Official World Cup 2014 Qualifying Thread (Blame It On RIO)

[Matty81]

Originally Posted by shermanator

I wonder if this is Hart's last game as coach? The team was completely unprepared in both the Panama and Honduras games. That's on him.

This loss is only going to further demonstrate how far Canada has to go to get to the World Cup, and I imagine it's going to kill and even reverse the momentum the program had with the Canadian fanbase after the Women's Olympic tournament.

I'd say he's almost certainly done. I think you might even see him do the right thing and resign in the next couple weeks before he gets fired. You'll definitely see at least 4 guys announce international retirement (unfortunately none of those will be Ricketts). The D has been just unbelievably bad today and he has no one who can score neither of which you can pin on him but I don't think anybody would keep their job after helming an eff up of this magnitude.

Besides that he has basically used the same 16 players for 4 years... he built no depth at all and when Occean, Jazic, Johnson and Simpson went down he was just woefully unprepared to cope with it.

[troutman]

The current Honduran squad is drawn mainly from the domestic league (6 from MLS):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hondura..._football_team

[polak]

Originally Posted by The Big Chill

We have the best high school basketball prospect in North America to go along with a number of first round picks the last couple of years.

The fans will come if we manage to taste some success in any of those sports.

Thats kind of a chicken or the egg conversation.

[Jimmy Stang]

Gooooooooooallllllll!

[M*A*S*H 4077]

Goalllllll!

Way too little, way too late

[GirlySports]

goooooooooooooooool!

YOU NEVER KNOW!

[GirlySports]

BTW

Bolivia 4 URGAY 0

[M*A*S*H 4077]

Welp

[valo403]

Originally Posted by diane_phaneuf

I'm not digging

I think Canada is great, considering population

Sorry, didn't mean to direct that at you

[Locke]

Huge, huge game by Northern Ireland.

[Jimmy Stang]

Is there a reason why I am still watching this? I'm either a masochist or just full-on ######.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

Is there a reason why I am still watching this? I'm either a masochist or just full-on ######.

I'm still watching! It's just to finish up the campaign! I don't want to leave something I've watched since last September!

[polak]

This is a national embarrassment.

O'well, we obviously had absolutely no business being in the Hex anyways, let alone the world cup. At least this saves us the embarrassment later on when more people are watching...

[The Big Chill]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

Is there a reason why I am still watching this? I'm either a masochist or just full-on ######.

I'm still watching too for some reason. Just can't look away.

[M*A*S*H 4077]

I'm still here. Not sure why, but I want to finish this out.

PS: Dear Canada, please give our soccer program a budget so we can compete with third world countries!

[Mango]

sigh.

[GirlySports]

8-1. The Human Freefall record is in danger.

[The Big Chill]

Originally Posted by polak

This is a national embarrassment.

O'well, we obviously had absolutely no business being in the Hex anyways, let alone the world cup. At least this saves us the embarrassment later on when more people are watching...

That's the part that hurts the most though, even making the hex would have been a huge step forward for this program. We potentially could have added some top reinforcements and had another 10 games for us to improve in, and get a bunch of extra exposure. We have missed out on a huge development opportunity.

[shermanator]

Originally Posted by Matty81

Besides that he has basically used the same 16 players for 4 years... he built no depth at all and when Occean, Jazic, Johnson and Simpson went down he was just woefully unprepared to cope with it.

Was there a tonne of depth to choose from though? From now to 2015, Canada needs to focus on developing talent domestically. That means the Canadian MLS clubs need to continue developing players through their Academies, and pushing them through the first team. That is the key to this team getting better.

I imagine players like Morgan, Cavallini, Borjan and Teibert will take over from Hirschfeld, de Rosario, Jazic et al for the next qualification cycle.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

8-1. The Human Freefall record is in danger.

# 61 to . . .? How many countries play FIFA football?

http://www.fifa.com/worldranking/ran...ble/index.html