Failed qualifying = New coach (Bora, are you there

[Paddy]

Symbolically, this must be done. Keeping the same coach after a failed qaulifying campaign hasn't worked. No other country that I know of keeps failed coaches. Personally I am bothered by Frank's bizarre player selection and unwillingness to make timely subs (yesterday's subs took far too long to appear).

Since we are now realistically looking at 2010 (my god, I didn't think I would be forced to type these words so soon) I think it is time, yet again, to rebuild - top to bottom.

Yes, mathematically we are still there, but when has math been this teams strength.

[Reza]

It's a tough one there.. I think Yallop has been allright overall. His player selection has been less mysterious than Holger and Bobby. He has given almost everyone a chance unlike Holger who seemed quite biased in his selections.

But I also see where you are coming from. If you fail, you usually don't continue. And theoretically, that should be the case here. You could however argue that he hasn't had enough time (i.e. for 3 of the 4 years leading to this World Cup, Holger was the coach).

But don't count on people like Bora...He mentioned once that he was not interested in Canada because of its overall climate, both weatherwise and soccerwise.

It's the same double edged sword again...foreign coaches can't get used to Canadian soccer and Canadian coaches aren't experienced enough to lead a successful enterprise.

However, before coaching I would look at the following first:
* Ways to improve our preparations. We can not continue to have no preparations prior to crucial world cup qualifiers.
* Ways to improve the professional scene. If it means MLS, then so be it. It's not my first choice, but if that is the only option, we have to take it. I know it's not the prettiest but if we can have 20 guys who play together for 6-8 months of the year at a reasonable level and we have access to them without forcing them to fly 11 connecting flights, our qualifying chances will be better.

Once we have the infrastructure, we can land the best coaches.

[DoyleG]

Bora is currently coaching a club side in Qatar.

[Paddy]

quote:Originally posted by DoyleG

Bora is currently coaching a club side in Qatar.

Not to worry, there is plenty of time before we can attempt to qualify agian.

[Reza]

In case of Canada though, we need a four year plan. With players scattered around the world, even a magician can't get everything together in a few months.

[Tim St.Pauli]

What is wrong with you guys! You are lacking the German attitude: It ain't over 'till its over! Fight until the very last second! We don't even need to win all three games! 2-1-0 is possibly enough! Even if we are loosing against the Guats it could work!

With two wins against HON and CR there is a high possibility of reaching the 2nd behind GUA. GUA just has to keep playing well. If HON and CR play a draw then, we can even loose!
Or just one win against HON or CR and then the next one against GUA, when they are through anyway.

Guatemala 3 2 1 0 6 3 7
Honduras 3 1 2 0 8 5 5
Costa Rica 3 1 0 2 4 7 3
Canada 3 0 1 2 1 4 1

So if we reach 8 points, HON needs a victory to stay in front of us and CR needs two. HON won't win in GUA, okay maybe against CR, but maybe we are lucky! And CR won't win both games!

So I dream about:
CR-GUA 1-0
HON-CAN 0-1
GUA-HON 2-0
CAN-CR 2-1
GUA-CAN 1-1
HON-CR 0-0
If it is like that, HON and CR are fighting for the victory, no one is through or out before the last match, so no one is giving the game away.

or:
CR-GUA 1-1
HON-CAN 0-1
GUA-HON 2-0
CAN-CR 2-1
GUA-CAN 8-0
HON-CR 0-0

I'm not saying that this is very likely to happen, that CAN changes enough to take the two victories, but don't give up!! I live in good ol' Germany and that is the mentality here. Fight until the last whistle is blown! That brought 3 WC's to Germany! So don't talk about preparing WCQ 2010 and a new coach and all that! I need one more defeat to accept it!
I want to see the country of my mother playing the WC in the country of my father! SO CMON!

[Chet]

Reza is right. It takes at least 2 years to prepare for a World Cup Qualifying campaign. Yallop was given less than 6 months. As of today he has been coaching Canada for less than 9 months. The CSA made a huge mess of things by firing Osieck on the eve of qualifying.

I do think Yallop mishandled the situation by trying to implement too many changes in the brief time he had. A wiser coach would have stuck with Osieck's starting lineup as those guys were familiar with each other. He would have brought five or six new players into the mix and then stopped tinkering well before the Belize series. Save the wholesale rebuilding until AFTER the Hex. Yallop instead scrapped everything Osieck had done and tried building a whole new team from scratch. You can't be still recruiting and evaluating players in the midst of a must-win campaign! Yet, even as of yesterday, that's what Yallop was doing.

The only explanation I can think of for the way Yallop has coached is that he recognized from the moment he was hired that there was no time to rebuild this team in time for the current WCQ. I'm inclined to think (hope) he has been planning ahead for 2008 from the outset. How else do you explain throwing guys like Grande, Simpson, Hutchinson, Occean and Peters onto the field in a must-win game?

I hope the CSA will at least give Yallop a chance to finish the job he started. This was not Yallop's WCQ qualifying campaign. Let him have the full cycle to prepare the team his way for 2008. If he fails, then yes, fire him.

Yallop or not, we need to have a coach in place for the full four years if we're going to have any success.

[BC supporter]

quote: I do think Yallop mishandled the situation ... A wiser coach would have stuck with Osieck's starting lineup as those guys were familiar with each other. He would have brought five or six new players into the mix and then stopped tinkering well before the Belize series.

What Osieck starting lineup are you talking about? Do you recall the lineup in the last two games at which Holger coached (Gold Cup, 2003)? Let me refresh your memory: Hirschfeld, Fenwick, Hastings, deVos, Stalteri, Imhof, McKenna, Nash, Dasovic, Pozniak -- plus Canizalez in the first game, Bent in the second. Beyond the players that are injured (McKenna, Stalteri) or not currently seeing action (Bent, Hirschfeld), which players would you have liked Yallop to stick with?

I supported Holger and respected his commitment to winning. But by the end, he'd alienated a number of mainstays (Radzinski, Brennan, Pesch, Bircham, Menezes, etc) and his player pool was pretty damn thin. Yallop is a necessary breath of fresh air, bringing back players and giving a number of new players a chance. Although this World Cup campaign now appears doomed, he's at least deepened the player pool and improved the spirit, and that can only be a good thing for the future.

I have no doubt I'll be repeating this a number of times in future posts, and here goes: firing Yallop would be asinine. He deserves a full chance and he has my support (possibly that's of small comfort to him right now).

[canso]

That Gold Cup is where Holger's luck ran out. He and Canada were unbelievably lucky, like small miracle lucky, in the previous two Gold Cups but couldn't get a break in World Cup qualifying. So it stands to reason by my theory of reciprocal karma that he would have gotten real lucky in this World Cup campaign after bombing out against Cuba (unluckily)in the Gold Cup![:I]

Aside from getting lucky he also would have done a better job of preparing the team tactically to play to their strengths and wouldn't have gambled on untried A leaguers and untested youth.

[Canadienfan]

If we fail to qualify Yallop or any coach for that matter should be symbolically beheaded. Give each coach a full four years to prepare our lads for qualifing. If he can't get us to the World cup axe him. Just let each new coaching prospect know that this is the criteria.