maplebanana

My parents were both born in China, and raised in Hong Kong, but I was born in Canada. I am not, however, eligible for a Chinese passport (or HK identity card), making me 100% genetically chinese but 100% Canadian eligibility. Which is good, because people at work have described me as 'hardcore Canadian'. Hence, twinkie/banana.

All this talk of double digit win makes me think USVI may park the bus big time to limit the damage. And then it made me rethink a philosophical question I had in 2016 when Canada needed a draw in Honduras: If you stacked 11 guys, tetris style, would that block the entire net? Could be worth investigating.

Stumbled on this: https://www.prostamerika.com/2018/04/28/former-manchester-united-starlet-to-represent-cascadia/181223/ Things I learned: 1. Cascadia has its own 'national-like' team. 2. Josh Doughty is still a member of Unattached FC (but at least hasn't given up soccer altogether). For those interested, I also had to figure out what the Cascadian team was: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascadia_official_soccer_team

I saw both TFC and Canada soccer's twitter accounts (plus Vanney himself) refer to '3 Canadians' scoring yesterday. So that would be Hamilton, Osorio, and Akinola. I do wonder if it's anything more than spin though. Akinola doesn't count as Canadian in the Canadian Championship after all.

In certain fields (ex. engineering, finance, medicine), there is an agreement with the US and Mexico via NAFTA for free movement of professionals. It's called the TN visa, and it's what allowed me to work down here in silicon valley. And what allowed an American colleague to work in Canada at my last job. And I've heard the 'Canadian as domestic in Germany' argument before, but I thought that was just what the DFB agreed to, not the immigration department of the German government.

The last time Canada played Dominica at BMO, during an *actual world cup qualification match*, was 3 years ago. And 9749 people came. In June. If we get a bigger crowd than that, I'd be surprised but happy. This an early qualification match for a tournament that has never been run before. Set expectations accordingly, please.

The most daring formation of all, when you need to beat El Salvador by a lot, is the 2 GK formation. A calculated risk that paid off!

I was pretty sure that 7 years ago we (voyageurs in general, not me and you) had a conversation about this. Memory is fuzzy. But how can it be an official FIFA match if it is between a FIFA member (Canada) and a non-FIFA member (FG, Guadelupe, etc)?

Not sure if this has been covered yet, but did anyone else notice Vaikla's post on Instagram with the Bosnian GK? I just stumbled on this. Posted a day after we got eliminated from WCQ 2018

I'm fairly certain it does, since it is an official FIFA match. But, this would not be the case for the game against French Guiana, which is not an official member of FIFA (but is a full member of CONCACAF). There was a situation like this years ago (I think 2011 Gold Cup), where we played Guadelupe in Borjan's first non-friendly, and I was nervous because it meant he *still* wasn't cap-tied until the next game.

How about, Florent Malouda somehow sneaks onto the field for Mexico and Mexico wins 8-0*, which then turns into a 3-0 default win for Honduras? *was going to put 8-1, but I really don't want them scoring any goals either.

University of Phoenix stadium has a retractable roof. Do we have confirmation it'll be closed? Also, 7:30pm pacific was perfect timing for me. Now, I'm going to have to find a conference room in the office at 4:30pm and 'work'.

So, if we win we face the winner of Honduras/Mexico. Does this mean we have to cheer for Honduras? I'm so conflicted. #FH

Confirmed: De Jong does not have the same finishing skills as Davies.

Well, as if I needed more motivation to hate Honduras: https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/07/14/concacaf-issues-florent-malouda-ruling-french-guiana-forfeit-gold-cup-game It's simple for us now. We need a win or a draw to claim 2nd (FG need to get a result for us to get 1st). A loss and we can still go through in 3rd place with 4 pts, but we have to hope for a Panama win over Martinique and/or a Jamaica win over El Salvador so that at least one group B/C 3rd place team finishes with 3 pts.