Qualifying starts on March 19 for Canada with a game against El Salvador. The preliminary roster for this U23 tournament was: https://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/ca...r-for-olympic-qualifying-tournament-1.5924990 It has now been narrowed down to a final roster of: https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2021...roster-concacaf-olympic-qualifying-tournament TFC picked a bad time to get covid. I'd think Julian Dunn, Liam Fraser, and Jaden Nelson (at least) would otherwise have been on the final roster and likely starting. So not only are we going in to this tournament missing our best U23s due to WCQ for the full NT, but we're not even able to put out our strongest second line up.
https://www.foxsports.com/presspass...ifying-championship-schedule-broadcast-lineup FOX Sports’ Concacaf Men’s Olympic Qualifying Championship Schedule
You play El Salvador on Friday March 19 at 6:00 P.M., Haiti on Monday March 22 at 6:00 P.M., and Honduras on Thursday March 25 at 10:00 P.M. The Semifinals are on Sunday March 28 at 6:00 P.M. and 9:00 P.M. with the two winners qualifying. The Final is meaningless for the Olympics, and it's on one day rest on Tuesday March 30 at 9:00 P.M. On March 25 you will have a doubleheader of World Cup Qualifying vs. Bermuda in Orlando at 8:00 P.M. and Olympic Qualifying at 10:00 P.M. On March 28 you will play Cayman Islands in Bradenton, Florida at 2:30 P.M. According to Google Maps, the two World Cup Qualifying stadiums you will play in are 122 miles apart.
Date Time (ET) Network Matchup March 18 5:30 PM FS1 United States vs. Costa Rica March 18 8:00 PM FS1 Mexico vs. Dominican Republic March 19 3:26 PM FS2 Honduras vs. Haiti March 19 6:00 PM FS1 Canada vs. El Salvador March 21 7:00 PM FS1 Dominican Republic vs. United States March 21 9:30 PM FS1 Costa Rica vs. Mexico March 22 6:00 PM FS1 Haiti vs. Canada March 22 8:30 PM FS1 El Salvador vs. Honduras March 24 6:56 PM FS2 Costa Rica vs. Dominican Republic March 24 9:30 PM FS1 Mexico vs. United States March 25 7:30 PM FS1 El Salvador vs. Haiti March 25 10:00 PM FS1 Honduras vs. Canada March 28 6:00 PM FS1 Semifinal March 28 9:00 PM FS1 Semifinal k March 30 9:00 PM FS1 Final
I think we make it to the semi final as 2nd place in our group and then lose to Mexico. We haven't had an Olympic camp since 2018.
https://www.concacaf.com/en/olympic...le/group-b-preview-honduras-await-challengers is titled "Group B Preview: Honduras await challengers."
A great start to the tournament: https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2021...-beat-el-salvador-start-concacaf-mens-olympic
A disappointing 0-0 draw: https://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/canada-haiti-olympic-soccer-mens-qualifier-concacaf-1.5959819 Now we need at least a point in our final game against Honduras to lock down a spot.
You may not need a point. Honduras has 4 points and +3, Canada has 4 points and +2, El Salvador has 1 point and -2, and Haiti has 1 point and -3. El Salvador vs. Haiti is before Honduras vs. Canada, and if the first game is a draw, Honduras and Canada will advance before they play. Furthermore, since the other group plays first, Canada and Honduras will know what they need to face USA, face Mexico, or not reach the Semifinals. The first tiebreaker is goal differential, and the second tiebreaker is goals scored. Here is a breakdown of how margin of victory matters: If Haiti wins by 1, Canada can lose by 3 goals, and can lose by 4 if they win a later tiebreaker (goals scored, head-to-head was a draw, maybe Fair Play) If El Salvador wins by 1 or Haiti wins by 2, Canada can lose by 2 goals, and can lose by 3 if they win a later tiebreaker If El Salvador wins by 2 or Haiti wins by 3, Canada can lose by 1 goal, and can lose by 2 if they win a later tiebreaker If El Salvador wins by 3 or Haiti wins by 4, Canada can lose by 1 goal if they win a later tiebreaker. If El Salvador vs. Haiti has a big margin and is not a shutout, Canada will need to score more. For example, if El Salvador wins 5-2, they will have 6 goals scored and 5 allowed. In order to have 6 goals scored and 5 allowed, Canada would have to lose 5-4. If El Salvador wins by at least 4 or Haiti wins by at least 5, Canada must win or draw. The last two cases are unlikely enough that losing by 1 is probably going to be enough.
Fair point. I also hadn't considered that the US/Mexico game will already have been played. Both are stronger than Canada and Honduras but, from the outside, it seems like Mexico is the stronger of the two. I wonder if knowing the bracket might have an impact on the outcome of the Canada/Honduras game?
So we can't quite find the win and now we face Mexico. Not that the US is a whole lot weaker but I was hoping to avoid Mexico. Now I'm hoping for a massive upset win by Canada.
Won't happen. Hate tonsay it but I wish Herdman was the coach on this. Biello made strange choices when picking his squad. Aidan Daniels has no business on this squad. Bair isn’t playing like he should be and the midfield is lacking creativity. Biello is being stubborn with his tactics and that's 2 games in a row where Lucas Dias showed that he could move and break those defensive blocks... why the hell isnt he starting? Tristan Borges was available and is leagues ahead of Daniels. I would have liked to see Easton Ongaro or Terran Campbell instead of Theo Bair. Brym has disappointed while Tabla has been fine. Baldissimo is a boss... David Norman Jr from Cavalry is a surprise. The man can play CB and he will be in the National team conversation if he keeps this up. Biello being rigid with a defeatist mindset - we're not getting past Mexico
We could upset them if we used the right players and formation. Biello is too stubborn and he already thrown the towel with his "learning and growing" BS. I'll give Herdman credit here, he's way more creative tactically and accepts nothing else but victory Biello has the old CSA mindset and some of the players he called up had no business there due to old bias Ryan Raposo? I would have called David Choiniere who actually has a track record in scoring in CONCACAF Daniels? Tristan Borges in heart beat Also, he called up too many fullbacks and we're thin everywhere else. I understand why Bair was called up but Easton Ongaro would have been more interesting - even Terran Campbell James Pantemis made great saves but he should not have allowed that goal against Honduras. Breza needs to start against Mexico Biello has a heavy hand in us not reaching the Olympics - I think we had enough talent there to advance
One thing that certainly isn't helping our chances is the fact that Mexico, who are already stronger, can field their first team while we are splitting with the full NT. And then missing a few guys due to covid. Imagine adding the following players to the roster (not all necessarily to start): Julian Dunn and Alistair Johnston on defence Theo Corbeanu, Liam Fraser, and Jayden Nelson in the midfield (Borges has already been mentioned, could also call Ralph Priso) Alphonso Davies, Jonathan David, and Liam Miller in attack Biello will have to do a great job with strategy and formation to upset Mexico using what he has.
This team looks like most past Canadian youth teams (and senior teams for the matter). Lacking creative ideas going forward. I'm not going to get too upset. It was clear to me before the tournament we would likely get bounced at the semi final. Aside from Buchanan putting on a show in game 1, we've not been threatening at all. I agree that Dias should get to play more and that Daniels has stunk. I don't want to play the "who we are missing game". That gets old. We've done it too many times in the past. The Americans are missing more studs than we are. It is what it is.
As we are currently down 2-0 to Mexico, my thoughts: 1. Aside from a great first game from Tajon Buchanon, not a very good tournament, 2. Classic Canada, playing "tough defence" with no real offensive rhythm or threat. 3. This team isnt any better terms of quality or performance as the last u23 team that came 4th and was also never really a threat to advance. 4. Tajon Buchnanon looks ready for the CMNT soon. Baldi played well this tournament. No one else grabbed the opportunity. 5. It's never going to be easy for us to advance when we never have any prep. 6. With some u23 players with the CMNT, it was a chance for other players to step and seizure the moment. They didnt.
Additionally, The one player on our team getting steady pro minutes? Buchanan. It shows on the field. Pretty much everyone else rides the bench. And before anyone moans that we were missing the TFC players, those guys are all bench warmers, too. I heard someone say Jacob shaffleburg would have made a difference if he was there. That just hurts my head to hear that. We need players at clubs, of a reasonable standard, playing week in and week out.
For the MLS-based players, I think we'll see more of that this year but it doesn't help yesterday's game. A lot of the European-based guys who fit that description were on the full NT. I'm disappointed we lost to Mexico, but not surprised.
You have to feel that guys like Borges, David Choiniere and Noah Verhoeven deserved to be there. Abzi and Farsi didn't play enough minutes and they looked good, they belonged there. Aidan Daniels had absolutely no business there. Also Bair is a big guy who played like a 5"5 forward. Terran Campbell or Easton Ongaro would have been more interesting. You're right, you need guys playing 90 minutes often not those riding the bench but being called up just because they are in MLS. I get MLS is higher than CPL but it's also higher than Honduras and guess what? Playing lots of minutes seems to matter in the end. Asking guys who barely play to put in a 90 minute shift and grind out a result is wishful thinking. They aren't used to it... but CPL guys are
There's truth on both sides. There's an advantage to playing guys who get 90 minutes (although none of the CPL or MLS guys are in season right now) and there's an advantage to playing your highest skill players available (with a fair debate as to who those are). Put another way, many CPL guys who didn't get a chance to play much here get more minutes than the non-CPL guys who did, but I don't think a team made of all the best available CPL guys would have won this game.