Free kick

you are probably right. and i knew that when i started typing. But when it comes doing a mind dump on topics like this, you inevitable end up not elaborating or expounding on all your points. as i said, you can go on endlessly on topics like that.

Everything you say is well supported. I reside in GTA (for many years now) but I am from Quebec and I am back there many times a year and still follow closely (from a distance) the news and goings on in the province and in Montreal. That said, i would that say if you look at it from a very broad sense: "Soccer's popularity", there is no difference from what i can tell between Ontario and Quebec and Greater Montreal and the GTA. in fact, if immigration patterns mean anything in terms of enhancing the culture for soccer, then the trends would suggest a growth in Quebec and a decline in Ontario. Quebec has been favoring a lot of immigration from areas like North Africa and Latin America. The game is well rooted in the culture of these regions of the world. Whereas in the GTA, the trend has been towards new arrivals from various parts of Asia where soccer is no where near as popular. If the popularity of the major events in the game (WC, Euros..etc), is any kind of barometer, then from my observation, again, there is no difference. That said, you are still 100% correct about all your points, but i would attribute it to many different factors that have nothing to do with "Popularity of soccer". sorry, i don't feel like typing an essay here, so i will try to be brief. Two main points need to be taken into account to describe the points you listed and why they are true despite the fact that i contend that, when it comes to popularity, there is no difference. 1) there are economic differences between the two province and cities. what i am referring to is things like disposable income, taxes, private sector size, etc etc which affects how people spend their money or choose to spend their money. And, in how the new arrivals from soccer cultures spend their money or choose to spend their money. Basically, new immigrants dont fare very well economically, in Quebec. There is also a lot less private investment in Quebec, few sources of sponsorship $$$ and this would affect why there are fewer clubs. 2) Linguistic/Nationalism: you need to have a strong francophones presence on the club and they need to be stars. I will stop here for now because i could go on for too long on these two topics. plus i dont want to get political.

The recent posts on this page show the importance of a feature that disappeared on this forum; and that I miss. Its the feature telling you where the poster lives. I honestly think that this is important for a lot of discussion here because it adds context to a viewpoint. for example, when someone says that a certain sport is or is not popular in certain location in Canada, it can take on totally different meaning if you know that the person saying lives there or not.

You kind of if beat me to this point. Because i was just going to post and vent on this specific topic. i was listening (podcast) and reading some of the commentary yesterday from some of the cnd sources that are more on “Generalist” side. For example, the drive home shows on the radio to name one and other articles. At first, i was thinking that: “Hey, this is all good stuff”, and what they were saying about Davies is not incorrect and he deserves the praise. But then it started to get annoying because (as they went on) they were giving the impression that this team is “ a one-man show”. As if TB doesnt exist, as if Johnston rest of the backline and d-mids had nothing to do with the fact that Canada has only conceded 4 goals in six games, etc etc. Herdman was on one of the shows (Ben Ennis and Stephen Brundt) that i was listening to and i got a sense from his answers to two of the questions, that he too is clueing in on this and is concerned. In the fifteen minutes prior to him comming on, they only talked about Davies and what he means to the team and soccer in Canada but Herdman went out if his was to mention the name of TB and Laryea (local guys) in one of his answers and then he made a point of reinterating the success at the GC and the fact that the team was just as good at the GC against mexico even though Davies wasnt there. With all the MNT games we have seen in the last six months, there isnt a 1 and a 2 or a 1A and a 1B as the offensive stars on this team. There are two 1A’s. TB has been just as good. maybe even better.

This is kind of the way i see it as well. Unless one has a particular bias, Its really hard to definitely state overall who is the better choice. And world cup qualifying is the wrong place to be making or basing those decisions on when there is only 14 games to be played. Its watching a guy over many games and over an extended period that you can really assess the the advantages and strenghts of one versus another. And we dont get that chance because one plays in Europe and we will never see his games. For example, Crepeau wasnt really tested against Jamaica, and you can say the same about Borjan versus ES, so what are we to conclude about those performances.

It was a second yellow.

The the non PK call was also an example of this. Since i was at the game, i only saw one replay of it and it was on my phone. But it was a PK, the guy got pushed from the back.

Thats kind of the problem i have with this crew. It seems like every single game they’ re saying things like : “ this is the biggest game in Canadian history”. Or this is a “watershed moment”. First it was the game versus Haiti that was the biggest game in history, then the game after that, and so on.

That pass he made to Davies at the game in the Azteca is a play i will remember for a long time. Unfortunately it didnt result in goal. But had it gone in, i think that it would have made some highlights around the globe.

The moment at the 1:29:00 is pricless.. Watch the guy throw his jacket and go ballistic. At 1:30:00 it looks like he is going to kill someone. Then he rips off his tie at 1:31:00.

I think that they tried once to get refs from other regions and i dont know why that stopped. There were some previous games canada played in concacaf (cant recall if it was WCQ or GC) that were referreed by UEFA refs.

Good to see you again.

Yes, other than the rediculous lineups to get in, It was perfect night. I would add, there was no weather advantage tonight for anyone because it was the kind of night whereby I should have worn a short sleeve shirt and shorts. No wind or breeze whatsoever. The central americans must have loved it. i have to stop and remind myself and put things into context sometimes when i watch our games and see these missed chances that we get. Like in the first half or in Mexico etc. Thats a sign that we are a good team because if you look back at our history since 86 and try to recall all those games; try to remember how many chances we would get in our typical WCQ matches in Concacaf. I’ll answer that with this: we never created many chances and those that we would think were good scoring opportunities, were really only half chances. And they would be very few. Now when i watch a chance like the one Miller had in Jamaica, or the few that had David tonight, i throw my hands in air but then i have to stop and think: good players get scoring chances; mediocre players dont. Good teams create scroring chances and mediocre teams dont. I just watched ES-Mex, i saw proof right there why ES are nowhere close to us. They cant create anything. i can safely say, that it would take something momumental now to not qualify for Qatar.

Ok. Thanks

Its not a good idea to post that password here. Anyone can see it here. Including any supporters for the visitors.