June 8th versus Suriname could be a do or die for Canada. A win and they are almost certainly through, and loss requires them desperately hoping Suriname had lost to Bermuda a few days before. A tie comes down to GD, and I'd bet Canada wins that one as they lead currently and still have Aruba to stomp. Then they get a real elimination match (two legged, though, I think?) versus Nicarauga or Haiti. They should win, but the nature of two do or dies versus decent opposition creates some danger.
Against Aruba I'm hoping for a win and if we beat Aruba and then if let's say Suriname beats Bermuda...it is going to come down to the final match day anyway and let's say if we draw with Suriname we would go through on goal difference anyway because our goal difference is much more superior than Suriname at the moment
This might be an unpopular opinion but Canada's Starting XI is better than the US, plus having 2 players actually developed in Canada that are light years ahead of anything we have. Do you think Canada's youth development might be more functional and effective?
I would say it is close but Canada we are not quite there yet but we are developing our guys so that way they play in Europe, MLS and it helps that we have our own league, the CanPL too
Also Canadian players don't get injured as much in Europe as American ones like what we're seeing with Pulisic and others. I wonder if it's due to better training and prep in Canada.
Yikes. It's not just "unpopular", it's a bad take. A take that's so poor as to be nigh ridiculous. But please, post your Canadian XI, unless Piette, Kaye, and the MLS lifers on the backline turn into Big 4 League superstars, you're going to have something worse than the US XI. Canada's got some big holes to fill outside of a couple of attackers and a solid GK. On the youth development front, you're even more wrong. Right now, Pulisic, McKennie, Reyna, and Adams are all domestically-produced players who are comparable to Davies/David(or whomever you'd put second with Davies, I'd have David). Aaronson, Richards, and Dike are coming up fast, and Canada wishes it had prospects on the level of Cade Cowell or Caden Clark, let alone the dozens of depth pieces the USMNT has in the form of guys like Miazga, EPB, Zardes, Cannon, Weah, Ferreira, Mihailovic, etc. And that's just domestically-produced players, forgetting the likes of Dest, Brooks, Musah, etc. Not to mention, as it stands, TFC is probably Canada's most consistent talent pipeline, and gives the most playing time to young prospects, whereas American MLS teams produce far more American talent consistently on largesse alone. Canadian YNTs are still a long way away from challenging in the region. Admittedly I don't follow them as much, but I haven't seen many talented Canadian YNT'ers in the YNT tournaments for the last 2 cycles. Their U23 team this cycle was basically Tajon Buchanan and 10 other guys, and the U17/U20 teams were even worse. Ironically, Davies and David had almost no caps at YNT level, so really I think this just means their backup is going to be unlikely to be similar in quality. Is Canada's system more "effective"? If you want to look at a small country with a great development system, you may as well look at Uruguay. As is, I think both the USA and Canada have similar developmental pathways and similar sporting cultural hurdles. Canada doesn't have a history of good talent creation, and I don't see much on the horizon that is going to make it as good as the US development system, nor differentiate it significantly from the way the US develops players. So, no, I don't think it is. Canada has a handful of European players, only a few of which are especially good. Low sample size. You don't hear about how rare club injuries are for guys like Miazga, McKennie, or EPB because Pulisic hamstring talk drives clicks, whereas you only hear about McKennie missing games for going out partying or getting called out as chubby by Pirlo.
Canada's weakness is backline mainly left back and center back but we are coming up in CONCACAF and our talents are developing and or our overall talent depth in our talent pool are playing in leagues all over the world now in top leagues
And depth. For sure a very talented squad up front though. For me it’ll be interesting how Canada manages that depth in WCQ.
Maybe compared to previous iterations of the CMNT but qualifying if going to stretch every team thin. And beings most teams improved compared to last cycle there’s not going to be many gimme games.
Yes but I’m of the mind that anything less than top 4 in the octo is a failure for Canada. Even then the playoff will be against Conmebol I believe so you guys should really be shooting for top 3. Every team is potentially an injury away from playing possibly their 3rd best player at a given position due to fixture congestion. That’s why IMO depth will be so important.
Ironically Canada has one of the best young left backs in the world on their roster, only they have to play him in a forward position because they don't have enough playmakers. Outside of Davies at Bayern, and David at Lille...what other "World Top Leagues" are Canadians playing in? Because currently there are Americans playing at Chelsea, Barcelona, Juventus, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig, Lille, AS Roma and Valencia.
Cyle Larin is in the Turkish league but is obviously top 5 league quality and should be at a new club this summer.
This XI is competitive -----------Davies------David-------Larin ----------Arfield-----Hutchinson----Eustaquio Adekugbe----Kennedy----Vitoria-----Cordova ---------------------------Borjan Davies was "converted" as a left back but he's a natural forward. The contrast between both US-Canada games made it clear where he was the most useful for the team. Also, Sam Adekugbe is the best LB we have outside of Davies. Russian club Rostov is reported to have submitted an offer to buy him from Valerenga Eustaquio as a playmaker is massive for Canada. He carried his club from relegation to Europa in Portugal after being named as one of the best midfielders in the league. He's reported to be joining Porto next year. Larin has also became a great playmaker while this is actually Jonathan David's strength. Add Arfield and Hutchinson and the top 6 are quite capable of playing great football and generating chances collectively Depth is one of the areas where Canada is the most improved from the last cycle and that's not even taking into account CPL who will have a more noticeable impact in the next cycle
Again I agree with you which is why I'm hoping Canada we at least show up and get a top 3 place because if we do that, we avoid the playoff and we qualify directly. USA will want to do the same and given what happened during the Russia 2018 qualifying campaign and USA missing out ultimately on Russia 2018, you guys will want to redeem yourselves and get to Qatar. But for Canada, for us there are no excuses now as far as not qualifying given the massive amount of talent we have not just now but coming through the ranks too. Plus if we qualify for 2022, even more learning experience for 2026 when we co host with you guys and Mexico.
We have Canadians not only playing in your guys' league the MLS now but also in Scottish Premiership, English Championship, English Premier League as soon as one of the clubs gets promoted, Turkish Super Lig, Canadian Premier League now
Panama had no players in a Top 5 league and they qualified last time while the US did not. Having players in the top 5 helps but it's a mistake to just dismiss and overlook teams with players in other Euro leagues. There were lots of teams at the World Cup who didn't have that many players in the top 5 but had enough guys playing at a good level to make them competitive This is an big area of improvement for us
I agree with the former point, but I don't with the latter. Arrow going up Canada USA Jamaica Neutral: Honduras-maybe, I'm honestly not sure. Arrow Down: T&T: In total disarray Costa Rica: Aging out. Mexico: Other than maybe a player or two, it really feels to me like while the coaching is better this cycle, the players are just, mostly, 4 years older, that to me is worse. Doesn't mean they're a bad team, they are still the favorite (though the US roster, player for player is better, they've got scoreboard for nearly a decade AND a much much better coach). Panama: Definitely aging out. Am I forgetting anyone? If I were to power rate the teams right now, on rosters, and expectations I'd probably go: Tier 1: 1. USA (but the coaching, ouch) 2. Mexico Tier 3: 3. Costa Rica (pedigree counts, even aging out, and they have tremendous home advantage, been good or great in '01, '05, '13 and '17) Tier 4: 4. Canada 5. Honduras 6. Jamaica I think Canada and Jamaica are best here, but Honduras has to get the love for now after the last cycle, home field advantage, and solid youth development. Tier 5: Out of it: 7. Panama 8. T&T I think Panama and T&T are done for, Panama basically turned around the program starting around '04 through '18, but now it's set to fall off for a while. T&T is so horrendously mismanaged who the hell knows. If Canada can punch their way into the Ochoa, there is zero reason they can't at least grab the home and home ticket, but Honduras, Costa Rica, and Jamaica for 3rd-4th place should be incredibly interesting. I think Mexico and USA have the top 2 slots locked up barring catastrophes in terms of injuries, and/or US incompetence coaching wise (and it's happened, see 2019).
Some remain worried, and injuries, and coaching are always concerns, especially for us (having seen Weah, Pulisic, Adams and McKennie go down just the last two years, some repeatedly), some regard it as arrogance, but I look at us qualifying in '89, '97, '01, '06, '09, '13 with vastly inferior rosters, and sometimes major injury issues ('01, and '05 stand out that way), and as such, I'm not worried beyond of course, coaching and injuries. The US qualified every single cycle they had between '89-'13 regardless of injury issues, and with often middling coaching (see '89, '97 for instance), and this team is so many orders of magnitude better than in the past that I'm not really worried, again, other than the two caveats. I'd be excited as hell if Canada qualified btw, my entire paternal side of the family is from Canada after all (father born in Vancouver, father's parents from Gibbons (outside Edmonton) and Nova Scotia (though they moved to Edmonton a century ago), it would be amazing if my dad, who coached my brother and my soccer teams circa '79-'85 and whom I watched the '90-'18 WC's with (at times) was able to see Canada qualify and play while in his eighties (he'll turn 82 during the knockout rounds of Qatar). Fingers crossed it happens, would be fantastic, but man, while I thank the heavens you guys got a second bite at the apple, the qualifying methodology is very difficult for thin teams.
I tend to think most of those teams are made up of guys that tend to be more integrated and cohesive in terms of domestic league and general ability to play together with familiarity. It's also worth noting that that was the worst USMNT since 1985 or 1989, and that Panama required a ghost goal and a flukey defensive error by Costa Rica, a goal off the back of Mexico's keepers head going into the net, and a total catastrophe on match day 10 by the US after they'd defenestrated that same Panamanian side a few days earlier to grab that slot. It is what it is, aunt, balls, uncle etc, but I wouldn't use 2017 as anything other than an insane outlier, it's not a reasonable thing to compare to anything. I do agree that top 5 leagues aren't automatically a way to determine performance in terms of qualifying, especially with lesser confederations like ours, and the AFC, where cohesion, and consistency seem to be as important as anything, and heck, even CAF. But I do think when you see a situation like the USMNT has now, or what is beginning to percolate with Canada, it matters. The US situation now is totally unparalleled in it's history. The situation for Canada is the best since what, '86?