So you're a referee from Grenada. You are assigned your first ever WCQ match, USA against Jamaica. You are excited and nervous. You blow the whistle for kickoff and in 18 seconds this happens. Is this a red card?
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Watching the Oilers defend is like watching fire engines frantically rushing to the wrong fire
3. I'm embarrassed to admit I've never been to a Canada match. What do I chant/sing?
4. Which one of us is sneaking in the flares and smoke?
I don’t think there’s any ticketing info out yet, but for the early access to the V’s section you can purchase a membership from the website: https://www.thevoyageurs.org/
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Originally Posted by Back2Back
The Oilers are very close on becoming a powerhouse team.
So you're a referee from Grenada. You are assigned your first ever WCQ match, USA against Jamaica. You are excited and nervous. You blow the whistle for kickoff and in 18 seconds this happens. Is this a red card?
Ugh, I mean does he grab his shoulder? Yes, but the American makes a meal of it. No way that contact causes him to fall.
It's tough because it's a foul and he's the last man back so it should technically be a red, but that would be a HARSH red. I personally wouldn't give him a red for that.
EDIT: Full disclosure - this opinion brought to you by a CB that does that sort of stuff ALL the time.
Last edited by MillerTime GFG; 10-08-2021 at 10:49 AM.
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My inner jerk wants to go to these games so bad, and just berate the hell out of these warm weather types. I want Canada's opponents feeling the same way the Colonels kid does when Samuel L Jackson offers him a blanket in the Hateful 8. Yes I'm a horrible person, but I think that's pretty mild compared to what Canada puts up with in places like Hondurus for Road Games.
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There's a video of Canada's goal last night on their FB page, in slow motion, with music, which also shows Alphonso's reaction and the benches' reaction. Gives me absolute chills. I am all in on this squad. You can see how much this means to them.
Jerry Gray at 1:43 mark. A subtle touch of the ball on the run over, and clearly Gray had seen something from the Mexican keeper coming out like that because in no hemisphere would or should a little clip like that from 23 yards out go in like that in world soccer.
1:25 minute mark here.
Can’t take the foot off the gas this next 5 days and make yesterdays result mean more.
The games in Edmonton are going to be bad soccer if the weather is cold. As mentioned prior, for many of the top Canadian players it will have been years, if ever, that they have played in-10c and snow on rock hard turf.
This is another world for those of us that have suffered as CMNT fans since the 90s. I remember being on the old network 54 voyageurs forum. Aside from Gold Cup in 2000, it felt hopeless at times. Now, we have our own league, our own superstars and a team that is a privilege to watch. We NEED to make the World Cup to keep up this momentum and exposure for the growth of the game here.
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Yeah, the 84 to 94 period was really good but it's been so dire since then. Finally we have a great team to cheer for. I think directly or indirectly the Vancouver Olympics turned all Canadian sports around. New culture and attitude of sports development in Canada and you can see it in soccer, tennis and basketball as an example.
Not only does Canada need to make the World Cup to get momentum but it will rise them up the rankings. FIFA is a vicious cycle. You play bad, you get a bad ranking, you get bad seeding and draws and then you play bad. Rinse and repeat. Remember, if not for COVID, Canada would have been relegated to a minnows tournament.
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Watching the Oilers defend is like watching fire engines frantically rushing to the wrong fire
This is another world for those of us that have suffered as CMNT fans since the 90s. I remember being on the old network 54 voyageurs forum. Aside from Gold Cup in 2000, it felt hopeless at times. Now, we have our own league, our own superstars and a team that is a privilege to watch. We NEED to make the World Cup to keep up this momentum and exposure for the growth of the game here.
1986 was crazy. The excitement of making it to the World Cup really galvanized a national interest in soccer for the first time.
They had no chance against any of the powerhouse teams of course, and were nothing more than group play fodder. No worries though, it was going going to be fun, and there was plenty of 'hope' for something miraculous - maybe they could be fortunate enough to get a draw or two, maybe, somehow, find a way to squeeze out a win. Either way, it would be a learning experience to build upon (yeah, right!)
They were in a group with France, Hungary and USSR. And IIRC correctly, the odds makers had them at 500:1 against scoring a goal. I had to put $20 on that!
Their first match was against France, and I don't remember anything about the game other than one play: (relatively early in the match, if I am remembering correctly), a Canadian gets possession just off to the left of the France goal, and takes a shot. It beats the goaltender, and sails towards the corner of the net, where it catches the twine, just behind the left post! The announcer yells 'goal!' (or some equivalent), and I lose my #### in excitement. A moment or two later (though it felt like much, much longer), he corrects himself and says it hit the outside of the net, wide of the mark. No goal.
Well, ####.
That close to hitting the jackpot.
No worries though, still almost 3 full games to go, and clearly they are able to compete with these big Euro teams, so another goal is just a matter of time! (yeah, right)
I don't think they got another reasonable scoring chance in any of the 3 games. Not a sniff. And ever since then, being a fan of Canadian soccer has been a very, very dry and depressing experience.
So what this team is doing now, what they appear to be starting to build, is really something. And is such a long time coming. In some ways, I don't want to get my hopes up, because, well I have seen this movie before. But getting our hopes up is the whole point of being a fan.
Yeah, the 84 to 94 period was really good but it's been so dire since then. Finally we have a great team to cheer for. I think directly or indirectly the Vancouver Olympics turned all Canadian sports around. New culture and attitude of sports development in Canada and you can see it in soccer, tennis and basketball as an example.
Not only does Canada need to make the World Cup to get momentum but it will rise them up the rankings. FIFA is a vicious cycle. You play bad, you get a bad ranking, you get bad seeding and draws and then you play bad. Rinse and repeat. Remember, if not for COVID, Canada would have been relegated to a minnows tournament.
The Sydney Olympics of 2000, really. Team Canada did dreadful and the COC got called out by athletes (swimmers, on CBC in post race interviews) for better grassroots and expectations. The Aussies had gone through a similar situation and their focused development program made the athletes at those Olympics win a ton more medals.
Anyways, from that, the own the podium program came from that and saw the fruits blossom 10 years later in Vancouver, focusing and having organization of marrying private money and resources with elite, specific programs and athletes. As success from thst came, more companies wanted to be part and more money has come into to all programs and athletes and sports in this country.
CSA is well behind the curve, as they always have, so I wouldn’t comsider thst the governing body has done anything to aid in the develop of this team, so the athletes on the team, and outstanding coach, have excelled despite having an unorganization for a national body behind them to organize and capitalize the last 20 years on building the program up like the COC did in advance of Vancouver.. The CSA complaining about why games aren’t on TV and playing the victim card always gets me. Ego, internal politics and a disconnect of where they think they fall in the Canadian sport landscape has meant they haven’t been able to find partners to to work with like the COC, for TV rights or anything.
In my opinion, this success for the MNT is all on Herdman. I had my doubts if he could replicate what he did in elevating the WNT, mainly because the way he was hired/forced (more CSA incompetence and infighting meant they had to save face from a coaching hire less the a year on, and a revolving door over the past 20 years) to coach this team out of the blue, but he has worked his tactical and mental magic. But yeah your right Girly, in the end, Covid and having a Canadian in the top role in Concacaf to push the new format, made this second chance at Qatar a possibility. Like their Gold Cup win, without a coin flip win to get out of the group stage, they don’t win that tourney.
To be blunt, the biggest part about Canada making this WC for the game in this country, is the pure boatload of cash the CSA gets as part of the share of TV and other contracts. Of course, getting a similar big chunk for hosting in 5 years, but 2022 money would be almost found money…and I don’t trust them with the purse strings as it filters down the political lines to the provincial organizations that drive the politics within the CSA as opposed to a truly national development program. There is no excuse why a country with our resources should not be making the WC (especially with an expanded format starting 2026) every year, and that should be a given and expected every cycle going forward….not perpetual losing and then weak lazy cliched excuses (that other sports in this country have overcome with a proper long term growth strategy)from its unorganized, short term thinking governing body who tries to deflect their incompetence every 4 years and claims lack of national media/funding/general support.
Last edited by browna; 10-09-2021 at 11:45 AM.
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