We are in Group A: 15 Jun vs Martinque (Pasadena) 19 Jun vs Mexico (Denver) 23 Jun vs Cuba (Charlotte)
This could be a tough run for us. Martinique and Cuba are both better than one may think. By the same token, a result against Mexico is as much of a possibility. At any rate, I think we're still the favourites to take second in the group.
I agree with this; however, I choose to believe this is just my years-of-being-disappointed-by-the-NT self speaking and that we have turned that page. Actually beating these two teams like we should would (will!) be another marker of progress. I posted this elsewhere, but I'm also disappointed to have once again drawn a non-FIFA squad which means we won't pick up FIFA ranking points with a win.
Totally agree. 10 years ago this would have been a group of death for us. Now that we've transformed to a real attacking style we can feel much more confident, even against the power houses like Mexico.
Canada Gold Cup roster Together We Rise: Canada Soccer announces squad for the 2019 Concacaf Gold Cup#GoldCup2019 🏆STORY 🇨🇦 https://t.co/oG6C3rrYgzSQUAD & PROFILES 🇨🇦 https://t.co/m5zC5jdvXz#CANMNT 🍁 #TogetherWeRise pic.twitter.com/8Qx1554t0A— Canada Soccer (@CanadaSoccerEN) May 30, 2019 GK- Milan Borjan | SRB / FK Crvena zvezda (Red Star Belgrade) GK- Maxime Crépeau | CAN / Vancouver Whitecaps FC GK- Jayson Leutwiler | ENG / Blackburn Rovers CB- Derek Cornelius | CAN / Vancouver Whitecaps FC CB- Doneil Henry | CAN / Vancouver Whitecaps FC CB- Kamal Miller | USA / Orlando City SC FB- Zachary Brault-Guillard | CAN / Impact de Montréal FB- Marcus Godinho | SCO / Heart of Midlothian FC FB- Ashtone Morgan | CAN / Toronto FC M- Scott Arfield | SCO / Glasgow Rangers FC M- Atiba Hutchinson | TUR / Beşiktaş JK M- Will Johnson | USA / Orlando City SC M- Mark-Anthony Kaye | USA / Los Angeles FC M- Noble Okello | CAN / Toronto FC M- Jonathan Osorio | CAN / Toronto FC M- Samuel Piette | CAN / Impact de Montréal M- Russell Teibert | CAN / Vancouver Whitecaps FC F- Lucas Cavallini | MEX / Puebla FC F- Jonathan David | BEL / KAA Gent F- Cyle Larin | TUR / Beşiktaş JK W- Alphonso Davies | GER / FC Bayern München W- David Junior Hoilett | WAL / Cardiff City FC W- Liam Millar | ENG / Liverpool FC U-23
Some interesting choices here. Herdman is clearly going young on defence. I'm not sure I'm ready for Henry and Morgan to be the mainstays of our back line but I guess we'll see. Also interesting to see Okello get a call up in the midfield while guys like Tabla, Chapman, Fraser, and even Shome are left out. I guess it speaks to the depth we are developing in midfield that we can use a spot on a young guy like that and not need it for someone more experienced who is more likely to see actual playing time.
Further to this, now that Noah Verhoeven (Pacific FC) has also been called up, it would be really neat to hear someone interview Herdman on how he makes his picks at the bottom of the roster. This is not a criticism of him taking Verhoeven (or Okello) but a legitimate question. There are a bunch of obvious starters. There are a bunch of obvious backups who will get playing time over a tournament like the Gold Cup. I'm really curious how Herdman makes his picks for those last two or three spots for the guys who probably won't see playing time but are being given a chance to learn what international soccer is like.
It probably has to do with elements of the player that we don't get to see from a fan's point of view with respect to a player's potential. For example who has the right attitude.
That, or maybe the CSA hierarchy (BCers Steve Reed and on-to-bigger-things Victor Montagliani) felt that they needed at least one born and bred BC player on the roster (just kidding!). David really impressed with his cool finishing but there are a lot of question marks on the back line. The good news is that we might score two against Mexico; the bad news is that we might give up three. Based on that alone, it might be a fun game to watch.
I was a bit concerned that Martinique would play spoiler for us as they've done before, but I guess that was all for nought. Mexico is next, maybe we'll get a good indication of our progress in this match.
I had the same thought. This game now makes five in a row, however, where we have played minnows and defeated them as expected. I think we have turned the page on dropping games we absolutely should have won. We can now move on to winning 50/50 games and challenging the big teams. It might just take us long time national team fans a bit longer to get used to that.
So true. Cautios optimism is the Canadian way! It is at the point where we can feel that getting a draw against Mexico is a possibility. At least we can feel that we will make a good game of it, and get them on their heels a few times. I like to think that regardless of the score the Mexicans will go walking off the pitch saying that we're not the pushovers we once were.
I'm trying to shed the cautious part but we've been burned by NT expectations many times before. Especially since Mexico hasn't sent its best possible squad. We are certainly not in Mexico's class yet but I think we are now good enough that they have to be careful or we will reach up and surprise them.
It's worth noting that Jamaica managed a scoreless draw with them in 2017 as did Guatemala in 2015. T&T took them to a 4-4 in 2015 as well.
And T and T famously beat the US to prevent the Americans from qualifying for the last World Cup. The second tier of teams can reach up and surprise the big teams on a given day even though they can't stay with them over a longer run. We are now in that second tier of teams. I hope we eventually become the third big team in CONCACAF.
Canada lose 3-1 against Mexico HIGHLIGHTS: #CanMNT 1:3 MEX #GoldCup2019#TogetherWeRise pic.twitter.com/rj6u2sa0f2— Canada Soccer (@CanadaSoccerEN) June 20, 2019
Not the surprise result we all hoped for. Mexico were clearly the better team. The thing I saw that is different than the past, however, is that, despite Mexico being the better team, we played much more with them. This was not all Mexico in Canada's end outshooting us 35-1. It was actually only 6-4 in shots on target. Looking at Mexico's goals, one came from a defensive error, one was an amazing shot, and one was a deflection. Good on Mexico for scoring but it wasn't like they were simply walking the ball into the net. So definitely some positives to take from this game. Now we need to go get it done against Cuba and then see how far we can push it in the knock out rounds.
How fitting that our goal against Mexico be scored by Cavallini. If we go on the assumption that Mexico beats Martinique (a pretty fair assumption) then we're as good as through, there's no likely result against Cuba that would get us knocked out.
Just looked through the Mexican forums thread on this match, they had a a lot of positive and respectful things to say about us, nice to see.
There were many reasons to be optimistic about the result. If our guys could've been half as composed as the Mexicans were on the ball, we would've scored more than one. What was disappointing to see were the sour grapes from Zambrano this morning. Dear @CanadaSoccerEN fans, the #CANMNT will have a fine Gold Cup showing, not because of some great tactics, but in spite of. If they thought they could power point their way through it, think again. Against Mexico it was a typical case of dying of hunger with a full refrigerator— Octavio Zambrano-Viera (@oz_football) June 20, 2019 He still hasn't gotten over the fact he was fired. He needs to cling onto this idea that the program would be further along under him.