The Pan Am Games hasn't been held in the US since 1987 (Indianapolis) so maybe not surprising that it goes unnoticed. It's pretty under-the-radar in Canada when it's not being held here too; maybe a late-night highlights package on CBC if we're lucky. I think the Commonwealth Games might even be higher profile most of the time.
here's my impressions; Fletcher, Beckie. Levassur & Zardorski looked good, WC starter good! Loved their quick pace up front and at least this coach wasn't using the long balls to lash on to which seemed to be Herdman's only game plan. Zardorski would have to battle Chapman(who played excellent at right left rb) during for starting spot, Fletcher & Beckie could possibly be the replacements for Sinclair & Tancardi, who have lost the offensive spark of as late. Still to be seen/given a try are Prince & Eruike. I'm know I'm going against the grain here, but just not liking Fleming as a starter. But before all the yelling & screaming, here me out; She's only 17, she's got time to grow, I've seen enough teenage wonders burn out, or never play to expectations, or suffer serious injuries by the time they reach adult hood. Just saying, don't push her too fast up the ladder. And yeah, Sesslemann might just still be in the running for an OL spot, as Quinn's still looking like a work in progress. Overall, good win; they scored more goals(probably took more shots as well) in this game ten the whole WC squad did in 5 games. But it was against a weaker side; the competiton moves up a notch against Costa Rica, the 3 notches when they play Brazil next Sunday, if this squad can hang in there, their might be several making the OL squad, but don't think Herdman's going to give the much needed walking papers to the vets, just yet!
here were last night's score; Co Colombia 1. Trinidad & Tobacco 1 Mexi-Cal 3, Argentina 1 Group A standings; Colombia 4 points Mexi-Cal 3 T & T 2 Argentina 1 did watch the Colombia/T&T off and on, which was played in the pouring rain. Colombia dominated(shots were 20-3 in favor of them) but then gave up a stupid goal, when a T&T player intercepted a back pass to Colombia's gk. Colombia's further hampered that arguably their two best players, Lady Andrade & Rincon, aren't on the team(they were pre tourney rostered) Tonight's it's Brazil-Ecuador 4.30(central time) Canada-Costa Rica 7.30 pm as all ready mentioned, all games can either be seen live or on replay on espn 3, if that's gwo blocked here's a link to almost every sporting event in the world. It's just you got to be careful and X out every little item or spam on it(especially if it asks to install a video player, you don't need it so x it our) http://www.fromhot.com got the feeling Canadian soccer fans will be supporting this game as their last hope, since last night, their men's team got last place in group play and thus eliminated from the Gold Cup, as well as the PA's men's loosing to Brazil 4-1
Pan Am ticket sales have picked but Canada CR still has plenty of lower deck seats available and upper deck hasn't been opened. Canada Brasil on Sunday should have a good crowd as lower deck seems to be sold out.
[Brasil-Ecuador] 05' 0-1 Ecuador fk from within circle back, sailed over the scrum, bounces at box top arc right into box. Everybody turns to chase through box top, #20 Denise Pesántes Tenorio races #1 Luciana Maria Dionizio coming out to 6-top mid-right. Pesántes lunge-stretches just-in-time, right foot-top volley rises through Luciana's arms, soft volley drops perfectly into 1/3 right back. 17' 1-1 Brasil left ck, cleared. Chip from 22m center to left post, #1 Shirley Berruz dives and blocks it down but doesn't catch, ball sits at 1m left post. Formiga runs in, pokes ball and Berruz's body, trips over her -- ball blocked by legs, to 2m. #3 Mônica Hickmann Alves arrives 2nd, pokes into center back low. Long stoppage as Berruz gets treatment, resumes. 44' 2-1 #8 Formiga Maciel Mota turns away from 1 at arc top wide right, bends a cross from box top wide right to 6m 1/5 left. #11 Cristiane Rozeira De Souza Silva jumps behind 2 ballwatching CBs and snaps a header into back right low. Mostly it has been endless waves of Brasil to Ecuador's box top, as in team handball.
[Brasil-Ecuador] 7-1 endless waves [Costa Rica - Canada] 60' 1-0 Costa Rica left ck, bent fast to 4m 1/6 left. #10© Shirley Cruz Traña cuts in from 7m, leaps past flatfooted #16 Chelsea Stewart not boxing her out, in front of #7 Danica Wu covering right post, jumps alone and turns a sharp header across mouth into back right high, with GK #18 Kailen Sheridan frozen. 74' 2-0 Costa Rica long switch from 30m box right to #17 Karla Villalobos outflanking 4 through arc top mid-left. Villalobos shin-scuffs ball into own stride through 16m mid-left, chases to 12m 6-left as Sheridan steps up to 5m. Swings hips way open, one-touch right instep drag-around, perfect bend past Sheridan's horizontal dive, into right side netting. 78' 2-0 Levasseur cuts back to 14m mid-right, shoots left instep curl to 1/4 left high, #1 Dinnia Diaz jump-pushes it over bar. Canada left ck, cleared behind midfield.
84' 2-0 Wu sends Cruz flying at circle back. Cruz down injured, stoppage. Trainers call for stretcher ... 85' 2-0 Costa Rica subs in (3 of 3) #9 Carolina Venegas for #10© Shirley Cruz Traña. Canada also has used all 3 subs. Canada's youths look promising, but Costa Rica have years of experience, and it's showing. They're calm, precise, and coordinated, and have made no mistakes. Canada's somewhat frantic activity isn't breaking them down.
90' 2-0 Canada backpass to wide left, return pass to left touch -- misses into touch. 90' 2-0 CRC right throw-in, good ping-ping-ping and a roundhouse clearance up wide right. Zadorsky tries to dump up wide left -- shanks into touch. That's how it's going. +4'.
90+3' (of +4') 2-0 Canada surge to arc top mid-left, retreat under pressure. Long wistful serve to 13m center headed away. Costa Rica calmly pass upfield, long switch to arc top box left unmarked. Cross to RB #5 Diana Saenz at 15m mid-right, she chips across mouth and misses just wide left. 90+3' (of +4') 2-0 Canada pass frantically to Beckie turning inside at box top wide right, #15 Cristin Granados chest-bumps her down from behind left. Foul, yellow card on Granados. 90+4' (of +4') 2-0 Canada fk at box top wide right, into a jumping scrum at 6-top right, flick header just wide left low. FT 2-0. Costa Rica's 1st-ever win over Canada? #10 Shirley Cruz Traña sitting on ground in front of bench, right knee straight and bubble-wrapped in ice.
Yeh. Disappointing result, but when I learned that Buchanan and Lawrence would not be there due to some commitment at West Virginia U. and we knew the goalie was not available due to red card....this was basically an U21 vs a WWC side. ...It was obvious that the coaches with six changes to the lineup were using this as an evaluation tournament. Right now we need a miracle to get out of group stage, which will be a real shame as everyone here was enjoying watching the next generation.
well this time Canada started with 16 year old's Stratgiahis & Carle. Why didn't Canada want to take this more seriously?(especially with a home crowd) It's the last chance to win a tournament for this year.
Haha. Canada doesn't view the Pan Am games as critical and it's a crisis. European teams claim the don't take the Olympics seriously and it's normal...
Anyway you look at the Costa Rica game, the fact was that Buchanan, Lawrence and Labbe were not available. That is 3 of the 4 WWC players on the team. Coach Worthington said that all along it was about giving all members of this young side minutes and that everyone was going to play in the first two games. Eight new first time caps. Building a program with new players starts somewhere and this is a stepping stone. (I can imagine your reaction if Tanc was on this team). Coach Herdman has told them that some of them will be moving on to the Olympic qualifying squad. Some players have shown really well. As an aside, we all had discussed Germany's approach to the WWC bronze game. I had suggested that different teams take different approaches to these types of games. They all have their own reasons. I was thoroughly dumped on by some for making up excuses for Germany, which was not my position. So just like the WWC, countries at this year's Pan Am Games have different approaches. Canada is not dead yet, but beating Brazil will be a tall order considering that Brazil has 17/18 players from their WWC team here. I will not be crying in my beer if we lose this game. It has been quite refreshing and fun to see this next generation and will be even more fun seeing them progress in the years to come.
Euro's don't even have qualifiers and last time only 2 got to go in on their own merit(host, Great Britain was in it allready). But never the less, France & Sweden brought in their grade A teams to it. But this is sort of ridiculous, you just don't bring in a bunch of 16 & 17 year old kids into an adult tournament(notice; everybody else brought most of their A side and all ready WC vets). What's the point then of having u17 & u20? you still think that a coach would make sure all his players were readily available? They could of come with an adult B side with players that didn't see a single minute of action in the WC like LeBlanc, Nault, Zurrer, or even the sparringly used Leon or Moscato? There's also quite a few adults around the world that didn't make the WC like Quon(a Red Stars starter) Julien(a Bundesliga scorer) or what was described as the fastest thing on two feet, Ally Courtnall(from UCLA). I'm afraid putting a bunch of under developed kids into big games, isn't going to do much, and when you look at this; unless it can win vs Brazil, they're out of this after only three games, compared to the experience of playing in 5 games(if they made it to the finals) which would of been a big boost for Canadian soccer(especially since the men's team flunked so badly out of the gold Cup) only thing now we've learned is Flether & Beckie might look good, but only cause their 20 year olds, not 16!
First off LeBlanc retired from the CWNT after the WWC. Nault, Moscato - probably will be replaced by some of these younger players. Other players (like the USWNT players) have returned to their NWSL teams . Everyone here knows the importance of keeping that league viable and players had been away for quite some time. You assume that the players you listed were readily available. You nor I cannot answer to their availability or where their future is with the program. I am sure the coaches know. You make it sound like CDN was totally outclassed by CRC in this game. They were not. If this were the Olympics, then your points would be more valid. This is not the Olympics. While we are focused on soccer here, take a look at the make-up of different countries' rosters from other sports at the Pan Am Games. Again, everyone uses this event for different purposes. It was known well in advance just how CWNT was going to use this event. FYI No one in Canada is looking for any great boost from the men's team. They are what they are. I wish them luck but they have a very long road to go to get competitive. They have never captured the imagination of the CDN people like the women's program has in recent years. Anyway, I appreciate your dialogue.
Costa Rica choked against Ecuador, and as a result it looks like they are eliminated. For the Canada vs. Brazil match, the magic number is "Five". The only way Canada can win the group over Brazil, is they have to beat Brazil by 5 or more goals. The only way Costa Rica can advance (i.e. Canada to finish in 3rd), is Canada has to lose to Brazil by 5 or more goals. Against Brazil, Canada has to win by 5 or more, or lose by 5 or more, to not finish in 2nd. Unless either team wins by 5 or more in the Canada vs. Brazil match, the standings will finish like this: 1.) Brazil 2.) Canada 3.) Costa Rica (eliminated) 4.) Ecuador (eliminated) 1.) Colombia 2.) Mexico 3.) T&T (eliminated) 4.) Argentina (eliminated) Semifinal: Brazil vs. Mexico Semifinal: Colombia vs. Canada
Yep, that is why we play the games vs. decide results on discussion boards. Have to ask, did Ecuador have their Wheaties this morning? Wow what a performance by a team that looked totally outclassed before this game. Real growing pains for CRC, but hey give ECU all the credit. CDN did quite well against BRA's WWC team. Glad to see both teams go on to the medal rounds. Go Canada Go!!
After watching Canada play I've been quite impressed with Gabriella Carle. She's just 16 but I see a lot of raw talent in her.
hey Alex, did you know that your little red flame, Tessa Wuellart, signed with Wolfsburg? Only question is; will she get any playing time? but getting back to the threat, what this WC taught me that it's really not good to build up a player at too young of an age; the US won with the most veteran squad(Brian the youngest at 22 years old), and the US looked like the most fit team in the tourney. Starting at someone like Carle at that young, doesn't automatically mean their going to get better as they get older. Usually their still under developed bodies have better chances of getting injured playing against veteran adults. The Germans remind me of that, they develop technically superior players and start them playing pro in their teens(Marozsan played pro at 14), but then those players can get burned out by their early 20's. One German girl, Lena Lotzen, usually suffers a major injury every hear, right one month into the new pro season, simply because while she might have the talent, she just can't seem to stop from throwing her body wildly into opponents(when they have the ball). Another thing, while a player might be technically superior, it don't mean that they'll end up quicker athlete when they're fully grown; athleticism is one of the corner stones of why the US team(and I got the feeling that just might be Fleming's problem as I just don't see her fanning outas a superstar in the future) This might all easy to say since of course in the US you got 10 times the population(hence, ten times the players to choose from)Canadians however have some solid college players in Fletcher, Beckie, Zardowski, Lawrence & Buchanan which they should focus more on than high school kids
Well Tessa scored in her first game and then 9 goals in her next in an exhibition game so yes, it looks like she is getting playing time! And yeah but I understand your point, but me mentioning Carle wasn't to hype her, I just noticed that multiple times, she showed some good skill that I didn't see in the other players. Also had very good speed too.
Canada Soccer @CanadaSoccerEN 49m49 minutes ago SCHEDULE CHANGE: Note that tomorrow's #canWNT match v COL at #TO2015 is now scheduled for 8:30pm ET / 5:30pm PT. Not surprising if you want a maximum stadium and TV audience. Not sure why they would have originally scheduled the CDN-COL game at 5:30. Glad they corrected this mistake. As an aside, last night Sportsnet stuck to their broadcast schedule showing the CDN men's team play Peru live despite both teams being eliminated from moving forward. Meanwhile at the same time slot, the CDN women's basketball team beat the US in the gold medal game. Gee, I wonder which game was bigger news?
here's a video featuring Canada's top scorer, Janine Beckie showing off Texas Tech(who she currently plays for) soccer comple(Janine appears forthe 1st of couple minutes)