football_world

Wish we had a player as good as Mbappe. I didn't think a single player could have such a huge impact in the World Cup finals, and I have not seen a single player make such a huge difference in the World Cup finals that was not a goaltender. It felt like Mbappe was putting the entire French team on his shoulders and dragging them to the finish line. With Mbappe, I think we win or tie the Belgium game, and we win or tie the Morocco game too.

Just gonna say that I agree with @Bigandy@Lansdude@Ottawafan that we were outclassed by Croatia but using a better strategy and a more defensive formation (ie. bunkering and counter attacking) could have improved our chances. Not sure if using a better strategy and a more defensive formation could have led to a win, only that it would have improved our chances. The only caveat is, I don't know if Herdman and this team have really played a defensive formation and used a bunker strategy before. It's something that needs practice, and if the team didn't practice it extensively before, we may have been better off using our normal formation and strategy. I believe Morocco did a little bunkering, especially in the second round, but I think they had practiced it before, so the players and the team were familiar with it. I'm also not sure if Herdman has extensive experience with bunkering.

So Croatia and Morocco have been knocked out now. But it was interesting to watch how other teams played Croatia and Morocco, and to determine what Canada lacked against them. What I noticed most about how Croatia played Canada, versus how Croatia played against Brazil and Argentina, was that Croatia used some form of high press against Canada, but Croatia were reluctant to execute the same high press against Brazil and Argentina. As you may know, the disadvantage with a high press is that if the defenders on the team you are pressing can manage to pass the ball out back to the midfield, there is a lot of space for a counter attack. IMO, Croatia viewed Canada's defenders as having weaker passing ability and Croatia was right - our defenders made a lot of mistakes trying to pass the ball back out to midfield, and we lost possession to Croatia several times as a result. Against Brazil and Argentina though, Croatia respected the passing ability of their defenders and did not really press aggressively against Brazil and Argentina in their 1/3 of the field. The next one is pretty obvious, but Borjan just had a bad World Cup. Oh well, he got us through CONCACAF qualifying so I think we should be thankful for his play during qualifying. Having said that, both the French keeper and Argentina keeper played a much better match than Borjan, when France beat Morocco and when Argentina beat Croatia. Another thing that is obvious is the quality of players we have. For example, having a player like Messi, Mbappe, or Neymar would be so nice. Messi and Mbappe were involved in the goals scored when Argentina beat Croatia and when France beat Morocco. Neymar gave Brazil the go ahead goal against Croatia and Brazil just needed to defend for a few minutes. In general, having that quality, especially that depth of quality, is huge. For France, they don't even have Karim Benzema and Paul Pobga, and they can still reach the World Cup finals. In the case of Karim Benzema, he wasn't part of the World Cup squad when France won in 2018, and it looks like this year, France didn't need him either. For England's last game, Sterling and Rashford came off the bench. It would be nice for Canada if we had players like Sterling and Rashford sitting on the bench, and if we didn't need players of the quality of Karim Benzema and Paul Pogba to make the World Cup finals. Lastly, I got to admit, a little luck helps too. Looking back at the Morocco game, if Borjan didn't make that mistake and cleared the ball, and if Atiba Hutchinson's header had went in, our game against Morocco could have had a totally different result. Morocco was a very beatable team, at least in the match we played them. For Brazil, they just needed to defend for the last few minutes after Neymar scored - Brazil IMO, was clearly the better team than Croatia through 120 minutes of play (but of course, Croatia was just better in PKs). With a little more luck,I think Brazil would have gone through. Japan had that luck, with their ball staying just inbounds, and they got through to the second round. Anyways, I'm still proud of our boys and I look forward to how we perform in the 2026 World Cup.

Argentina vs France final please!

Ahh, alright. Haha, I read your tone wrong. Yup, I totally agree with you!

I assume you are being sarcastic, but there are actually people in the Canada vs Croatia thread that thought it was largely Herdman's fault that Canada lost. I'm of the opinion that unless Herdman or any other coach had played a "bunker" strategy, no coach, no matter how good they are, could have really found a way to beat Croatia with the talent that Canada has, playing a non bunker strategy (or not a very defensive strategy). I don't think Canada can beat the top European teams yet (unless a top European team plays way below their potential, a.k.a "Belgium"). Hope we get the talent one day, but we're not there yet. Still really proud of our boys for making the World Cup though and giving it all they have.

If Canada had a player like Messi, it would have made a huge difference against Croatia. Not saying we would have beat Croatia even if we had Messi, we may have still lost 4 goals, and maybe only scored 2 or 3 goals. But still, having someone like Messi on the field to confuse the Croatian defense, and break down the Croatian defense, is something that we don't have at the moment.

What's surprising is that Alphonso Davies developed mostly in Canada, before he went to Bayern. Prior to Alphonso Davies, I didn't know if Canada had the right environment to develop a world class player like Alphonso Davies (to be more accurate, Alphonso Davies is a world class left back player, as that is the position he played when he made the FIFA FIFPro World 11 a few years ago). So it's good to know that a world class player from their childhood can develop from Canadian soil. MLS definitely had a role in Alphonso Davies's growth, so I also hope MLS keeps getting better in the future!

After watching the England vs France game today, it's nice when you have players like Sterling and Rashford waiting on the bench. This is the depth of talent we need one day, if we are ever to contend for the World Cup, or make it deep into the playoffs. Granted, Morocco doesn't have the same level of talent as the other semi-finalists, but runs like Morocco with the talent they have (and Greece when they won the Euros) are pretty rare. I think Canada will get there one day, hopefully the MLS keeps on improving and we benefit from that.

It's nice when you have players like Sterling and Rashford waiting on the bench. This is the depth of talent we need one day, if we are ever to contend for the World Cup, or make it deep into the playoffs. Granted, Morocco doesn't have the same level of talent as the other semi-finalists, but runs like Morocco with the talent they have (and Greece when they won the Euros) are pretty rare. I think Canada will get there one day, hopefully the MLS keeps on improving and we benefit from that.

Now that is the textbook definition of bunkering. Very nice bunkering by Morocco, coaches in the future will be studying how Morocco bunkered against Spain. The interesting part of Morocco's bunker is, it was a very compact bunker. Morocco was voluntarily letting Spain walk up to about 65% up the field without challenging Spain. The striker for Morocco was positioned around the 35% part of Morocco's side. But once Spain tried to pass into the remaining 35% of Morocco's side, that's where the turnovers happened for Spain. Also, Morocco's defense was very organized. Heck, the entire team was very organized on defense. Very impressive bunkering defense. In hindsight, I think Canada should have bunkered against Croatia. Did anybody watch the Morocco vs Croatia game, did Morocco bunker against Croatia?

Just watched Morocco beat Spain. Now Morocco was doing the textbook definition of bunkering. Very nice bunkering by Morocco, coaches in the future will be studying how Morocco bunkered against Spain. The interesting part of Morocco's bunker is, it was a very compact bunker. Morocco was voluntarily letting Spain walk up to about 65% up the field without challenging Spain. The striker for Morocco was positioned around the 35% part of Morocco's side. But once Spain tried to pass into the remaining 35% of Morocco's side, that's where the turnovers happened for Spain. Also, Morocco's defense was very organized. Heck, the entire team was very organized on defense. Very impressive bunkering defense.

I just did a quick check of team salaries. Here are the top team salaries for MLS: https://www.capology.com/us/mls/payrolls/ (check the Gross P/Y column). Here are the top team salaries for Liga MX: https://www.capology.com/mx/liga-mx/payrolls/. Seems like the top teams in MLS have a comparable team salary to Liga MX. But this is probably because MLS spends more money on the DPs, whereas the non-DPs aren't paid as well. But still, for the total team salary, if you factor in the DPs, MLS is spending as much as Liga MX. In the case of Toronto FC, they are spending more money than any Liga MX team.

I think there will be an inflection point when MLS starts to surpass Liga MX, where MLS will receive a huge boost in Mexican American soccer fans. From what I understand, some Mexican Americans are still rather snobbish and refuse to watch MLS, watching Liga MX instead (of course, there are some Mexican Americans that may watch both MLS and Liga MX). But if the quality of MLS surpasses Liga MX, to the point where even the snobbish Mexican American Liga MX fans agree that MLS is better, I think that will be a huge inflection point for MLS (for curiosity, I found this Reddit thread here of what Liga MX fans think of MLS). At that point, there may even be a lot of Mexicans in Mexico that watch MLS, because they think MLS is better, and because a lot of top Mexicans are playing in MLS. Once the overwhelming majority of Mexican Americans tune into MLS, and even some Mexicans in Mexico start tuning into MLS, I can see MLS getting a huge boost in TV viewership and TV revenue, and MLS will be catapulted in the direction of challenging Series A or Ligue 1 in revenue next.

Just stopped watching the Brazil vs South Korea match. The winner was decided relatively quick.