Shortdutchcanuck

The quotes from Herdman definitely make it sound as if we will not play our best lineup against Mexico. We only need to beat Cuba to get out of the group and the important game against Mexico is the semi-final if we make it that far. No use tipping your hand and letting Mexico see your best lineup now. I'd sit both Davies and David and not let Mexico get a glimpse of what's waiting for them until the potential rematch. And if Henry is still injured at all I'd wait to play him as long as possible. He has enough experience playing with this group he can step right in as soon as he's fully healthy.

It is concerning but nothing to get worked up over this early. The league always knew GTA would be a challenge. The CFL has kept the Argos alive for years and I think this owner and CanPL will keep York going for some years even if it struggles. A GTA team is important for optics and media visibility. The break-even number mentioned was not 6 to 8000 but 5000 but that's still just a number. Doesn't mean it is the same for every team or that it stayed the same after the deal with MediaPro. Maybe York have less salary burden and in addition York Lions Stadium is probably much cheaper to operate out of compared to some of the bigger stadiums.

A little disappointed with the Al Classico crowd too. We were all counting on these rivalry games being sellouts for Edmonton and Calgary. May just take some time for the rivalry to build organically though. Eddies play early in season hasn't helped. Some people maybe staying home to watch Canada-NZ

Why do I get the feeling Cavalry will nip a goal in the final minute for the win? A win by Eddies would open up a glimmer of hope for Forge and they've certainly had the run of play and best chances so far today. How Diouck failed to get a shot on net with that much space inside 10 yards is mind-boggling.

Really solid game by Calgary. Hope they give the Whitecaps hell. Pasquotti is a beast. Forge just had nothing in the second half, Borges had his first bad game and lack of a proper forward really hurt them.

There's already a thread in the Voyageurs Cup forum.

Nip an early goal Forge and then put it away. My heart can't take any more late game drama after the Raptors game last night and the rumble in the Hammer last Tuesday!

I'm just messing around at this point. You can certainly be critical of the US. We're both excited about this team's chances in Gold Cup and against US in fall. I'm just not convinced the US is going to be down and out for long.

You'd only have to amp up your US bashing about a thousand times.

This all seems reasonable, if this is what you meant all along apologies for overreacting.. You are such an enthusiastic poster, sometimes maybe it is easy to read more into your posts than you intend. Also we all had our fill of incessant US criticism when @PhillyJawn-guy was still posting here. I've always been in the Kawhi Leonard camp of being quietly confident and focused but basically saying look there's nothing to talk about we haven't won anything yet. Looking forward to some real tests both in the Gold Cup and Nation's League A though, it is exciting to think about the potential this team has if it all comes together.

Canada results 2019: Canada 4 French Guiana 1 USMNT results 2019: All Friendlies with experimental lineups: US 3 Panama 0 US 2 Costa Rica 0 US 1 Ecuador 0 US 1 Chile 1 US 0 Jamaica 1 US 0 Venezuela 3 Notice a slight difference in matches played and level of competition? Couple of poor recent results but all in all not such a terrible beginning to 2019 for US. Outplayed in both those results vs Chile and Ecuador though. One of the reasons their fans are in meltdown mode is they hold their team to a much higher standard than we do ours (and rightly so from a historical standpoint). Not making a World Cup is unacceptable. Not making a Gold Cup final is unacceptable. I'm not sure if US has declined so much as they haven't made the leap they expected to. They've stagnated a little and we've made up some ground with our young stars. On the other hand we don't play enough games, our backline is iffy, and we'd be overjoyed to make it to the semis.

How about we prove we're actually in their league and worthy of a rivalry with them before we start saying we're better. Make at least a Gold Cup semis and look good against Mexico, get at least a split with US in Nation's League, qualify for the next World Cup, then we can talk about possibly being better. Comments like this coming out of such a history of failure just make us look a little silly IMO.

😁 In-stadium emotion. Caught up in the moment at the time due to two heartbreaking moments against Calgary. Partly due to error where teams were told 4 min AT but stadium announcement was 2 min, so we were all wondering why ref hadn't blown whistle. We were aware of complaint that Calgary player in 1st game had been able to place ball well ahead of where free kick was supposed to be taken. Also frustrated that Mavila's and others' incessant fouling and man-handling of Borges took so long to produce a card, as it was obviously part of TFW's gameplan. In stadium it was difficult to see the collision, yours eyes just immediately went to the goal-line clearance and we all thought the game was over. It was a mad scramble and everything happened so quick. Then suddenly Forge players were gathered around ref and we were all like what the ****, he called a penalty, are you kidding me? Then to boot Roberts was red-carded and no replay was shown. Just seemed like out of nowhere the ref made this crazy decision where we all thought he had blown final whistle and we had won. I'm sure most of us, like typical fans, screamed the fix is in, went home, watched the replay, and accepted it was a penalty (and that a high boot was missed just prior) if not a sending off.

And this game coming down to the wire was completely on Forge FC. A number of chances they should have finished, and still some sketchy defending at times. I really feel like this was a big moment for Forge FC as a club though. A lot of fans brought together by mutual anger and disbelief at end of game. 'The Fix is In' and 'CPL loves Cavalry' were a couple chants I hears. Great to see the passion.

A lot of livid Forge fans after this one. Have to see a replay, neither I nor anyone around me could see an obvious reason for penalty but I'm guessing Roberts made contact with Calgary player on way through. I'll reserve judgment for now although at time I was in shock and felt final whistle should already have been blown. Lots of fouling and flopping by Calgary players so yes if they weren't before they are an absolutely hated team in the Hammer now. Good to see the passion, I was right up there at front with a large group after game screaming obscenities at Calgary players and ref. Wanted to jump on the field and knock that smug little cap off Tommy Wheeldon's smug little head. Never mind, we'll go into Calgary, show them for the third time how proper soccer is played, and maybe their absurd luck will finally run out. Other people will have different opinions about what good soccer is, it was clear to me after tonight who is playing the best soccer in the league right now even if we don't win the spring season. Rant over, hope it was a fun game to watch for neutral fans. Sergio Camargo, Jose Escalante, Tommy Wheeldon, and Mr. Referee, don't show your faces in Hamilton tonight!

Agree that not quoting posters who have a high annoyance factor is a good point of courtesy. I enjoy reading BBTB's posts because in spite of the consistently negative tone of his posts it is good to have a devil's advocate on a site and at least half of his posts have some really good information. And I genuinely think he wants the best for soccer in Canada, he just has a very specific idea of what sort of league is best for Canada right now (moderation, limited salary cap, more USL1 than USLC, allow MLS feeder clubs). But I've taken it to heart from some recent posters who have lamented the quoting of his positions and will make a conscious effort not to do so for everyone's enjoyment of the site. Comment but don't quote.

Based on his recent experience in Scotland it's been dropping yearly for the last 3 or 4 years. Not sure why his arrival was quite so hyped. Still useful at least but possibly overpaid. Issey and Edwini-Bonsu though were pretty over-hyped by CPL media staff (including saying that REB might play himself back into CMNT contention) as was Son Yongchan, possibly to play up the importance of the open trials.

Nobody thought Kaye would be Kaye when he was Okello's age. If I recall his Gold Cup selection was questioned by most of us when he was still playing USL at a much older age than Okello is now.

No with those 2 I meant through the season as a whole. Gasparotto particularly has impressed me, Gogarty more surprised me because I wasn't expecting that much. Haven't seen the game tonight yet because I was at Forge FC game.

Game 3 for Raptors is Wednesday so no conflict there. Curious what kind of crowd we would draw if we did beat Cavalry and faced Whitecaps in next round. Could see a lot of people coming out for that on a nice night.

Looking good for CONCACAF League. Fun, lively crowd down at THF, didn't look like the announced 6000 to me but still a good crowd on a Wednesday night. Finally some nice weather as well after the monsoon in York on Saturday. People around me all seemed quite impressed with the level of soccer. Curious to see what kind of crowd we get vs Calgary in Voyageurs Cup next Tuesday.

Most refs are going to call that. Not a ton of contact but enough. Borges invited it and Edmonton defender obliged. If you put yourself in that position against a crafty attacker like Borges you are going to get burned.

I've actually been quite impressed with Abzi as well. Young, good combination of size, athleticism, and skill. I think he has a bright future ahead of him. And of course Gasparotto and Gogarty have been very solid too.

Interesting that Cordova is finally getting games just as Godinho has been sitting. Question is does Herdman value Godinho's earlier stretch of starts or Cordova's recent play? I like Cordova's versatility to play left or right or in midfield. And I agree I like the idea of having more South American influence on the team.

They have to go through Forge first so I guess we'll never know.