The CSA certainly didn't make their life easy with that ridiculous CONCACAF league qualification joke that must determine the representative by July. Not sure starting at different rounds in the Canadian Championship helps, another CSA decision. I'm expecting Season 2 with more teams (hopefully even), no mid season CONCACAF qualifiers and a revamp of the Canadian Championship format we could see either of these 2 in my opinion Even Split season Single season with top two advancing to CPL Finals I definitely prefer option 2
Maybe they'll backtrack and say the Spring champ gets the 2018 CCL spot and the Fall champ gets the 2019 CCL spot? That kinda make sense, but it might look bad to backtrack like that. Also.. CPL Finals? I thought the league championship was going to be determined by regular season record? While many split season leagues have a Final game to determine which season champ is the overall league champ, it seems a bit disingenuous for CPL to have a single season, claim the season champ is the league champ, and then have a final game between the top 2 teams that determines the league champ.
It was a CSA decision, not much the league can do about it. The Spring champ would have made sense but then the CSA arbitrarily decided that only 3 out 7 teams were eligible for the 2018 CL campaign. Puts the league in a bad spot That was the original plans but they got tons of feedback from people who couldn't wrap their head around not having playoffs so we got this. I don't know if this is a 1 year thing or this is to stay in the medium term. All I know is that Paul Beirne is adamant at the pro/rel playoffs being a celebration like in England while having the traditional single tier, single table with the top spot being awarded the trophy. This would only be possible when CPL starts D2 post 2026 World Cup. I'm a traditionalist but I get why some people appreciate it in Europe but can't handle it at home...
You don't think the CSA consulted with CPL? They aren't going to make an arbitrary decision like that without consulting with the CPL. Sorry, man.. CPL gets to carry the blame for that just as much as the CSA does. Then have an actual playoff and either go with your idea of top 2 teams go into the final, or have top 4 go into the playoffs. Having a split season where one season is 10 games long, while the other is 18 games long, and having no break between the seasons is just... Odd.. I'd also note that split seasons are equally confusing for many soccer fans. Particularly the ones from Canada who follow European leagues over S. American leagues. Really, there's already people on the Twitter machine asking what the Spring champion has to play for.. While I don't agree with the sentiment, there is a number of people saying the Spring champ will just go through the motions in the fall season because they already locked up a spot in the final.
From what I heard, the CPL is far from happy with the CSA decisions lately, teams we're equally pissed at the CSA decision. It got imposed on the league. Top 2 within a single season is definitely the best If they must have playoffs The timing of it points out to CSA decision of determining who represents CPL at CONCACAF league. The end of the 1st season ends right before CONCACAF league starts. If CSA would not have imposed that only 3 out 7 teams wins the 2018 berth, then CPL could have easily have had a single season and just give the berth to whoever accumulates the most points by Canada day (July 1st). But that won't work and just highlight the absurdity of FC Edmonton going while Halifax are currently #1. So I'm guessing the split season is to reward the team that's #1 by that point while at the same time sending one of the 3 founding members in CL. Whatever the format they would have picked, it would have been flawed due to exterior interference. I'm really hoping it's a one off as there would be no necessity to do that next year. There will be more teams and the league can ensure an even number in the expansion for 2020. You have no idea how much we're missing Montagliani right now as head of the CSA. This Reid guy has no clue what he's doing. Can't see this clown get re-elected as more CPL teams get added on and get a seat at the CSA. The power scale is overdue for a massive shift on the other direction.
We have signed Winnipeg native Ali Musse to a multi-year deal.📝 | https://t.co/Yx4w0qJopA#ForValour | #CanPL pic.twitter.com/EMrGGZMpPi— Valour FC (@ValourFootball) February 28, 2019
I'm not sure how these relationships work. Can you explain? What do you mean by "using?" Are the CPL teams taking over the academies? Are they providing training facilities? Are the providing funding? Are the allowing players to trial? How does Pacific's relationship with the Vancouver Highlander differ from the Vancouver Whitecaps? Why would a talented 15 year old from Sigma FC want to play for in the CPL for the Forge when Toronto could sign him to a homegrown contract that would give him a leg up on other kids and clear path in Toronto 2 to what is increasing looking the best league in North America?
1) A claim is an assertion of the truth of something, typically one that is disputed or in doubt. I wrote "I really don't know enough about the players that have been signed to make an informed judgement. But based on what I know I'd it seems more like USL 1 than USL Championship. The bolded words highlight the doubt, and are not asserting truth. Instead a your statement "From what we know already, CPL will be way above USL from the get go." is a textbook example of a claim. You are asserting a truth, that virtually anyone that had any understanding professional soccer in North America would have doubts and likely dispute as I did. 2) The claim you asserted to me "a massive claim that CPL will be USL1 level" is a complete misstatement of what I wrote as "seems more like USL1 than USL Championship" is very different than "CPL will be at USL level" You are making the assumption that because in your opinion Canada's National team performance has declined, MLS must be hurting Canada. That is possible. However a more plausible assumption is MLS has helped Canada, but Canada has declined because it has helped other Nations in Concacaf more. The league is filled with players from Costa Rica, Jamaica, Honduras, Panama, and other Concacaf teams that exposes their players to a much higher level of play than was available before the league came into existence. Mexico has been knocked out of the Round of 16 since before MLS started. The last time they didn't make the tournament they were banned. Yet in 2014 Mexico came in 6th place in the Hex and had to win a qualifying match to make it. Furthermore its not like the Hex was fluke as Costa Rica performed better than did Mexico in the world cup. Rather than blaming MLS for Canada's woes, you should instead look at the level of Canadian coaching. If you want Canada to punch above its weight like Iceland, start training soccer coaches like Iceland.
I thought MLS academy's were "bad" non-MLS academies were good. Please do explain. BTW, from what I saw in development academy a few years ago, I thought the White Caps were up there with Red Bull, Dallas and Salt Lake.
CPL aren't taking over the existing academies. They are working almost in symbiosis from the get go to create a more straightforward path to pro. Academies across a designated areas are better equipped to find young talents. Those talents will be funnelled to the closest CPL team, which made it one of it's first move to bring those academies at the table. TFC, Montreal and Vancouver outright ignored all of them for years wanting to start from scratch and "create their own stars". There's win of "official deals" of academies exclusively working with CPL teams like Sigma and Forge, however, academies prefers cooperation instead of being "owned / exclusivity", which I agree with. Yes, those players will be invited to trial with CPL clubs, Halifax released players they've invited for preseason to fight for a spot and some of them are from the Nova Scotia system. Pacific - Victoria Highlanders : Established a cooperation relationship. Academies on Vancouver Islands refers good players to Highlanders who then refers to Pacific (that's the path on the Island). Pacific will invite a few to preseason to see how they do in a pro environment Pacific - Whitecaps Academy : No relationship. Vancouver still wants to see the league as it's own developmental system which CPL rejects. BC has by far the most developmental system in Canada but the Whitecaps shutting down their USL side, not helping to establish a BC D3 league (they weren't interested) and to rely on Fresno (American) meant that they had lots of potential young talents on their hands along with the ones they developed in their own academies with nowhere to go. So Pacific started poaching. Noah Verhoeven is a steal. Other talents like Kadin Chung quit and went to Germany. Pacific called him and he signed with Pacific. Lots of talent, not enough spots, Whitecaps will be missing out on talents and Pacific and a future Surrey team will get them. *CPL pre-season is said to be in Dominic Republic for all 7 clubs Because he's more likely to get 1st club minutes with Forge than with TFC. Guys are catching up to that as they have observed many players signing with MLS and fall in USL limbo where they are unlikely to get called up and being noticed by other league. Forge signed Marcel Zajac who was eligible for next year MLS Superdraft. He opted to sign pro with Forge instead of waiting for the draft. He pointed out the USL limbo, and that past draft history proved that most don't end up seeing minutes in MLS. Even teams would rather sell their draft spots for money than actually drafting. Like he says, he's taking control of his career. He will see more 1st club minutes and if he succeeds, great, he'll move on to better things. If he fails, than that's truly on him, but it's better than failing because of a system that doesn't work for Canadian players.
Let's just agree to disagree... It's not that MLS has hurt Canada. Is that it hasn't helped Canada to the level it was expected to help it. MLS itself had said that it was their mission to help Canada and the US (granted that's on the then CSA to buy that), but that's not what happened. Worse, CSA started to prioritize MLS academies youth players over the others that had existed for decades. I'm not saying MLS "hurts" Canada, I'm saying Canada "hut himself" by over relying on MLS at youth level. Results speak for themselves, the team has been worst than before and we ended up losing track of what the other academies were doing. On top of not having a top league, we bled talent like crazy which is another reason why we were stagnating. CPL changes that because it becomes those academies voices who have the listening ears of John Herdman. Montagliani was the first to raise the red flag on those academies. The coaching has already undertaken a revamp and it's on going. The major problem is not having a domestic league. That's #1.
Actually, I can get behind the split season idea. The upsides, as I see them, are it prevents any team from getting so far behind that they are totally out of things. No one will be playing out the string by mid-season because, in either half season, teams are only a short run of victories from being back in it. Especially in a league without playoffs so you don't have that "fourth place and a playoff spot" to shoot for. The unbalanced size of the split seasons is a bit off-putting but makes sense in that it frees up dates for Canadian Championship games (and potentially CCL games).
Whitecaps are doing a better job than before and ahead of the other 2. Most in the circle agrees that with the resources that MLS academies have that non-MLS academies doesn't even come close to have, they have under-produced, that right there is a red flag. Looking at Canada's Senior staring XI, I see more guys that comes from oversea academies and none-MLS Canadian academies than guys from MLS Academies. When I say "MLS", I don't mean the whole league...just the 3 teams. That right there isn't normal. How can little academies produce guys like Larin, Millar, David, Cornelius, James, Davies and even Hutchinson while those I consider as starters / difference makers from MLS academies would be Tabla and Godhino (the rest aren't starters or difference makers). It's abnormal really, so the CSA imposed their curriculum on them like every other academies and sent people to observe/evaluate. As for players from Canadian academies that signed with CPL, I only have the top 4, but Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg academies have provided players as well. Same for Atlantic Canada and Ontario in general with some from Quebec and CIS system. Would be interesting to compare the numbers
The reality of Canadians in MLS and why it can be misleading to just claim that "they aren't good enough" for that level. Domestic status as a lot to do with it and here, Chicago Fire aren't even bothering to hide it. This isn't a one time case, this has happened many times but we can thank Chicago Fire for their honesty. Edwards proved that he belongs to that level and played for the National team but he's going to USL for that reason. Source tells me that the Fire will loan Elliott Collier to Memphis and Raheem Edwards to Lansing to become compliant in regards to international spots.— Sam Stejskal (@samstejskal) March 1, 2019 Now you're seeing MLS teams in their quests to become stronger are finding ways to fill their rosters with Internationals at both Americans and Canadians expanse which will relegate them to smaller roles thanks to the green card! This will hurt domestic development Celui de #IMFC 🇦🇷 🇦🇷 🇫🇷 🇩🇿 🇺🇬 🇨🇦 🇺🇸 🇫🇷 🇦🇷 🇫🇷 🇺🇸— Nicolas A Martineau (@nik_martineau) March 1, 2019 For Canada this means 1101567555385348098 is not a valid tweet id Hence the Importance of CPL for Canadian soccer and eliminating our reliance on the US system. 2/2 9️⃣ #York9FC | 🇨🇦🇸🇪🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇯🇵🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦⚒ #ForgeFC | 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇲🇨🇦🇸🇪🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇸🇳⚓️ #HFXWanderersFC | 🇨🇦🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇹🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇯🇵🇵🇪🇨🇴— CANSOCCER (@cansoccerfeed) February 26, 2019
It should be noted that it we're talking about a Canadian on a US team, where he's treated as an international. Yes, it sucks for Edwards, but he's in a situation where he can't be treated any different than any other non-American.. That being said, it also points to a situation in MLS where TAM and DP players, which are generally internationals, are currently at a higher level than they used to be.. So, yes, while Edwards is good enough to be a starter on a MLS team, he is, apparently, not good enough to kick another international out of their roster spot.
This furthers my point about what's wrong with the youth teams The formula remains intact.....22 North American based players.....20 MLS Academy players.....1 FC Edmonton player and 1 US based and 2 European based players. 22+2 this time. https://t.co/A56gU5hTEN— Georgios Sarakinis (@GSarakinis) March 1, 2019 Is it that Canadian MLS Academies have the best players available or is it that over depending on the for over a decade has made the program blind to what other academies are producing? As Rollins points out, we're blind about the none-MLS side of development who has produce the likes of Larin, David, Davies, Hutchinson, Cornelius and Millar. CPL will change that Going to be interesting to see if CanPL changes this, but there continues to be a blind spot in youth selection. https://t.co/WwKqABhvId— Duane Rollins (@24thminute) March 1, 2019
Depends on what you mean by “blind spot”. The lack of European based players is likely the result of teams not being obligated to release players for youth national games and Euro teams not being interested in releasing their kids to play in a competition across the Atlantic. The reason for the lack of non-MLS academy players... It’s like when I told you were wrong when you ran in hear all excited about how the MLS teams joining the EXCEL program was proof of how much the MLS academies suck. The point of the EXCEL program is to implement a common training regimen across all Canadian academies and to funnel the best kids into the academies for the Canadian professional clubs. Since the MLS teams and FCE are currently the only academies for professional teams in Canada, it makes sense for them to be a source for most of the youth national teams. Once CPL teams get their academies up and running, I fully expect that there will be players coming out of those systems as well.. However, I would also expect MLS teams to continue to get a hefty chunk of the callups simply because their academy systems are more established and they'll be poaching kids from the CPL clubs, particularly the CPL teams in their geographic area.
Poaching how? They don't even know what's in their own backyard and they can't even take care of their owns. That's how Pacific has been poaching quality youth players from Vancouver. If what you were sawing was true, Larin would have be TFC, not Orlando. Yes the MLS academies are the most established but the EXCEL program has major flaws and doesn't capture the real picture of the talent out there. Zambrano was the one saying that the current pool doesn't reflect what's out here. Too many players that have talents were unaccounted for and had no pathway to pro to further develop their potential. That's what lead the CSA to hire John Herdman. He fixed the developmental path for the women which drastically improve the team. With his system, he found a way to leave no stones unturned and implemented as system to work with those identified with the most potential. That's what he's intending to do on the men side. He said the same thing as Zambrano but he had a track record that Zambrano didn't have and his solution was cheaper. All I'm saying is to be cautious of looking at the national youth team as Canada's best. The reality is that no one, not even the CSA knows what they have.
I’m not sure how applicable Larin is here. TFC was a dumpster fire inside a garbage dump fire in the middle of a forest fire when Larin skirted their academy. It isn’t hard to imagine why a player would chose to stay at Sigma FC over moving to TFC given the state of the team and their academy at that time. As far as Pacific FC getting Whitecaps Academy players.. Whitecaps academy cranks out between 10 and 20 players a season, of which they only sign one or two to homegrown contracts. That’s a lot of players coming out of their academy looking for a place to play. Of course, the Whitecaps not having a USL club means they are missing more kids than MLS clubs that do have a USL club...
We're happy to announce the signing of four new players!🇨🇦 | @KadellThomas (@SigmaFC)🇨🇦 | Quillan Roberts (@QGoalie18) (@LAFC)🇨🇦 | Monti Mohsen (@SigmaFC)🇧🇪 | @Danielkrutzen (@ReadingUnited)🗞 | https://t.co/Qqa5vXLDvF | #ForgeFC pic.twitter.com/ywMZ03spzV— Forge FC (@ForgeFCHamilton) March 2, 2019 More signings from Sigma which is an elite in players development
Also "We're currently on pace to hit our year-one goal of 5,000-6,000 Co-Founders. The atmosphere will be electric on match day, in the intimate confines of Tim Hortons Field's 10,000 seat capacity (a configuration exclusive to Forge FC matches)." #CanPL— David Rowaan (@David_Rowaan) March 1, 2019
Are you saying that between 2008 and 2012 Toronto wasn’t an inferno of crap? Are you being serious here? I’d also note that Larin was already in Sigma FC before TFC had an academy. At the time Sigma FC was the premier youth academy system in Ontario and had a pretty good history of producing CanMNT players. Heck, the post you just made about Forge FC included 2 players from Sigma and the Forge’s head coach was the co-founder, head coach, and technical director for Sigma FC from 2005-2018.. While they seem to have been supplanted by TFC’s academy now, it hasn’t been unusual for kids to stay with their existing team when an MLS academy first started up. As an example, Jordan Morris stayed with his youth club for 2 seasons before switching over to the Sounders Academy for his senior season and his dad works for the Sounders.
Let's not forget what Quillan Roberts (@QGoalie18) did in the 2011 @FIFAWorldCup (U17)... 😂#ForgeFC | #CanPL pic.twitter.com/9qNCKCElPp— Forge FC (@ForgeFCHamilton) March 2, 2019
Humm... They were crap but OVERWHELMING majority of kids and players in the GTA dreamt of TFC. Crap or not. That was the reality and you're being inaccurate to make the connection that since TFC was crap, Larin wasn't interested. All TFC had to do, was to get over themselves and take a look at what Sigma had and hand him a contract and voila...we'd have Larin, a Canadian kid scoring instead of an American in Altidore costing like 10 times more and made of glass. How much better do you think the sells for TFC tickets would have been? Nothing sells more than a local talent being a super elite in a top league. However, they were to busy being shortsighted and crap. Larin ended up getting drafted by Orlando after going to the US college. Reality is, GTA players dreamt of TFC, still does. That's something you wouldn't know because you're not on the ground and haven't been so you're wrong there. You're finding this hard to believe and make excuses for our Canadian MLS teams developmental initiative back then. Dont, because where they started to get some of their act together (Mostly Vancouver, somewhat TFC, Montreal has no clue), they were terrible back then and wouldn't work with anyone out of sheer arrogance. This is not a shot at MLS as a whole, just those 3. I'm fully aware of other teams producing strong talent and having a great system.