The Road to Qatar.

[dyslexic nam]

9 minutes ago, P-O said:

I believe we will set up better in these away games as we don't have to be the aggressor.

 

Our counter set-up is amazing with our speed.

 

1 point @ Honduras, Costa-Rica and Panama wouldn't be a bad result if we win away @Salvador and win at home vs Jamaica.

That is 9 points + maybe a result vs the USA.

I believe 25 points would guarantee it.

 

At best, Panama will get 2 points from USA/Mexico.

I agree we can get to that point total but it just seems inevitable we will slip up somewhere.  The idea of going all 14 games undefeated seems improbable - even with the talent we have.  

[Hawkguy]

14 hours ago, kacbru said:

Hardly. It will be a one off game. Sure, we should expect t to win, but we should also expect to finish in the top three. Doesn't mean it will happen.

We didn't beat Honduras at home. Does that mean we don't deserve to play the Spain's and Belgium's of the world? 

It wasn't a do or die game. It was the 1st game of qualifying. Honduras is rated far higher. Honduras has more recently been in the World Cup. And I also believe that there's no way we lose that game should the game need a winner. 

If that was a do or die game and we couldn't win? Than yeah, we wouldn't deserve to be there. 

 

 

[TGAA_Star]

But against Honduras, I already know that it's a W but worst case scenario we draw

[ted]

5 hours ago, TGAA_Star said:

I don't know why everyone thinks we are going to finish in 4th for the play off spot...

No one thinks that.

Just because we are keeping an eye on every possibility and analyzing our chances in the unlikely event we get CONCACAF'd yet again, does not mean that is where we think Canada will finish.

I think we have a good chance at 1st spot, an excellent chance at finishing 2nd or 3rd and a low chance of finishing 4th. For those of us who have been following the team for decades, this is an amazing place to be. Don't take our astonishment and mild uncertainty to be in any way defeatist.

[king1010]

22 minutes ago, TGAA_Star said:

But against Honduras, I already know that it's a W but worst case scenario we draw

I cant disagree more.
 

We cant go in there with that attitude, we’ll be setting ourselves up for major disappointment. 
 

 

[ted]

3 minutes ago, king1010 said:

We cant go in there with that attitude, we’ll be setting ourselves up for major disappointment. 
 

You are joking right?

Herdman has this team believing in themselves and they have the talent to make it happen. I am extremely cautious when it comes to expectations but if that team steps on the field in Honduras NOT believing they can win, I'd fire Herdman and all his staff.

And BTW, losing to Honduras should, AS ALWAYS, be a major disappointment. Luckily that is not unlikely to happen.

[footballfreak]

16 minutes ago, P-O said:

I believe we will set up better in these away games as we don't have to be the aggressor.

 

Our counter set-up is amazing with our speed.

 

1 point @ Honduras, Costa-Rica and Panama wouldn't be a bad result if we win away @Salvador and win at home vs Jamaica.

That is 9 points + maybe a result vs the USA.

I believe 25 points would guarantee it.

 

At best, Panama will get 2 points from USA/Mexico.

We should all know by now not to underestimate what Panama is capable of. They took 4/6 points from USA/Mexico at home, and beat the USA without their best CB. Granted that was a heavily rotated US side, but it’s entirely possible Panama get lucky and snatch a win against one of them on the road. My heart and my head both think it’s possible they get 3 points or less next window... but they keep proving us all wrong.

25 points should be good, but the expectation of draws against the bottom 4 teams needs to go. Central America is hard, and we shouldn’t expect 4-0-0, but we go into every one of those games except maybe Panama as the favourite. The goal should be to win every game against the bottom 4 sides.

• Win El Salvador
• win one of Honduras/Costa Rica
• win one of Jamaica/USA.

Then we go into Panama needing a draw at most, and probably already qualified.

[TGAA_Star]

56 minutes ago, ted said:

No one thinks that.

Just because we are keeping an eye on every possibility and analyzing our chances in the unlikely event we get CONCACAF'd yet again, does not mean that is where we think Canada will finish.

I think we have a good chance at 1st spot, an excellent chance at finishing 2nd or 3rd and a low chance of finishing 4th. For those of us who have been following the team for decades, this is an amazing place to be. Don't take our astonishment and mild uncertainty to be in any way defeatist.

I'm not being a defeatist but more I'm being a realist especially when you look at how things shake up at this very moment or have been shaking up

[TGAA_Star]

57 minutes ago, king1010 said:

I cant disagree more.
 

We cant go in there with that attitude, we’ll be setting ourselves up for major disappointment. 
 

 

That's true but then I can disagree with you on the basis that we have been firing on all cylinders whereas Honduras have not

[Strait Red]

49 minutes ago, TGAA_Star said:

That's true but then I can disagree with you on the basis that we have been firing on all cylinders whereas Honduras have not

Being in good form or not, in Central America home field advantage means a lot. Honduras will be a very tough game.

[CanadianSoccerFan]

2 hours ago, TGAA_Star said:

But against Honduras, I already know that it's a W but worst case scenario we draw

Narrator: "Little did he know of the scars and demons haunting his fellow worshipers"

[king1010]

2 hours ago, ted said:

You are joking right?

Herdman has this team believing in themselves and they have the talent to make it happen. I am extremely cautious when it comes to expectations but if that team steps on the field in Honduras NOT believing they can win, I'd fire Herdman and all his staff.

And BTW, losing to Honduras should, AS ALWAYS, be a major disappointment. Luckily that is not unlikely to happen.

Not joking. I was referring to the original poster saying “against Honduras, I already know thats a W”

To me thats not respecting the opponent and almost looking past them. Every game in the octo is a dog fight and I dont believe we should have the mindset that we already have 3 points in the bag before the game is played. 

i didnt say anything about the team going in there believing they can get 3 pts. Not sure how you came away with that. Of course that should be the attitude. No way should the attitude be “i already know its a W”. Thats looking for trouble. 
 

Edited November 27, 2021 by king1010

[footballfreak]

Catching up on some of the other teams in qualifying. Not gonna attempt to do a tactical breakdown on Panama, but a few observations:

• Goals: 80% crosses, 10% absolute bangers from distance, 10% everything else. I may actually be under-representing crosses. Gives me hope that a big tall CRC backline can handle them in January.
• The first goal of the home leg against Curaçao is a real peach. If you’re not going to watch the whole video, at least watch that goal.
• Crazy to think that a team that needed goals after the 80th minute to beat Barbados and Dominica could still qualify directly.
• Somewhat lost in the shuffle of the Iceteca, but Panama’s winning goal against El Salvador was laughably offside. I think they probably win anyways with how bad El Salvador were playing, but we could be 4 points up right now. 😕
• Please don’t let us need a result from Panama away. 

 

[MtlMario]

2 hours ago, footballfreak said:

Catching up on some of the other teams in qualifying. Not gonna attempt to do a tactical breakdown on Panama, but a few observations:

• Goals: 80% crosses, 10% absolute bangers from distance, 10% everything else. I may actually be under-representing crosses. Gives me hope that a big tall CRC backline can handle them in January.
• The first goal of the home leg against Curaçao is a real peach. If you’re not going to watch the whole video, at least watch that goal.
• Crazy to think that a team that needed goals after the 80th minute to beat Barbados and Dominica could still qualify directly.
• Somewhat lost in the shuffle of the Iceteca, but Panama’s winning goal against El Salvador was laughably offside. I think they probably win anyways with how bad El Salvador were playing, but we could be 4 points up right now. 😕
• Please don’t let us need a result from Panama away. 

 

I have said it before, I think Panama will probably end up with 2 pts next window and we will distance ourselves from them. It will never come to that game. We can use the last couple games to cap tie a few players.😁

[Hawkguy]

8 hours ago, P-O said:

I believe we will set up better in these away games as we don't have to be the aggressor.

 

Our counter set-up is amazing with our speed.

 

1 point @ Honduras, Costa-Rica and Panama wouldn't be a bad result if we win away @Salvador and win at home vs Jamaica.

That is 9 points + maybe a result vs the USA.

I believe 25 points would guarantee it.

 

At best, Panama will get 2 points from USA/Mexico.

10 points would put us in a really good position, especially with a draw at Panama. This would put us at 26. 

If Panama gets 3 points from US, Mexico, Canada - even if they win the other 3, they would finish with 12, putting them at 26. 

And unless something crazy happens, no way they close that huge GD lead - especially with 3 games against the Top-3. 

[Ruud]

14 hours ago, TGAA_Star said:

Against Honduras especially on the road I see us winning that game easily given how disappointing the Hondurans have been in qualifying thus far

Against USA, this is the only game that worries me. Because I think this is the game where we finally lose and our unbeaten run comes to an end. Even though we are playing at home, worst case we lose this one. Best case, we draw or win this game. If we draw, our unbeaten run continues. If we win, our unbeaten run continues. But being realistic, I think we lose here.

February match up against El Salvador, on the road, we win this game easily. El Salvador are dead last in the Octagonal.

Canada in our table we have 16 points right now but with this 3 game window, I have us going 2-1. 2 wins, 1 loss. Giving us 22 points headed into the March window which is the Final window.

Final window we face Costa Rica on March 24th away, Jamaica on March 27th at home and Panama on March 30th away.

Then for Final window Canada we draw with Costa Rica, Jamaica at home we beat them and then against Panama we draw

Altogether giving us 27 points to finish off. That's where I think we end up.

Love the confidence 

[lamptern]

Considering the current standings and points other teams at, what would be the ideal results for other 3 games in window 4 first round?

Jamaica vs Mexico

Jamaica win or draw?

USA vs El Salvador 

USA draw or loss?

Costa Rica vs Panama

Costa Rica win?

 

[Sal333]

2 minutes ago, lamptern said:

Considering the current standings and points other teams at, what would be the ideal results for other 3 games in window 4 first round?

Jamaica vs Mexico

Jamaica win or draw?

USA vs El Salvador 

USA draw or loss?

Costa Rica vs Panama

Costa Rica win?

 

Almost in all cases a draw is ideal for us. With a win 3 points are given out. With a draw only 2.

[lamptern]

48 minutes ago, Sal333 said:

Almost in all cases a draw is ideal for us. With a win 3 points are given out. With a draw only 2.

Sure, draws are always preferred.  I'd just want to have one more posible  outcome benifits  us if a team is gonna win.

Edited November 28, 2021 by lamptern

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

On 11/27/2021 at 12:17 AM, Obinna said:

It's just an attempt to veer away from 'whiteness' on the journey to inclusivity.

Makes sense if you're living in the framework of "white is bad" due to colonialism, oppression, slavery, etc. ...

Think people are either being naive or in some cases like the Sky News Australia talking heads in that clip deliberately disingenuous when they make the assumption that there couldn't possibly ever have been a racial undertone to the All-Whites name back when it was first introduced many decades ago back when things were much less politically correct culturally.

[Unnamed Trialist]

BTW, back to the intercontinental playoffs: I believe that they coincide with an international window where Nations League group play is scheduled. 

Remember the group of 4 is set to play its 6 matches in May, June and September. Denying WC qualified teams the chance to play other prep friendlies before Qatar. But better to be repeating in Central America than visiting Qatar. 

[Obinna]

3 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Think people are either being naive or in some cases like the Sky News Australia talking heads in that clip deliberately disingenuous when they make the assumption that there couldn't possibly ever have been a racial undertone to the All-Whites name back when it was first introduced many decades ago back when things were much less politically correct culturally.

Sure!

[TGAA_Star]

7 hours ago, Ruud said:

Love the confidence 

Thank you

[TGAA_Star]

14 hours ago, Strait Red said:

Being in good form or not, in Central America home field advantage means a lot. Honduras will be a very tough game.

I mean I can agree with you on that basis but then again I can disagree too on the basis that I have confidence that our guys can beat Honduras, in Honduras 

[Unnamed Trialist]

5 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Think people are either being naive or in some cases like the Sky News Australia talking heads in that clip deliberately disingenuous when they make the assumption that there couldn't possibly ever have been a racial undertone to the All-Whites name back when it was first introduced many decades ago back when things were much less politically correct culturally.

A close friend who did a 6-week cycling trip in New Zealand just 3 years ago, both islands, said he was shocked by the blatant racism and xenophobic attitudes they found all over the place. Towards their own, towards foreigners. 

They just assumed a couple of white Canadians would be in perfect agreement.