Looks like Canada gets to learn what we did long ago. Rolling through qualifying is nice, but it doesn't mean anything for what happens at the big stage.
I don't understand how Canada's mediocrity in defense/goalkeeping held up so well in qualifying, only to collapse at the World Cup. Almost all of their best players are up front or at an outside position. It's the core that has always been weak. Herdman was able to plan around it in qualifying, but it hasn't worked in Qatar.
They were much more conservative in qualifying -- they gave up the ball and sat deep a lot. Pretty naive how Herdman completely opened up and exposed them in this World Cup.
I think this is right. Plus, we have seen that both Mexico and the US have flawed attacks that can struggle to break down a packed in defense.
Well, Canada had the sense to sit in and counter against us. Bought them 4 of 6 points. I haven't seen them do it against anyone in the WC, even though all the teams have as much or more collective talent than them. They got too high on what worked against Belgium (but didn't net any pts) and once the avalanche started against Croatia they never stopped chasing goals/wins. Left their shaky defense wide open. I think they're an OK side, but we should start bossing them in regional comp. It's beneath us to play them as poorly as they have. Make them think they're on our level, or even above. They're Wales and we're England.
This is a big sucker punch tournament for Canadians that thought they were on the cusp of greatness. Its one thing to lose to the #2 and #7 teams in the World. Losing to Morocco would be another thing.................... To be fair, Canada has lost to all of Panama, Costa Rica, and Honduras in games that mattered this year. They're in danger of not advancing to the Nations League knockouts after losing to Honduras. They did terribly at the U20 CONCACAF Championships (even lost to Cuba), and thus failed to qualify for the Olympics and U20WC. They came out of the gates flying in qualifying (with arguably the easiest schedule), and then came back to Earth a little bit in the second half. [Note what the American lineup was in our first qualifying game with Canada. No Musah or McKennie in midfield. Lletget and Acosta started as the 8s. By the way, we WERE the better team in that game. Just couldn't muster enough good chances, which has been a theme with this group.]
its so goofy that they set up for the pen, modric stood over the ball for a full minute before they called it back... yet weahs goal was called off and they had a 3d rendering immediately. we need some 15 year olds in the var booth who can keep up with technology
People really slept on Morocco coming into this tournament. That team is loaded with high quality players.
% of Starting XI coming from big 5 leagues in this World Cup:100%: 🇧🇷 🇫🇷 🇪🇸 🇩🇪 🏴 91% 🇨🇭88% 🇦🇷 🇩🇰 82% 🇺🇸 🇲🇦 🇸🇳 🇵🇹 🏴79% 🇵🇱 73% 🇧🇪 68% 🇷🇸 🇬🇭 67% 🇭🇷 64% 🇺🇾 52% 🇳🇱 50% 🇨🇲 🇯🇵45% 🇪🇨 33% 🇹🇳 27% 🇰🇷 15% 🇨🇦 12% 🇲🇽 9% 🇨🇷 6% 🇮🇷 0% 🇦🇺 🇸🇦 🇶🇦— Tutul Rahman (@tutulismyname) December 1, 2022
Herdman's tactics have been crazy. Canada is set up perfectly to defend and counter in this type of tournament. I had them advancing and winning a knockout game, lol, because I thought they would be much more pragmatic and play to their strengths............
O Canada! Our home and native land! Our coach used the f word. And now we’re going home, We taunted the yanks During qualifying Now we’re going home O Canada, now we’re going home. We taunted the yanks during qualifying! O Canada, now we’re going home.
I don’t disagree with the point you’re making…..but about finishing third in qualifying in 2002….we qualified on match day 9….a full month before Mexico and Honduras had to play each other for the final qualifying spot. Sorry for the sidetrack….but that third place comment is always like nails on a chalkboard to me (almost as bad as the ahistorical comments about us only qualifying in ‘90 because Mexico was disqualified)
Their center backs were always their biggest weakness, but they set up in a way in qualifying that protected those center backs, and also neither Mexico or the United States took advantage. Their goalkeeper also played unsustainably well during qualifying and was always bound to come back to earth. More broadly, they overperformed their underlying metrics and those sorts of things usually even out in the long run. But it was good work for them to get here and they have a good core for which to build on for next cycle (Davies, David, Buchanan, Larin, Kone, and Eustaquio).
Easy to forget that they were the better team against Belgium and could have won that game. Had they won it, things might have gone much differently for them. Small margins in short tournament.