The Canadian Men's Soccer Team Thread

[Acey]

Well Mexico was 2x the draw tonight that the US was for their quarterfinal, and it's been that way through the whole tournament. So who's really the "home" team?

Playing in the US makes sense for multiple reasons, which is why Copa America will be there.

[Magnum PEI]

Originally Posted by Acey

Well Mexico was 2x the draw tonight that the US was for their quarterfinal, and it's been that way through the whole tournament. So who's really the "home" team?

Playing in the US makes sense for multiple reasons, which is why Copa America will be there.

The US has only ever won one game in Mexico. It's a huge advantage and taints the tournament. Playing in the US every year only makes sense for CONCACAF's bottom line.

[GirlySports]

I hope that one day we get a Carribean Gold Cup. Have games in Jamaica, T&T..a new Cuba. add Cancun maybe? I dunno. Probably a fantasy.

[Ozy_Flame]

It's blistering hot to play in those countries, and is not conducive to our soccer team, to be honest. In an ideal world, we have our roster playing for clubs in a Canadian league (one can only hope), the US or Europe. Having them play in tournaments out of their element - not sure that would be in our best advantage. If anything it makes sense to play on US soil since it's the most similar to the environments our players current play in, and the closest emulation to home field advantage outside of Canada.

[GirlySports]

I meant in general, not a Canadian point of view. Other regions rotate their continental championship around.

I think it's just as hot in the States or Mexico. Toronto was really hot this weekend.

[Acey]

It's consistently hotter in many US cities that are currently hosting the Gold Cup than it is in Kingston, Port of Spain, or any other Caribbean city where games might be held.

Games can be held in large facilities with roofs like Phoenix or Atlanta, however.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Acey

It's consistently hotter in many US cities that are currently hosting the Gold Cup than it is in Kingston, Port of Spain, or any other Caribbean city where games might be held.

Games can be held in large facilities with roofs like Phoenix or Atlanta, however.

The mighty dollar at the expense of regional development though.

If Trinidad & Tobago can hold a U-17 World Cup on it own, it definitely can hold a Gold Cup.

[MillerTime GFG]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

It's blistering hot to play in those countries, and is not conducive to our soccer team, to be honest. In an ideal world, we have our roster playing for clubs in a Canadian league (one can only hope), the US or Europe. Having them play in tournaments out of their element - not sure that would be in our best advantage. If anything it makes sense to play on US soil since it's the most similar to the environments our players current play in, and the closest emulation to home field advantage outside of Canada.

Soccer isn't conducive to our soccer team.

[Acey]

No kidding. The problem is that our team is not good already, so worrying about how our team would be made less good by blistering temperatures is moot.

[Matty81]

They're not going to have the gold cup anywhere else in Concacaf because having it in the states is a cash cow for Concacaf... they draw OK crowds who pay decent dollar for their tickets, they have good facilities etc. They'll lose money anywhere but the US or Mexico and in Mexico they would make nowhere near the same money. It does look pretty bush league, but the best we could hope for is a group in Mexico and a group in Canada. Central America, forget about it, from a security perspective alone nobody will ever stage a major event there, their fans behave like animals and their stadiums and infrastructure is 3rd world to put it nicely. Caribbean could happen in a couple of places, maybe trini or some of the more prosperous dutch and other european colonial islands are safe enough with modern infrastructure (although the latter have tiny population bases).

Draw is going to be interesting this week. Curacao has the best roster, Nicaragua would not be a walkover either. Any of the other 4 should be another cakewalk.

Semi final draw will be huge too!
Will be draw into a potential group with one of:
US, Mexico or Costa Rica
Honduras, Panama and the Trinis
and then one other team coming through the home and away round

Good group looks like:
X (ticos for my money but debatable), Trinidad, Antigua/St. Vag

Bad group is:
X (US), Panama, Jamaica

Huge potential discrepancies here in the 4th group member especially, a few easy outs likely will go through as will a few very competitive teams - they could easily squeek through that first group to the hex IMO even with a weak talent pool. This would likely increase appeal to Hoilett, Ferreira, Cavallini, Vittoria Arfield etc. They could get some huge reinforcements and surprise us all. That's probably 4 new starters. Here's hoping for a good draw.

[GirlySports]

Those guys won't play unless Canada makes it to the HEX, it's always been that way.

Is Central America that different than South America? The Copa America rotates among it's 10 members. Even to small places like Bolivia and Paraguay. Brazil who is hosting in 2019 won't see it again until 2059!

The Gold Cup is a biennial competition which actually gives it more opportunity to take risks and move it around. Also a continental competition should be more fair rather than the US having an inside track to the Confederations Cup every time. But instead it's turned into a total cash grab.

[Matty81]

Yeah - it could be it's own debate, but to me Central America is still way more sketchy than South America. There are a couple more stable countries there in the southern part, especially Panama, but there are still plenty of crapholes where life is cheap despite the influx of hipsters coming back raving about the beach and eco-resorts in Costa Rica.

http://www.ticotimes.net/2014/04/14/...n-murder-rates

Can't argue with the logic about some kind of rotation though girly... but then again why would Concacaf start concerning itself with not looking like a mickey mouse organization now?

[GirlySports]

wow



Why do we play in such a farcical conference? It's becoming worse than Africa!

[cam_wmh]

Mexico's PK calls, were something else though...

[troutman]

The 20 Best Tweets About the U.S. Men's National Team's Gold Cup Loss to Jamaica

http://www.pastemagazine.com/article...p-loss-to.html

[GirlySports]

Qualification draw takes place is Russia today. 9am MT on TSN

Ballpickers:
Africa: Rinat Dasaev and Samuel Eto'o
CONCACAF: Fabio Cannavaro and Madjer
Oceania: Alexey Smertin and Predrag Rajkovic
South America: Ronaldo and Diego Forlan
Europe: Alexander Kerzhakov and Oliver Bierhoff

[Trojan97]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Qualification draw takes place is Russia today. 9am MT on TSN

Ballpickers:
Africa: Rinat Dasaev and Samuel Eto'o
CONCACAF: Fabio Cannavaro and Madjer
Oceania: Alexey Smertin and Predrag Rajkovic
South America: Ronaldo and Diego Forlan
Europe: Alexander Kerzhakov and Oliver Bierhoff

Is that the order of selection as well? I noticed they're just doing Africa now.

[PeteMoss]

Canada gets Belize.

[Trojan97]

Canada gets Belize.

[PeteMoss]

And in the next round - Mexico/Honduras and winner of Curacao/El Salvardor