Pesch is Back!!!

[Blizzard]

So Pesch is getting some starts and some goals. A friend of mine who is a Derby supporter (he actually lives there), while he recognizes that Paul at 34 is not going to have too much time left, is pleased that the manager has actually started putting him in the starting 11 blaming the one striker system for keeping him out of the line-up and hurting the team through the season.

The manager claims he was never out of the picture but one really did have to wonder.

Two goals against Burnley in the FA Cup last week and a single against Crewe on Saturday show that the little guy can still put the ball into the net.

http://www.fansfc.com/frontpage/frontpagenews.asp?newsid=148392

Nice to see!

"Blizzard"

[Daniel from Montréal]

Good for him, as long as he isn't back for the Nats.

[Canadian_Supporter]

Good to see him scoring goals with Derby again - but we won't see him again for the national team, which isn't a bad thing. At this point there is no need to call him up when we are 'rebuilding'.

[Blizzard]

Good to see him scoring goals with Derby again - but we won't see him again for the national team, which isn't a bad thing. At this point there is no need to call him up when we are 'rebuilding'.

Agreed. I wasn't proposing that unless we were in some sort of extreme crunch re. numbers.

I brought it up just so we could be pleased to see the current success of one of our old favourites.

[tufline]

I will never follow Canadian soccer if pech plays again for canada. This little piece of crap has stunk the joint out every time he has worn read, got holger fired and is generally the worst player to suit up for Canada in its history, good riddancee pech of shite.

[TopDogg]

I will never follow Canadian soccer if pech plays again for canada. This little piece of crap has stunk the joint out every time he has worn read, got holger fired and is generally the worst player to suit up for Canada in its history, good riddancee pech of shite.
Hmmm...

[X-Caper]

I have to agree with tufline, somewhat
although I admire his skill and deterrmionation for his size, going and making it in england soccer, I never enjoyed him when he was on team canada. I felt more confident in mckenna scoring that pesch., sorry pesch

[Blizzard]

I have to agree with tufline, somewhat
although I admire his skill and deterrmionation for his size, going and making it in england soccer, I never enjoyed him when he was on team canada. I felt more confident in mckenna scoring that pesch., sorry pesch

He had his moments. Two goals in a home win over Northern Ireland in the Canada Cup a number of years ago stick in my mind. Both were scintilating.

I've also been fortunate enough to see him play virtually his whole Canadian pro career with the Blizzard so I knew what he was capable of doing.

His biggest problem was petulance, impatience and at times immaturity.

[tufline]

He had his moments. Two goals in a home win over Northern Ireland in the Canada Cup a number of years ago stick in my mind. Both were scintilating.

I've also been fortunate enough to see him play virtually his whole Canadian pro career with the Blizzard so I knew what he was capable of doing.

His biggest problem was petulance, impatience and at times immaturity.
Lack of talent

[Canadian_Supporter]

Lack of talent

:rolleyes:

I guess that is why he has been one of the top Canadian scorers in England over the past decade?

[CanuckFan]

:rolleyes:

I guess that is why he has been one of the top Canadian scorers in England over the past decade?

Despite his impressive club stats, you can't argue with tufline in that Pesch has never done anything positive in a meaningul qualifying game. He was a complete waste as a striker against Guatemala and Honduras in our WCQ home openers, which were the two critical games for our 2006 campaign.

[Captain Canuck]

Despite his impressive club stats, you can't argue with tufline in that Pesch has never done anything positive in a meaningul qualifying game.

That's overstating things a bit. True he wouldn't have been my first choice striker to start the last round of qualifying, but to say "never" would ignore the games where he did play well in. I can certainly recall him making a valuable contribution to the team that nearly qualified in 1994, including setting up the first goal of the game against Honduras in Honduras in the final round (yet another game that we would have won but for the Refs) before being injured out of the match by the Honduran player taking him down in the penalty box.

[Blizzard]

Lack of talent

Obviously not.

He may not be Premier League calibre but name me one Canadian who has broken the 100 goal mark in any European league.

[CanuckFan]

That's overstating things a bit. True he wouldn't have been my first choice striker to start the last round of qualifying, but to say "never" would ignore the games where he did play well in. I can certainly recall him making a valuable contribution to the team that nearly qualified in 1994, including setting up the first goal of the game against Honduras in Honduras in the final round (yet another game that we would have won but for the Refs) before being injured out of the match by the Honduran player taking him down in the penalty box.

I think I was understating things actually as I never mentioned how he effectively ensured we would not reach France in 1998. He totally screwed us in the 1997 hex campaign, getting the red card early in the game against El Salvador for asinine behaviour. But I suppose I'll hear once again that we were screwed by the refs on that one too. We never did get a win in that game and the wind went out of our sails in the hex campaign just when we desperately needed a win.

[Captain Canuck]

I think I was understating things actually as I never mentioned how he effectively ensured we would not reach France in 1998. He totally screwed us in the 1997 hex campaign, getting the red card early in the game against El Salvador for asinine behaviour. But I suppose I'll hear once again that we were screwed by the refs on that one too. We never did get a win in that game and the wind went out of our sails in the hex campaign just when we desperately needed a win.

Nobody has suggested that he didn't cost us in qualifying that time nor has underperformed at other times. Overall his potential with the national team was never fully realized IMO, though that's not entirely down to him as we had a weak playmaking midfield when he was in his prime. What I am disputing is that he "never" did anything positive in a qualifier - that's clearly an overstatement, unless you are going to argue that the games the rest of us saw never happened. While he didn't score he also played well in the 2000 Gold Cup win, which deserves to be mentioned when assessing his overall contributions to the Canadian national team.

Incidentally the match I was referring to in 1993 is the one where Bob Lenarduzzi charged on to the field (as a coach) to scream at the refs for their horrible officiating and Graham Leggatt on-air advised the CSA to ask FIFA to launch an official investigation concerning the corruption apparent in the officiating, while also suggesting that the Refs had been bribed - that's how bad it was. I'm sorry that I don't have a "lets all look back fondly at those times we were screwed - wasn't that a laugh" attitude, but that's just the way I am.

[Blizzard]

I think I was understating things actually as I never mentioned how he effectively ensured we would not reach France in 1998. He totally screwed us in the 1997 hex campaign, getting the red card early in the game against El Salvador for asinine behaviour. But I suppose I'll hear once again that we were screwed by the refs on that one too. We never did get a win in that game and the wind went out of our sails in the hex campaign just when we desperately needed a win.

No, he deserved that although the El Salvadoran did make a meal out of it. A Canadian player would have kept on walking and the ref would have ignored the whole thing but hey, that's soccer for better or worse.

Some, perhaps many, players act that way and the refs accept it as part of the game.

That's just the way it is and we have to accept it and deal with it. We don't do that very well do we.

[Blizzard]

Nobody has suggested that he didn't cost us in qualifying that time nor has underperformed at other times. Overall his potential with the national team was never fully realized IMO, though that's not entirely down to him as we had a weak playmaking midfield when he was in his prime. What I am disputing is that he "never" did anything positive in a qualifier - that's clearly an overstatement, unless you are going to argue that the games the rest of us saw never happened. While he didn't score he also played well in the 2000 Gold Cup win, which deserves to be mentioned when assessing his overall contributions to the Canadian national team.

Incidentally the match I was referring to in 1993 is the one where Bob Lenarduzzi charged on to the field (as a coach) to scream at the refs for their horrible officiating and Graham Leggatt on-air advised the CSA to ask FIFA to launch an official investigation concerning the corruption apparent in the officiating, while also suggesting that the Refs had been bribed - that's how bad it was. I'm sorry that I don't have a "lets all look back fondly at those times we were screwed - wasn't that a laugh" attitude, but that's just the way I am.


Boy, do I remember that. I have never been so livid about a sports event. I'm amazed that I didn't destroy not only my tv set but my whole house.

I may be wrong but was that not the last international match ever handled by that official. Don't know if that's true or not but I seem to recall reading that somewhere.

[Captain Canuck]

Boy, do I remember that. I have never been so livid about a sports event. I'm amazed that I didn't destroy not only my tv set but my whole house.


Even though my brother accidentally wiped the tape of this match I can still remember the last words that Graham Leggatt said before the broadcast ended - "It's almost as if it was rehearsed!!!"

I have to say I miss Graham calling the games, though I do like Craig Forrest. The only other time I can recall Leggatt being that upset at the officiating was against Panama in 1996, the match in Panama where we qualified for the Hex for (what has disappointingly been) the last time we have qualified for it. The game ended 0-0 but Panama were getting away with murder, elbowing Dasovic in the head when was was on the ball with no yellow,let along a red, Aguiar nearly coming to blows with a Panamanian after a dirty tackle, Craig Forrest got red-carded and Dolan had to come in while Pesch also got red-carded (but the Panamanian feed never showed it) for getting punched in the head. The only time I can recall Canada finishing a game with 9 men.

[Blizzard]

Even though my brother accidentally wiped the tape of this match I can still remember the last words that Graham Leggatt said before the broadcast ended - "It's almost as if it was rehearsed!!!"

I have to say I miss Graham calling the games, though I do like Craig Forrest. The only other time I can recall Leggatt being that upset at the officiating was against Panama in 1996, the match in Panama where we qualified for the Hex for (what has disappointingly been) the last time we have qualified for it. The game ended 0-0 but Panama were getting away with murder, elbowing Dasovic in the head when was was on the ball with no yellow,let along a red, Aguiar nearly coming to blows with a Panamanian after a dirty tackle, Craig Forrest got red-carded and Dolan had to come in while Pesch also got red-carded (but the Panamanian feed never showed it) for getting punched in the head. The only time I can recall Canada finishing a game with 9 men.

Ya, we've been through some hell in qualifying. Sadly, much of it has been self-inflicted but the officiating boondoggles have been incredible. What is more incredible is that CONCACAF has allowed to continue with little or no pro-activeness.