Lofty

A new song for the Haggis eaters: "Scotland get battered, everywhere they go; Everywhere they gooooo..." 😂 England 7 Montenegro 0 (England qualify for Euro 2020)

Gale must have forgotten to tell them to play Dylan as a defensive mid. 😁

https://canpl.ca/article/cpl-off-season-roster-tracker-whos-in-and-whos-out-for-2020

Another strawman. Those seem to crop up frequently on here. Where did I say the VCup is not the most important knock out competition in the county? Nowhere! You are being obtuse. Why is it so hard for you to understand that the VCup today is the Championship of the country and is therefore not the same as the English FA Cup, which is NOT the championship of the country? It is OBVIOUS! My whole point was that when the franchises of American football leagues leave Canada, the VCup will not be very much diminished in importance because it will THEN have the status of the English FA Cup, which is widely regarded as the SECOND most important trophy in the country (not the FIRST, which is the status the VCup currently occupies, and which is why it is NOT currently equivalent to the English FA Cup). Sigh.

Will be interesting to see where these players land.

My thought was that the contract situation would not change and I see no reason why it would need to: you would start the new season with exactly the same squad you had when the previous one ended. The break between seasons would be very small and possibly indistinguishable from a continuous season. Maybe you end one weekend with much fanfare and start anew the next. Or maybe that next weekend is where you play a bunch of VCup matches, thus creating a two week break for the league while not giving up any summer weekend matchdays. Or maybe that "weekend inbetween seasons" is actually the September FIFA International window. Lots of ways to do it, I think, if one accepts the basic premise (that the winter break is actually mid season, however the season is otherwise arranged).

The biggest roadblock I see is that Turkeys don't normally vote for Christmas. If you have a seat in the top division, which you have paid for dearly in terms of risk and expenditure, are you going to vote for the introduction of relegation? And promotion, possibly at your expense, for some team who just won some football matches and took none of the risks you took in founding a national football league? Not likely! With that said, I think it is feasible but to make it practical CPL would have had to have been created from the bottom up, not the top down as has been done. The idea is dead in the water so far as I am concerned, no matter what Clanachan says.

That was how I saw Skubi too, in his matches against Valour. Hard worker which fans always love but skill level simply not at the level of most CPL forwards. And production, as you mentioned, not good enough.

He did well against Valour's poor defence but he was all grind and little gift. He was also not especially prolific. I think and hope Valour can do better up front.

Good point about CONCACAF League. That is a downside I had not considered. Although, even now Forge will wait around 9 months before they compete so perhaps not a show stopper.

I have never heard anybody argue that with a balanced schedule, where every team plays every other team the same number of times home and away, the team that finishes top of the table is not the best team. Of course if you don't have a balanced schedule, as is often the case in NA, you have room for discussion. But with a balanced schedule I think it is pretty much universally accepted that the table toppers are the champs. In countries with a balanced league schedule, there is a reason that a league and cup double is rare: it is because there is a lot of luck involved in the cup, where one bad day or one injury or one controversial call can see you eliminated. But when everybody gets to play everybody else home and away, over 38 matches (for example) the element of luck is greatly diminished.

Edgar helps but I think the stronger CONCACAF teams will be too tough until CPL increases that salary cap a bit. Even money to win a round but I think the odds are against going further. Although with a good draw it could certainly happen.

Deleted - intended joke was apparently not appreciated.

I'm fine with that so long as the presentation to the regular season champions happens on the pitch with all the confetti and usual fanfare accorded the winning of a Championship (and a trophy that is at least as impressive as the playoff one) and the winners are called "The Champions"; while, using traditional football terminology for knock out competitions, the playoff winners are called "The Playoff Cup Winners" or something similar.

Honestly, I'm really not the language police but this was just too tempting to resist. I hope it will be received in the humorous spirit in which it is intended! Asterisk: * Asterix: