The General Football Thread

Southgate reminds me Hughes for Saints. Gareth has definitely done a great job in getting us to a SF & F recently, similar to MH keeping us us but neither have what it takes to make the next step. Maybe a rather unfair comparison but you get my gist. Hopefully I’m wrong about GS but his tactical prowess doesn’t inspire me nor it seems the team.

 

That’s awful for the lad. I had been wondering why he had remained at Bournemouth. Guess I know the reason now.

 

I don't think this had anything to do with him staying - he was playing up until this international break.

 

Because depending on how long he has known about it he would never have passed a medical at another club…

Edit : re read and it reads like he has just found out

 

Really shocking news. Wish him all the best.

 

Maybe I don't understand football, but I'm pretty sure this is a penalty?




...and, for about the fourth time already in WCQ, Canada finds itself with a bunch of pushing and shoving as the half ends.

 

Another international window complete, so another Canadian Men's National Team update...

After the draw with Mexico, Canada went to play an away match in Jamaica. Jamaica is usually an incredibly difficult to play, in a bandbox of a stadium with the crowd right on top of the pitch, but with no crowd and with Jamaica struggling badly, it was a match Canada went in to expecting points. Unfortunately, heavy rains turned the turf into a sodden, bumpy mess, and despite chances on both sides (including Liverpool's Liam Miller managing to limply lob the ball to the Jamaican keeper when he had a whole damned net to aim at from 6 yards out and no defenders within a continent of him) the match wasn't exactly a classic, with ball control difficult and passing even harder. It ended 0-0, but there's never such a thing as a bad away point in CONCACAF.


That set tonight's match up to be extremely important: home against Panama, who were in the 3rd and final automatic qualifying spots, directly above Canada. Owing to a couple injuries, Canada hadn't had much opportunity to rotate their key players, so this was the third start in a week for Davies and David, with a lot of high-energy play in the previous two matches (and the requisite amount of excessive fouling that is CONCACAF's claim to fame) to drain their legs. And when Canada ended up in an early 1-0 deficit, it didn't look great. But Canada equalized off an OG from a corner, had a couple good penalty shouts turned down (CONCACAF referees consider anything less than vehicular manslaughter to be within the bounds of fairness) and generally dominated until the 66th minute. Panama's timewasting and general ****housery was keeping the Canadians at bay to some extent, though.

...and then Alphonso Davies happened.



My dude ran 80 yards and, at full speed, nicked the ball off a defender with a single touch, turned another defender inside-out, and then slotted it near post. Panama was pretty well beaten from that point...Canada added a couple more, through Tajon Buchanan (who is quickly growing into being a force in his own right, albeit one overshadowed by Davies and David) and Jonathan David, for a 4-1 win.


So, uh, this is good. Six matches played, 2 W 4 D 0 L and several difficult tests passed for a very young squad with tremendous talent that hadn't answered the "but how will they do on a muddy Sunday in Kingston" question that is the Western Hemisphere's version of the cold Tuesday in Stoke. Third in the table and only a single point behind the US, with more than a full result separating Canada from 5th and a +6 goal differential that leads the group (at least for the moment; Mexico plays tonight) and should be close to unassailable in tiebreak scenarios, given that no team other than the US, Mexico and Canada have a positive GD.

The next window sees Canada playing twice on the frozen tundra of Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium*, against Costa Rica and Mexico. Beating Costa Rica (who sit 5th at current) would be a massive step toward qualification. Beating Costa Rica and Mexico would see Canada on the cusp...16 points from 8 would be almost impossible to **** up.

*To get a sense of how deliberate a decision it was to make these games absolutely miserable for warm-weather opposition, Canada hasn't played a competitive match in Edmonton in 13 years, before Canada even had football-specific stadia. It's a large, frigid stadium designed for gridiron football that is frankly a stupid place to play football, unless you want your opposition to get frostbite by the 20th minute.



This has been your regularly-scheduled Canadian Men's National Team update. Rejoice, because it's a full month until the next one.

 

I'm really enjoying these Canada updates. Really hope they qualify.



I reserve the right to retract when we play out a dull 0-0 in Doha next year.

 

It's honestly pretty surreal. I started doing these back in the 2014 qualifying cycle because I thought the contrast was funny...this thread would have posts about England's march to the World Cup, with a handful about Scotland etc from other non-English posters, and then I'd throw in that Canada had a huge match against Honduras or whatever that would get them to a playoff to get dicked in the Hexagonal. And then they'd inevitably get slaughtered by Honduras and that would be the end of that. The possibility that they might actually qualify never really entered my mind, because that isn't a thing that happens.

Obviously, this squad has enough talent that it was a possibility, but I assumed it was a couple years too soon...they'd falter against veteran Caribbean/Central American sides (not unusual even for the US and Mexico) and fall short before or in the final qualifying round, and then in 2026 we'd get an automatic berth (which would be an annoying way to make the WC for the first time in 40 years, given that I hate the automatic qualification provision, especially with three host nations). And now they're a couple good results from doing the damned thing.

If Canada actually does make it, my hopes are still fairly muted. A goal would be great...we've never scored one of those in the World Cup before, as we were blanked in all three of our matches in 1986. A point would also be a novel experience, so maybe get one of those. Anything beyond that is too weird to contemplate.

 

Go Canada!

 

The NZ all whites managed two important wins beating curacao and Bahrain. It’s a young team playing attractive football great for th esport over here!

 

Some skills that.

 

I really don't want Canada to finish 4th because there would then be a 33% chance that it would be Canada - NZ for a spot via the interconfederation playoff, and I'd prefer that not be the case. Us mild-mannered countries living in the shadow of our larger, much louder neighbours have to stick together.

 

Pub quiz question - The only team to go unbeaten in the 2010 world cup? New Zealand with 3 draws. Didn't make the knock out but didnt lose a game.

 

Question regarding FFP and takeovers.

Obviously I'm ignorant of the rules, but how to the 2 things interact? Newcastle now have mega-rich owners, but if they are still tied to FFP rules, how do they "buy their way to the top"? Surely pumping money into the club, most of it would be considered a loss, at least in the early years.

 

Apparently they have a 200m amount they can spend and still be within limits given how little Ashley spent

I don’t know how wages are reflected here

 

Be interesting to see who becomes sponsors of stadium name and main shirt, as that's the obvious route to allow injection of cash into the business.
I bet the Toon Army will suck up having the ground renamed "the Vagisil stadium" if the price is right

 

Viva Las Cerezas!!!

 

FFP involves wages, specifically. If Newcastle spends huge sums on transfer fees but their wage budget doesn't triple, they'll probably be okay.

Also, there are so many offsets and loopholes in FFP that I'm fairly unconvinced that it affects any team unless they get really mismanaged (so, Everton last year when their wage bill soared ended up in a slight bit of difficulty).

 

Did Bournemouth win?