Copa America: Canada vs Argentina - Tuesday, July 9th - 8pm Eastern / 5pm Pacific - NYC area

[The Beaver 2.0]

Kone was mostly really great, which made me really damned happy. Many of our starters were absolutely gassed. They'd been to war for three straight games. David, Eustaquio, Laryea, and Shaff especially seemed to be struggling. Staq had a decent game, he just looked tired. Larin was better than what several of you were claiming. But I am excited to see what Tanni can do going forward, and Ahmed.

This group took several massive, foundational steps this tournament. Marsch knows more about his squad than he did when all of this started, certainly.  

I worry about Millar. i hope he continues to develop, but I think there are several players emerging who might displace him.

Ahmed did not look out of place. Tajon will be back. Choiniere was solid. 

Oh, if only we potted one goal!

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

2 minutes ago, Vasi said:

I think that Kone was very good tonight. He will me fantastic in 26. 

I'm very concerned for David. 

David needs to play nearer the net against good teams.  Did tons of good work but no rhythm.

I understand the decision to play 2 good players especially when have lacked goals but we need an at minimum all-action midfielder. 

[eramosat]

1 minute ago, jonovision said:

You want to see Kyle Hiebert out there against Colombia or Uruguay?

when you put it that way...it is entirely reasonable for the game result to be secondary to testing more ideas, formation or player-wise for the coaching staff.  

Pretty easy for the mostly starting line-up to add new players...a Larin sub...a mid sub...and a back sub!  Or similar, and Marsch can continue his learning.

[Free kick]

3 minutes ago, Corazon said:

Honestly I understand the excitement and the high expectations, but wow it feels people don’t know who Argentina is.  Once they got the lead, they went into cruise control which I think helped the confidence of our players later in the game.  But this is a team that’s lost 2 times out of their past 65 games or something.  They have more trophies (3) than they have losses (2) in the past 5 years and we’re berating our players.  Guess what?  When we play top teams in top competitions, everything becomes more difficult.

Im proud of our boys.  Argentina plays too 10 nations regularly and we gave a good run.  Overall a much improved performance in comparison to our first game.

Echo this 100%

[canuckgbp]

Does Tani have enough in the tank to run that fast all the time? Guy was flying out there 

[dyslexic nam]

Shoutout to CPL by Staq.  Nice.  

[Wasp]

While I had a sliver of hope at a monumental upset, this was always the likely result. Hell of a showing in the tournament and still another game to go. A few thoughts:

1) The Larin-David experiment needs to end. Both are great players but they aren't a good pairing up top.

2) Ahmed might be what we need to push Davies higher up the pitch. Would love to see him starting at LB with Davies at LW in a 4-3-3.

3) Kone responded so well to being dropped. Not a controversial take, but he may end up being our 2nd most important player behind Davies in 2026

4) I really like Millar as a player but he didn't have a great tournament. I'd rather see Shaff or Ahmed over him on the left at this point. Too many skied shots and doesn't seem to have the finishing ability needed to play higher up than LWB.

5) Bombito and Cornelius are for real. I don't think I've ever felt this confident in our CB's and they should both get better as they move to bigger clubs in better leagues.

6) It's insane how far this program has come that we have MLS All-Stars and starters as bench players. Hopefully we can keep using the CanMT to put them in the shop window and get guys like Ahmed, Choiniere, Tani, and eventually JRR moves to Europe just like Johnston and Kone got off of the WC run.

[Corazon]

Wow.  👏🏼 Eustaquio with the CPL shout.

[Corazon]

Double post

Edited July 10 by Corazon

[Gian-Luca]

Eustaquio big ups the need for the CPL right on TSN. Take that Westhead!

[VinceA]

Julian De Guzman SEETHING after hearing Eustaquio mention the CPL

[JAVIERF]

8 minutes ago, jonovision said:

Another way this tournament was rigged for Argentina: they had a rest advantage in their quarterfinal and semifinal match. Nobody else can say the same.

We are the current champion,  we will always be 

 

A1

WHAT I AGREE,  IS SPOT 2, 3 , 4 should have been drawn, not seeded .  

 

[sose]

16 minutes ago, dyslexic nam said:

I don’t disagree.  

but we have USA and Mexico in Sept.

[jhoops__]

6 minutes ago, mowe said:

We lack quality in the final third. Never more obvious than against top level teams. 
 

Hopefully we learn from this experience. Still something to play for on the weekend.

I don’t think we’ll ever have high quality in the final third vs the best teams in the world…

[The Beaver 2.0]

1 minute ago, JAVIERF said:

We are the current champion,  we will always be 

 

A1

WHAT I AGREE,  IS SPOT 2, 3 , 4 should have been drawn, not seeded .  

 

Colombia for the win!!

[74 Whitecap]

8 minutes ago, eramosat said:

I think it will be quite apparent that 1st Copa match vs this Copa match against Argentina, that Canada's play has already matured quite a bit.

 

It's a real step forward.  Huge in fact, the maturity is extremely noticeable.

Yes, this was a much improved game vs. the opener. The reality is, we rode our luck in the opening game and Argentina missed a bunch of very clear-cut chances. Today, maybe Messi pulled a couple wide, but mostly, they scored on the two good chances they got, with both coming very close to being saved by Crepeau. At the other end Martinez was a bit fortunate to block Tani's effort that he almost caught him going the wrong way on.

We were much better with our decision making in our own end and in the midfield in this one, Kone especially. Defensive positioning still needs work, but it was better, and he was making better decisions about moving the ball. His ability to turn and accelerate away from a press is truly exceptional.

Overall, the team looked a little gassed, especially the guys who have been playing full 90's, and not from the backline - Staq and David I am thinking of here.

Hard to read too much from the final 30 minutes with Argentina locking things down, but I thought Choiniere looked good. Ahmed is the same somewhat limited player he is for the Caps, but he wasn't terrible. Tani seems to have that strikers eye for goal, and I think the goals will come.

Same result as game 1, but in game 1, that scoreline flattered us a little, and this time, the other way around.  I don't put too much stock in a 3rd place game, but it will be good for the guys to have another run-around, and Marsch to get a chance to see/try some different things.

 

[JAVIERF]

Just now, The Beaver 2.0 said:

Colombia for the win!!

If it is Colombia ,  we would win it,  but if it is Uruguay ,  Bielsa will undo us ,  they have more grit.

 

Colombia really respect our team 

[jhoops__]

5 minutes ago, WestHamCanadianinOxford said:

David needs to play nearer the net against good teams.  Did tons of good work but no rhythm.

I understand the decision to play 2 good players especially when have lacked goals but we need an at minimum all-action midfielder. 

We don’t have a class 10 or even a high level winger in all honesty so creating offence and finishing vs elite teams will always be tough.

[The Beaver 2.0]

Was this a better performance for us than the first match?  I feel it was, but maybe only marginally. Same result, fewer mistakes...

[Canucklehead69]

I wish we would have given them a little less respect before the second goal

 

Great effort throughout the tournament. I hope Davies is ok.

We desperately need an attacking midfielder so we can push David up

[Trois Reds]

2 minutes ago, jhoops__ said:

I don’t think we’ll ever have high quality in the final third vs the best teams in the world…

If we keep getting opportunities to play those top teams, maybe we can learn how to produce that quality. 

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

Just now, jhoops__ said:

We don’t have a class 10 or even a high level winger in all honesty so creating offence and finishing vs elite teams will always be tough.

We do have a winger, we just don't have a left back.

[vancanman]

2 minutes ago, Corazon said:

Honestly I understand the excitement and the high expectations, but wow it feels people don’t know who Argentina is.  Once they got the lead, they went into cruise control which I think helped the confidence of our players later in the game.  But this is a team that’s lost 2 times out of their past 65 games or something.  They have more trophies (3) than they have losses (2) in the past 5 years and we’re berating our players.  Guess what?  When we play top teams in top competitions, everything becomes more difficult.

Im proud of our boys.  Argentina plays too 10 nations regularly and we gave a good run.  Overall a much improved performance in comparison to our first game.

↑ That's frightening.

Agreed.  We weren't playing El Salvador and Suriname in this tournament.

I am disappointed, thought,  that Argentina felt it necessary to resort to CONMEBOLery, and frustrated that we almost never get a decent referee.

 

[canuckgbp]

 

[The Beaver 2.0]

Oh, Johnston was very good again. I hope he can take a step up from Celtic, he's capable of it.