Strong signing by York 9 Luca is ready. York9 FC is proud to announce the signing of former Canadian youth international defender Luca Gasparotto.Full story: https://t.co/TJ7UEWgiKk | #York9FC #CanPL pic.twitter.com/QJtvDpQjeU— York United FC (@yorkutdfc) February 14, 2019
Gonna be honest here.. How strong is he? Most of his playing time has been in lower division Scottish soccer, which is pretty dismal, and he seems to have struggled for playing time...
Details of the February 13th York 9 FC pub night in Richmond Hill. I've got over 30 minutes of sound files. MC Kurt Larson onstage talks to head coach Jim Brennan, players Joseph Di Chiara and Daniel Gogarty, and team president Preben Ganzhorn. I then have a short interview with Gogarty. http://www.rocketrobinsoccerintoronto.com/reports19/19york058.htm
Most Canadians have problems getting playing time in Europe, even Samuel Piette when he was in Spain D3. However, he played well enough for Canada at the last Gold Cup for Montreal to sign him and we all agree that he belongs at that level. There's way more "Samuel Piette" out there playing in lower Euro tier not seeing minutes and the league is trying to do get them in CPL, giving them the added responsibility and the stage for them to show what they can truly do with much more playing time. Having seeing him play, his skills, techniques and physicality are there for him to develop and being giving the stage to develop further, so yes, he is a strong signing. If he shows what he can do and impress enough, he could be in the national team picture. (Henry makes me nervous even if he's in MLS) The goal is attracting the best Canadians available who matches the league's year 1 model. For what was expected of year one signings (Canadian D3 and Canadian University would be handed contracts) that's not what were seeing. The league is going young and with guys with professional experience. Instead of signing a "Samuel Piette" or a "Jonathan Osorio" (many had wrote off his MLS career prior to breaking out, the league believes it can creates it's own Piette, Osorio, Larin, Kaye, Davies. That's the whole point of it. And like Osorio, late bloomers are a thing...
2/2 9️⃣ #York9FC | 🇨🇦🇸🇪🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇯🇵🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦⚒ #ForgeFC | 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇲🇨🇦🇸🇪🇨🇦⚓️ #UTW | 🇨🇦🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦— CANSOCCER (@cansoccerfeed) February 15, 2019
I'm not sure exactly what this means. Last year you were extremely vocal in your claims the CPL was going to be at a much higher level than USL. You also claimed the MLS clubs and USL (Ottawa) were not developing Canadian players. Being only somewhat familiar with the USL and being even less of with CPL players I've seen so far, this doesn't seem to be the case. Also, I noticed all the U20 players seemed to be attached to MLS or Foreign teams. How many of these players or other Canadian youth national team players have signed with the league?
Ottawa aren't, TFC has improved somewhat, Montreal and Vancouver have a mediocre track record with talent being wasted and/or wanting out. (Adekugbe and Tabla to name those 2) Montreal and Vancouver shut down their reserve teams leaving talented guys with nowhere to play to continue their development. Fresno has been a disaster for Vancouver (club's own admission) and Montreal are regretting shutting down their academy which forces them to loan to Ottawa (not a model of management). That's good young talent being wasted. Not knowing Canadian players doesn't mean that they aren't talented. This is why the league is for, so they have a chance to make a name for themselves, just like MLS is doing for Americans. Our U20 teams have been heavy on MLS academy players and have actually been worse since starting that trend. There's Noah Verhoeven and Jose Hernandez who signed with Pacific. Verhoeven was praised by analysts for his game at Toulon where he scored and they saw him as the most ready for MLS. Other thing is that right before CPL started signing players, the 3 MLS teams went on a signing spree of youth players hoping to loan them to Ottawa, Fresno or TFC II. As for the USL vs CPL comparison, I have seen nothing suggesting that it will be weaker than USL after the current signings. York 9, Forge and Pacific (set to sign Marcel De Jong) are my top 3 teams Most expected CIS and L10 to fill the rosters and that's not what happened. The league will have good players with pro experience as starters. It's year 1, so chemistry will come and bench depth will improve but the teams are well coached and once chemistry is created, teams like York 9, Pacific and Forge will be the strongest teams.
Seems like a CPL Laval team in the Montreal Metropolitain Region will be announced next month Process being made... I anticipate returning to Montreal late next month to make an important announcement pertaining to possible CPL franchise in the greater Montreal area/Laval. I am doing all I can to make this a reality! Real good vibes! pic.twitter.com/TahSfVSTl7— Alex Bunbury (@AlexanderBunbu1) February 14, 2019
Yes, Bunbury has spoken about this before, in fact I thought he said this was to be announced some time ago. Anyhow, so good to have a club from Montreal/Laval/Quebec join, league doesn't feel quite right without one.
So Jim Brennan was on Sportsnet about 2 weeks ago, talking about building the roster and I thought I heard him say that they already had 20 players, yet they've only announced 17 so far. It's also been reported that Marcel de Jong has signed for Pacific FC for some time, yet again it's not been announced by the club, so I'm obv. wondering what's going on here, do all the clubs pretty much have full rosters already, they are just announcing them at certain times for marketing purposes or what?
In case people don't know, there are really good places to go to get your CPL fix: https://www.northernstartingeleven.com/ https://aftn.ca/category/canadian-pl/
Article of interest: https://aftn.ca/5-reasons-why-fc-ed...osition-to-make-a-run-at-the-first-cpl-title/
FC Edmonton announces signings of three Academy products📰 - https://t.co/TzykjtjFmy#FCEd #FCEAcademy #yeg #CanPL pic.twitter.com/UZb1IiPTsf— FC Edmonton (@FCEdmontonNow) February 15, 2019
He definately is better there but smythe accountant (Reid guy at the CSA) is truly becoming a joke and a reminiscence of the old CSA. It's worrisome, however, as more CPL teams come on board and the league grows, the power/influence will shift towards the CPL which will help negate guys like Reid. Under Montagliani, the CSA had a very confrontational relationship with MLS in general. They have been very influential backdoor but they clashed with Victor who wouldn't hear it. That's not the case with Reid if you look at the Canadian Championship seeding / draw and the CONCACAF League bizarre decision. Not how it would have went down with Vic...
Yes there's a marketing strategy and it's working beside being very annoying. They are trending daily by announcing almost daily and increasing their media attention. Since some of the owners are from the CFL, safe to say they know what they are doing.
Ok. In the case of de Jong, since he's a big name and the cat's out of the bag, it seems odd why the club don't just make it official now.
Hardcore fans know about it but casuals are most likely not aware of it yet... that's a target audience the league needs to win over
Pacific FC making an announcement on Tuesday, de Jong perhaps: We're hosting a little event, 5pm on Tuesday at @bardandbanker! What could it be for? 🤔Join us: https://t.co/aWXjxXZcoF#PacificFC #CanPL #ForTheIsle pic.twitter.com/IVHC3G9Ypz— Pacific FC (@Pacificfccpl) February 16, 2019
I'm looking at their projected starting XI as the potentially strongest in the league and balanced. Pacific attack is for real while having good pieces at defence with Chung. If they add De Jong as rumored, that team will be close to be competitive with Fisk, Verhoeven and Haber up front. They need to add at midfield. York 9 look great at all positions. I'd say the most balanced squad, great firepower, strong midfield with Aparicio and Gasparatto is a huge boost at defence. Forge Midfield is their strongest asset while they improved at defense. They need to add offensively but they will undeniably be the deepest team with their relationship with Sigma and having signed their Coach as manager. Smyrniotis (Forge) and Hart( Halifax) are the top coaches in my opinion with Gale (Valour) at third. Wheeldon (Cavalry) would be 4th in my opinion. You are right to say that the talent base teams can draw from gives Forge and York a massive advantage. Pacific would be 3rd. This is the latest power ranking I could find. Our #CanPL power ranking picks for this past week. @York9FC takes over the top spot. 1) 9️⃣ #York9FC2) ⚒ #ForgeFC3) 🐎 #CavalryFC4) 🌊 #PacificFC5) 🐰 #FCEdmonton 6) ⚓️ #HFXWanderersFC 7)🎖 #ValourFC— CANSOCCER (@cansoccerfeed) February 16, 2019
Having said that, Forge and Pacific are still thin in players officially announced, but you think what they have so far and the players to come they will certainly be better than what other clubs have done. I'm wondering about the coaching for these clubs though, how good will Silberbauer and Brennan be, as they are pretty inxperienced, Silberbauer has never been a head coach before and is the most unknown in the league, so on paper they may be good, but the coaching has to be there to excel. You don't think much of FC Edmonton even though they have a leg up on everyone by being an established club?
Ottawa would have had an advantage, it's hard to see how Edmonton does though. They've effectively been inactive for a year and a half.