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Surrealplaces

Surrealplaces

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I'm surprised this topic of discussion hasn't come up lately, but probably because we don't have a thread. I think there was a thread for the World cup 2022, but this is for all things related to Canada's men's soccer team.

So how about that team? The next round of an international tournament!
 
10 years ago would have never imagined Canada having draws with France and Chile, beating Peru and looking respectful against Argentina. I feel like they’d moved up a notch from a couple of years ago when they qualified for the World Cup.
 
They're quality, if unspectacular. Get the job done though, excited to see them in the next match. And the US is out, they may be the best side in North America going into the 2026 World Cup. I'm saving up for tickets now.
 
I was initially a bit worried about the coaching situation, but it seems to be paying off. He's done well in a very short time, also his mentality is he doesn't seem to be happy with just being at COPA, he wants to be better.

 
Venezuela will be tough, and it might be the end of our run, but it should be entertaining. Whatever happens, they’ve done better than people expected.
 
I read other soccer forums, and the American fans wish they had a coach like Marsch. I'm impressed with the defensive structure he's put in place. As he said, 8 clean sheet halves of 10, against world class opponents 🇦🇷🇫🇷🇳🇱 or at least World Cup calibre opponents. 🇨🇱🇵🇪

Excited to see what is going to happen against the remarkable Venezuela; as long as we don't lose a top attacking player due to a freak injury, we might make some noise.

Oh, I'm just getting a bulletin...Canada winger Tajon Buchanan to undergo surgery after breaking tibia in training
 
Even if Canada loses against Venezuela, everybody will be happy with their result in Copa America. The next two years leading up to the World Cup will be where we see if the progress is real or not.
 
That was a hell of a game! A little bit of BS refereeing of course, but the guys played really well, they absolutely deserved the win. This is arguably the best result the 🇨🇦MNT has ever achieved, semi-finals of this level of tournament. Guaranteed two more games against top rank opponents. Weird that the draw gives us a rematch against Argentina 🇦🇷 instead of someone from the other side of the draw, but it's not like Brasil 🇧🇷 or Colombia 🇨🇴 would be any easier, so no point in complaining.

Shaffelburg is really making his mark: I read a profile of him that points out that he had a hard time getting seen because there's so little soccer infrastructure in Nova Scotia (he wound up playing in Massachusetts and attracting attention there).

1720240516973.png
 
Yeah, heck of a game, the penalties were a nail biter, and the reffing was awful. This is a huge milestone for Canada men's soccer for the best we've ever done in the international tournaments was an 0-6 record with 2 goals scored for 10 goals against. Even though we've only scored two goals in this tournament, having two wins and a draw is record territory for us.
I've been impressed with the defense of the team this tournament, and if you exclude one bad half against the Netherlands, this team has had 3 goals for and 4 goals against. and this is against teams like Netherlands and France (both in the Euro semi-finals) and current World cup champion Argentina. Chile, Peru and Venezuela aren't slouches either. These are good clubs and some great clubs.
Anyone remember the days when we used to lose to teams like Guatemala and Belize? This is an amazing leap.
 
Not many soccer games I've watched from start to finish, that one was a nail biter. Hope for a close game against Argentina, a win would be amazing, but I'm not holding my breath!
 
Chinook Arch said:
10 years ago would have never imagined Canada having draws with France and Chile, beating Peru and looking respectful against Argentina. I feel like they’d moved up a notch from a couple of years ago when they qualified for the World Cup.
Click to expand...

I looked at the Wikipedia article from 10 years ago to see where the roster was playing, versus today.

10 years ago, the most common professional status was "unattached" (5 players); today it's the MLS (14 players). We had only 1 MLS player 10 years ago, and the MLS was nowhere near as good a league as it is today.

The most common actual league 10 years ago was the 3rd tier league in Germany (3 players). Now, we have 7 players in the Big 5 European leagues (2 each in the Premier League and France, 1 each in Spain, Italy and German).

10 years ago, the very best leagues we had players in were (with apologies to Atiba Hutchinson in Bestikas) in the Scottish Premiership or in the Championship (2nd tier English league). Today, the worst leagues we have players in are.. arguably the Scottish Premiership and the Championship.

Let's go boys!
 
Back in 1986 World Cup, Canada only really made it because Mexico was hosting it and it allowed for an extra space for them to sneak in. I recall there were only a handful of players who actually played professionally full time. For some of the players soccer was a part-time job, I don’t remember which player it was but they were interviewing a player who was a plumber as a day job and soccer part-time as a job and was playing in the World Cup. Lol

But you can see why it took us so long to get back to the World Cup. We had quite a ways to go in improving the national team, at the same time that other countries were also improving their teams.

AnyWho, Copa America for Canada is done now, but I’m extremely happy with the outcome of the tournament as a whole.
 
Disappointed they lost, but it's huge for Canada to even make it to that game, so it's a win. Here's hoping we get 3rd at least.

WAs surprised Davies didn't get a bigger role on the team, only saw him make a couple big plays all tournament.
 
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