Larin, Jordan Hamilton, and the 15 yo kid for Vancouver. I mean, how many US MLS players (that havent' been there already) are going to make it to a top league? Morris and maybe Zardes?
Just curious why do you think Costa Rica are world cup shoe-ins every cycle now? As cool of a story as they were in 2014 I just think it was a rare case of them having some of their best players ever that all meshed at the right time and reached peak form at the perfect time. This could be their "golden generation" for lack of better terminology
They qualified in 02, 06 and only lost out for 2010 due to a single goal in the play-off against Uruguay. I'd imagine they should easily finish in top 4 of CONCACAF and I'd liken their chances against say Iran or Saudia Arabia (if they had to meet in the play-off).
I don't see it, though. Canada never really puts on the cape. They really should study the US team from the mid-90s, for it had personality and spirit. Canada needs that. I just don't know from where the fire will come - the team lacks heart and leadership.
Canada has always had a couple of really good players. Dwayne DeRosario was excellent, for instance. The problem has been depth. When they have one or two injuries, they're starting some really marginal players. And you can see this in their callups from the past year. Yes, they've got Larin. But for their friendlies in June at forward they called up a player from the Indian Super League. They called up Haber, who's unattached after leaving Crewe in England (They were in League One when he was there, relegated to League Two with him last season). As much as we bitch and whine about the US talent pool..............we have forwards in the Bundesliga (Johannsson at Bremen; Wood at Hamburg, Pulisic at Dortmund was actually listed as a forward on our recent Copa roster). Two of our other listed forwards were former Premier League players Dempsey and Altidore. Another listed forward we've called up this year is Julian Green of Bayern Munich. There's a serious talent gap with regards to depth between Canada and the rest of the CONCACAF powers. Canada's starting XI is good enough to beat anybody on a give day. But there are always injureis and suspensions. Particularly in defense. I mean, they called up a player from the Jacksonville Armada in June. One of the guys I thought was a pretty good midfield prospect for them was Piette. He now plays for some team named Izarra in Spain. Now............the US has prospects that don't "make it" as well. But we have enough depth of prospects that we're in OK shape if a Shane O'Neill or Luis Gil doesn't "make it." If Gil doesn't advance we have Hyndman and Zelalem and Acosta and others advancing thru the ranks. And of course Canada has had the much discussed problem of recruiting eligible players. Not even stars, but guys who could be squad players. Teal Bunbury could have helped Canada.
when Canadian goal scorers I think of Oliver Occean (who pretty much scored tons of goals in Norway and in lower levels of Germany) and Rob Friend (who seemed to do well in 2 Bundesliga and scored a few in the Bundesliga). Cyle might be their best option as a consistent goal scorer for the NT and for a club overseas (when he finally moves).
Easy. The CONCACAF selections were: USA and Mexico: Automatic qualifiers Jamaica: 2014 Caribbean Cup Champs Costa Rica: 2014 Copa Centroamericana champs They based the other two on the 2015 Gold Cup final standings: Panama versus Cuba T&T versus Haiti So the answer to the question of why both Canada and Honduras weren't at the Copa Centenario is that they sucked at the Gold Cup.
I read that as more of a philosophical question than a technical one. As in, "how does Haiti, with all of the horrible things that have happened to their country and infrastructure, manage to have a team good enough to get to the Centenario, but Canada, with literally every advantage in the world besides a top-flight domestic league, can't even come close?"
Over the next five years, Canada is starting to look like it will have reasonably good talent over the front six positions, by CONCACAF standards. Larin, Hamilton, Arfield, Hoilett, Akindele, Chapman, Osorio, Teibert, Will Johnson. Sprinkle in some of the kids they have and it looks potentially good and deep. Their keeper situation is odd. But if Crepeau can ever get Montreal to trust him, he seems to have some talent. I just wonder what the heck they're going to do for a backline. They have two dual nationals, one a starter in Portugal and the other the POTY at Chelsea's academy who got a start at the end of last year. After that, it's a lot of question marks. It seems like a lot could be riding on those two.
Canada is dead. They're terrible under pressure, and against Central American teams away, they fold after conceding the first. The only reason they could sneak a tie in San Salvador is because the Guanacos are still rebuilding after the match fixing scandal that, basically, cost them their NT.
This. That's why they do well in a short tournament, when they arrive there with all their top men healthy (Gold Cup) but fail in the much more protracted qualifiers. Think Venezuela in S. America: they do well in Copa, but badly in the marathon Battle Royal that is their qualifiers. Also, there is a mental thing with Canada playing in Central America. They come out with an already defeated look. That day of the 8-1, you could see they were scared. Can't play in Central America scared.
If Canada actually focused a little bit more on Football(soccer) rather then Ice Hockey than they would be a force to reckon with since they have a English/French split going on I'm pretty sure they have a shit load of talent that they just don't bother looking for. Bottom line Canada needs to get there shit in order, maybe if Concacaf actually lets them host the Gold Cup once in a while maybe that would spark something, maybe.
France spends a shitload of time and effort focusing on rugby on they're still alright at this soccer thing.
Exactly. Ultimately i'd love to see a Gold Cup in Canada and also Mexico not to mention say a Costa Rica. Maybe Canada hosting might go a long way toward helping them.
They would miss out on so much revenue that it's never going to happen. Canada/Mexico will get a game or two every few years. Nothing more than that. The Gold Cup money is in ticket sales rather than broadcast rights, and unless that changes, it's not leaving the US.
That's just not true at all, Canada just got through hosting the Women's World Cup and guess what it was a great success, Canada proved that they can host a major tournament, remember back in 07 Canada hosted the U-20 World Cup and it ended up not only being a huge success Canada ended up having the highest attendance record in U-20 World Cup history and that record has yet to be broken. Oh and by the way Canada also hosted the Winter Olympics too and that was a success, Canada can host a major international tournament on there own no problem but the problem is Concacaf not letting other nations within the region host the Gold Cup tournament because all they see is $$$$ instead of the prestige and chance to take a spot from one of the other regions. But that's for another thread to discuss that in, I would be interesting to see the USMNT not be the home team for once and see how Canada responds to having the home field pressure from the fans and having a actual advantage. I would love to see it.
Your post says "that's just not true," but then you followed that with "all [CONCACAF sees] is money." That's exactly my point. Canada won't host because the tournament can make a lot more money in the United States. Neither will Mexico, neither will Costa Rica.