SoccMan

Yup looking like the old York that we are use to seeing since the start of the CPL . Looked very promising for a few games back in the summer, now back to the same old crap! Good luck getting more than friends and family to games .

Messi did not come out to train with the Miami team, maybe might have been pulled off of todays roster .

It was over before the season started , who are we all kidding here , it’s a mess with a capital M!

That field looks like a cow pasture , wow !

One thing I’ve been impressed with about Montreal this season is their consistent good attendance. I’m actually surprised that after how this club has been run in terms of player turnovers and coaching turnovers that fans have consistently filled Saputo stadium to near sellouts game in game out . I mean after that Nancy coached team that was on the verge of greatness was dismantled with Nancy being let go and several good players also leaving I would have thought attendance would have taken a hit but it doesn’t seem to. Moreover, since that Nancy led team Montreal has been pretty bad but yet the fans keep showing up. Good on the Montreal fans for continuing to support , moreover , I’ll still say that watching a game on TV from Saputo looks great on TV , a nice enclosed stadium , may not have all the amenities but it looks like a proper soccer ground .

I may be wrong but it just seems to me that players coming from English language countries seem to have a harder time picking up the language of the country they are playing in . However, it seems players from non English speaking countries pick up the local language in no time .

A Classic strikers goal , the guy has always been one of the best we have ever had at that position, he is a natural . We tend to forget the guy in his first season playing pro against men, won the scoring title if I’m not mistaken in the MLS straight out of college. If today we had a university/college kid just of school playing in the CPL and winning the scoring title we would all be clamouring for him to move on to a bigger league . He has scored so many goals in some very good leagues in his career and will go down as a Canadian scoring legend , hopefully there are more Carl Larins in our future coming through.

So what’s happening in Vancouver tonight that barely 12000 people bothered to show up for a final of a national Cup final. They are having a decent season so it’s not like fans are protesting a bad season . As bad as TFC’s season has been and seasons have been I can almost assure you that more than 12000 would have shown up if the game was at BMO .

What players that are missing would win over the neutrals ?

If I’m not mistaken that West Ham stadium was the venue for the track and field events at the London Olympics and before it was built it was already known it would be West Ham’s new stadium once the Olympics were over.

When it comes to expansion the only thing they should really be adamant about is no football lines . The second one for me is staying away from the big CFL type stadiums you have in Hamilton, Ottawa and Winnipeg if possible. The university stadiums in places like Kitchener, London and I think in Quebec City are good enough for me as long as there are no permanent football lines . I really can’t see the CPL saying no to serious investors who want to put teams in these type of cities if these were the stadiums they want to play in . We might not have the perfect stadiums but with a bit of creativity there are stadiums you can put teams in .

Bye bye playoffs TFC another pathetic performance, with only four games left this team is done . How many seasons in a row with no playoffs ? Moreover, Herdman is not the answer, motivation speeches can only get you so far .

And BMO Field which is hosting the World Cup is only getting temporary seating , no real renovations, slowly becoming one of the worst stadiums in MLS .

The ethnic team name debate was also one had in the old NASL when the Croatian community saved pro soccer at the time and purchased the Toronto Metros and rebranded them into Metros Croatia , which went on to be NASL champions in 1976. The NASL approved the sale but wasn’t that thrilled with the Croatian name added to the Metros name from what I recall. However, I will agree the Dales Barnes CSL should have allowed some of these ethnic clubs with their names and all to join that league , instead of started entirely new teams and in some cases forcing some of these ethnic clubs to go from playing pro to just becoming local amateur teams and playing in amateur city leagues . These ethnic teams had rich histories going back many many years and already established fan bases . If you look at pro teams in South America like Argentina and Brazil you will see many teams still with ethnic names that were started by immigrants from different countries that were immigrants to those countries many years before who started soccer clubs and named these soccer clubs after the country were they were from . Those clubs are still around today playing in those countries top leagues . The mistake we made in Canada was to kill those clubs basically and not let them organically grow the way they were growing up to that point . Instead we kept trying to start new clubs right from scratch with no history whatsoever. I think there is something to be said about having clubs grow organically throughout the years and we had that with a lot of these ethnic clubs that were putting hard earned money into the game for so many years , instead we killed them off always trying to start from scratch . The past is the past and we are where we are , what’s done is done unfortunately. We now need to move forward and try every avenue to make this new league work so that we have a national league the CPL here for a long time and prosper . However, things could have been a lot different and we may have been a lot further along .

The only thing I’ll say on this matter in terms of CPL attendance . Before I go any further I understand that the CPL is in it’s infancy and there was the Covid years , however, when I look at the level of the MLS Canadian teams and the level of the CPL top teams the gap in level is not that much . I still think some of these CPL teams should be averaging better crowds . Forge as we have seen with their Championships and their play against MLS and top Mexican league teams are not that far off from these teams, therefore , I see no reason why they shouldn’t be averaging 8 to 10000 . Forge is a very good team and play a high level style of soccer . Sure they are near the top of the league attendance wise but they should be getting 3 to 5000 more . I don’t think the attendance they get in my opinion is good enough, not for the type of product they put on the field . Ottawa is another example that stadium should at the very least be half full for their games . Moreover , Winnipeg who are let’s be truthful here, when I watch games are getting York United numbers, yes I know they have never been that good but still that market should do better. The product on the field is good the level is good but I think that attendance should be a lot better . Apart from the MLS CPL cities this other cities have the pro soccer market all to themselves and they need to start bringing in more fans . The product is good the level is good hopefully one day soon we will see more fans in the stadiums because this league is strongly needed if we are going to keep getting better at this game .