Match Thread: Copa America Group A - Matchday 1 - Argentina v Canada - June 20, 2024 - 8pm local time (ET) / 5pm PT

[Joe MacCarthy]

 

[Mihairokov]

42 minutes ago, Alex said:

Last night a thought came to me, it was one I also had a few years ago…. Tell me if I’m crazy, but part of me back then was worried about this team getting big, going more mainstream. It brings out all kinds of levels of stupidity. 

Eh, it comes with the territory. The England team is plagued with a toxic media environment that hounds them at every breath, sabotaging their tournaments and matches by creating insane expectations hoping for them to fail so they have more material to write on following a loss. Our media here is only beginning to care about the team, let alone outright trying to sabotage them for their own game. We have a far way to go.

[Cheeta]

2 hours ago, BigMo said:

I agree, one of worst games I’ve seen him play.

Harsh on Bombito though and likely influenced by tackle on Messi. He made some errors but still showed his potential against very difficult opposition.

Without the benefit of a rewatch I thought Bombito had as good a match as could be expected given the circumstances.  Just look at that lineup steaming your way.   Yikes.

Kone however, I literally had a pint glass aimed at his head in the second half.  What the hell.

[Joe MacCarthy]

I liked the ease and trust with which Marsch did his subs.  There was no worry that we might get clobbered by putting in the non starters.  It won't be long before we have two guys at every position capable of getting the job done.

[JAVIERF]

34 minutes ago, RS said:

How can you possibly know that?

How do I know ?  Because I have played the game myself.  Check this and tell me deep down that I'm not correct.  

It applies for professional and amateurs too!! 

 

Football undresses footballers and shows them as their are in real life as ordinary people .  

Burrito Ortega was a drunken soul and a bitter resentful person until he got a fight against political science professor and footballer Lilian Thuram in Parma.  There was some boxing and the educated won it ,  they kicked Ortega out of Parma Calcio for good!

[Gian-Luca]

Lots of talk about Shaff being fouled outside the area, but the Argentinian player fouled him twice, the second contact with his thigh was definitely in the area. Either way, we would never be given a pk against Argentina even if it was even more clear and obvious 

[Soro17]

27 minutes ago, Bison44 said:

HEHE streetwise??  I guess that means trying to deflect and focus on a "bad person" who made a challenge on the sainted one.  What about all the talk of canada must play a B team and park the bus to have any chance?  Hmmmmmm, seems like the #1 team in the world had to take an extra 10min studying film to try and come up with tactics to beat Canada.  Didnt me the media did this with McNaughton as well.  I didnt realize that Messi whined that much.  Fouling the guy who is making all the plays and dancing through your defenders to score goals just seems like such a streetwise thing to do.  And Bombitos challenges werent even cynical, he was trying to win the ball. Sour whiny grapes, as some one else mentioned, wait until Chile and peru come at you.  

We should lean into it though. Just 11 Vinnie Jones on the pitch. 

[InglewoodJack]

55 minutes ago, Alex said:

Last night a thought came to me, it was one I also had a few years ago…. Tell me if I’m crazy, but part of me back then was worried about this team getting big, going more mainstream. It brings out all kinds of levels of stupidity. 

It does, but it also opens up more opportunity to expose intelligent takes and voices. Look at (American) football. Some of the absolutely dumbest fans on earth, but arguably some of the most insightful sporting commentary you’ll find. To me, soccer going mainstream does involve idiot fans saying like “Davies needs to be our striker because he’s our best player”, but it also gives opportunities to guys like AGR and JDD to become media personalities instead of only having the 3 guys with the most British accents in Canada get every reporting job available. 

[JAVIERF]

6 minutes ago, InglewoodJack said:

It does, but it also opens up more opportunity to expose intelligent takes and voices. Look at (American) football. Some of the absolutely dumbest fans on earth, but arguably some of the most insightful sporting commentary you’ll find. To me, soccer going mainstream does involve idiot fans saying like “Davies needs to be our striker because he’s our best player”, but it also gives opportunities to guys like AGR and JDD to become media personalities instead of only having the 3 guys with the most British accents in Canada get every reporting job available. 

Where is Tomasz Radzinski-?  He could be an asset as pundit 

[maplebanana]

Watching all the media mentally fellate Messi makes me want to praise Ronaldo purely out of spite. And I effin' hate Ronaldo.

[InglewoodJack]

3 minutes ago, maplebanana said:

Watching all the media mentally fellate Messi makes me want to praise Ronaldo purely out of spite. And I effin' hate Ronaldo.

Ronaldo says he wants to play next World Cup- I’m looking forward to hating him in person, because we know that out of pure coincidence he will be playing all his games in Canada and Mexico and then taking a leave of absence once Portugal advances to the knockouts and has to play in the US because of [REDCATED]

[DoyleG]

1 hour ago, InglewoodJack said:

Guardian is usually decent though. What is he on about Steve Bannon? keystone? I don’t even think we sell those in Canada. Writer sounds like a guy who thinks he is smarter than he is and also may think that Canada and the United States are the same country. 

The Guardian usually doesn't check the quality of all those who write articles for it.

[Unnamed Trialist]

2 hours ago, MtlMario said:

All I want to say for now is I hope we (Marsch) makes a lineup change next match ( and more than one). If the endgame is 2026 like he likes to say we need to see different starting players.

What would be logical changes without altering the core ideas?

[Unnamed Trialist]

1 hour ago, Gian-Luca said:

Lots of talk about Shaff being fouled outside the area, but the Argentinian player fouled him twice, the second contact with his thigh was definitely in the area. Either way, we would never be given a pk against Argentina even if it was even more clear and obvious 

The Salvadoran VAR team, think it was, stopped to look. 

And in the meantime both the ref and linesman learned they'd missed a foul. That showed bad faith. 

If you recall the ref vs Belgium didn't want to give us the penalty, if I'm not mixing things up.

[DrunkOffPunch]

2 hours ago, Gian-Luca said:

The more interesting part of the Guardian article was the quote from Marsch saying that Argentina were five minutes late to start the 2nd half because they were scrambling for more time to analyze the video to figure out how they hell they could play against us. Which fits into (a) the goal that Marsch has to make things uncomfortable as possible for the opposition and (b) Messi admitting after the game that it was a tricky match because they aren't used to teams playing against them the way Canada did.

The press overall wasn’t too dissimilar to Herdman’s to my eye (I liked his press), but man their defensive positioning all night was *chefs kiss*. Completely cutting off the middle of the field. The players were up for it. They keep playing like that and Canada will be a damn scary team.

 

Although I will say that high line was playing with fire.

[Watchmen]

The sentiment in my office this morning:

Casual fans who tuned in were quite surprised with how good Canada was and enjoyed the game.

A number of Europeans currently in the office were quite impressed with how well Canada played and also enjoyed the game.

[Mihairokov]

Argentine friend of mine who used to live in Canada and moved back years ago sent congratulations that we finally had world-class players with a good manager. 😁

[Free kick]

Argentina slams Mercedes-Benz pitch: 'Better that we won' - ESPN

Quote #1: "The Argentina national team slammed the pitch at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the inaugural match of the 2024 Copa América on Thursday night, with goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez calling the newly installed grass surface a "disaster" and manager Lionel Scaloni saying it was "better that we won."

"The state of the pitch was a disaster," the Aston Villa goalkeeper said. "Very bumpy. We must improve in this aspect; otherwise, Copa América will always appear at a lower level than the European Championship." "

Quote #2: " Canada defender Kamal Miller also criticized the pitch where his national team played its first Copa América match in its history.

"It felt like walking on a stage, as if it was hollow," Miller said." "

***

This doesnt bode well for WC 2026.  Seems that there will be several of these kind of surfaces (including in Vancouver) planned for WC 26

Edited June 21 by Free kick

[narduch]

19 minutes ago, Free kick said:

Argentina slams Mercedes-Benz pitch: 'Better that we won' - ESPN

Quote #1: "The Argentina national team slammed the pitch at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the inaugural match of the 2024 Copa América on Thursday night, with goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez calling the newly installed grass surface a "disaster" and manager Lionel Scaloni saying it was "better that we won."

"The state of the pitch was a disaster," the Aston Villa goalkeeper said. "Very bumpy. We must improve in this aspect; otherwise, Copa América will always appear at a lower level than the European Championship." "

Quote #2: " Canada defender Kamal Miller also criticized the pitch where his national team played its first Copa América match in its history.

"It felt like walking on a stage, as if it was hollow," Miller said." "

***

This doesnt bode well for WC 2026.  Seems that there will be several of these kind of surfaces (including in Vancouver) planned for WC 26

Panama v USA will be at this stadium in 6 days.

Will most likely be worse

[Joe MacCarthy]

 

[RS]

31 minutes ago, Free kick said:

Argentina slams Mercedes-Benz pitch: 'Better that we won' - ESPN

Quote #1: "The Argentina national team slammed the pitch at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the inaugural match of the 2024 Copa América on Thursday night, with goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez calling the newly installed grass surface a "disaster" and manager Lionel Scaloni saying it was "better that we won."

"The state of the pitch was a disaster," the Aston Villa goalkeeper said. "Very bumpy. We must improve in this aspect; otherwise, Copa América will always appear at a lower level than the European Championship." "

Quote #2: " Canada defender Kamal Miller also criticized the pitch where his national team played its first Copa América match in its history.

"It felt like walking on a stage, as if it was hollow," Miller said." "

***

This doesnt bode well for WC 2026.  Seems that there will be several of these kind of surfaces (including in Vancouver) planned for WC 26

In 2026 they will be using different methods (and installing the grass way earlier).

[narduch]

Just now, RS said:

In 2026 they will be using different methods (and installing the grass way earlier).

Is this for sure?

Or will we get the bait and switch like Qatar claiming they can Air Condition outdoor stadiums?

[InglewoodJack]

What’s the difference between the pitch last night and what the Falcons typically play on? I know the pitch last night wasn’t NFL standards, but surely whatever the NFL uses is more than appropriate for soccer.

[kacbru]

Just now, InglewoodJack said:

What’s the difference between the pitch last night and what the Falcons typically play on? I know the pitch last night wasn’t NFL standards, but surely whatever the NFL uses is more than appropriate for soccer.

Artificial. 

[RS]

15 minutes ago, narduch said:

Is this for sure?

Or will we get the bait and switch like Qatar claiming they can Air Condition outdoor stadiums?

Well considering they used tray grass systems 30 years ago at the Silverdome and Giants Stadium, I’d say the chances of FIFA pulling it off again are pretty high. 

Qatar basically tried to convince the world they had invented a new technology and surprised no one when they failed.

Of course, this being FIFA your skepticism could still be proven correct.