Concacaf Nations League Match #2: Honduras v Canada - Monday, 13 June, 7 pm PT / 10 pm ET - San Pedro Sula

[PastPros]

What I find funny is how we (and the announcers) start these kinds of matches saying "it's going to be a frustrating night, we just need to keep our cool"... And then we all lose our shit when the inevitable happens.

[ECW]

1 hour ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

I fell asleep before watching, better maybe.

I suppose if you are in the flow of watching in poor conditions, the nervousness and frustration is justified. But it sounded like Canada falling back into the old Canada, and the excuses and complaints from the fans, the same. 

The team captain can conclude the pitch cannot be played on and make the argument to the ref. So can the delegation. We didn't.

The negative vibes don't bode well for the team. We just wasted a window. But losing is probably good. Too bad we could not lose against Iran or have problems with Panama to test our real level. Or else overcome both and come out of this with some better vibes.

Refs: you are all aware we were enormously favoured by refs in the entire WC qualilfying cycle. Our penalty vs. Honduras in the first match was very soft, it was gifted. El Salvador I think most definitely deserved a call when it was 0-0 down there. You felt we were being pampered over the course of 14 games. Can anyone name a clear case of us being hard done by in qualifying?

Looking at this thread made me feel we were mentally on track to repeat what Canada did in 1986, and it got me down. Could we go three and out in Qatar? Well the odds say that is what is going to happen, anything else runs against them. How are we going to turn this around? 

Finally: if things do not go well in Qatar, some players, press and fans will blame the CSA for the distraction of not negotiating on the up and up, and screwing up the preparation. And then the CSA, some press and fans can blame the players for sidetracking themselves when they had everything flowing in their direction for what was really important.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing about ‘86. And I’m guessing that if it wasn’t the Canadian pluck in playing that game without questioning it, it was the fact that it would have looked bad on the players to fly down there only to opt out at the last minute… given the circumstances of the rest of the window. 

It was depressing to see Davies slip and slide and fall on his ass trying to get to a simple ball. Good luck no one was seriously injured. 

 

[Unnamed Trialist]

44 minutes ago, phil03 said:

Vs Panama in Toronto. We dont talk about it because it wound up working out aniway but we should have had like three penalties when it was 1-1. 

I suppose I just blocked things out, but will take another look. 

Another thing I did not mention: we put our rivals under extreme cold, deliberately (Honduras did not schedule rain, and this match was being played later in reduced heat). So us complaining about the conditions when threat of frostbite and other physical harm  at the temperatures we were submitting rivals to was real. Maybe a sane Concacaf ref should have not had us play those. But here we are, railing at the useless ref last night.

BTW, we barely hung on to avoid a draw vs Mexico, and Costa Rica actually played well and only fell to a keeper error that Keylor would not have made. The US was not phased either, they had possession only without creating danger. Conclusion: they did pretty well to overcome a weather diversity we imposed. So what is our excuse when unpredictable and unplanned weather affects both teams?

[trc2014]

One thing that actually may hurt going forward in the CNL tournament is that we play Curaçao away first with a tons of guys on yellows.  Very good chance we lose a player to the most important Honduras at home match.

[apbsmith]

13 minutes ago, ECW said:

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing about ‘86. And I’m guessing that if it wasn’t the Canadian pluck in playing that game without questioning it, it was the fact that it would have looked bad on the players to fly down there only to opt out at the last minute… given the circumstances of the rest of the window. 

It was depressing to see Davies slip and slide and fall on his ass trying to get to a simple ball. Good luck no one was seriously injured. 

 

Every single club team telling Herdman play your September games in Europe please. I'm sure clubs would have gladly paid the fines or sanctions to not have their players play on that. 

I'm pumped for the YouTube comedy classic slip and slide highlight package. 

What a disaster of a window, hope the CSA get it together for September since "they are fans" as well. 

 

Edited June 14, 2022 by apbsmith

[narduch]

1 hour ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

I fell asleep before watching, better maybe.

I suppose if you are in the flow of watching in poor conditions, the nervousness and frustration is justified. But it sounded like Canada falling back into the old Canada, and the excuses and complaints from the fans, the same. 

The team captain can conclude the pitch cannot be played on and make the argument to the ref. So can the delegation. We didn't.

The negative vibes don't bode well for the team. We just wasted a window. But losing is probably good. Too bad we could not lose against Iran or have problems with Panama to test our real level. Or else overcome both and come out of this with some better vibes.

Refs: you are all aware we were enormously favoured by refs in the entire WC qualilfying cycle. Our penalty vs. Honduras in the first match was very soft, it was gifted. El Salvador I think most definitely deserved a call when it was 0-0 down there. You felt we were being pampered over the course of 14 games. Can anyone name a clear case of us being hard done by in qualifying?

Looking at this thread made me feel we were mentally on track to repeat what Canada did in 1986, and it got me down. Could we go three and out in Qatar? Well the odds say that is what is going to happen, anything else runs against them. How are we going to turn this around? 

Finally: if things do not go well in Qatar, some players, press and fans will blame the CSA for the distraction of not negotiating on the up and up, and screwing up the preparation. And then the CSA, some press and fans can blame the players for sidetracking themselves when they had everything flowing in their direction for what was really important.

Watching a lot of Lille prepared me for last night.

I know its sacrilege to say on this site, but perhaps Herdman isn't the master manager we have built him up to be and we actually needed a lot of luck to get to where we are.

 

[jhoops__]

11 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

I suppose I just blocked things out, but will take another look. 

Another thing I did not mention: we put our rivals under extreme cold, deliberately (Honduras did not schedule rain, and this match was being played later in reduced heat). So us complaining about the conditions when threat of frostbite and other physical harm  at the temperatures we were submitting rivals to was real. Maybe a sane Concacaf ref should have not had us play those. But here we are, railing at the useless ref last night.

BTW, we barely hung on to avoid a draw vs Mexico, and Costa Rica actually played well and only fell to a keeper error that Keylor would not have made. The US was not phased either, they had possession only without creating danger. Conclusion: they did pretty well to overcome a weather diversity we imposed. So what is our excuse when unpredictable and unplanned weather affects both teams?

Yep…also, I give full credit to Honduras for having a game plan and sticking to it and for their fans to chant and cheer their side who hadn’t won a game in 2 years…for us, stop bitching and get to work on playing better with adversity!    

[EJsens1]

Holy doom and gloom by some. “Back to old Canada” after a game on that pitch? If this had been normal conditions we’d have smoked them. Sure we did a poor job adjusting to the conditions, trying to use our skill and speed to carry the ball up the field, but we won’t be seeing these kind of conditions anytime soon. We’re a good team. Good teams lose games sometimes too

[DeRo_Is_King]

3 minutes ago, EJsens1 said:

Holy doom and gloom by some. “Back to old Canada” after a game on that pitch? If this had been normal conditions we’d have smoked them. Sure we did a poor job adjusting to the conditions, trying to use our skill and speed to carry the ball up the field, but we won’t be seeing these kind of conditions anytime soon. We’re a good team. Good teams lose games sometimes too

Exactly right. A loss is a loss, but even Alphonso Davies did not perform properly on that pitch. I'm not about to give up on them after yesterday. 

[dyslexic nam]

23 minutes ago, narduch said:

I know its sacrilege to say on this site, but perhaps Herdman isn't the master manager we have built him up to be and we actually needed a lot of luck to get to where we are.

 

12 minutes ago, EJsens1 said:

Holy doom and gloom by some. “Back to old Canada” after a game on that pitch? If this had been normal conditions we’d have smoked them. Sure we did a poor job adjusting to the conditions, trying to use our skill and speed to carry the ball up the field, but we won’t be seeing these kind of conditions anytime soon. We’re a good team. Good teams lose games sometimes too

Little bit of both I think.  Herdman has shown a great ability to learn from his mistakes but he has also shown some naïveté the first time around.  Last night was a new experience for him and for some of the guys on the team, and I think we adjusted poorly. I know it is just one instance, but Davies trying to do stepovers at one point last night was symptomatic of our inability to substantially adjust our playing style under ridiculous conditions. 

Having said that, we had a number of decent chances that just weren’t. Inverted and the conditions thwarted our preferred approach specifically.  Our speed was nullified by an inability to get traction and shift directions, our quick passing game was impossible, and our high press had to be abandoned because you risked fouling every time you went at someone with pace. 

In the end it was frustrating and I think we should have done better despite the circumstances- but it isn’t anything I am going to worry about.  I suspect Herdman will look at the result and go over it with the boys with far more insight and nuance than I could.  

 

 

Edited June 14, 2022 by dyslexic nam

[InglewoodJack]

Can you really glean anything from this game considering the joke of a pitch? What an embarrassment.

Anyways, we move on. The home against Honduras better be in Iqaluit.

[mrstepp817]

It was a rough window from a morale standpoint for the fans....canceled game vs Iran, canceled game vs Panama, player protest, then last nights debacle....hit the reset button announce the Sept friendlies and just flush the past two weeks

[prairiecanuck]

The players seemed genuinely pissed they lost last night.  Clearly the ref and pitch invading fans played into that.   I see this reaction as a positive.  They will be hungry and focused for their games in September.  I don't see last nights result as a bad one at all.  We will still get out of our Nation's league group and we have a hungry motivated National team going into the next window. 

[kohanz]

7 minutes ago, mrstepp817 said:

It was a rough window from a morale standpoint for the fans....canceled game vs Iran, canceled game vs Panama, player protest, then last nights debacle....hit the reset button announce the Sept friendlies and just flush the past two weeks

Agreed. As far as the losing goes, I'm not overly concerned. It may not actually be the worst thing for these guys to have some more doubters, some more underdog vibes, and a bigger chip on their shoulder, heading into September and Qatar. Might be better than continuing to ride some sort of fairytale high.

[Gian-Luca]

8 minutes ago, InglewoodJack said:

Can you really glean anything from this game considering the joke of a pitch? What an embarrassment.

Anyways, we move on. The home against Honduras better be in Iqaluit.

What I glean from it is that Honduras is better at the newly created sport of Aquatic Soccer than we are. 

I guess I don’t blame the team too much if the coach was telling them to stick to the process as part of World Cup prep, which is what Peter Galindo is claiming in the MLS site. It is not like the team hasn’t been flexible in the way they play in the past.

[InglewoodJack]

4 minutes ago, Gian-Luca said:

What I glean from it is that Honduras is better at the newly created sport of Aquatic Soccer than we are. 

I guess I don’t blame the team too much if the coach was telling them to stick to the process as part of World Cup prep, which is what Peter Galindo is claiming in the MLS site. It is not like the team hasn’t been flexible in the way they play in the past.

Not to mention, none of these guys want to catch an injury before the new season before they overextended playing a glorified friendly on a pitch that was nowhere near game friendly. It’s just a drag that this is the last competitive game until the World Cup, but I wouldn’t watch this game and think any less of our team 

[phil03]

1 hour ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

I suppose I just blocked things out, but will take another look. 

Another thing I did not mention: we put our rivals under extreme cold, deliberately (Honduras did not schedule rain, and this match was being played later in reduced heat). So us complaining about the conditions when threat of frostbite and other physical harm  at the temperatures we were submitting rivals to was real. Maybe a sane Concacaf ref should have not had us play those. But here we are, railing at the useless ref last night.

BTW, we barely hung on to avoid a draw vs Mexico, and Costa Rica actually played well and only fell to a keeper error that Keylor would not have made. The US was not phased either, they had possession only without creating danger. Conclusion: they did pretty well to overcome a weather diversity we imposed. So what is our excuse when unpredictable and unplanned weather affects both teams?

We did the cold thing three times, including once with a team actually used to it, and we were only able to do it this time around with the schedule moved around with covid. Honduras bad benefited from a crappy pitch, extreme heat and disgracefull behaviour by their fans for decades.

Yeah, we should have adapted better but I strongly disagree there is any equivalency.

[Unnamed Trialist]

Just now, phil03 said:

We did the cold thing three times, including once with a team actually used to it, and we were only able to do it this time around with the schedule moved around with covid. Honduras bad benefited from a crappy pitch, extreme heat and disgracefull behaviour by their fans for decades.

Yeah, we should have adapted better but I strongly disagree there is any equivalency.

I didn't say there was equivalency: we deliberately screwed rivals with extreme temperatures and iffy pitches, Honduras did not. 

So we have even less to bitch about and anything else is ultra-loser mentality.

[prairiecanuck]

1 hour ago, narduch said:

Watching a lot of Lille prepared me for last night.

I know its sacrilege to say on this site, but perhaps Herdman isn't the master manager we have built him up to be and we actually needed a lot of luck to get to where we are.

 

Herdman has read countless books about football theory and game play.  I guess he forgot to check the one from the library titled, "How to win a football match on a flooded field unfit for play"

Fans often are unfairly critical of managers when their teams lose.  Being critical of a manager when a team plays in those laughable conditions is a stretch for even the most discontent fan.  

[prairiecanuck]

5 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

I didn't say there was equivalency: we deliberately screwed rivals with extreme temperatures and iffy pitches, Honduras did not. 

So we have even less to bitch about and anything else is ultra-loser mentality.

Yeah.  I feel like last night was bit of Karma..lol. The match had to be played. It's difficult to reschedule and the fans showed up.  It was a crapshoot.  We lost.  Congratulate the Honduran fans and move on.  The result was not a reflection on the quality of our team.  Surely, most of us have more confidence in the squad than to worry about what transpired last night.  That loss has brought zero anxiety to my feelings about the squad.  

[El Hombre]

34 minutes ago, Gian-Luca said:

What I glean from it is that Honduras is better at the newly created sport of Aquatic Soccer than we are. 

Oh crap, don't tell Bontis about this because that would just be another team that the CSA funds which would cut into the World Cup windfall.

[BigMo]

8 hours ago, Ally McCoist said:

Herdman says "CONCACAF" a lot in this interview. Clearly just playing the media here. He's obviously pissed off at the cirumstances surrounding this game.

Sorry, I have to roll my eyes at this. Both teams played on the same pitch. Obviously wasn't conducive for free flowing football, but going back to CONCACAF complaints after managing a qualifying cycle where you dealt with them is lame. 

[InglewoodJack]

2 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

I suppose I just blocked things out, but will take another look. 

Another thing I did not mention: we put our rivals under extreme cold, deliberately (Honduras did not schedule rain, and this match was being played later in reduced heat). So us complaining about the conditions when threat of frostbite and other physical harm  at the temperatures we were submitting rivals to was real. Maybe a sane Concacaf ref should have not had us play those. But here we are, railing at the useless ref last night.

BTW, we barely hung on to avoid a draw vs Mexico, and Costa Rica actually played well and only fell to a keeper error that Keylor would not have made. The US was not phased either, they had possession only without creating danger. Conclusion: they did pretty well to overcome a weather diversity we imposed. So what is our excuse when unpredictable and unplanned weather affects both teams?

You can physically play soccer in the cold ie when you kick the ball, it will roll on the pitch like it’s supposed to. You can also play in the pouring rain. What you can’t do is play on a pitch that is so waterlogged the ball can’t travel. The equivalency of what we did is if Honduras scheduled the game at high noon and forced us to play in 45 degree humidity. The equivalency of what Honduras did last night was if we played in -15, but also straight up didn’t shovel the pitch.

[Unnamed Trialist]

10 minutes ago, InglewoodJack said:

You can physically play soccer in the cold ie when you kick the ball, it will roll on the pitch like it’s supposed to. You can also play in the pouring rain. What you can’t do is play on a pitch that is so waterlogged the ball can’t travel. The equivalency of what we did is if Honduras scheduled the game at high noon and forced us to play in 45 degree humidity. The equivalency of what Honduras did last night was if we played in -15, but also straight up didn’t shovel the pitch.

Well first, I played on waterlogged pitches my entire youth through rainy Vancouver winters, and in parts of Vancouver that had the highest rainfall in some cases (Lynn Valley). 

Perhaps you have heard, they also play it in England. 

But let's just pretend that never happened and make up shit as to why we are weak minded and are so quick on the excuses. Honduras played on the same pitch.

Regardless, the rules specifically say that the captains can claim that the pitch is waterlogged and call on the ref to wait, postpone, call off. We did not, because we basically went down there with a cavalier attitude. So that is on us. If we'd played because the ref imposed the match against our criteria, it'd be different. 

Whatever happened to owning the decisions you make in life? 

That is why Honduras is a ganster football team and we are still in pussy mode.

[Obinna]

It's not complicated, they got an early goal and adjusted better to the conditions, which is no surprise as they were at home. The crowd got behind them and our frusturation with the conditions gave them hope, which they capitalized on.

A little pissed at the result, but we push on. We have bigger fish to fry.