football thread No11

It's official. We can't win a game whenever it's not 100% decisive.

European champions, my foot. When the other team is OK with a draw (and NI came actually close to winning) we're the proverbial snowball in hell.

 

In a couple of hours Argentina and Brazil are going to meet for the third time in a few weeks. I am half-convinced that Argentina's squad is playing these crappy games and eking out wins to then spring the trap and surprise the opposition by earning a win as they did against Brazil in the Copa América. Who knows? Sometimes they get carried away (4-1 against Bolivia, 3-0 against Uruguay) so later they play dumb.

 

Meanwhile in Canada #iceteka is trending and it looks like it's going to be a snowy -10C sort of matchup between Canada and Mexico, in about 3 hours. Expect 50,000+ fans, as Edmontonians are used to these sort of conditions and won't be fazed

Mexico are favourites but they lost their last match against the U.S. and their coach could get fired if they lose this. It will be tough for Canada, but it should be a fascinating battle, with hopefully no injuries

edit: CANADA WINS !@!!!!!!!!!!!

 

As usual, Norway failed in qualifying to a WC. Also as usual we were one result away from doing so.
Didn't help that our only star player, Haaland, was out with an injury in most of the key games.

 

I watched that game. I wish I hadn't because it was boring. The Norwegians made the mistake of going on the offense, that gave the Dutch team the room to score two goals. They should have sticked with the counter strategy.

 

Yeah it was a really dull game, right? The counter strategy wasn't working either, the dutch played smartly and were more interested in controlling the game than committing players up the field. So we weren't producing any chances. And we needed the win so an offensive attempt towards the end was the only viable option.

With Haaland available we could have made something happen, he's not human he's just a goal machine. But with current available squad, we were simply outmatched for 90 mins.

 

For the record, they did, and in a miserable 0-0 draw at home to Brazil. The two main referees (field and VAR) are already suspended after the inexplicable decision not to send Argentina's Otamendi off in the first half.
Both of the refs are Uruguayans and are known for just as high- and heavy-handedly favouring Argentinian teams at the club level, but who's counting?

A Chilean referee, meanwhile, has been also suspended for a similar performance favouring Brazil against Colombia.






In other news, one of Maradona's victims is supposed to testify tomorrow. I still think the idol won't fall.

 

Solskjær finally sacked! A sad day for all ABMU fans

 

ABMU?
Was inevitable with this season's results, but I'm sure he got more out of it than he initially expected. And the fans still love him.
Wonder who'll replace him.

 

Anyone but Manchester Urited.

 

...and it was Ralf Rangnick -- at least for 6 months. Then we will see. Again.

Promising enough start. A good deal less smooth in press conferences than Solskjær, but he was the gold standard. On-pitch stuff is kinda important too, heh.

Not much activity here.

 

ABMC it is. I think you guys misspelled.

 

Might as well democratically unify into ABM then.

Meanwhile, the court proceedings against the various iterations of Maradona's entourage both for neglecting his health to the point of letting him die and for participating in his various felonies remain a bit sluggish.

 

Last night Canada won in Honduras for the first time since 1985. Honduras is in a bit of a transitional period, but they are always dangerous at home. Last WC qualifying campaign we lost 8-1 to them, which put an end to our qualifying campaign. It was a very depressing moment for Canadian football.

We went into the match sitting at the top of qualifying in our region, above the U.S. and Mexico. After this 2-0 victory we continue to sit at the top with 5 matches to go, ready for Sunday's match VS the U.S. in Hamilton. That one should be good, both teams are playing well right now.

Here's Jonathan David's incredible goal to make it 2-0

Some other highlights worth seeing (I timestamped the highlights on youtube to show you the best parts):

- Tejon Buchanan's talent on display as he sets up the first goal
- Borjan's amazing save
- Sequence showing amazing save in slo mo & David's incredible goal right after
- Another great save by Borjan

Us Canadian football fans can't believe our national team is so good right now. We are excited for the future of this sport in this country

And cause why not, here's Alphonso Davies watching the first goal from quarantine

 

wtf????

 

We haven't had a good team in decades, but we've also always had huge problems playing in central America and the Caribbean. Could just never perform there. The U.S. has had similar issues, although not to the same degree. MLS sides have traditionally the exact same problem. In CONCACAF playing away in central America & the caribbean you are lucky to get a point. That is sort of the status quo, which is now slowly changing.

This was an important match, we needed to win in order to keep our WC hopes alive, and we just fell apart and they destroyed us. It was a huge blow to the whole program and at the time all Canadian football fans were lamenting that particular loss as something that will never be forgotten, a symbol of how much we suck.

Don't forget that we haven't qualified for a world cup since the 1980s, and we didn't do very well in that one world cup we've been in. We've just never had developmental pathways for young players to take in order to grow as players and feed into our national side, so even if we had some world class players here and there, we just never had good enough depth to compete, and never had solid players in all positions either.

So yeah, that 8-1 was way too lopsided of a score, but it was sort of indicative of the state of our national program at the time. A humiliating loss that maybe woke us up a bit. I can't remember how much time it took, but the coach was fired and a new guy was brought in.. the former Canadian women's coach, John Herdman. He's never had any experience coaching men, so some people were skeptical.. but he's taken our women to some amazing heights, and he's sort of one of the reasons why our men's program has been turned around. He's been instrumental in a whole bunch of world class players coming on board with the Canadian program, since those dark days. All of them had the option of playing for another country, but he was somehow able to convince them of his vision. It's tough to say how much influence he had in Davies joining the program personally, as I feel that he would have joined eventually anyway. But that's sort of when things were starting to turn around. And it wasn't just world class players coming on board, Herdman has also been able to integrate key depth pieces into the squad and over time build that winning mentality in the lockerroom. In last night's game he brought on players who usually probably wouldn't play. We have better options. He trusted in them and they performed and we just have a better team. It's more than just the individual pieces, it's that belief they now all share that they can take on anyone, including the top 2 dogs in our region, Mexico and the U.S.

We now sit at the top of the final WC qualification group. This would have seemed impossible even just 2 years ago. It's mainly Herdman who deserves the credit for bringing everything together so well and making the players believe. Yeah, we have Davies, David, etc. but there's also younger players contributing, and we just seem to have a well oiled footballing machine that has the belief and momentum to succeed. It's amazing, I find it hard to believe it myself.

We don't have an amazing player developmental pipeline in this country either.. but it's slowly improving. The Canadian Premier League is slowly expanding and giving younger players a chance to play, athletes who in an alternate universe might have very well taken a different path in life. Yeah, there's the 3 MLS teams and their youth academies, but a problem with that is that it's not easy for them to break into a MLS squad. Toronto is the highest spending team in the league, they bring in superstars and don't leave much room for local talent. It's possible, but that important 19-23 or so year old age when you need to get solid playing time in order to improve.. Those Canadian players were just sitting on the bench, hoping to one day make the first team. Some of them would go on loan to USL clubs, but the that was just not enough. Now we have the CPL too, it's been around for 3 full seasons, and already 2 players from that league have made their way into the national side, and others have joined MLS clubs and are continuing their development.

Things are looking up, but we were really quite horrible for many decades. We won the Gold Cup in 2000 IIRC, but that felt like a bit of an anomaly. We had a solid generation of players back then, but just no depth. So it's not like we got lucky, that win was deserved, but we didn't qualify for any world cup with that group of players either. CONCACAF might seem like an easy place to qualify, but it also tends to throw all sorts of wrenches at you, and like I said away matches are always challenging.

So yeah wtf indeed! This 8-1 loss was referenced by many Canadian footie fans, after yesterday's win. I don't know if we will ever forget that loss. It's a memory of how bad we used to be, but also a reminder of how far we've come, and how much more butt we can kick in the upcoming years.

The WC is coming to Canada in 2026. The Canadian public is slowly starting to take note of our men's team and what they've been achieving. We'll see what happens, but by 2026 Canada could very well be football mad.

 

Whoever scheduled USA-Honduras in February at Minnesota outdoors should be shot. -15°C. USA using cold weather for home field advantage to qualify for a World Cup played in a freakin' desert

 

In a country with a rather hyperopic memory such as Argentina that's happened twice recently.

1) Back in 2008 the players decided to force then-coach Basile out and thus he made way for… Diego Maradona. Suffice it to say that Maradona coached the team as he lived his life, and in his short year-and-a-half tenure over 100 players put on the national team's jersey and were, frankly, a mess that only qualified by the skin of its teeth for that WC and shouldn't have. He just told the players that they were superheroes who could beat the high-altitude conditions in the Andes and the technical superiority of the rivals in the WC with ‘attitude’. Under such brilliant leadership Argentina managed to notch a historic 6-1 against Bolivia (worst defeat in decades) and, of course, a 0-4 thrashing to Germany in the World Cup.
So, after his departure in 2010, from 2011 onwards Alejandro Sabella was appointed manager. Having been a title winner in Argentine football as both player and coach and an assistant manager at the national team, he took the job and the team seriously and guided the team to qualifying in first place its first world cup final in a quarter-century and everyone wanted him to continue but sickness forced him to retire from public life.

2) After Sabella's departure AFA's president died after a mere 36 years in office and his successors scrambled for power (you might remember when I posted about how the 75 eligible voters managed a 38-38 draw) and this was reflected in Argentina doing erratically in the next qualifying cycle with three coaches in four years, leading to repeated ignominy in matches against Croatia and France. Surprisingly, for once, some of the players admitted that the team had not been up to scratch.
So today we're in the other half of the cycle and under a previously unknown Scaloni Argentina's won its first continental title since 1993 and, like Brazil, is already comfortably qualified for the World Cup and, with only three games remaining, is still unbeaten. Both Brazil and Argentina might end up unbeaten at this rate. It's a bit of a ‘boring’ team sometimes but it's certainly a reliable one compared to the mess of the previous WC cycle.

 

It's in part payback for all those super hot super humid matches in central America on a pitch that's falling apart, and bags of urine being thrown at the players, etc. and generally the horrible conditions at some of those stadiums. These games are also being scheduled in northern U.S. for another reason though - if they were taking place in Texas, California, or anywhere near there, the U.S. would lose their home pitch advantage. This way the stadium was packed with American fans.

On the other hand, -15 is pushing it, I totally agree.

On the other hand, the Honduran players did not come prepared at all. They had access to the weather forecast, but they did not seem to really give it much thought. That'd be like travelling to San Salvador in the middle of the summer and not bringing any water for practice. None of the American players or fans seemed to have a problem with the weather, did they? I mean, that's admittedly pretty damn cold, but I've attended a match at -10C, with windchill pushing it much lower. It was damn freeeezing, but the stadium had 30,000 people in it, and the players on the pitch were just fine. They're professionals, not children.

So.. yeah.. -15 is pushing it, but come prepared.

 

Is it even football is you don't have to spend an hour clearing the snow of the field before kick-off?