The Canadian Men's Soccer Team Thread

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

Shouldn't you handily beat Curacao no matter who is playing?

I've been watching Team Canada over a great many years and I suppose I've rather ended up with this attitude:

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

Shouldn't you handily beat Curacao no matter who is playing?

No. We're not that deep and still inexperienced. Plus coming down from a high, the travel etc...

Curacao are no pushovers. I could see them beating out Jamaica and T&T for the World Cup spot.

[browna]

The bar should've always been higher to beat the minnows (again Curaco has 160k people in the country) such as Curaco, T&T etc and certainly since Herdman and Marsch, where the expectation now is that we should be beating Honduras and El Salvador and Panama regularly and on par with Mexico and the US within the conference.

Curacao doesn't have any more experience than Canada, certainly this current version that got to a WC, took the WC champions to task twice in the last 12 months and should've held on vs Uruguay for a bronze in Copa America.

Travel is no excuse (Vancouver to Houston is 3h flight and there were plenty of days off).

It was a horrendous result, and always will be against a team such as that. It is an expected win and always should be. Akin to Canada losing in the WC hockey last month to the Danes.

[GirlySports]

I admit it was poor but to say Canada has the depth to put any team out there and beat other decent nation teams is naive. Can't be at peak regularly and waste energy in a tournament.

Yes, the new players played poorly and yes the tactics were wrong. But Marsch is experimenting in these last 2 group games cause they don't matter. Canada plays again on Tuesday, 2 days rest, so expect more changes.


He wants to see how Canada plays without Davies. Can Shaffleberg go the full 90? Questions like that. This will decide his final 26 next year. It's the quarters against Panama or Jamaica where you will see Canada at full strength.

[ditty]

Originally Posted by browna

The bar should've always been higher to beat the minnows (again Curaco has 160k people in the country) such as Curaco, T&T etc and certainly since Herdman and Marsch, where the expectation now is that we should be beating Honduras and El Salvador and Panama regularly and on par with Mexico and the US within the conference.

Curacao doesn't have any more experience than Canada, certainly this current version that got to a WC, took the WC champions to task twice in the last 12 months and should've held on vs Uruguay for a bronze in Copa America.

Travel is no excuse (Vancouver to Houston is 3h flight and there were plenty of days off).

It was a horrendous result, and always will be against a team such as that. It is an expected win and always should be. Akin to Canada losing in the WC hockey last month to the Danes.

I agree that our performance was disappointing but Curacao is, football wise, not a typical, small Caribbean island. There's over 140,000 people in the Netherlands with Curacao roots. Their player pool is primarily comprised of Dutch born and trained players who've never lived in Curacao. The majority of their starting 11 last night has Eredivisie experience. Yes, they're not at the level of Canada but I actually expect them to beat Honduras on Tuesday and get out this group. Last night was poor from Canada but I don't think Curacao still qualify as a CONCACAF "minnow".

[The Big Chill]

Canada has also been a minnow until very recently. No results are a given. It’s actually a positive sign of the recent success that the expectation is actually to win games.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

No. We're not that deep and still inexperienced. Plus coming down from a high, the travel etc...

Curacao are no pushovers. I could see them beating out Jamaica and T&T for the World Cup spot.

I think they are kind of pushovers. Seems like they have had recent trouble with countries like St. Lucia and St. Kitts. It was a bad loss, I think you’re rattling off excuses here and it’s not like Canada was really unlucky with that result either.

I guess we’ll see, I’m no expert on this. Maybe Curaçao is surging.

[CroFlames]

It is really as simple as this. Canada is arguably the best team in Concacaf. They should go into every match vs Concacaf teams expecting to win.

Curacao is not close to Canada quality wise or depth wise. This should have been a comfortable win.

It wasn't. It was a bad game by Canada, with all due respect to the opponent.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

I think they are kind of pushovers. Seems like they have had recent trouble with countries like St. Lucia and St. Kitts. It was a bad loss, I think you’re rattling off excuses here and it’s not like Canada was really unlucky with that result either.

I guess we’ll see, I’m no expert on this. Maybe Curaçao is surging.

Originally Posted by CroFlames

It is really as simple as this. Canada is arguably the best team in Concacaf. They should go into every match vs Concacaf teams expecting to win.

Curacao is not close to Canada quality wise or depth wise. This should have been a comfortable win.

It wasn't. It was a bad game by Canada, with all due respect to the opponent.

I'm not sure that's how tournament football works, to blow every team's brains out. Canada is in a unique situation where they are already qualified for the world cup and don't have many games or windows to play competitive matches. Marsch probably know his starting XI but not the rest of his bench. He needs to use these matches to test and yeah, some of it will look ugly. Once they crushed Honduras 6-0, they secured qualification to the next round. I know it sounds like an excuse but Canada had nothing to play for and Curacao everything. Curacao are the 9th ranked team in CONCACAF.


Winning the group in this case doesn't really matter because it's either Jamaica or Panama in the quarters, and then Mexico and the US in the semis and final, in either order. To win the tournament, it's 6 matches in 20 days. Mexico and the US are cheats, they are getting the rest up front, like why is there an off day today?

[browna]

Marsch cleared of any wrong doing.

But, the CSA didn't have someone present during the standard doping control draw at half time, and, let someone use someone else's credential, so they got fined.

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by browna

Marsch cleared of any wrong doing.

But, the CSA didn't have someone present during the standard doping control draw at half time, and, let someone use someone else's credential, so they got fined.

Canada is getting better at Concacafing.

[M*A*S*H 4077]

Should Canada have beaten Curacao with a rotated squad? Probably. Am I glad they rotated the squad? Definitely. I'm more disappointed with how they looked than the draw. Now they need to respond against El Salvador.

Eustaquio should be back soon as Porto got eliminated from the CWC though he might not get minutes against El Salvador since he played yesterday.

[GirlySports]

As it stands, Jamaica are going out. If Canada wins the group tonight, they'd get Guatemala, who are fiesty but a much easier opponent than Panama.

[shermanator]

Jonathan David / Promise David up top against El Salvador. Cornelius and de Fougerolles at CB. Let's goooo.

[M*A*S*H 4077]

I’m most excited for Sigur in the midfield!

[Cecil Terwilliger]

I’m irrationally upset by the fact that TSN showed Canada‘s lineup horizontally and is now showing El Salvador‘s lineup vertically.

[browna]

Even in the ES supporters want this to get going.
Guy should get glued and carry out this cut fixing on the sidelines.

Sure enough as soon as the stretcher comes out he gets up.

[dash_pinched]

Originally Posted by browna

Sure enough as soon as the stretcher comes out he gets up.

And then does a two foot slide tackle into Shaf. Could have easily been a red.

[The Big Chill]

So many dirty fouls already

[browna]

Old school Concacaf.
Canada is dealing with the roughness they way they used to...poorly.

Choinrere looks intimidated.