youllneverwalkalone

His professional debut, I believe. I know Canada youth teams don't play often anymore, but odd that the son of a CMNT legend hasn't spent any time with our youth set-up. Or has he? I can't find a profile. Anyway, nice level to get started. The stadium looks very professional and the club seems to be mid-table safe.

Indeed, poor Current Champ being dragged out by the RCMP for being attacked. Through all the dark Colin Miller interim days Kevan Pipe and the rest, I really couldn't imagine both a top crop of players coming through, but also the fan engagement in response (where I think we are at the tip of the ice berg for the CMNT). Even the media is getting on board. I listen to Halford & Brough in the morning here and they love them some CMNT right now. I think we're headed for 55k + at BC Place in January. All this will help the CPL in the long-term. We do have the supporters, they just need to be won over.

Aren't we all!

I mean you just have to look at the crowd at BMO the other night to see how far we've come. My first qualifiers were 2004, and if there were 5,000 ppl at Swangard half were supporting Costa Rica or Guatemala.

Pretty sure Jermaine Franklin is from Calgary and Kobe is not his kid. James F, however, no so sure.

I don't know if this ties into your comments here or other observations, but I've found the passing stats a bit interesting: https://canpl.ca/statistics/teams/2021/all/team_play There's not a whole lot of detail here obviously, but I would expect lower completion percentages (and perhaps more cross attempt in general for this level). I wonder if it's attributable to lack of pressing or defensive intensity throughout the league? One of the enjoyable things about following the league early on is finding these amateur players who do certain things very well. I'm thinking about Lukas MacNaughton who really seems like a ball playing defender at this level. Pacific in general seem to move the ball around quite nicely. I've thought of it as more vertical than direct, but I completely concede that I may not really understand what these terms mean in a football context.

When I play FM, my scouts tell me that so and so won't get a work permit and I ignore them and try to sign that player anyway. Mostly the scouts are right, but some times not. My point here, other than that I'm a sad excuse for a middle aged man, is that I feel like we would have seen more smoke here with Laryea if there was genuine interest. Either that, or those people in recruitment have more effective filters that allow players to drift on and off their lists based on FIFA rankings. Another reason I say this is that AJ has a British passport (I think), and still no smoke around him transferring to the UK. I don't know if it's the is MLS in the 4th band thing or perhaps English clubs have grown frustrated with MLS antics, but there wasn't a single non-loan transfer with MLS this year: https://www.transfermarkt.com/major-league-soccer/transfers/wettbewerb/MLS1?saison_id=2021

Doesn't Spain love themselves some over 30s? Would Oso have any back door means to get there with his Colombia connection? Mallorca anyone? Not a big club, but a big personal challenge that would keep him in top form for us.

Gutierrez played the Kamal Miller role last night. Not sure it looked great, but could make him a bit more versatile and have him competing with more players than just Adekugbe.

Regardless, USLC is a defacto farm league. Makes sense to me.

He's not done till Nolando sees him training in the park beside his house. This was the kiss of death for Whoregreaves.

First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin...

30 matches left. That's still a big opportunity. Wednesday is a big club with pressure to promote. Isn't this exactly the adversity that Wolves would like him to overcome? That's what it will take to play in the Premier League. Going out to D2 France or whatever isn't the answer. Work hard in training and break into the first team son.

I don't want to diminish that presser, as I really enjoyed Herdman sharing all that experience. I really never considered his possible exposure to the all blacks and what that might have contributed to his growth as a manager. That said, here are the Murcia camp groups that rumbled: Pan Slavs - Borjan, Jakovic Caribbean - MAK, James, Ricketts, Larin, Morgan, Cornelius, Edwards Quebecrs - Piette Latinx Africa - Osorio, Adekugbe, Akindele Mediterranean - Petrasso, Godinho, Swiss Neutral - Leutwiler Scottish (not a national distinction, but rather the only names Colin Miller knows how to spell) - Millar, Simon Thomas, Edgar, Wotherspoon, Chapman, Fraser. Oddly, the first bit of team building occurred when Osorio and Ricketts switched sides, facilitating Caribbean to be renamed "Brampton." Brampton crushed Scotland for CMNT supremacy and the rest is history.

I'm not the biggest Russ fan to be fair. I wouldn't say familiarity breeds contempt, but if there's another opposite cliche to absence makes the heart grow fonder, I'll take that. Despite this, if you need a guy to jump into Herdman's system, both on and off the pitch, Russ is a guy who could easily accept and execute a role in a meaningful match. He's a pro.