World Cup South Africa, 2010 Thread

[VANFLAMESFAN]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Canada needs a real coach, this team is useless. Can't even control the ball properly

I don't think ball control is the coach's fault. Just a lack of skill.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by VANFLAMESFAN

Uggh, Portugal draws Cape Verde 0-0. Ugly game. Just a joke. Pretty upset right now, as I was really looking forward to this game. How sad is that, I was looking forward to a friendly versus Cape Verde??

At least Portugal had sweet jerseys.

It's just a friendly, don't wanna get hurt

Originally Posted by VANFLAMESFAN

I don't think ball control is the coach's fault. Just a lack of skill.

They have more skill when they play for their club teams!

[GirlySports]

They just quickly showed the England-Mexico highlights.. was Mexico wearing black? looks terrible.

[d_phaneuf]

Walcott has been proving he doesn't deserve to make the squad

he has no footballing mind at all, he should become a sprinter because he is fast and thats about it

I am guessing Lennon's spot on the squad is assured and thats why walcott played the full game so far, doesn't bode well for Adam Johnson or Joe Cole though

[GirlySports]

VANFLAMESFAN: It's still not too late to hire Mourino to take over Portugal for a month.
You have power! Petition! Make it happen!

[d_phaneuf]

Originally Posted by VANFLAMESFAN

I don't think ball control is the coach's fault. Just a lack of skill.

ya its lack of coaching/players/skill at the youth level

nothing the coach can really do it about it at this level

[VANFLAMESFAN]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

VANFLAMESFAN: It's still not too late to hire Mourino to take over Portugal for a month.
You have power! Petition! Make it happen!

I wish. Mourinho has always said he wants to coach Portugal, just not now. I'm thinking that if Portugal/Spain land one of those WC bids for 2018 or 2022, he will want in on that.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by diane_phaneuf

Walcott has been proving he doesn't deserve to make the squad

he has no footballing mind at all, he should become a sprinter because he is fast and thats about it

I am guessing Lennon's spot on the squad is assured and thats why walcott played the full game so far, doesn't bode well for Adam Johnson or Joe Cole though

I don't understand why Capello has such a man-crush for Walcott. The guy looks absolutely lost when he has to make a decision on where to go with the ball. Lennon was 10x more effect for the 15 minutes he played than Walcott was for the entire game.

[d_phaneuf]

Originally Posted by rubecube

I don't understand why Capello has such a man-crush for Walcott. The guy looks absolutely lost when he has to make a decision on where to go with the ball. Lennon was 10x more effect for the 15 minutes he played than Walcott was for the entire game.

Ya I am hoping that Capello saw what everyone else did from Walcott today

I hope he takes Johnson and Joe Cole over him if it comes to that

Lennon in 15 minutes created almost as many chances as the team had in the first 75



Aguero just embarrassed the Canada defense, that was a great goal

[Finny61]

I would love Wenger to sell off Walcott to some sucker.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by diane_phaneuf

ya its lack of coaching/players/skill at the youth level

nothing the coach can really do it about it at this level

Yes he can, he can take whatever skills the players have and advance them to the next world class international level. A top coach can do that. Unfortunately Canada can't pay a good coach with the pennies they have.

Canada's had one foreign coach ever I think and look what he did with that group of nobodies.

[d_phaneuf]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Yes he can, he can take whatever skills the players have and advance them to the next world class international level. A top coach can do that. Unfortunately Canada can't pay a good coach with the pennies they have.

Canada's had one foreign coach ever I think and look what he did with that group of nobodies.

Jose Mourinho couldn't qualify Canada for the World Cup out of CONCACAF

players are what they are, Canada doesn't have a good enough youth system to produce enough quality players

if they improve the youth system and the youth coaching, and make it so players like Hargreaves don't choose England instead. Than they will have a chance to qualify for some world cups.

[GirlySports]

Yes he could. It wouldn't take much to get Canada 3rd or 4th in CONCACAF. Honduras sucks.

Canada main problem is they have no home advantage. They need to make BMO Field some kinda fortress.

[chris_yk]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Yes he could. It wouldn't take much to get Canada 3rd or 4th in CONCACAF. Honduras sucks.

Canada main problem is they have no home advantage. They need to make BMO Field some kinda fortress.

Agreed, or they should go back to making central American teams play in St. John's in October. I can't believe they're having a friendly in Montreal against Honduras in September, I was at the last World Cup Qualifying game against them in Montreal and the stadium was 90% Honduras fans, it was pathetic.

About the coach though, there was nothing Hart could do differently in this game (besides change goalie) because of all the injuries we had. Julian de Guzman, Atiba Hutchison, Iain Hume, Marcel de Jong, Kevin McKenna, three of those guys are arguably our 3 best players. Hart is an infinitely better coach than Dale Mitchell who was in for the last WC qualifying round, and I think we'll see a much better performance against Venezuela on Saturday.

[troutman]

CBC Radio had a two hour show on the World Cup today - not sure if you can download it as a podcast:

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/

The Beautiful Game

the 2010 FIFA World Cup

Passionate reporters Tim Adams and Gareth Hampshire talk to soccer fans the world over about athletics, activism, politics and the thrill of being part of a screaming crowd.

• Visit CBC's FIFA website
• Tell Bob Mackowycz and Rich Terfry who you're rooting for on the Radio 2 blog

Today from 4-6 pm on Radio One

[d_phaneuf]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Yes he could. It wouldn't take much to get Canada 3rd or 4th in CONCACAF. Honduras sucks.

Canada main problem is they have no home advantage. They need to make BMO Field some kinda fortress.

Honduras has players that play a major role for their teams in elite leagues

Palacios plays for, and was a major part of, a top 4 team in England

Thomas and Figueroa play for Wigan and were two of their better players this season

Canada has Stalteri as a depth player for a German team in the Bundesliga, a few players in the Belgian league and some in the lower leagues of England

if Honduras sucks I shudder to think what Canada is

[GirlySports]

Canada worse than suck. Awful.

But a great coach and make something of that and neutralize the skills of other teams.
It baffles me that Canada, a country of 34 million, is embarrassed often by Honduras, a country of 5 million.

[wpgflamesfan]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Canada worse than suck. Awful.

But a great coach and make something of that and neutralize the skills of other teams.
It baffles me that Canada, a country of 34 million, is embarrassed often by Honduras, a country of 5 million.

And Slovenia has less people then Alberta, yet some how made the World Cup.

Saying your baffled when Canada looses to a smaller country in soccer is like saying your baffled when we beat Russia and the US at hockey.For the most part, nobody really cares about soccer. Add in the fact that we can't play for 6 months of the year and you have a lacklustre soccer program.

[ipuckedyourmom]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Canada worse than suck. Awful.

But a great coach and make something of that and neutralize the skills of other teams.
It baffles me that Canada, a country of 34 million, is embarrassed often by Honduras, a country of 5 million.

Until soccer becomes a priority it will continue to be that way. Much like the winter olympics, we need to better support our players from a younger ago and set up a type of program and then we will see results. If canada could ever qualify or be host for the world cup that would go a long way in changing the outlook of the program IMO.

[NBC]

I've long thought that Canada needs to create an unpleasant environment for visiting teams to play. Seeing some of the facilities in Central America and the Caribbean have convinced me of that. Fans right on top of the pitch, which is usually the condition of a field of summer fallow, throwing batteries, bags of feces, coins, anything to put the other team off. These are very difficult places to get results. Then the return fixture in Toronto, Vancouver or Edmonton typically sees the visitors eke out 0-0 draws, playing 9 men behind the ball. You need serious quality to break down that type of defence.

What would be great is when we host qualifiers in the autumn or spring, they should be played in cold climates. I can't see Trinidad and Tobago or even the Mexicans for that matter, enjoying Edmonton or Saskatoon in November. But I know people would complain that it isn't fair to do that. Russia hosted Italy in the first-leg of the 1998 WC playoffs somewhere in the cold and snow. It was so snow covered that they had to use an orange ball. Russia played to their advantage and drew 1-1 against a much better Italy side, who went on to win 1-0 in the reverse fixture.

Not that it is the same, but Tennis Canada used to love playing Davis Cup qualifiers at the Stampede Corral. Not a great place for tennis, as it is cold and the lighting sucks. I remember in 2003, Canada beat Brazil 3-2 in the World Group Playoffs. The Brazilians didn't like Calgary in late September. They were all wearing woolly hats, gloves and heavy jackets indoors. One could safely guess that the environment contributed to their less than stellar performance.

Having quality footballers helps obviously, but home field advantage means nothing to us like it does to almost every other country in CONCACAF. The Mexicans used to let visiting teams train on the pitch at Azteca for 1 hour prior to a qualifier, and they couldn't wear their football boots. I say we make them play at Commonwealth Stadium or University Stadium in Winnipeg in November.