The Canadian Men's Soccer Team Thread

[GirlySports]

Ref is on crack

[Acey]

What a coincidence that neither our men's nor women's team can score.

[Magnum PEI]

Bah, inevitable.

[GirlySports]

Yup. I have no confidence in this coach. How is Osario not playing?

[Johnny199r]

Floro is not inspiring confidence...

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Acey

What a coincidence that neither our men's nor women's team can score.

CSA = Can't Score Anywhere

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Johnny199r

Floro is not inspiring confidence...

For me the coach is approaching this all wrong. Perhaps he's fearing for his job. Canada's goal in this tournament is not to win it or even advance. It's to develop players and find stars. Florio is parking the bus and playing it tight hoping to tie 0-0 or squeak out a 1-0 win to advance in the tournament. Who cares? This isn't world cup qualifying.

Even if Canada loses 5-3 and shows flashes of brilliance, it's better than actually trying to win the tournament. It's part of rebuilding. For a country that doesn't play many games, this has been a waste of three important ones.

[shermanator]

The lack of quality in the midfield attacking wise is mind boggling. How Jonathan Osorio is not starting is beyond me.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Yup. I have no confidence in this coach. How is Osario not playing?

Originally Posted by GirlySports

For me the coach is approaching this all wrong. Perhaps he's fearing for his job. Canada's goal in this tournament is not to win it or even advance. It's to develop players and find stars. Florio is parking the bus and playing it tight hoping to tie 0-0 or squeak out a 1-0 win to advance in the tournament. Who cares? This isn't world cup qualifying.

Even if Canada loses 5-3 and shows flashes of brilliance, it's better than actually trying to win the tournament. It's part of rebuilding. For a country that doesn't play many games, this has been a waste of three important ones.

Osorio and Floro

I'm starting to really question the Floro hire.

The amount of minutes Osorio and Tiebert have seen when Hutchinson and Johnson are out is perplexing.

You start Julian De Guzman at AM, who is playing in the NASL and doesn't have many years left in him, and has deteriorated to a purely DM; instead of two young, up and coming starting MLS AM options???

His comments after the Jamaica game were basically "We don't have good players, so we set up in a defensive system". Well you aren't going to have good players if this is our attitude as a national program trying to develop our current young crop of players.

[GirlySports]

that comment should be a fireable offense.

[GirlySports]

Haiti just knocked out Honduras in the Gold Cup!

[shermanator]

Well, win and Canada is in. It'll be a tough match and I don't see Canada getting a result, especially with how they have played to date. Hoping BMO can match the atmosphere in Kansas City last night, jam packed with red and white, but considering how they have supported Canada to date that's probably not going to happen either.

[Jimmy Stang]

I'm certainly not overflowing with optimism for this one, but stranger things have happened I guess. I haven't seen any glimmers of hope that suggest we can steal this one, or even score a goal.

I'll be watching anyway hoping to be proven wrong.

[shermanator]

If Osorio and Teibert start in the midfield in place of Piette and Ricketts, then I think there is a shred of hope. Piette is a tremendous DM but he's being misused too far up the pitch. Larin hasn't looked great, but he also hasn't gotten much in terms of service.

On the downside, I've heard that only 9000 tickets have been sold to the game. Hope that information is missing a 1 or 2 in front of it...

[Johnny199r]

I hold out little hope. The system is too defensive, the player selections have been wrong. Stranger things could happen, like Ricketts hitting the net.

[Acey]

[shermanator]

The bright side is obviously Osorio starting, he'll provide more creativity in the midfield than JDG, Piette, Bekker and Straith combined.

I believe Teibert picked up a slight knock before the tournament, plus I'm not sure how much Floro actually rates him (he was out of the squad for a whole year not too long ago), so we may see him off the bench. Tissot is a surprise starter for me but with Akindele's ineffectiveness thus far he may bring more to the squad coming on in relief tonight.

Ouimette at RB scares me a bit.

[shermanator]

I think Canada actually held it's own pretty well in the first half. Not going to fault Haber for his missed chance, he did well to get the chance in the first place and got two half decent shots on net, and a corner as well. Haber isn't a great finisher anyways.

Also, I've come up with a new drinking game. Drink everytime the FOX Sports 1 announcers:
- Mispronounce the name of a Canadian player (1 drink)
- Mention the goalscoring drought, without pointing out they scored 4 against Dominica in June (1 drink)
- Mention "hoofing the ball upfield" (1 drink)
- Mention the 8-1 loss to Honduras in 2012 (2 drinks)
- Mention Canada's FIFA Ranking (2 drinks)
- Mention Canada had a goal called back in the 2007 Gold Cup semifinal which resulted in a US win (100 drinks)

[Jimmy Stang]

Not a bad half, actually. I'm not sure where Canada's goal will come from, but they are holding their own pretty well. Might be able to squeak out a sloppy goal on the wet surface.

Now my social media embargo begins while I drive home. I'll catch the second half in its entirety after my kid is in bed through the magic of the PVR.

[Yoho]

Really should have scored on that flicked header that set him free in front of the net.