Quote:
Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger
I'd say save the U23 type stuff for the All Star Game.
If a player is that good, they should make their country's roster on merit alone. There will be the occasional snub, but that happens all the time anyway. Half the fun is arguing about show should have made team Canada in the first place.
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Agreed. I was a big World Cup backer going into this tourney, was too young for 87, but I loved the 91, 96 and 04 versions. And I just couldn't get into this one which I didn't expect, I think a big part of it was the Franken-teams.
As much fun as NA was, it really did pull most of the fun nationalism out of it for me. I just couldn't get it out of my head that both Canada and especially the US weren't at their absolute best on best, when they played that did not feel like a usual "Canada vs USA" game because of it. They need to get rid of those teams if they want it to feel like a
real best on best international tourney, and not just a fun exhibition tourney, which is kind of what it felt like in the end.
Plus, too many pre-tourney games, unnecessary best of 3 final, and not enough round robin and playoff games. And hold it in more places than just Toronto the entire time (in 04 weren't the round robin games held all over the world? Like home teams were
actually playing at home? That was cool). If they really aren't going to the Olys anymore, I still think this could be a success. It just needs a total reformatting.