not get exposed with USA speedy attackers. Also loved seeing him really emotional speak in the huddle after the game. He seems to have really taken a strong leadership role this tournament. Miller - Looked very poor to start but I thought he did much better as the game progressed. On the ball is still a concern. I still expect Kennedy to be starting there come the fall. Johnston - I thought it wasn't his best game but again became much better as the game progressed. Lacks the attacking part of the game but enjoy him on the outside of a back 3 quite well. Fraser - Absolutely terrible in the first half but looked good in the 2nd half. I don't see him being involved too much in this program in the future with the depth of our midfield. Piette - I thought he was okay to start and grew as the game went along. He has something different about him that none of our other midfielders do and I like that a lot about him. Junior - I thought he was our best player for most of the game. He really struggles to ever get a full 90 minutes but pulling him today was a bit harsh. A lot came through him in the middle today. Tajon - Another fantastic performance. Gonna have to find room for him in the starting lineup or else he is going to be absolutely unstoppable coming off the bench late in games. Laryea - He was okay. One of his better performances this season for club and country but still hasn't seemed to regain his form. Definitely a pk on the one tackle but he needs to stop looking so much for the fouls in my opinion. Larin - I thought he was very good again and its too bad he got injured at the time he did. I would have liked to see him play when we really pushed in the final part of the game. Akinola - Looked fairly good before his injury. Hopefully it's nothing serious. Osorio - Completely changed the game when he came on. Thought it was one of his better games this year. Cavallini - Pretty good in his short appearance. I will never bet on him getting a breakaway though. Kaye - Very happy with his performance today as well. He needed that after last game. Pasher - I thought he was decent. He can definitely keep his own with this group of players.

Don't understand the hate for Piette. We needed a pure ball-winner to throw at them, and he did his job well. Fraser is Fraser... I don't think he should be here, but he was fine. It's a shame we couldn't break down their bus, but it's a good sign they had to resort to that. For almost 70 minutes, the US looked completely overwhelmed. I think the rest of the team should've followed Johnston's lead and sent in a bunch of crosses, cause we just didn't have the precision to break their lines in the final third. We spent too much time trying to sneak through, and that was never going to work. And to be clear, this is very much our B-team. No Davies, David, Eustaquio, Atiba, Arfield, Borjan, Kennedy or Adekugbe and no Larin for much of it either. Lot of positives to take from this performance imo - we were much less wasteful with the ball even if we didn't convert in the end.

We should have gotten a tie out of this game, shaft on the penalty call aside. Larin missed a great chance on that horrible giveaway in the first minute of the second half. Cavallini doesn't have a breakaway gear on his opportunity. Buchanon misses by inches on one shot and then gets stopped on that half chance. We had the chances to do the job but didn't do it. However, that's behind us and now the focus is on the QF.

Can we beat at US team with a A squad? Not really important. This team needs to beat the Honduras, Jamaica, Costa Rica types. We have not been able to do that historically and after pumping a bunch of minnows with goals and beating Haiti, people are getting a head of themselves. This game adds credence to the idea we’re becoming more competitive. Look at it that way.

They will crush El Salvador no matter what. Their country won’t want another poor result.