Mo Farsi

[Corazon]

Looks like he has just assisted the winning goal for Columbus as they take the lead 3-2 over Miami.

[DeRo_Is_King]

9 hours ago, Corazon said:

Looks like he has just assisted the winning goal for Columbus as they take the lead 3-2 over Miami.

Starts at 5:05. Very nice movement and pass:

 

Edited August 14 by DeRo_Is_King

[Aird25]

53 minutes ago, DeRo_Is_King said:

Starts at 5:05. Very nice movement and pass:

 

Jordi Alba was marking shadows

[Ally McCoist]

 

Good riddance. Admin, you know what to do with this thread.

[jordan]

Algeria FC indicated he could be called up for matches against Equatorial Guinea, and Liberia

[ahmedou]

Admin, close this topic

[JamboAl]

I will move it to the World Soccer area on the weekend.  I think people should be able to say their piece while it’s here.  And personally, Farsi needs to select what’s best for him.  If he feels more Algerian or thinks he’s got a better shot playing for Algeria, that’s his right.  We should not have to grovel to get players to commit to Canada and although he is a good talent, I want players that want to play for Canada.
 

[frattinator]

I'm honestly not sure how much of a loss he is. He doesn't exactly play in a huge position of need (would be different if he was a 6 for example). We have Richie and AJ ahead of him, then depth pieces like ZBG, Luc de Fougerolles and others that are either similar or a slight step down. 

[SoccMan]

I’m sure he will go live in Algeria once his playing days are done right ?

[ahmedou]

As you know there's a huge Maghrebians community in Montreal. They're so attached to their countries. 

And to be the first Canadian Maghrebian to play with a Maghreb national team (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia) it's a dream for them.

For me, Farsi will be the first one (Bounou don't really count to me). It'll be a positive message from them that everything is possible.

I can understand his choice (even if I'm not a fan of his choice).

[MtlMario]

2 hours ago, JamboAl said:

 I want players that want to play for Canada.
 

1000%. I couldn't of said it better myself (even though I've mentioned it somewhere 😊).

[HochelagaFC]

I think what hurts more with his decision is not about the « importance » of the player but more with the fact that, contrary to other Canadian born players who chose to rep another country, he is the only one that we can say our soccer infrastructure did everything to give him a professional career (PLSQ/Futsal/CanPl, u23). Others had to go to another country to kick start theyre career (Mitrovic, Sigur, etc.), not him. He even got called by our senior team and declined. 
 

He’s not crucial to our playing squad and having him or not won’t make a big difference but he would’ve been a great story from a Canadian soccer development point of view.

[Corazon]

I'm obviously a bit disappointed, but he is going to be a rotational role player for Algeria, no different than he would be for Canada.  Anyone that we lose, that is either young and has potential or is good enough for our extended squad (which he is) is a program loss (in my opinion).  This loss will be no different than when we lost Yankov to Bulgaria.  A depth piece at the time, that in a few years will be below the level of our program.  He can enjoy his handful of caps for Algeria over his handful of caps for Canada.

Edited August 15 by Corazon

[The Real Marc]

If you're going to be peripheral, then being peripheral for the country that makes yourself/ parents/community the proudest and playing in that handful of games that will have the most meaning to you makes sense.

The whining about his u20 experience is just lame rationalizing. Rather he'd be up front about how much this means to him or that maybe he's just not good enough to start for us .

[Aird25]

Shrugging off the loss of a player born, raised, and trained in Canada that could be a piece for Canada for years to come, and not even bothering to question why that player chose another path is mind boggling to me.

[sebdeserio]

1 hour ago, ahmedou said:

As you know there's a huge Maghrebians community in Montreal. They're so attached to their countries. 

And to be the first Canadian Maghrebian to play with a Maghreb national team (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia) it's a dream for them.

For me, Farsi will be the first one (Bounou don't really count to me). It'll be a positive message from them that everything is possible.

I can understand his choice (even if I'm not a fan of his choice).

So the lesson for all these Canadian maghrébin kids is if you work really hard you can represent Canada internationally in futsal, play in the u20s and showcase your skills in the CPL to leverage that into a handful of games for Algeria/Morocco/Tunisia etc? Just doesn’t feel right.

[The Real Marc]

29 minutes ago, Aird25 said:

Shrugging off the loss of a player born, raised, and trained in Canada that could be a piece for Canada for years to come, and not even bothering to question why that player chose another path is mind boggling to me.

There are at least five pages here questioning why he chose another path. It's pretty clear.

[Aird25]

1 minute ago, The Real Marc said:

There are at least five pages here questioning why he chose another path. It's pretty clear.

Summarize, please

[ahmedou]

44 minutes ago, sebdeserio said:

So the lesson for all these Canadian maghrébin kids is if you work really hard you can represent Canada internationally in futsal, play in the u20s and showcase your skills in the CPL to leverage that into a handful of games for Algeria/Morocco/Tunisia etc? Just doesn’t feel right.

That how I call ''started from the bottom (Futsal, PLSQ, CPL to MLS/Etc)''.

He's playing with Columbus the best team of MLS. His choice of maghreb national team (Algrtie) will open him doors to play Europe. 

There's a lot of talented canadians maghrebians (playing for amateurs) in soccer but there's less professionals canadians maghrebians (playing for professional) in soccer like Farsi. Farsi's story will push a lot of canadians maghrebians to follow Farsi's path and being professional soccer players like him. 

[Ed_S]

 I don't have a problem with his choice. We are very deep in that position and North African football is making a bit of a splash. Morocco's keeper was born in Montreal although moved to Morocco with his parents at a young age. Mind you, the only person who's ever bothered me with a switch was Begovic (the unmentionable one even gets a pass from me as I know some of shit he put up with from the bozos running the CSA in 2000-2001 era). And anybody questioning my loyalty to Cdn national team and players is ignorant of the history of this forum and previous incarnations and the supporters group.

Edited August 15 by Ed_S

[The Real Marc]

3 hours ago, Aird25 said:

Summarize, please

Sure! Happy to help.

1. He is third choice, at very very best, for Canada in his position.
2. He has a familial, cultural, emotional attachment to Algeria. His first professional experience, albeit brief, was in Algeria.
3. His time spent playing professionally in Canada is actually fairly limited. He was not involved in Canadian pro clubs until CPL.
4. I think this is the real one: Canada didn't call him immediately once he started playing for the Crew. His rise was a bit slower than others but I'm sure he's thinking that other players like Johnston or Bombito or Ahmed or Waterman or Koné were called in more quickly once starting in MLS. Heck didn't we call in Zator while he was still in the CPL? We didn't call Farsi, by the looks of it, until his second year with the MLS Crew.
5. He was approached by Algeria, it seems? A nice touch.
6. Once we called him, we can't guarantee him game time. He could be a three cap wonder.
7. He was annoyed at his experience with the Canada u23s where he wasn't a starter. 
8. Algeria may provide better exposure with the games across the Atlantic, European scouting, and connections to teammates based in France as opposed to our games against Central American and Caribbean teams chock a block with MLSers of which he already is.
9. He is not young and can't wait forever to choose - both nations will leave him behind if he dilly dallies.
10. If we had asked him to choose five years ago, he'd have probably preferred to play for Algeria. (International futsal doesn't count.)

So a mélange of legit reasons, toss up reasons, and phoney I-need-a-chip-on-my-shoulder-to-justify-this reasons. Want to hold the CSA responsible for anything? Sure, we could play more games. I would have called him earlier. But we're also not the Canada of auld that can throw any cat on the field - we have competition and expectations of results.

We've pulled a few depth pieces our way, like Ugbo and Tani, it's inevitable we lose a few back.

We've lost so many foundational pieces - Hargreaves (the absolute worst of the bunch with his the cut me from the youth team whining), Begovic (a snake but we flubbed too), Jonathan De Guzman (such a tease).

I don't like the decision but I can give it some respect. He was called. He said no. He's been upfront and clear. We hope he gets one cap. We move on.

 

Edited August 16 by The Real Marc

[Ed_S]

1 hour ago, The Real Marc said:

Sure! Happy to help.

1. He is third choice, at very very best, for Canada in his position.
2. He has a familial, cultural, emotional attachment to Algeria. His first professional experience, albeit brief, was in Algeria.
3. His time spent playing professionally in Canada is actually fairly limited. He was not involved in Canadian pro clubs until CPL.
4. Canada didn't call him immediately once he started playing for the Crew. His rise was a bit slower than others but I'm sure he's thinking that other players like Johnston or Bombito or Ahmed or Waterman were called in more quickly once starting in MLS. Heck didn't we call in Zator while he was still in the CPL?
5. He was approached by Algeria, it seems. A nice touch.
6. He was annoyed at his experience with the Canada u23s where he wasn't a starter. 
7. Algeria may provide better exposure with the games across the Atlantic, European scouting, and connections to teammates based in France as opposed to our games against Central American and Caribbean teams chock a block with MLSers of which he already is.
8. He is not young and can't wait forever to choose - both nations will leave him behind if he dilly dallies.
9. If we had asked him to choose five years ago, he'd have probably preferred to play for Algeria.

So a melange of legit reasons, toss up reasons, and phoney I-need-a-chip-on-my-shoulder-to-justify-this reasons. Want to hold the CSA responsible for anything? Sure, we could play more games. I would have called him earlier. But we're also not the Canada of auld that can throw any cat on the field - we have competition and expectations of results.

We've lost so many foundational pieces - Hargreaves (the absolute worst of the bunch with his the cut me from the youth team whining), Begovic (a snake but we flubbed too), Jonathan De Guzman (such a tease).

I don't like the decision but I can give it some respect. He was called. He said no. He's been upfront and clear. We hope he gets one cap. We move on.

 

Just to clarify, my reason for not having a hate on the unmentionable had nothing to do with his being cut from making the u19s (along with Julian de Guzman I might add) but is later shit the CSA leadership was up to prior to the qualifying round for the U20 tournament in 2001.

[ahmedou]

1 hour ago, The Real Marc said:

Sure! Happy to help.

1. He is third choice, at very very best, for Canada in his position.
2. He has a familial, cultural, emotional attachment to Algeria. His first professional experience, albeit brief, was in Algeria.
3. His time spent playing professionally in Canada is actually fairly limited. He was not involved in Canadian pro clubs until CPL.
4. I think this is the real one: Canada didn't call him immediately once he started playing for the Crew. His rise was a bit slower than others but I'm sure he's thinking that other players like Johnston or Bombito or Ahmed or Waterman or Koné were called in more quickly once starting in MLS. Heck didn't we call in Zator while he was still in the CPL? We didn't call Farsi, by the looks of it, until his second year with the MLS Crew.
5. He was approached by Algeria, it seems? A nice touch.
6. Once we called him, we can't guarantee him game time. He could be a three cap wonder.
7. He was annoyed at his experience with the Canada u23s where he wasn't a starter. 
8. Algeria may provide better exposure with the games across the Atlantic, European scouting, and connections to teammates based in France as opposed to our games against Central American and Caribbean teams chock a block with MLSers of which he already is.
9. He is not young and can't wait forever to choose - both nations will leave him behind if he dilly dallies.
10. If we had asked him to choose five years ago, he'd have probably preferred to play for Algeria. (International futsal doesn't count.)

So a mélange of legit reasons, toss up reasons, and phoney I-need-a-chip-on-my-shoulder-to-justify-this reasons. Want to hold the CSA responsible for anything? Sure, we could play more games. I would have called him earlier. But we're also not the Canada of auld that can throw any cat on the field - we have competition and expectations of results.

We've pulled a few depth pieces our way, like Ugbo and Tani, it's inevitable we lose a few back.

We've lost so many foundational pieces - Hargreaves (the absolute worst of the bunch with his the cut me from the youth team whining), Begovic (a snake but we flubbed too), Jonathan De Guzman (such a tease).

I don't like the decision but I can give it some respect. He was called. He said no. He's been upfront and clear. We hope he gets one cap. We move on.

 

10/10 summarize 👏

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

7 hours ago, The Real Marc said:

... Begovic (a snake but we flubbed too), ...

Hopefully nobody is going to do the we offered his family safe sanctuary during a terrible war routine when it was Germany that actually did that. Have seen it claimed that either him or his family (I forget the exact details) were visited by some very intimidating people that you wouldn't want to cross as part of Bosnia's efforts to persuade him to switch. No idea if that's accurate or not but that's part of why I'd personally tend to reserve judgement when not knowing the full circumstances in these situations. 

[The Real Marc]

3 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Hopefully nobody is going to do the we offered his family safe sanctuary during a terrible war routine when it was Germany that actually did that. Have seen it claimed that either him or his family (I forget the exact details) were visited by some very intimidating people that you wouldn't want to cross as part of Bosnia's efforts to persuade him to switch. No idea if that's accurate or not but that's part of why I'd personally tend to reserve judgement when not knowing the full circumstances in these situations. 

It's certainly fair to say Canada gave him and his family a home and an opportunity - as it has with anyone that has arrived here - without descending into the hypothetical and mythological schlock needed to dismiss that argument.

Regardless of knocks on the door, playing for our youth teams, playing at a youth world cup, committing to us and flipping months later ... it's not a good look.

I personally think what played a part was that we were reluctant to shove Hirschfeld out of the way. Now was Asmir a lower tier loanee at the time? Yes. But Hirschfeld was what, 30? He could have had another 5-7 years ahead of him? No coach? Not starter? Homeland calling? Sketchy phone calls? He switched and it got him to a World Cup. Good for him. But a snake for us.