This one is a hard one to predict. I wouldn't say Scotland is better than Canada. They are probably about the same level. Both have a few players seeing regular time in Europe's top leagues, and many role players playing in the lower divisions of England, or less heralded leagues.
True. However Scotland will be playing at home while the Canadian team NEVER plays at home (unless it's WCQ).
The Scottish forwards don't scare me much and they will be playing a few days after a big ECQ game. Their defence is strong, but as long as we don't get over-run in the midfield I don't see us being dominated. If we can generate some chances on a fairly decent defence I think we'll pot one and that should be enough to win. I'm prediciting a tie (possibly 0-0), but until we see the squads I wouldn't put any stock in predictions. What I really want to see is McKenna-Menezes-Devos as a back three. If they can't handle a strikeforce like Kyle/Thompson or Kyle/McCann or whatever they end up going with I think we'll need to look at other options. If that trio is fast enough to deal with most teams I think it's out ideal starting three. If not I think we have to start looking at a 4-4-2.
Somewhere... Maybe a Scottish feed... I'm already making plans to watch! There's no excuse for not having this game on TV.
Are we really likely to see Menezes flown in from China for 1 match? With the emergence of Mike Klukowski playing 90 minutes every week in the top Belgian league I think we'd be more likely to see Holger call him instead. Then there's Marco Reda who might get a look, another central defender who has seemingly helped his team in Norway stave off relegation to the second division since he arrived. Bent is unlikely to be fully fit to play in the friendly, but I'm wondering instead if we might see Atiba Hutchison if he signs for the rest of the season in Sweden. And I'm curious about Daniel Fernandes, now with Celta Vigo in Spain, possibly getting called as Hirshfeld's back up instead of flying Onstad in from Rochester. Sure he's only 19, but hey, Paul Dolan played in the World Cup when he was 20. It will be interesting. Scotland winning is more likely than Canada because of the home field advantage, but its too difficult to predict at this stage until I see the players called, and even then.......
I sure hope so. I would hope it was something Tony considered when moving all the way to China. Without Tony we're lacking a really quality defender who is used to playing free at the back. Who else have we ever used back there like that? Parker, DeVos (maybe Fenwick once god help us) and Clarke. Without Menezes I think we have to go back four, which is fine I don't think that hurts us tactically too much, but when we play once a year, actually having a full squad would be nice. We have a lot of options and yet never seem to have our first choice of anything. Only once have we seen most people's first choice strike tandem (Radz and DeRo). We've never seen what would appear to be the obvious new back-three McKenna-Menezes-DeVos with Fletcher and Watson likely done. That is also a pretty slow back three, but it doesn't seem like an impossibility. Every game we seem to miss two or three players that most people would consider part of the Best 11. We usually don't have a first-choice mf or defence, so to not use one of our precious friendlies to test one of those tandems just because it would put out a Chinese club team (do they not follow the intl callender?) doesn't work for me. Nothing against Klukowski (though I have no idea where he would try to find a spot in the linup, maybe with Bent out he'd be d-mid depth) but after six or seven months off I want something close to our best team. That being said if the bench is full of Fletcher, Dasovic, Fenwick, etc instead of Atiba, Klukowski and Wyn, that would piss me off. What do you think of going to see QPR and trying to talk Hard Marc into reconsidering? We can try to sweet talk Holger too...
Regarding Menezes, if he wasn't called in from China for the Swiss match, I doubt Holger would call him in for the Scot match. We know what Menezes can do at this level & if he plays a club date on Saturday there's not much point in playing a jet-lagged Menezes on the Tuesday. And we have more options available to us than we did in May (well, the options were there before, but now they exist in Holger's eyes) ie. Reda & Klukowski. I think its most important for McKenna to play at the back so we can see how he & De Vos can play together back there. We haven't seen McKenna at the back since the Cuba home & home in 2000, except for about 5 minutes against Martinique in the Gold Cup. As for Bircham, I don't think our powers of persuasion are that good. Part of the problem in convincing Holger is the question of whether we really need Bircham. Unfortunately for Bircham midfield is becoming the area in which we have the most depth & Holger's got lots of options to choose from, from players who haven't "retired" internationally. Better to convince Jazic to come back, or call up Aristodemo & Patrice Bernier from the A-league (though unfortunately Robbie's season has already ended & if he plays indoors forget it).
Well I like McKenna and DeVos, but if they're exposed for pace (which is the concern) and Marco Reda isn't as good at reading the play or covering for them as Tony is then does that mean McKenna/DeVos is too slow as a tandem, or that if we're going to do it we need a better third defender? Okay I'm repeating myself... So who replaces Tony? I really don't rate Reda that highly. Not saying we shouldn't give him a look, but I'm not convinced of his quality yet. Sure the midfield is crowded, but I think Bircham brings something to us and makes us a better team. We seems to annoy central American teams and lifts our spirits as a team. I like his enthusiasm and is great on free kicks. I still like him better in the centre of the mf better than Imhof. Since we're never healthy anyway there always seems to be a need for someone to fill in in the mf. Jazic would be great, but I think he's strictly a left-sided player, which may allow us to drop Brennan to leftback, but the 3-5-2 v 4-4-2 debate is still in its infancy I think. I don't think Robbie will ever be an international calibre player. Great ball skills, but just not quite there as an incisive player. I'm not sure about Bernier either (never thought much of him with the Olympic team), but he probably deserves a look as well. How about Gervais?
If McKenna or De Vos are exposed for pace I think you will see the likes of Richard Hastings & Chris Pozniak back there. Klukowski didn't strike me as lead-footed as well. Tam is really fast but wasted in the back, & Oppong probably isn't ready just yet. As for Reda, I'm not saying he's a future saviour back there, but like Mark Rogers, should constitute depth in case of injuries & suspensions in a hopefully long WC qualifying run. As long has Holger keeps him as a centre-back he'll be fine - like Fenwick he's not really suited to life on the wings. Plus I don't know if he's improved since he left the Lynx , but Pozniak certainly did when he left the A-league, so he's definitely worth a look. But for this match De Vos will replace Tony & McKenna replaces De Vos, Poz replaces Fletcher with a whole host of candidates available as subs. I'd rather have Imhof than Bircham as the holding midfielder, but I think this is a debate for the train rain to Plymouth along with Larry Murphy. As for Robbie, if we want to keep possession when we have a lead, there's nobody better that's available to Canada. Nobody. I've had the advantage of seeing him play week in & week out, he just never makes a bad pass or loses the ball. Sure, A-league competition is different from international competition, but he we've not really given him a chance at the latter since he turned pro. And he'd be a lot more useful than Jeff Clarke, who we still call every now & then & who plays in the same league. As for Bernier, I had a chance to watch 3 Impact games this year & each time I mistook him for a highly-skilled African or South American import until I realized that the name on the back of his sweater was "Bernier". He definitely deserves a look & stood out more than Gervais did for me. His time training in France wasn't wasted by the looks of it.
I agree that Bernier is the Impact player who needs to be looked at the most, but as far as defenders go, Gervais has been our best man, and he played every single minute to boot!
Berti Vogts has called up Birmingham City’s Paul Devlin to the Scotland squad to face Iceland in next week’s European Championship qualifiers & Canada in a friendly 5 days later. The 30 year old midfielder, who qualifies for Scotland through his father, has made a big impression in the early weeks of the English Premiership. Also included in the 26 man squad are Motherwell’s talented midfielder Jamie McFadden, Jackie McNamara of Celtic, Steven Pressley of Hearts, who last played for the national team over two years ago, Callum Davidson of Leicester City, and uncapped Russell Anderson of Aberdeen. SCOTLAND SQUAD Goalkeepers Neil Alexander (Cardiff City) Robert Douglas (Celtic) Paul Gallacher (Dundee United) Defenders Graham Alexander (Preston North End) Russell Anderson (Aberdeen) Christian Dailly (West Ham United) Callum Davidson (Leicester City) Steven Pressley (Heart of Midlothian) Maurice Ross (Rangers) Robbie Stockdale (Middlesbrough) Lee Wilkie (Dundee) Midfielders Paul Devlin (Birmingham City) Barry Ferguson (Rangers) Scot Gemmill (Everton) Paul Lambert (Celtic) James McFadden (Motherwell) Jackie McNamara (Celtic) Dominic Matteo (Leeds United) Gary Naysmith (Everton) Scott Severin (Heart of Midlothian) Gareth Williams (Nottingham Forest) Forwards Stephen Crawford (Dunfermline Athletic) Scott Dobie (West Bromwich Albion) Allan Johnston (Middlesbrough) Kevin Kyle (Sunderland) Steven Thompson (Dundee United)