Canada Soccer Part VII: Copa America Semifinal Edition

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PanniniClaus

Registered User
Oct 12, 2006
10,443
4,506
That's better..rush chance. He and Larin are so powerful.. just a shame this couldn't be played in decent conditions.
 

SeawaterOnIce

Bald is back in style.
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Aug 28, 2011
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Awful pitch and awful reffing. f*** the loss as it was a circus instead of a match. Getting out of Honduras with no injuries is a W.
 
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Sexy Necksy Garland

SMD
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May 3, 2021
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I just found myself mostly laughing at this game. It’s like it was played under the rules and guidelines provided by famed Iraqi information minister Baghdad Bob.
 

Bures Elbow

Registered User
Nov 2, 2013
2,379
532
Shocking how this game was allowed to actually be played, in Europe it would have been simply cancelled or moved.

Concacaf at its finest: Shit pitch, shithousing team that Hondurans should cringe at right now, shit ref (how antagonistic was he getting? Horrendous inconsistent decision making with blowing additional time early after multiple field invasions the cherry on top), and a shit waste of two games to prepare for the World Cup where nothing productive was established.
 

Tuggy

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Nov 26, 2003
49,389
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Saint John
So we really didn't learn anything from this window. Well from a footballing perspective.

Unfortunately.

On the pitch, just typical CONCACAF and probably doesn't help towards Qatar.

Off the pitch, disaster.

Really feels like we took a couple steps back. I'm not feeling warm and fuzzy after this window, that's for sure.
 

PanniniClaus

Registered User
Oct 12, 2006
10,443
4,506
Watching Halifax at Edmonton... the weather sucks but the fan support looks to be about 200. Unless there is an entire stand in the picture the camera is not catching. Pitiful.
 

al secord

Mustard Tiger
Jun 26, 2013
12,817
14,870
Toronto
Waste of an international window. Just a perfect storm of missteps, untimely protest followed up with 2 pretty meaningless games. Not the way you want to prepare for the most important event in your professional careers.
 

robertmac43

Forever 43!
Mar 31, 2015
24,763
16,953
Waste of an international window. Just a perfect storm of missteps, untimely protest followed up with 2 pretty meaningless games. Not the way you want to prepare for the most important event in your professional careers.
Taking out all the off-pitch garbage, Nations League isn't the way I would want to prepare for the WC. Even if we had good weather, the test just isn't there and the games add unnecessary injury risk.
 

Pavel Buchnevich

"Pavel Buchnevich The Fake"
Dec 8, 2013
59,124
25,578
New York
The only thing I see here is some classless behaviour from your players.
Let me stick up for the Canadians.

I think most fans that don’t know the region’s football don’t understand what CONCACAF is like. The teams are not the most talented, but outside of that they are extremely difficult to play against because it’s not about the football. The fields are purposely not well maintained. Very little grass or too much grass. It’s purposely maintained in a way that makes it difficult to play football. The conditions are usually awful, ranging from 100F/38C temperatures with games purposely scheduled in the middle of the day to monsoon level rain in the rain forest. They sometimes will change the venues to small local stadiums in the middle of nowhere outside of the main national stadium because those smaller stadiums make the conditions more difficult.

The refereeing standard of the region is really bad. You’ll notice that you almost never seen officials from the region get the big games at major international tournaments. Most of the countries refused VAR until halfway through the World Cup Qualification because they know that leaving it up to refereeing decisions benefits them more than when we have complete information. Some of these players might seem unsuspecting, but they aren’t. They are as dirty as they come. That’s how they maintain their careers. It’s not because they are talented. They have no problem injuring the more talented Americans, Mexicans, and Canadians. They rough them up. If you bring these dual-nationals who haven’t spent much time living in the region, they often don’t adapt well to this. John Brooks famously has had problems with this for the USA.

Also, a lot of these countries are big on football. They love the sport, but aren’t very good at it. They create national holidays when they have a World Cup Qualifier against the big teams in the region. The fans are loud as can be at the game and in the lead up. The fans find your hotel and will pull the fire alarm all night to make sure you can’t sleep. They’ll throw stuff at the players at the stadiums. They are also usually right on top of the players because of the way the stadiums are built, although some of the stadiums have started to modernize and some of this has been curtailed.

It might seem crazy how Canada could lose to Honduras and USA could tie El Salvador. How good could those Central Americans teams be? Those teams may be no better than teams like Northern Ireland or Ireland on a neutral field. However, it’s not neutral. They play with an advantage at home that you don’t see almost anywhere in the world. And where you see it, it’s certain areas of South America, Asia, and Africa. The games are not about football. It’s a battle of will playing on the road in CONCACAF.
 
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