jonovision

The stream is available on the OneSoccer web app, but not on the Roku app for me.

Drone story is over. Marsch doesn't like 'em, and all we care about now is Celine.

Looks like he's lost about 10 kilos from his latter playing days as well.

Drogba's take, for those who haven't seen it:

I suspect some analysts/coaches are hired on limited term contracts prior to big tournaments, etc., rather than being full-time CSA staff.

Good post, wrong thread!

A real reporter could probably dig up similar job postings from other teams and federations within minutes and compare to see if camera and drone operating are part of the job description. He'd have a stronger case if he could collect a few with no listed expectations of drone use. Heck, even Westhead could have alluded to one of the countless practice-spying stories of the last 5 to 10 years in one of the later graphs of his story to provide some context.

Probably true, for the most part, but not things anyone outside of Canada soccer nerds will care to pay attention to.

Looks bad, of course, but while I would guess a fair number of teams are using drones to observe other team's practices, I am certain that a majority of teams use drones to film their own practices, scrimmages, etc. This is a fully legitimate skill for an analyst to employ in their job.

Us dorks on here will continue to have a field day with this topic, but I suspect it will disappear from the general public consciousness unless a points deduction is applied at some point, or possibly resurface if the WNT make it to the medal rounds. The flow of other Olympics stories, medalists, outcomes, will overwhelm this story.

There is a 0% chance that this sort of thing isn't pretty widespread in world football. I can't imagine Herdman and the CSA being an innovator on this, or anything else really.

I'm not quite sure where I stand. I don't think I've come around quite to your point of view, but I'm not with those practically begging for heads to roll and for sanctions from those paragons of virtue, FIFA and the IOC.

Flying drones is still legal in most jurisdictions. It doesn't excuse it, of course, but in most instances this was not illegal behavior. In terms of competitive edge, I'd think any information gained would be less than the edge gained from leaking your opponents' hotel, or allowing your fans to throw piss with impunity, turning the sprinklers on during your walkthrough, or countless other indignities suffered in CONCACAF. It's not quite like telling the batter what pitch is coming. Of course they shouldn't have done it. Besides the ethical reasons. the risk/reward calculus is so unfavorable.

I don't think Westhead's reporting is always of quality. He clearly is out of his depth on certain topics. But he gained credibility with the Blackhawks story, and now is very trusted by sources. I expect he'll continue to break a steady stream of this kind of story in a variety of sports due to the reputation he has gained.

Just like when Ben Johnson lost his gold in a field of 100M sprinters where every single one was eventually confirmed as a cheat, I think we're being naive if we don't think that there aren't loads of other teams doing similar things to gain an edge. Does that make it right? Of courser not. Does that mean it's not embarrassing to be the one caught, and on the world stage? No, it's embarrassing and bad and hopefully we get to the bottom of it. It doesn't take a lot of connecting of dots to trace this back to a certain current MLS manager, however.