Our goalkeeper, plus some poor finishing not helped by a lousy playing surface, kept this score at a 1 goal deficit. Of the few positives, I really liked Airfield's outswinging corner kick service. They were great balls for our guys to attack, as done by James on his goal.
To be clear, I'd say we have less than a 10% chance of it all working out for us. Just pointing out that Mexico has the ability and will to do what we need them to do.
I am not sure what state of affairs would be needed for Canada to get 3 goals. Likely involve an El Salvador Red and Junior/Larin finding a bit of touch. If we find ourselves needing to sub out Larin I hope Benito goes for Jackson rather than Ledgerwood.
http://www.concacaf.com/article/canada-believes-will-fight-for-hexagonal-berth is titled "Canada believes, will fight for Hexagonal berth." http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2016/09/02/honduras-2-canada-1-2018-world-cup-qualifying-match-recap is titled "Honduras 2, Canada 1 | 2018 World Cup Qualifying Match Recap." Canada had 34.9 percent of the possession and only 1 shot on target.
So on Tuesday night (i.e. Wednesday morning), I'm thinking of creating a thread "Canada's Quest to be Relevant At All in this Game." This post may have overstated the idea that Canada would be a regional power, but they did kind of have that "up and coming" vibe, at one point: http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads...iers-concacaf-r.2015727/page-14#post-34541755
Let's bear in mind that out the outset of this qualification the consensus around here was "probably not this time, but we have a good chance for 2022". Nothing that has happened has changed my mind on that. I don't think that a lack of talent is the issue. I think that at this point we do in fact have the talent to compete in CONCACAF, although most of it is very young and green. What we don't have yet is team cohesion and a well established set of tactics that can win. From appearances to me anyway, Floro is working toward just that, very slowly. He is laying down a solid defensive foundation and on that end it is bearing fruit. Looking at our goals against in this tournament we have 7, which isn't all that great but far from the worst, and bear in mind that 5 of those 7 came from Mexico. In the 2015 Gold Cup we had the best defensive record of anybody in the round robin, only 1 goal against. The problem is of course that defense alone isn't enough. We had zero goals for in that same Gold Cup. We need to start scoring goals if we're going to get results. Of course to get goals you have to make sacrifices at the defensive end so we need to add that element more gradually into our system. Start with increasing our time of possession and then add new tactics to create chances. Hopefully, we'll see signs of Floro doing just that in next year's Gold Cup.
Canada would have been better off if this used the same tiebreakers as the CONCACAF Champions League. The CONCACAF Champions League would have Canada ahead of Honduras on head-to-head away goals if they finished tied on points.
Let's be honest: Canada is done for this cycle. Floro's system does not score goals so expecting them to get 3 against El Salvador is unrealistic. Likewise, Mexico probably won't field their best XI to avoid possible injuries and stay in the clubs' good graces. They'll win, but not by 3+ goals. We all knew that it's another 6 years before the first generation of the LTPD program make it through the system. We'll have to wait and see what happens next, but these results just emphasize the need of Canada to have it's own domestic league. The CSA has to get the CPL up and running by 2018 to give the LTPD players an outlet to play domestically and build up the player pool.
The solid defensive foundation in San Pedro Sula was Borjan, plain and simple. Without him, this is an insurmountable deficit. We also got shelled vs Mexico in Vancouver, too.
Nothing I saw with my eyes or can see with these stats suggests a solid defensive anything! http://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2016-09-02-honduras-vs-canada-mens-national-team/stats
I'm going to play devil's advocate on the pessimism here. The above point is true - a different tiebreaker rule and we are having a very different conversation. In addition, they had a really tough group, much tougher than last time. If our group was Honduras, Panama and Cuba like 2014 - we get a guaranteed six points vs Cuba and I think even with the completely disastrous tactics of Floro, we would be able to get wins at home over Honduras and Panama and that should be enough to go through with 12 points. Getting Mexico and Honduras in the same group was a very tough draw. CONCACAF is just too easy for Mexico and when you have six points pretty much unattainable, that makes it really difficult. Replace Mexico with anybody, even USA, our chances are dramatically better at getting at least a draw at home. This also should teach Floro that you should at least have offensive-minded players on the bench. While he was playing for the draw in Honduras, surely he would want a player like Osorio vs El Salvador now that the scenario is different and we need to score goals.
I'll just leave this here: Statement from Peter Montopoli of @CanadaSoccerEN on allegations of bribes offered to El Salvador's players #CanMNT pic.twitter.com/TOCx4SvgVi— Laura Armstrong (@lauraarmy) September 6, 2016
When I first read the headline I was shocked to think that the CSA was bring El Salvador to throw the game. Then I read the article. Trying to figure out the point in bribing players to do their best to win a game.
What does LTPD mean? El Salvador has already had national team players banned for throwing games. I hope if any investigation about match-fixing has to be done, it gets done soon because the Hexagonal starts in 66 days and it takes time for teams to choose a stadium and sell tickets. I also run a prediction contest in the CONCACAF forum and I'd rather not have to deal with any forfeits.
Long term player development. I was also surprised when I read on the radio just now that the allegation is that a Honduran businessman was bribing El Salvador to improve Honduras' chances. How do you bribe someone to try to win? Wouldn't it be better to try to bride Canadian players to lose?
It is not a Honduran businessman....it is an el salvadoran businessman (Ricardo Padilla).....I have to presume he is trying to give incentive for the team to "go all out for a win" so that he can bet on that result....whereas there might be a preponderance of betting on a Canada win given the situation.
The thing is though. El Salvador was rocked by a huge match fixing scandal a few years back. While a couple grand seems like a good payday to some of these guys. The consequence if they got caught is the possible end of their careers.
El Salvador was eliminated. So a lot of players might not be motivated for a road match when they have club duties and possible injuries to worry about. It's the old "mail it in" scenerio. So this business guy, knowing this might happen, decides to try and offer them an incentive package to keep them invested in the outcome. The problem is it's illegal. And after the previous bout of match fixing that El Salvador has dealt with, I don't think the players wanted to even entertain the idea and covered their own asses by contacting the federations beforehand. A couple grand for a possible lifetime ban for guys that might make good money isn't worth it.