Some farty bits of football farts.
And as we transition back comfortably into the day-time soap that is the Premier League plus The Rest That Are Likely As Good If Not Better But Are Not As Popular Because They Aren’t Located In English-Speaking Nations And Therefore Not Covered As Much By English-Speaking Media, some little crumbs from the disaster in Canadian soccer this past week to attend to.
Well, one bit of unfinished business.
Daniel Squizzato reports on former Canadian mens national team coach Stephen Hart’s post-resignation presser. You should read it in full here. I didn’t know Hart personally that well (although once, when I was half-gassed on free Umbro beer at some shirt launch, he told me he read my former blog, which I couldn’t figure out was a joke or not and to this day still don’t know), my limited experience of him was of a guy who faced an enormous up-hill battle, not least in fighting clubs over various player selection choices. I often think his hardest job was filling that damn roster, which he alluded as much to in today’s call:
“Overall, we need more depth,” he said of the Canadian program. “If you look at the USA as an example, they went into their last games with the (top) goalscorer in the MLS (Chris Wondolowski) and the (top) goalscorer in the Eredivisie (Jozy Altidore) not even in their (squad).
“In a year, we’ve lost Ali Gerba, Josh Simpson, Dwayne DeRosario and Olivier Occean, and it’s very hard to replace that attacking impetus. It’s not one-for-one swaps here.”
And so there we are: while Hart would refuse to blame his players for the 8-1 braining, it’s clear he didn’t always have the pieces he needed at his disposal. This thing was always bigger than him, the ask was too big, and will continue to be as long as the status quo remains.
Anyway, enough of this CMNT malarkey! Here’s a photo of Moussa Dembele and Clint Dempsey ‘jamming’:
My boys jammin’ out#dempsey#sandro#guitar#boyband#dressingroom#aftertraining instagr.am/p/Q-OkDVt8WS/
— Mousa Dembélé (@mousadembele) October 19, 2012
Speaking of Spurs, Michael Cox seems to think Tottenham’s flexible midfield could do one against Chelsea this weekend. And because Villas-Boas is the hippiest-hipster of all the hipster managers, he loves him a sexy interchangeable midfield, with rotating pieces and rapid overlaps and transitions. If he can’t do that with a side with Sandro, Dembele and Vertonghen, then well, yes.
Pivoting awkwardly back to MLS and Canada for a sec, you should know that the Montreal Impact are going to be travelling to Italy for a tour once the season is over, Bologna and Fiorentina to be exact. This partnership with Serie A that Joey Saputo seems intent on building with this club appears awesome to me:
“This trip will give us the opportunity to extend our season by three weeks and cut down on the down time prior to the opening of training camp for the 2013 season,” Impact sporting director Nick De Santis said in a statement.
“We would like to thank the two clubs for giving us the opportunity to organize these games, despite the fact that they are in mid-season of their championships. This trip will also help us forge a stronger relationship with two prestigious organizations and could open doors for players wishing to play in North America one day.”
Who wants a career as a Cosmunist?
Want to help in our return to the field? We’re looking to add some talented people to the New York Cosmos family: nycosmos.com/careers
— The New York Cosmos (@TheNYCosmos) October 19, 2012
And that’s all I got. Enjoy the weekend fools.
Totally agree about Hart’s comments regarding depth. One of the first things he did when he became the head coach was to give a look to different guys. Sometimes this was out of necessity, granted, but at least he had a good look at what he had available.
Frankly, I’m sure he was pretty discouraged with what he had available.
In the end, there was a distinct lack of competition for spots in key positions, i.e., at RB, where Edgar had shown clear limitations in the big away matches vs Panama and Honduras (his technical shortcomings were clear in the latter match). A newer cap like Pacheco couldn’t beat out Dunfield for a starting place in the GC last year and his only contribution this time out was dribbling the ball out of play unopposed vs Panama: not an impact player.
Lack of depth and the overrating of the capabilities of our incumbent midfielders, forwards, and defenders did in this team.
“The Rest That Are Likely As Good If Not Better But Are Not As Popular Because They Aren’t Located In English-Speaking Nations”
Brilliant hahaha