DigzTFC

He could have been completely certain of the facts, and he would still have been wrong to give that type of press conference. Was it good for him to be totally transparent as a human being? Yes, absolutely. Was it good legally for the CSA? No, he hurt the CSA financially. Human Resource lawyers will be lining up to represent the laid off coaches and, in my opinion, Kevin Blue just made it easier for them to win based on that press conference he held. I've been in positions where I've had to terminate bad people and the law leans towards the protection of employees. Blue just doesn't know what he's doing in this arena. Put it simply, Blue admitted that drones were systemic which, if I was the lawyer of the soon to be former coaches, I would be arguing. He just conceded the crux of the legal debate for no apparent reason other than to be transparent. I'm putting aside that he implicated his current men's staff, the past men's staff and past women's staff. He may have unnecessarily put himself in a position post-investigation where he literally has no coaches and he has to pay out millions of dollars in settlements.

I think Kevin Blue's comments are unbelievably reckless and have overarching legal implications. I've never seen a CEO come out and, without a thorough investigation, implicate his current and former staff and provide additional information than reporters were asking for. It doesn't matter if you say "anecdotal evidence" and then say the evidence. I simply cannot believe it. He's substantiating the evidence by stating it in the press whether it is real or not. He went on to say that the issue is systemic (that means the whole organization), that this issue proceeded Jesse Marsch, Bev Priestman which only leaves John Herdman. Herdman started in 2011 with the women's team. Drone regulations were only established in the 2010's. "Anecdotally", he just defamed Herdman in the press without a third party investigation or even interviewing him, and then went on to say Priestman was carrying on these practices, and the inherited staff of the men's side were doing it, in at least one instance, during Copa America. He said Jesse Marsch knew about the Copa America incident "after the fact at a minimum". Just let that sit for a second. No one asked about Copa America. He said it without anyone asking. He also may have implicated himself because if he knew at the time about the Copa America incident and did nothing, other employees may have viewed that as tacit approval that the CSA didn't care. I'm sure there isn't an internal memo that says drone are an unacceptable practice. Unbelievable, if he ends up firing any of the women's program (which is inevitable) he will have to fire people on the men's side. You cannot have different measuring sticks legally. I am shocked at the level of legal ineptitude on display and lack of media training. The CSA better have a good lawyer to clean up his mess. I'd imagine he feels pretty good about how that went too. You think the CSA is broke now? Wait until they get through the lawyer bills. It doesn't matter if the problem preceded him. The tacit approval of drone usage existed in the organization and these employees would have a legal argument that no one ever corrected their behavior and it was a known practice, the CSA purchased the equipment with the known intent, and hired performance analyst with flying drones as part of the job description, and with that tacit approval, there are no grounds to fire them. Most likely, you've got 3-6 employees your going to have to payout plus lawyer fees. But hey, what a great guy. Unreal.....

We were practicing on non-secure college fields during Copa America, correct?. Literally anyone could have watched our practices and I'm sure we were watched. I would be surprised if this wasn't common practice.

This is precisely the value of qualifying for major tournaments. Players are transferred based on playing higher level competition. That's the value of Copa America, World Cup, the u20 World Cup, and the Olympics. The fewer major tournaments we play in, the fewer player with transfers to better leagues, the lower the ceiling on the squad. That's why the group of players at the Copa America was so special. We've caught lightening in Bombito, Kone, Jonathan David, Shaffelburg, Tani etc. We are extremely lucky to hit on those prospects in the same window. I do wonder if the CSA should establish a Sub Committee or Shadow Board for their youth side to develop a better scouting strategy by leveraging statistics to help identify gems across the LeagueOne Canada entities. Part of the reason Bombito was identified late is that he was converted to a center back in 2020. If he wasn't converted to a center back I doubt he would be a pro. That's crazy if you think about it. How many players have died on the vine because they kept playing a position which did not play to their strengths. -

Great review of the game. I thought the triple substitution was aggressive by Olivieri and it worked out. Credit to him. I still don't like the Diallo sub for Lopez. Olivieri must view it as a defensive move. Lopez provided the assist on Tavio's goal so again he's been one of our best. Watching the highlights with El Salvador vs. Hondurus, we need to win a lot of set pieces and tower over them in the box. They struggle mightily with height. We may want to drop Lopez back and let Diallo lead the line. Play Morgan as a winger. I would also start Cameron who has outplayed Rigopoulos. Some trivia, Tavio Ciccarelli (current player), Schilte-Brown and KSB all spent time with Halifax Wanderers.

I just watched Copa Ameria (Canada Soccer) youtube clips which is must watch. What stuck out to me was Jesse Marsch took a backseat in the locker room and let Alphonso speak before and after every match. What Phonzie said fired me up so I could imagine that galvanized the team. I'm impressed by Davies more after watching that and convinced he will be a great captain with the support of Stack. I was even more impressed by Marsch letting people grow and stepping out of the way to accomplish that. I was worried that he would dominate that team. To put it into focus, Marsch after taking Canada on a historic run that may never be matched, he deferred to long time team canada physiotherapist to provide the closing remarks after the Uruguay game. I was ecstatic by what I saw during the tournament from Marsch but I'm an even bigger fan after seeing that

There was a lot of positives from the match: - Santiago Lopez was the star until he picked up a knock on his knee - Swiderski was excellent and looks like pro in the making - Biello looked like a pro already - Morgan and Badwall were good - CGT stood out but had some lapses going too far forward. - We tried to manage the game by slowing it down and maintaining possession - Cameron looked decent but taking it to the corner at minute 83 seems silly to me. - Overall on a different pitch we might be able to assess the team style and I think this could be great learning opportunity players. The negatives: - Pearlman is a liability passing under pressure. - The pitch was atrocious from the jump and the ball holding up suited Hondurus style better. - I'm not a Olivieri fan because every team has enough quality to qualify but he doesn't make a team better - Moreover, the team had 5 yellow cards midway through the game and he chose to substitute 1 of the those players. He got away with it but it was a disaster waiting to happen. - Given the context of the pitch it was a red card waiting to happen instead he subbed, I think, 1 player with a yellow with Pearlman struggling. All of subs were wingers and forwards. - The coach didn't adjust to the game IMO. Outside of Lopez injury, the other subs seemed planned to get tournament minutes rather that close out the game.

https://canpl.ca/article/york-united-fc-announce-signing-of-canadian-winger-shola-jimoh-on-exceptional-young-talent-contract

6'1" Centreback Won the 2023 MLS NEXT PRO Title Currently, is top 3 in minutes played for the league and has the highest pass percentage of any player with 16+ games played @ 94.3% https://www.mlsnextpro.com/stats/players/?stat-type=mins_played#season=2024&competition=mls-next-pro&club=all&statType=general&position=all https://www.transfermarkt.us/salvatore-mazzaferro/profil/spieler/1117325 He might be one to watch in the next couple of years.

If he ever bulked up and became more aggressive he would make a great CB. His passing abilities out of the back would be exceptional for the position. He's fast enough for a CB but not quick enough for center midfield IMO and, likewise, not aggressive enough to be defensive midfielder and not offensive enough either. He's kind of an in between player IMO. But we've seen midfield players move back to the defensive line and excel like Laryea, Davies. For some reason down the spine is a harder transition than the wing.

I think this Joshua Belluz would be an excellent replacement for Mo Omar. https://www.mlssoccer.com/players/joshua-belluz/ Connections through Vaughn.

There is luck involved in development mostly correlated with opportunity. Alistair and Cyle had the fortune of going to expansion clubs and were given playing time immediately. Miller and Layrea were late bloomers and had to move before they found their place in the league. Buchanon took a couple years to develop and was a sub for most of his first year. CPL is a good option for young players to get playing time. NYFC has a lot of homegrown players so it was always going to be difficult for him to displace them.