Canada-Finland, The Morning After...

[Canuck Oranje]

My general thoughts first are if we rely on this lineup in WCQ, we aren't going far. The game was ugly.

I wasn't that impressed with the Finnish team. There were some good individual plays but they would have been crushed by Germany or England or Holland.

Let's also be honest. The game was over at half time.. It was a kick around after that.

I am hoping this was just a one time reunion party and now we can get onto business.

I felt badly for Stalteri and Radzinski. Stalteri because he was trying to play his man tight but was left exposed by his defensive partners (little or no support). Radzinski because he rarely got the ball in a position where he could do anything.

While Craig Forrest did make some criticisms of the Defence, we are still too polite about our performance. Terms like "unlucky first touch" have to be expunged from our lexicon. Really what that means is that the player is lacking ball skill.

I think our worst fears were realized in this game.. You didn't have to be a rocket scientist to anticipate the defensive performance.

It will now be interesting to see what new controversy arises out to this game. Reunions are fun until someone is seen to be taking something that is perceived to belong to someone else. Except in this case we are talking about starting positions and National team caps instead of spouses.

[Cheeta]

Well, it being thanksgiving weekend best to put forward a few thoughts before going all negative on everyone.

I'm thankfull for;

Colin Miller cooking his own goose. Idiot. During the anthems when the camera was panning down the touch line I was thinking uh-oh. When we got to see the formation Miller was intent on using I got up, cannoned back my beer, and got TWO more lagers from the refrigerator.

Morgan Quarrey trying to make us all feel better by explaining DeGuzman's absence as a managerial decision. Another dart thrown Mr. Miller's way. Bircham for DeGuzman? Whoaaa. Thanks, Mr. Quarrey. We still have hope.

It was Pat Onstad in net that first half and not me.

Ian Hume's showing in the 2nd half. Can't say he realy made an imprint but to see him running around with his head up like that is very encouraging.

Blind linesmen.

Paul Stalteri playing right fullback. Well, that's enough of that. Back to central mid. with you.

The Wee Elf. She's quit smoking but was more than a little patient with me yesteday. Dose seem I owe someone dinner though....

Sportsnet for bring us that match. No, realy. Excepting the no-mind fu'k who let the ticker show the final score at the bottom of the screen about 5-10 minutes in. Seem to have caught it though, too late, as I don't remember seeing it again.

The discovery that an attacking midfielder would do a world of good when Toffee and DeRosario are your strikers. Looked good with three men out there. Sigh...

[Northern Star]

Right!

The finnish side wasn't at it's best.
Everytime Litmanen doesn't bother to show his face in the squad, the preformance sinks to it's bottom!

The thing is.. youngster's like Tainio and Väyrynen are, and have to preform their best, or else! And they are actually growing into it!!!

The game yesterday was sort of a vacation back home for most of the finnish players, a time to visit grandma and old friends.

The thing is, a finnish side without Litmanen is like curch without Jesus!

[Cheeta]

Bahhh.

Too many changes. Too many changes that didn't make any damn scense.

It's like Miller did everything to hide our best quality. Midfield was a shambles. Defense was a shambles. Radz. and Pesch. unsupported and the wrong pairing against that defense. Complete rubbish front to back.

Defence playing scared is a sure formula for defeat.

Your lads were running hard! Forssell and Tainio had their ears pinned back and were more than keen to run up the score start to finnish (Ha, I made a funny). Nice goal Kolkka. Kinda expect that of him.

[joppe]

"I wasn't that impressed with the Finnish team. There were some good individual plays but they would have been crushed by Germany or England or Holland"

Yeah, right. Here is a qualifying round to world cup 2002.

Group 9
Teams Pld W D L GS GA Pts

England 8 5 2 1 16 6 17
Germany 8 5 2 1 14 10 17
Finland 8 3 3 2 12 7 12
Greece 8 2 1 5 7 17 7
Albania 8 1 0 7 5 14 3

Pld: Matches played W: Won Drawn
L: Lost GS: Goals for GA: Goals against
Pts: Points

Finland 2 - 1 Albania
Germany 2 - 0 Greece
England 0 - 1 Germany
Greece 1 - 0 Finland
Albania 2 - 0 Greece
Finland 0 - 0 England
England 2 - 1 Finland
Germany 2 - 1 Albania
Albania 1 - 3 England
Greece 2 - 4 Germany
Finland 2 - 2 Germany
Greece 1 - 0 Albania
Albania 0 - 2 Germany
Greece 0 - 2 England
Albania 0 - 2 Finland
Germany 1 - 5 England
Finland 5 - 1 Greece
England 2 - 0 Albania
England 2 - 2 Greece
Germany 0 - 0 Finland

[Northern Star]

Yes some credits to Kolkka, otherwise the finnish squad would get following grades ->

Jääskeläinen (the goalie!) (Bolton, Eng)
Didn't have much to do, expect the "Hyypiä" incident

Hyypiä (Liverpool, Eng)
Was on vacation

Saarinen (1860 Munich, Ger)
The usual weakest point of the finnish defence line, played an OK game

Heikkinen (Aberdeen, Sco)
A new man in the squad. Nothing more, nothing less

Pasanen (Ajax, Ned)
Did nothing special

Väyrynen (Heerenveen, Ned)
The youngster played rather well.

Tainio (Auxerre, Fra)
Was definately too much for the canucks.

Nurmela (Kaiserslautern, Ger)
"Zidane" of the small town called Oulu near Lappland has lately got an awful amount of critics. He did gis best game in years against Canada, and yet again it doesn't count.

Kolkka (Borussia Mönchengladbach, Ger)
Was definately the man of the match, ask the canadian defenders!

Alexei Eremenko Junior (HJK, Fin)
First timer.
Was way behind his team mates, all the time

Forssell (Birmingham, Eng)
One goal, several other missed chances.
Didn't preform his best.

Subs:

Kottila (the moose) (HJK, Fin)
Don't make me laugh! This one should not attend any national team duties.

Riihilahti (Crystal Palace, Eng)
Bright kid with a sense of humour, not a football palyer.

Sjölund (Djurgården, Swe)
One great game for DIF and suddenly he is in the national team. Don't know why? Do you?

Kuivasto (Djurgården, Swe)
A rock solid defenceman. Not a star but does his job.

Kopteff (Viking, Nor)
Helikopteff, a "super sub"
This time he was just a sub!

[Cheeta]

Maybe not the best argument of Finnish quality that, Joppe.

Somehow I remember there was a lot of tears and crying in both England and especialy Germany during WCQ. A lot. And unless I'm reading those tables wrong, and given my education that's not only possible but probable, Finland won 7 of their 12 points against sides with nothing to play for. Being eliminated or qualified by that time. Still, we never even got to the final round of qualifying. Never even got close. Bloody disaster.

Thought Forssell was more than a handfull for anyone on the back line. I don't think I've seen a player who "climbs" so much in years. Very crafty. Must have been pissing Big Kev off to no end. Had Watson maybe not paniced, but certainly very respectful for the last 80 minutes of the match. No quotes about putting speedier players on there ass' today I'll bet.

[Gian-Luca]

I think you are dismissing the performance of Finland, as well as Canada in the 2nd half all too easily. Finland doesn't get crushed easily by anyone (having seen several of their Euro qualifying matches I knew ahead of time they were a quality side). Part of the problem in the backline for Canada was lack of talent, but lack of familiarity with each other was even a bigger problem. It shouldn't be a surprise we looked so disorganzied back there in the first half.

Keep in mind as well that our team was stronger in the 2nd half not just because of who the Fins took off, but who we brought on. Hirshfeld & De Rosario should be starting - our squad is stronger with them, than without. All in all there were arguably 5 to 7 players that should be starting for Canada who didn't in this match - two injured (Brennan & De Vos), 2 not called (De Guzman & Klukowski), and 3 sitting on the bench (Nsaliwa, De Rosario & Hirshfeld). Now if we can just ensure the new coach will also see it that way..............

Biggest (only?) compliment to Miller was that I like the never-say-die attitude of the team in the 2nd half for what was, after all, a completely meaningless friendly. That's never a bad attitude to have, & can certainly make up for other shortcomings. I hope we'll see more of that in the future.

[Canuck Oranje]

I am sure you would agree though that the Finnish team that played then played better than the one that played yesterday.

quote:Originally posted by joppe

"I wasn't that impressed with the Finnish team. There were some good individual plays but they would have been crushed by Germany or England or Holland"

Yeah, right. Here is a qualifying round to world cup 2002.

Group 9
Teams Pld W D L GS GA Pts

England 8 5 2 1 16 6 17
Germany 8 5 2 1 14 10 17
Finland 8 3 3 2 12 7 12
Greece 8 2 1 5 7 17 7
Albania 8 1 0 7 5 14 3

Pld: Matches played W: Won Drawn
L: Lost GS: Goals for GA: Goals against
Pts: Points

Finland 2 - 1 Albania
Germany 2 - 0 Greece
England 0 - 1 Germany
Greece 1 - 0 Finland
Albania 2 - 0 Greece
Finland 0 - 0 England
England 2 - 1 Finland
Germany 2 - 1 Albania
Albania 1 - 3 England
Greece 2 - 4 Germany
Finland 2 - 2 Germany
Greece 1 - 0 Albania
Albania 0 - 2 Germany
Greece 0 - 2 England
Albania 0 - 2 Finland
Germany 1 - 5 England
Finland 5 - 1 Greece
England 2 - 0 Albania
England 2 - 2 Greece
Germany 0 - 0 Finland

[Gian-Luca]

Notice, by the way, that Finland's first goal came when McKenna was up the field due to a Canadian free kick in the box. Finland came charging down the field with Hastings & Watson left to "deal" with Forsell. And guess what happened.....

When De Vos comes back, bye bye Watson.