So weird seeing Mexico play a style that was basically admitting they cannot "play football" like Canada can. Never thought I'd see the day. Long ball after long ball.
Unfortunately Canada struggled to maintain possession as well, but a draw is fine.
5 years ago imagine if I suggested that we would be disappointed to draw Mexico in the US after defeating the US in the US on the same window. Would have been laughed out of the thread (or more accurately, ignored as most people didn't care back then).
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5 years ago imagine if I suggested that we would be disappointed to draw Mexico in the US after defeating the US in the US on the same window. Would have been laughed out of the thread (or more accurately, ignored as most people didn't care back then).
Not to mention comfortably starting a “B” lineup vs them and being disappointed to not take home a win.pretty amazing stuff.
TSN interview with Kevin Blue...pretty basic though the answers to especially the second question is pretty telling on how he focuses on getting to hang with the players, and not all the other crap going on, a lot of which he probably didn't realize how messed it is, and that will never go away:
TSN: Did you have any trepidation taking the job, given what you'd seen happen with Canada Soccer over the past years?
Blue: I was methodical. You do your background and talk to a lot of people to try to get the most complete picture of the realities. And I had a very strong sense that my skill set, and my experiences, were a really strong match for what the requirements of the position were at the time and continue to be. The significance of the challenges, in part, is an attractive thing for me at this at this stage in my journey.
TSN: Has the reality matched what your preconceived notions were six months ago?
Blue: Being on the periphery, you don't get the flavour of actually what's going on. For example, interacting and working with the players has been an absolute joy. It's been really phenomenal in terms of developing a sense of mutual respect, understanding what their professional lives are like, figuring out how we can best support them and then having the sense of them partnering with us in a really positive way. This was not something that was advertised to me ahead of time. There was a bunch of information that came to me that this experience wouldn't be like this, and it's been fantastic.
And the drone investigation seems to be lead by some faction of the CSA board, so that will take 2 years until they can find a scape goat.
Pretty dreadful game, but a win is a win. Pitch was atrocious and hopefully will be in better shape in November, but Canada can't make any excuses about poor pitches when they are the standard elsewhere in the region.
Bombito was the only outfield starter who I thought had a good game. Larin and David had great finishes in otherwise off nights. Thought Eustaquio, Ahmed and Choiniere in particular struggled, although Ahmed had a great ball into Larin for his goal. Don't recall Crepeau doing much other than picking the ball out after a good shot. Millar and Bair looked good in their short cameos.#
Poku making his debut so we will have Forge shoved down our throat for another couple weeks, ignoring former Cavalry man Waterman who got his 5th cap alongside him.
Can't complain about a win in a friendly but not the greatest 2 hours of watching Canada this year.
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Pretty dreadful game, but a win is a win. Pitch was atrocious and hopefully will be in better shape in November, but Canada can't make any excuses about poor pitches when they are the standard elsewhere in the region.
Bombito was the only outfield starter who I thought had a good game. Larin and David had great finishes in otherwise off nights. Thought Eustaquio, Ahmed and Choiniere in particular struggled, although Ahmed had a great ball into Larin for his goal. Don't recall Crepeau doing much other than picking the ball out after a good shot. Millar and Bair looked good in their short cameos.#
Poku making his debut so we will have Forge shoved down our throat for another couple weeks, ignoring former Cavalry man Waterman who got his 5th cap alongside him.
Can't complain about a win in a friendly but not the greatest 2 hours of watching Canada this year.
Pretty much my thoughts exactly. About halfway through the first half I thought "oh great it's one of those games", thankfully with this generation of players they can still pull out a win whereas 10+ years ago this would have been at best a 0-0 draw or a 1-0 loss. Not the kind of game that attracts new fans, but since it was only on OneSoccer during a busy hockey night it wouldn't have had many viewers anyway.
Pretty dreadful game, but a win is a win. Pitch was atrocious and hopefully will be in better shape in November, but Canada can't make any excuses about poor pitches when they are the standard elsewhere in the region.
Bombito was the only outfield starter who I thought had a good game. Larin and David had great finishes in otherwise off nights. Thought Eustaquio, Ahmed and Choiniere in particular struggled, although Ahmed had a great ball into Larin for his goal. Don't recall Crepeau doing much other than picking the ball out after a good shot. Millar and Bair looked good in their short cameos.#
Poku making his debut so we will have Forge shoved down our throat for another couple weeks, ignoring former Cavalry man Waterman who got his 5th cap alongside him.
Can't complain about a win in a friendly but not the greatest 2 hours of watching Canada this year.
2 or 3 years ago you would be praying to simply not get embarrassed at home vs Panama, and now you are complaining about the win not being pretty? Sheesh, tough crowd
Canada play Suriname in Nations League quarterfinals next month. Reminds me of a few years ago when everyone was scared to play Suriname in first round of qualifying only to beat them 4-0.
If this team is anywhere as good as they've started under Marsch (even on Tuesday's off night) it shouldn't be close.
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Blue is very well spoken and inspires confidence in the federation (unlike his predecessor). He's giving what I think is an appropriate level of transparency into the CBA negotiations and investigation without negotiating on a podcast as he more or less put it.
Very positive to hear him talking about how disappointed he is with the viewership numbers and the need to get more mainstream media viewership but until something happens it's all just talk.
I admit I'm tired of all the CBA talk. It is vital and important but it just doesn't interest me in sports. Just sign the darn thing already and move on, it's been going on for years now.
Edit: Kevin Blue is 100% correct on vests. They are really the perfect garment
Last edited by M*A*S*H 4077; 10-21-2024 at 12:51 PM.
Sixteen million Euros a year is about £250,000 a week. Seems like a bargain to me for one of the best players in the world. A guy like Davies would easily cost £80m just to buy if he was under contract for three or four years.
His agent is insane. Davies has really stepped it up this year after honestly regressing after the UCL win. I also don't think it's a surprise that now there's talk of him potentially re-signing as well as players such as Kimmich now that Vincent Kompany is in charge.
Do the smart thing, stay in Munich. Win trophies. Don't get sucked into the Madrid vortex and turn to the dark side
His agent is insane. Davies has really stepped it up this year after honestly regressing after the UCL win. I also don't think it's a surprise that now there's talk of him potentially re-signing as well as players such as Kimmich now that Vincent Kompany is in charge.
Do the smart thing, stay in Munich. Win trophies. Don't get sucked into the Madrid vortex and turn to the dark side
Is Real Madrid really the dark side? Or are PSG, City, Newcastle, etc?
His agent is insane. Davies has really stepped it up this year after honestly regressing after the UCL win. I also don't think it's a surprise that now there's talk of him potentially re-signing as well as players such as Kimmich now that Vincent Kompany is in charge.
Do the smart thing, stay in Munich. Win trophies. Don't get sucked into the Madrid vortex and turn to the dark side
It was pretty unanimous across German soccer last year that Davies had a poor season. I think he's gotten the "Best Left Back in the World" mantle because he's an incredible talent who, on his day, can do things virtually no other LB in the world can do (see the CL SF vs Barcelona). But, his positional play and 1v1 defending are still a work in progress. I think he sometimes still gets the benefit of people seeing how much potential he still has to become better considering how little time he's actually had at LB and how young he still is.
As you said, he's been a lot better this year. After starting the season on the bench (he started preseason late due to the Copa America), he has really come on. The other natural option that Bayern have a LB, Raphael Guerreiro, is an excellent player as well but inconsistent as he's often injured. Guerreiro has deputized at RB lately so both players are starters at the moment.
I think Bayern are genuinely keen on re-signing Davies but I think they were put off last year by his significant demands not being matched by his performances, plus they're not a fan of his agent's negotiation tactics.
If Real Madrid still want him, I really do think he'll go there. But the emergence of Mendy at LB last season means that Davies has significant competition and Real are certainly not in a desperate situation. Nonetheless, I think the allure of Real Madrid will too much for Davies to turn down if they make him the kind of offer he wants. I also fear that he could get stuck on the bench at Real but I think he's probably willing to accept that risk for the potential reward of being a star at the biggest club in the world.
It was pretty unanimous across German soccer last year that Davies had a poor season. I think he's gotten the "Best Left Back in the World" mantle because he's an incredible talent who, on his day, can do things virtually no other LB in the world can do (see the CL SF vs Barcelona). But, his positional play and 1v1 defending are still a work in progress. I think he sometimes still gets the benefit of people seeing how much potential he still has to become better considering how little time he's actually had at LB and how young he still is.
As you said, he's been a lot better this year. After starting the season on the bench (he started preseason late due to the Copa America), he has really come on. The other natural option that Bayern have a LB, Raphael Guerreiro, is an excellent player as well but inconsistent as he's often injured. Guerreiro has deputized at RB lately so both players are starters at the moment.
I think Bayern are genuinely keen on re-signing Davies but I think they were put off last year by his significant demands not being matched by his performances, plus they're not a fan of his agent's negotiation tactics.
If Real Madrid still want him, I really do think he'll go there. But the emergence of Mendy at LB last season means that Davies has significant competition and Real are certainly not in a desperate situation. Nonetheless, I think the allure of Real Madrid will too much for Davies to turn down if they make him the kind of offer he wants. I also fear that he could get stuck on the bench at Real but I think he's probably willing to accept that risk for the potential reward of being a star at the biggest club in the world.
100% agreed with this. As a Bayern fan I of course want Davies to stay in Munich. As a Canadian fan, I echo those concerns about Davies if he goes to Madrid. Of course we would all cheer him on and hope he establishes himself but my other concern is that he honestly isn't the type of player Madrid needs with all their speed and attacking output and could quite easily find himself not in the starting lineup on a regular basis because of a mismatch of his abilities and the player Madrid needs in that position. Maybe Madrid wouldn't care but they are struggling to find roles for all their speedy stars as it is this year. For Canada, Davies playing as a dominating, marauding, superstar LB at Bayern is just about as perfect as it gets in my opinion.
Davies has nothing left to prove at Bayern. He knows he can simply let his contract run down and go to any club in the world in the summer. Think he performs better when he has something to prove, and he'd have that at Madrid.
Heard rumours Barca are after both he and Jonathan David as both are on a free. Wouldn't mind that either. David is very underrated IMO. Doubt it happens though, David wants to play in the Prem.
