2018 CONCACAF Women's Championship

A defensive breakdown and CR gets a goal. It will not matter but it does reflect a bit better for CR.

 

Just another example of why Quinn is not good enough to play CB at this level. But then again, Buchanan probably would have chopped Villalobos down from behind if she had gotten beaten like that.

 

It is over Canada 3-1 over Costa Rica.

The semis are set
US vs Jamaica
Canada vs Panama

Both Panama and Jamaica have surprised me by getting to this point and I expect they will play for third place.

My pick for that match is Panama. I do not think Jamaica has the discipline to break down Panama's defense and beat their VERY hot keeper.

I also do not think Jamaica will beat Argentina in the playoff. They do not travel well and it is a home/home series.

 

Canada needs to have a strong showing against Panama. A close 1 or 2 goal win might end up costing them next summer.

 

The best thing about this game is Sinclair's goal. Oh how I want to be there when she sets the all time record.

 

How up to date is your Passport? A trip to France might be in order if she scores a few more in the upcoming two matches and the friendlies they will play between now and the WWC. There is at least a moderate chance that her record breaking goal(s) could come at the WWC.

 

Sinclair is the lone striker in their 4-2-3-1 configuration. Prince seems to be Canada's best player though, but she only started half the games at the Dash this season. Beckie is a regular CA starter, but as well, only started half the games for the horrid Sky Blue(and has played exactly 16 minutes for Man U, so far) Between the top of them they had a whole, one goal in the NWSL this last season.

Buchanen, voted 2 years ago FIFA's top ten, since then lost her starting spot at Lyon(as well as apparently last nite) Matherson might still look capable, but she's 34. Fleming hasn't been able to ignite UCLA past Stanford. On defense, Zandorsky & Quinn might of started on their respective Pride & Spirit squads, but then look at their records!

So Canada looks like rather average to me, if this is the 5th best team in world(or at least ranked by FIFA), than pretty much the WC crown is made to order for Ellis

 

Interesting (?) tidbit:

According to Wikipedia, at the moment Khadijia Shaw is the top-scorer of all of the qualifiying tournaments for WWC 2019 that were held across the world so far, with 18 goals.

Of course, 16 of these goals were scored in the Carribean Zone Championship Qualification, where she had the luxury of playing 7 games and could shore up her stats by scoring ton of goals vs the likes of Guadeloupe (she scored 6 goals in a 13-0 beating of this team in particular).

 

I'm honestly not sure Sinclair gets the all-time record. Or, at the very least, if she does break the record, it won't be for a while. Her goal-scoring rate is declining, both for club and country. The fact that she only got one goal against Cuba, a 12-0 rout, is somewhat telling to me. She needs nine goals; her all-time scoring rate is 2 goals every 3 matches, which she does have for 2018 so far, but the previous three years combined it's been "only" 1 goal every 3 matches - and far fewer than that in 2013 and 2014. Her heyday was 2006-2012, and I don't think she matches that again - especially since she doesn't score goals against Top Ten opponents incredibly often any more.

If she can keep/get back to 2 goals every 3 matches, that means she'll need to play 12-15 matches to tie the record; at 1 goal every 3 matches, that stretches to 27 matches. I assume Canada will play in one of the spring tournaments, but then it'll be on to the WWC - that's no more than 11 matches guaranteed in 2019 thus far. So, she could do it, optimistically, but I'd bet against it.

 

This reminds me of the fact that once upon a time (let's say 6-7 years ago) there was a thread here on BigSoccer where we were trying to keep track of the all-time scorers in women's football and there used to be some disagreement about some of the official stats from some players at the time.

Right now, what's your reference for this kind of records?

 

Wikipedia. As an editor myself, I know to look for references on any statistic shared there, so even if something looks amiss, it's easy to find out whether it's actually correct or not. The stats nerds on Wiki also are really good at admitting when there's a discrepancy between references.

Also, whereever you look nowadays, all-time scoring records are a lot more reliable than they were in the past, since we're in the information age and those kinds of things get shared pretty regularly. I know some people don't trust the FIFA site, but it's a lot better now than it used to be.

We're also talking about a Canadian player versus an American players - those records are going to be pretty reliable no matter where you look, since those countries have always been good with their WoSo support. It'd be a different story if we were talking a Brazilian player, Chinese player, African player of some nationality, etc. where the records are likely to be very spotty.

 

Ok, I guess this is the Wikipedia page you're referring to, and I now seem to remember that in fact we had reached quite a good agreement (despite some lack of information for non-American or non-European players) about the international goals record, but where we had found many missing pieces was when we had tried to keep track of the total goals in career (so including clubs; I am not sure if we wanted to include youth teams also), in all competitions. I remember that, at the time, some records were incredibly spotty (especially if you wanted to know how much goals had been scored by a particular player in the National Cup of some obscure country): I am not sure if right now this kind or record is very clear, even in the information age.

For sure, in the past, it was all very sketchy (am I wrong that there are disputes to these days about the exact number or goals Pelè has scored?). Not sure if now we have enough info to make a chart of the "total goals in career", all including (all competitions of all teams, national and clubs)

 

Oh yeah, career goals are an absolute mess, even in the modern age, because some players (women or men) start play in smaller leagues or in cup competitions where it's almost impossible to get good information. And I don't know if youth NT goals count toward career totals, etc. etc.

 

Makes me want to look for that old thread and to bump it, just to discover where we're at today with that discussion!

 

Many many years ago I was applying for a coaching position at a club. I had my USSF "C" license at the time but they wanted verification of my playing days. Since I played in a number of "lesser" leagues it was hard to get verification as there were little, sometimes no, surviving records. In fact the existence of one of the leagues could not be easily confirmed. Fortunately for me three of the coaches I played for could be found and that was enough for the club.

I can easily see how the records of women in many places even today could be about as hard to find maybe even harder. In fact even the girls and boys I coached did not have individual records kept at all and I was coaching a number of older age groups in a pretty large club.

Of course I think that statistics like goals scored have really limited relation to how good a player is. The real stat that I find has value is how other players do when a given player is on the field and the fact is that is where Sinclair excels even more than her personal scoring.

My thought is that she deserves to get her goals as that is what she will be remembered for and falling one or two goals short would undeservedly taint her performance over her playing career.

I remember a match Canada played (I remember the match but no other real details even where it was but I "think" it was in Europe) where Sinclair scored two in the second half to give Canada a 4-3 lead BUT that was not what I really remember her play for. What I remember was the 2 assists in the first half that kept Canada in the game and her personally pretty much holding the ball in spurts for the last five minutes of the game. What Canada did in those last five was win the ball, pass it so as it ended up with Sinclair and then Sinclair held on to the ball against three to five defenders using other Canadian players from time to time to get out of pressure. That match was quite early in her career (she looked very young) and it was the first time I saw her play. It impressed me, and I think everyone else that saw it, and that is what I will always remember her for.

I have seen many similar performances by her over the years and I have never seen even one player that could control a game like her in spite of not having real strong players on the field with her.

I think she deserves all the accolades she gets and I REALLY hope she gets the goals she needs for the record as long as those goals do not come against the US.

 

My passport is up to date. And, if it happens during the WWC in France, it's almost a certainty I'll be there.

 

Wow, here we are about 4.5 hours, at the time of this posting, from the start of Canada's most important match since the last WWC and there are no posts about it here. I guess it is understandable because Canada is a prohibitive favorite BUT I just kind of expected to have several post to browse to consume some of the time before the match. Now I will just have to take care of myself and that is not as much fun as many of the alternatives.

 

games are geo blocked, for fans outside the US. Besides, even international fans don't bother much unless their own country is Involved. This could be why the friendlies threat is dead even though some big games are played over week

As for the HUGE anticipated CA/US final; the US has at least 12 players that made this year's 1st or 2nd NWSL All Star squad versus CA which, well........Have none!
.anybody care to predict who's going to win that game?

 

These forums at least on the women's side have been dying a slow painful death over the years. It's only during the Women's World Cup tournament where you get the most traffic I believe since people come out of the woodwork of other forums and give their two cents. Otherwise Women's CONCACAF is looked at as a bit of a joke especially from US fans who would be absolutely stunned if the women didn't qualify for the WWC. We are expected to win both this semi-final against Jamaica and Canada(assuming they go through) next Wednesday.

 

Let me ask you this...even assuming that both underdog teams would've score first and then go into organized bunker, what chances are you giving Jamaica and Panama to win it at the end in such scenario?
Well it's mildly entertaining to watch teams rank 50-ish fighting with 30-40-ish...but then not so much a massacre when they're facing teams from top 5...

 

I give them the same chance I would give a 90 year old grandmother of hitting a major league curve ball two out of three times; that is just slightly greater than zero. But that does not really reduce my interest much as I like watching football (sometimes called soccer) and I can find entertainment in the most lopsided matches as long as both side are at least putting forth good effort.

I also prefer watching most women's football over men's because, for now, women generally play a "cleaner" game. There are just a few men's teams I enjoy watching but there are many women's.

I actually hope the mismatches at this type of tournament in CONCACAF do, as the announcers keep hinting at, produce improvements in the lesser teams and eventually a more balanced CONCACAF.

Regardless of that I still mostly expected a little/lot more interest from the Canadians on these boards. I know Canadians are supposed to be polite but a little reaction and righteous indignation would actually be welcome.

Come on Canada you have nothing to lose but your image.

 

Considering Panama's keeper is on a roll and the fact that Canada could only put a grand total of 5 past JAM and CRC... I'd say if PAN scores first and bunkers, they'd have a good shot (maybe not more than 50%, but definitely more than 30%) of upsetting Canada, by regulation win or by PSO advancement.

USA will slaughter JAM either way.

 

Panama is NOT starting their hot GK as well as some other players that have been playing. I guess they have decided that this is not winnable for them so they are setting up for Wednesday. I think it is a mistake to do that!!!

 

What a losing mentality! FIFA should punish them...lol...I am shocked not to see their hot keeper...What are they thinking?