Canada's Quest for 2014 WC

Discussion in 'Canada' started by Scorpion26, Jul 3, 2010.

  1. BatatasFritas

    BatatasFritas Member+

    Nov 29, 2004
    Toronto
    Club:
    FC Porto
    Tough loss today. Still in disbelief. Hopefully we will have a better team for road to 2018.
     
  2. adrenaline11

    adrenaline11 Member+

    Jul 29, 2010
    Toronto
    Club:
    Tottenham Hotspur FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Canada
    Speaking of 2018, I hope between now and the next qualifying cycle, we'll play as many games as we can in Central America. I'm not just talking about the senior team but also the U17 and U20 teams as well. We have to get rid of this mentality of being completely awed and intimidated in CA and believe we can win. The way to do that is to forget about playing in Europe all the time because it's more convenient to the European based guys and give them a real test.
     
    crazypete13 and DavemTFC repped this.
  3. BearcatSA

    BearcatSA Member

    Jan 15, 2008
    Canada
    McKenna was poor.

    Hainault was worse. Klukowski looked past it. Edgar couldn't mark, either. And after the first goal the midfield didn't close down the opposition anywhere near as well as they are capable of doing during the first half hour when we surrendered 4 goals.

    Plenty of on field leadership questions all around.
     
  4. Stinkey Turner

    Dec 15, 2000
    I feel bad for Canada. They are really not that bad..The # 5 defender seemed pretty poor tho to me..gave way too much space on some of those goals.
     
  5. cloak

    cloak Member

    Aug 25, 2010
    Club:
    Toronto FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Canada
    Edgar looks like our future captain.
     
  6. FlipsLikeAPancake

    Jul 6, 2010
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Rough loss guys. You have my sympathy. Good luck in the Gold Cup next year.
     
  7. (De La)Redstriker06

    May 3, 2003
    Club:
    Montreal Impact
    Nat'l Team:
    Palestine
    Maybe hitting rock bottom will force the FA to get its act together. There's no excuse for an 8-1 loss, Canada has had plenty of talent over the past decade but has consistently underachieved. Time for major change, see you guys at the Gold Cup.
     
  8. EvanJ

    EvanJ Member+

    Manchester United
    United States
    Mar 30, 2004
    Club:
    Manchester United FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  9. TFC Ajax

    TFC Ajax Member+

    Mar 20, 2011
    Greater Toronto Area
    Club:
    AFC Ajax
    Nat'l Team:
    Netherlands
    I think one of the main problems here is Hart accepting mediocre experienced players and not trying out new young blood. When he calls up the likes of Henry and Morgan he gives them a few minutes at the end once the game is decided.
    He also got the midfield all wrong playing with a flat four with two scrappers on the outside and two older (but good) DMs in the middle. This majorly inhibited their ability to maintain possession or properly stop Honduran attacks.
     
  10. TOareaFan

    TOareaFan Member+

    Jun 19, 2008
    Greater Toronto Area
    Club:
    Toronto FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Canada
    Perhaps we can all learn that possession stats (like all stats) viewed in isolation do not tell whole story of any match. Good possession (a very subjective observational thing) is far more valuable than simply measuring the amount of possession.
     
  11. Kingston

    Kingston Member+

    Oct 6, 2005
    Extremely disappointed.

    Eight to one. Eight! I actually thought Canada would win this one or, at worst, pull out a draw. I expected that if I was wrong and we did lose it would be via a TFC-style late goal to allow Honduras to sneak away with a 2-1 win or something like that. How could we possibly allow eight goals?

    Very sad to not make the hex once again. Even if we hadn't ultimately qualified for the WC it would have meant ten more meaningful games.

    Why does Canada always have to come up short? Why can't they, just one meaningful time, come up big when it counts?

    Sad to see some of the long time players like DeRo have their last chance at a WC disappear this way.
     
  12. Kingston

    Kingston Member+

    Oct 6, 2005
    For those saying Hart should go, I wonder how you pin this one on him?

    Before qualifying started, we all knew it would be very tight for Canada to make the hex and a huge surprise if we qualified for the WC. It is extremely disappointing to get so close and bow out so badly. That aside, Hart did get us to within one game of the hex.

    If it had been a 2-1 loss it might be possible to blame the coach. "He obviously should have subbed X for Y at this point when we needed more offense" or that sort of thing. 8-1, though, is on the players. What was Hart supposed to do, magically conjure up an entirely new lineup for this match? And how could he possibly predict, or adapt during the game, to the same group of guys who have played with Honduras and Panama in previous matches suddenly looking like a CSL team?
     
  13. Kingston

    Kingston Member+

    Oct 6, 2005
    One additional point: Honduras' roster is composed mainly of players who play in Honduras. They have a literal handful of players from European teams and another handful from MLS sides. Based on CCL results, I'd rank the Honduran league a little below MLS. So how is Honduras, playing mainly with Honduran league players, able to beat Canada, which is playing mainly with European-based players?
     
  14. TFC Ajax

    TFC Ajax Member+

    Mar 20, 2011
    Greater Toronto Area
    Club:
    AFC Ajax
    Nat'l Team:
    Netherlands
    I think Hart should be fired for his overall performance. We've looked poor in many games, not just this one, and against minnows.
    In this one though I think Hart got his tactics all wrong. When you look at that lineup (a flat four midfield with four DMs, and a flat back four without attacking minded fullbacks) it seems pretty obvious that the game plan was to defend and scrap out a draw. The problem with that being that they've never put that gameplan into practice before. Usually we have the opponent on their back foot and we play with one midfielder sitting back to break up counterattacks, and two others further forward. Also in ability to finish has been a problem for a long time despite having the MLS top scorer vs teams without a single MLS quality player on them.

    It's also the job of the coach to get the players in the right frame of mind for a big game and they clearly weren't

    And it doesn't stink of a coaching problem to you when your team finds it difficult against far inferior players?
     
  15. Kingston

    Kingston Member+

    Oct 6, 2005
    As I wrote before, if it had been 2-1, then, yes, blame the coach. At 8-1, I'm not sure what any coach could be expected to do. He can't simply sub out everyone.

    This I don't agree with. Canada is not one of the better teams in CONCACAF but, with the obvious exception of last night, we have played like one. Aside from last night, we went 7 W, 3 D, 1 L and, despite an anemic offense, outscored our opponents 23-3. It's hard for me to look at that and say that Hart has done a bad job. If the players had played last night the way they did in most other matches instead of turning in the worst performance of their international careers, we'd be off to the hex right now.
     
  16. Catracho_Azul

    Catracho_Azul Member+

    Jun 16, 2008
    New Orleans
    Club:
    Corinthians Sao Paulo
    Nat'l Team:
    Honduras
    Well the league has always been "poor", but due to the way things are ran.. it was never really cuz of the talent pool within it. Luis Garrido is one hell of a player.. he's 21 and is going to leave Honduras soon, same for our rightback Arnold Peralta whose 22.. but for the most part.. our starting 11.. 8 of them play abroad.
     
  17. Blizzard

    Blizzard Moderator
    Staff Member

    Jun 25, 2002
    Toronto
    Club:
    Toronto FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Canada
    Most of that 50.1% was Lars picking the ball out of the back of the net. :(

    Truthfully, it was lack of intensity, sharpness and creativeness in the final third that was our death. We score those two early chances, it might have been a different story. That being said, the back four was an attrocity. Obviously there is more to it than that though. I walked out of the bar and missed the entire second half with the exception of fluking into Hume's goal.
     
  18. TFC Ajax

    TFC Ajax Member+

    Mar 20, 2011
    Greater Toronto Area
    Club:
    AFC Ajax
    Nat'l Team:
    Netherlands
    I said what I thought Hart did wrong. His tactics were wrong from the start. He wouldn't have to sub everyone if he got that right



    I look at the games themselves, not just the record. It's easy to have a good record when we're playing minnows, but even in those games we lacked creativity. We also struggled against any teams near our quality, and our best attackers - one of which was the MLS top scorer - struggle to find the back of the net. To me that falls on the coaching. BTW do you remember the Gold cup?
     
  19. Guarda-Redes

    Guarda-Redes Member

    Jun 16, 2011
    Personally, in all my years of football, Rivas was my best coach. The rest were either teachers putting in "their time" or parents who had their son on the team, even in University this was the case.

    Rivas had his brother there, barely spoke english, but when it was break time he'd be doing tricks with the ball and invite kids finished their water/oranges to come learn these juggling tricks from him, for fun. Prior to this no one had ever even brought up an elastico, travela, around the world, or anything like this in my training. You think this stuff doesn't matter but it's advanced ball control, and we only teach our kids basic ball control. Any kid on the field you see doing advanced dribbling, is still learning it at home or on the street. Advanced ball control is what makes the difference between putting in a cross or getting past a defender at the elite levels, yet we still teach kids to just dribble with the inside of their foot and to strike the ball in the traditional manner. No outside of the foot dribbling (which when I learned, immediately became my go to dribble because you could do it on the sprint).

    I agree though, there should be more Rivas-type coaches relied upon. I even recall him bringing in players from the Toronto Lynx to teach us things, at the time the Lynx weren't as sorry as they are now, and it was quite a big deal.
     
  20. Catracho_Azul

    Catracho_Azul Member+

    Jun 16, 2008
    New Orleans
    Club:
    Corinthians Sao Paulo
    Nat'l Team:
    Honduras
    Is there any post-game interview videos in the internet somewhere??
     
  21. TFC Ajax

    TFC Ajax Member+

    Mar 20, 2011
    Greater Toronto Area
    Club:
    AFC Ajax
    Nat'l Team:
    Netherlands
  22. cloak

    cloak Member

    Aug 25, 2010
    Club:
    Toronto FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Canada
    yes, well done deVos.

    ----------------------------------borjan(age 24)

    ------------------------jakovic(27)-----de jong(26)--------------------------
    -------edgar(25)-------------------------------------------teibert(19)---------
    -------------------------------------------------piette(17)------------------------
    ----------------------hutchinson(29)--------------------------------------------
    ------nakajima farran(28)------------------------simpson(29)-------------
    --------------------------cavallini(19)-----hume(28)-------------------------

    key bench: morgan(20), di chiara(20), jackson(25)

    a younger squad also more dimensional talent. we can't stay old, there's no point. next friendly has to be the beginning of a youth movement.

    f*** off Hoilett and especially JDG2, and CSA if they sit on their laurels after that Bell deal. make no mistake they're still kidding themselves.

    this is much better than a 3-1L.
     
  23. Polygong

    Polygong Moderator
    Staff Member

    Apr 8, 2007
    Toronto
    Club:
    Toronto FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Canada
    I think a youth movement is the right direction, though I wouldn't cut out all of the senior guys completely. A little mentoring from the ones who've been there would be of value.

    Also, I think that a few guys, such as DeRo, deserve one more chance to go out on a high note at the next Gold Cup.
     
  24. TFC Ajax

    TFC Ajax Member+

    Mar 20, 2011
    Greater Toronto Area
    Club:
    AFC Ajax
    Nat'l Team:
    Netherlands
    While JDG2 annoys me and should just STFU and leave us alone, Hoilett is actually the one that pisses me off the most. JDG2 has always wanted to play for the Netherlands and it was kind of a "well I guess I'll play for Canada if they get close to the WC, but if not, I don't want to ruin my chances of playing for Oranje. It'd f*cking despicable, but not nearly as much as Hoilett. His excuses have run out. His contract situation is solid (three year deal), and he's proven himself at a club level, yet he still refuses to commit. That tells me (and probably everyone else) that he expects us and Jamaica to audition to see which one deserves him more. I can't see any other reason why he would refuse to commit when either of his potential future teams could have used him still in their last match. Only other possible reason is that he thinks that he's good enough to make the England squad, in which case he's still at least as bad as JDG2
     
  25. cloak

    cloak Member

    Aug 25, 2010
    Club:
    Toronto FC
    Nat'l Team:
    Canada
    i wouldn't mind seeing DeRo again but there's little room for nostalgia and sentimentality in a youth movement. by next summer Hutch and Simpson will be 30, add DeRo and we're looking kind of vet again. i don't think there's a good enough reason to play anyone other than those three 30+ players.

    EDIT: i'm holding out a lot of hope that Hutchinson plays until he's 34 or so, i'm sure he'd still easily be one of our best players 4 years from now.
     

Share This Page