WCQ: Third Round - Window 5 (March 24 - 30, 2022)

[EJsens1]

Still better than Jamaica..

I was expecting worse.  They’ve got just over 3 weeks to improve it.  Weather will improve which should help 

[narduch]

1 hour ago, Shway said:

I must be delusional (or barely outside 🤭) but it hasn’t been that bad. Just that one big snowfall. 

You must not have to shovel a driveway

[Shway]

2 hours ago, narduch said:

You must not have to shovel a driveway

Shovel! What year are we in lol 😂 

I flick the switch on the driveway and if it’s not melting fast enough then my baby Amy the snowblower does the rest. 

Plus my side of the street doesn’t have a sidewalk so I’m golden!

 

[EJsens1]

1 hour ago, Shway said:

Shovel! What year are we in lol 😂 

I flick the switch on the driveway and if it’s not melting fast enough then my baby Amy the snowblower does the rest. 

Plus my side of the street doesn’t have a sidewalk so I’m golden!

 

You wimps in the Toronto area..shovels my ass.  Come to Ottawa or out east and we’ll talk!

[An Observer]

10 hours ago, nolando said:

My six-year-old daughter looked up at me yesterday during breakfast and asked, "Papa, how come Canada almost always wins at soccer?" 

And I thought about it some more and realised, yeah, in her short living memory, between this cycle of Men's WCQ  and the women in the Olympics, she has virtually only seen Canada tasting victory, on big stages no less.

And then, the kicker, "Can you coach ME at soccer one day too?"

What a time to be a Voyageur!

Cap tie her now!  Oh sorry, that is so last year.

[nolando]

3 hours ago, An Observer said:

Cap tie her now!  Oh sorry, that is so last year.

Well, she is a dual. Just sayin'...

[narduch]

Was already known he'd miss the next window. But I wonder if he would still be out if the USA deop to the playoff too.

 

[Ruud]

So do we even care at this point?  Shame he’s a great player to watch and would be fun to see him in Mexico.  Lucky Pulisic is playing well.  

[pod818]

Pitch looked horrible over the weekend. Hope they can improve it over the next few weeks

Edited March 6, 2022 by pod818

[kacbru]

1 hour ago, pod818 said:

Pitch looked horrible over the weekend. Hope they can improve it over the next few weeks

F*^king Argos!

[narduch]

7 minutes ago, kacbru said:

F*^king Argos!

Read last week that the grounds keeper did say that the Argos playing so late (I think it was December 5) did play a roll in them not having enough time to prep the surface for the start of the MLS season 

[narduch]

Luckily the game v Jamaica will be meaningless 

[Ally McCoist]

32 minutes ago, narduch said:

Luckily the game v Jamaica will be meaningless 

Never celebrate too early in sports my guy. A loss in CR means the Jamaica game is a must win.

[RS]

2 hours ago, pod818 said:

Pitch looked horrible over the weekend. Hope they can improve it over the next few weeks

Lots of explanation from the head groundskeeper for the state of the field in this Neil Davidson article from last week.

The TL;DR version is that the larger than usual snowfalls Toronto got in January and February caused parts of the field to become diseased. I don't know enough about grass maintenance to know whether he's making excuses, but it's still a terrible look.

[Joe MacCarthy]

12 hours ago, RS said:

Lots of explanation from the head groundskeeper for the state of the field in this Neil Davidson article from last week.

The TL;DR version is that the larger than usual snowfalls Toronto got in January and February caused parts of the field to become diseased. I don't know enough about grass maintenance to know whether he's making excuses, but it's still a terrible look.

Why would he be making excuses?  Anyone with a lick of sense knows what he is saying is true.  Does Toronto think they're the same as Miami in the winter?  The other thing that was not mentioned and was brought up before the SISGrass install  is with SISGrass they can't do a temporary fix and patch the field where needed.  The grass has to be grown the old fashioned way one blade at a time.

[RS]

47 minutes ago, Joe MacCarthy said:

Why would he be making excuses?  Anyone with a lick of sense knows what he is saying is true.  Does Toronto think they're the same as Miami in the winter?  The other thing that was not mentioned and was brought up before the SISGrass install  is with SISGrass they can't do a temporary fix and patch the field where needed.  The grass has to be grown the old fashioned way one blade at a time.

The head groundskeeper has explained away bad grass at BMO Field for one reason or another for years. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on this, especially given the pesticide/fungicide situation, but many aren't. That's what I'm referring to.

[Joe MacCarthy]

2 hours ago, RS said:

but many aren't. That's what I'm referring to.

It's a conspiracy

[rydermike]

I don't get why TFC doesn't just ask to play the first 3-4 games on the road. I know travelling sucks, but its winter. You're going to have a multi game road trip at some point in the season, just do it at the beginning. The pitch will be poor more often than not in winter. Take the extra couple of weeks to help get it up to snuff

Edited March 8, 2022 by rydermike

[RS]

For comparison, here’s what BMO Field looked like two years ago today. 

 

[umpiredice]

On 3/6/2022 at 3:10 PM, Ally McCoist said:

Never celebrate too early in sports my guy. A loss in CR means the Jamaica game is a must win.

Not necessarily.  If we lose, AND Panama drop points to Honduras, AND Mexico beat the US, then we still qualify on the day.  And even if we don't qualify in Costa Rica, we'd still have to lose our other two matches and some other results would also have to happen for us to fall all the way to fourth place.

I can already hear a great big chant of "WE'RE GOING TO QATAR!" echoing out of section E27 of the Estadio Nacional at the end of the match.

[Shway]

Definitely an excuse why the pitch looks like that. 

they should always be prepared for a big snowfall, is there no contingency plan? Is it possible for a dome over the pitch so they can protect it from the elements and have a greater control with the use of their grow lights.

 With MLS season looking like it will continue to start early, going on the road for 5 games shouldn’t be an option.

 

[Bison44]

And this is the pitch that the players are clamoring to play on???  Come on this is canada, you cant expect the grass to perfect in nov or march, and the national team better be prepared to play on turf/indoors in the winter.  

[RS]

5 minutes ago, Bison44 said:

And this is the pitch that the players are clamoring to play on???  Come on this is canada, you cant expect the grass to perfect in nov or march, and the national team better be prepared to play on turf/indoors in the winter.  

As shown with the video I posted above, this isn't the norm for the hybrid turf at BMO. Even this early in the year.

As much of a disgrace it was over the weekend, I expect it will be better (but still nowhere near perfect) by the time the Jamaica game rolls around.

[VinceA]

I think players are more concerned with travel than the pitch.

[Jedi Ram]

The race to finish as the regional scoring kings (fifa.com)

Unfortunately, FIFA did not include the current list for this WC cycle but does for other regions.  Feeling very disrespectful.