Shortdutchcanuck

Giving out a 'horrendous' for such an obviously mixed performance is a bit like being a teacher and routinely failing 3/4 of the class. As others have mentioned, he was solid at some points and gave the ball away cheaply under pressure at others, and threw in a few of his signature brilliant tackles. He looked, along with most of the team, to be in preseason form. I agree though that with our depth in the central midfield he can't be considered a surefire starter. He was immense, probably MOTM, in that game in Toronto vs the US, but for many other games either Kaye or Eustaquio might be a better fit at DM (although whether Stephen will regain his pre-injury form remains to be seen).

Solid game for Waterman I thought. Piette with some great tackles and actually a few very nice passes to spring counters but unfortunately too many giveaways under pressure. Brault-Guillard had an ok game but seriously out-muscled for the header on 1st Saprissa goal. Tabla caught being a pylon on the second. Saprissa is a fun team to watch when they are clicking but the Impact were clearly gassed in the 2nd half. To me it is a serious issue with this competition that MLS teams come in in preseason form. No surprise there were 3 injuries. Still, 2 away goals put Montreal in a decent position for the home leg.

Came on in the 73rd minute in a 2-1 loss.

Most of us on this board would be playing professionally, and probably in Champion's League, if it weren't for our stupid youth coaches!

I've obviously struck a nerve here. Not surprising, I feel like this is one of the major schisms of the modern game. But let's at least drop the condescension, as if those of us to whom diving is like fingernails on a blackboard are rubes who lack a basic understanding of the sport. Look UT, you have good points here as usual. Simply put: some level of embellishment is necessary to protect skilled players and enable positive and attractive soccer. If someone is fouling you, go down and get the call. This has been accepted (somewhat reluctantly by Canadian fans like myself) in soccer for a long time, and often rewarded by referees. Fine, results in more attractive soccer, we'll try and stomach it. As with most things though it leads to an overreaction. Players push the envelope, trying to get opponents carded for zero or minimal contact. Smart, positional defenders, integral figures on good soccer teams, become victims of phantom calls. Neymar rolls all the way to the airport. So, in the name of protecting attractive soccer we corrected one way by overlooking some embellishment. Now, in order to curb excessive (and especially malicious) embellishment we need to correct the other way: watch replays and suspend the worst offenders, the ones flopping to get perfectly good defensive plays seen as cardable offenses. Escalante is not one of the worst of these in the game but he walks that line and frequently crosses it. When he goes down easy after a foul, fine. When he dives with little-to-no contact, punish him. Do I think Clanachan went too far with this ice hockey brand of soccer he pushed in year 1? Yes. Did I enjoy some of the physicality and hard tackling? Equally yes. With a few corrections, ie call things tighter, protect your skilled players, and meanwhile punish blatant divers, a great balance can be struck. I've watched a lot of Bayern Munich this year. You know what gets Bayern fans just as worked up as an electrifying Phonzie run? Him getting stuck in and physical and tackling tough. Likewise I've watched Ireland-Scotland games that were just as entertaining for their intensity and forcefulness as any match between the Spains and Brazils and Germanies of the world. Do I want the goons of soccer allowed to ruin the exquisite exploits of world-class talents? Obviously no. But do I want the inveterate divers of soccer to ruin the exquisite exploits of world-class, rugged, physical defenders? Equally no.

I mean, most of the players at Forge FC came out of our academy 😉

Look, he makes a good villain and I like his personality but his diving was sad and pathetic. Since when are we not allowed to be critical of some of the reprehensible aspects of the beautiful game? I'd love to see justice handed out retroactively for blatant divers. It will always be around but as much as possible get it out of the sport or at least out of this league.

Sounds like it mainly centered around setting himself up for a future career on the marketing side of things. Guessing he could have found a place a level higher given his quality.

There's also another guy playing LB at a reasonably good level we could plug in back there if necessary 😁

Seems Bassong can play either side but he's naturally a left back, imagine that's where he'd mostly slot in for us.

Watching every game I found Owundi to be fairly inconsistent, some very good games and a lot of mediocre ones. There was no faulting his effort or toughness but his ball skills weren't great, he almost always passed sideways or back, and was prone to a few careless plays most games. I always felt a lot calmer with Edgar and Krutzen together back there, and found the ball moved out of the backfield much more efficiently.

Pah-Modou Kah in as Pacific coach?

Aidan Daniels, who I thought might end up with York or Halifax, signs with Colorado Switchbacks.

Ended up having a decent career in Singapore did he not? I thought he was potentially hoping to play for Singapore at one point.

As mentioned above, you also accept his clear statement about a 10 team league in 2020? I'm generally confused about CanPL signing practices, I'm not surprised a Jamaican reporter might be too, or that the Jamaican coach he quotes might be equally in the dark. This might be for a draft or just as likely it is for the pool of potential young import players we've heard rumours about, which makes some sense in terms of taking the scouting load off individual clubs and allowing them to spend more of their resources developing Canadian players.

As far as I can see Reid never played for LeHavre in the second division in France, played a few games for LeHavre II in like the 5th division, and doesn't seem to be listed as part of either team anymore. I've looked and looked and can't find any sign of him.

Looking at @Shway 's excellent list I narrowed things down a little further and put together my own not-so-shortlist. It truly is tough to pick 23 or whatever the number is you can call for an Olympic qualifying tournament. Such a positive change from the old days of scrounging up unnattacheds and NCAA players to fill out the roster. Assuming no Davies, David, Cornelius, or Miller; hoping Millar, Tabla, and Brault-Guillard will be available and Cristian Gutierrez and Martin Amuz will commit. Forward/Winger: Liam Millar, Theo Bair, Terran Campbell, Tajon Buchanan, Jacob Shaffelburg, Easton Ongaro Bubble: Jordan Perruzza, Charles Brym, Dario Zanatta, Malik Johnson Midfielder: Ballou Tabla, Shamit Shome, Mathieu Choiniere, Liam Fraser, Harrison Paton, Tristan Borges Bubble: Clement Bayiha, Alessandro Hojabrpour, Kris Twardek, Noah Verhoeven, Nate Verhoven, Ryan Raposo, Noble Okello, Diego Gutierrez Defender: Martin Amuz, Scott Kennedy, Thomas Meilleur-Giguere, Zachary Brault-Guillard, Marcus Godinho, Diyaeddine Abzi, Cristian Gutierrez Bubble: Chris N'Sa, Robert Boskovic, Callum Montgomery, Kadin Chung, Raphael Garcia, Julian Dunn-Johnson, Daniel Kinumbe,, Zoom Langwa Keeper: Dayne St. Clair, James Pantemis, Sebastian Breza Bubble: Axel Desjardins, Thomas Hasal, Alessandro Busti, Joakim Milli, Oliver Saundry I imagine there will be a lot of different preferences, maybe some I haven't listed here. Either way I'm very excited for this roster to come out, right now it is taking my mind off the possibility of missing the hex. If we do manage to qualify for Japan we'll be able to put together a hell of a squad when the big guns show up.

Depends on Kilmarnock releasing him and on Liam's situation. I'd love to see Liam and would be a great opportunity for him to get his scoring touch going, he'll have to decide whether leaving might cost him playing time/starting opportunities with Kilmarnock at this early stage of his career.

Big roster overhauls can often result in teams just staying on the mediocrity treadmill though. Has to be some sense of continuity and building. I would have thought keeping a few more key pieces like Kourouma and Bona would have been useful and then you can focus on upgrades in a few key areas. Hard to upgrade too many positions on a salary cap. Useful players are useful players, you replace useful known quantities with unknown quantities you may very well end up with downgrades. Such an advantage out of the gate too for teams who can return most of their core and build on last year's chemistry.

Don't panic Rick, from what I understand this is just a preliminary list, the rest may just still be in negotiations or feeling out their options. You're right about the value of each of those players though. Frano was my favourite unsung Forge hero, jack of all trades last year but would be an every-game starter for a lot of teams.

Dispossessed to lead to the 1st Bailey goal. Mixed bag, some decent play and some struggles with Diaby's speed (never thought I'd see Davies struggle with anyone's speed).