Reply With QuoteJohn Molinaro
John Molinaro
Some things he says i agree with and others i don't...
"How many times have I heard it said or written by my colleagues in the media that this was the deepest and most-talented Canadian team in history.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Simply put, Canada is not good enough. The team lacks depth and quality players, especially in defence and up front."
He's bang on. We may have the most talented midfield we've ever had, but we're weak in the back. Friend is a good forward, Occean and Gerba are decent, but the missing piece is a pacey forward that can scare defences with his speed and ball skills (a la Suazo).
"Dwayne De Rosario, Atiba Hutchinson, Julian de Guzman and Jim Brennan are the team's only quality players.
Please don't tell me about Richard Hastings, Adrian Serioux, Patrice Bernier, Issey Nakajima-Farran, Tomasz Radzinski, Iain Hume and Paul Stalteri."
I don't think Jim Brennan qualifies as one of our quality players. I also think it's a little harsh on Serioux and Radz to lump them in with the mediocre players.
for someone who is supposedly a dedicated soccer journo - it's a pretty weak article. But then again, this was the same guy who came prancing to this board promoting Soccer Day In Canada and was apparently clueless that Brazil/Canada were playing on the same day with no live tv coverage.
I echo jpg75 comments.
To call Brennan quality and Radzinski mediocre is a joke. I like Brennan, he's a solid citizen and a solid player who's had a great career, but what has Radz done, then and now? Makes it hard to take the rest of his commentary seriously.
And one more thing; this is the deepest and most talented team that I can remember anyway. Are we weak at the back? Probably. But up front we've scored every game of qualifying. In Mexico too. You'd think if we scored in every game so far we'd have more than one point to show for it. We've underachieved to this point. To say otherwise is dishonest I think.
John...not your best work, and not just because I disagree. Its just not a thoughtful, well reasoned piece of work.
I disagree completely with with Molinaro and it feels like he is engaging in classic Monday morning quarterbacking.quote:Canada, of course, won't be going to South Africa. But any hopes that Canadian fans were harbouring that Canada would qualify were silly and totally delusional to begin with. Canadian fans let themselves be fooled by Canada's semifinal appearance at last year's Gold Cup and an impressive performance in a recent 3-2 loss to mighty Brazil.
Silly and delusional? Fooled? He hasn't been paying attention. I don't think our expectations for having a decent WCQ were overinflated by the teams play in the last year. I mean, what are we supposed to expect when see our team almost pull off a major upset over Brazil and playing dominant, flowing soccer at the Gold Cup, coming within a hair of making it to the final? With results like that, what were we supposed to expect? "Fooled" is a harsh assessment of how I (and I think quite a few others who are much more in the know that I am) read this team.
The last time Molinaro wrote about the MNT he was writing us off in the Gold Cup before the tournament even started (http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/moli...anadian_m.html). During that entire Gold Cup run he wrote a total of 0 articles about the MNT.
Prior to this WCQ campaign - nothing. Not a single article about the MNT (http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/molinaro/archives.html).
Of all the soccer journalists in this country, Molinaro's lack of coverage of the MNT is brutal. It's doubly shocking when you add in the fact that he is the official soccer blogger for the national broadcaster, CBC. Can you imagine another countries national broadcaster never talking about their MNT? A BBC soccer blogger never talking about the English MNT run at a EURO or in WCQ?
Who knows. Maybe there are other venues other than his blog where Molinaro does cover the MNT. I only know him from his blog so I can only judge him from what I see there. But to swoop in after the fact and imply that he knew this was going to happen all along just pisses me off when it comes from someone who, up until now, has shown a complete disinterest in the MNT.
This article is an embarrassment. I don't even feel like discussing why in detail. Brennan one of our best 4... come on...
What I don't understand is why somebody can't do some real investigative journalism and maybe write something positive and useful for Canada.
- Why were the May 2007 rankings used for CONCACAF seeding in the preliminary draw when the draw was held in December of 2007? It's pretty apparent to me it's because T&T got the **** kicked out of them in 2007 Gold Cup. Why does nobody care or write about this?
- Exactly how does the CSA work with ticket retailers to distribute tickets (or how they don't) for MNT home games? How does it work in the rest of the world. I'm sick of hearing that Canadian fans are to blame. Canadians love their country, they'll go to soccer games.
- Why is CONCACAF qualifying so ineffective? Way to go El Salvador... you did it! You beat mighty Panama, Suriname and Haiti, you get to go the Hex!! Sorry Canada, you can't beat lowly Mexico and Honduras, you don't get the extra 10 qualifying games you deserve. There's goddamn story there, somebody write about it.
*sigh* x 3
- Lurker
quote:Originally posted by Lurker
What I don't understand is why somebody can't do some real investigative journalism and maybe write something positive and useful for Canada.Because the Canadian fan is to blame. They are to blame in Toronto where they stood up and bought tickets and did their job and they are to blame in Montreal where they didn't. I'm sick and tired of people saying games aren't advertised etc. The Jamaicans and Hondurans have no problem knowing about them and buying tickets. Listen to Nigel Reed on the Fan590 podcast for some common sense commentary about this.quote:I'm sick of hearing that Canadian fans are to blame. Canadians love their country, they'll go to soccer games.
As for your first quote I agree. Those who offer criticism should try and get some insight from those involved inquiring about what happened and why they did things the way they did and if there was a post mortem done to improve on what didn't work ie ticketing in Mtl.
Joe, I just listened to the podcast and I disagree with you.quote:Originally posted by Joe MacCarthy
quote:Originally posted by Lurker
What I don't understand is why somebody can't do some real investigative journalism and maybe write something positive and useful for Canada.Because the Canadian fan is to blame. They are to blame in Toronto where they stood up and bought tickets and did their job and they are to blame in Montreal where they didn't. I'm sick and tired of people saying games aren't advertised etc. The Jamaicans and Hondurans have no problem knowing about them and buying tickets. Listen to Nigel Reed on the Fan590 podcast for some common sense commentary about this.quote:I'm sick of hearing that Canadian fans are to blame. Canadians love their country, they'll go to soccer games.
As for your first quote I agree. Those who offer criticism should try and get some insight from those involved inquiring about what happened and why they did things the way they did and if there was a post mortem done to improve on what didn't work ie ticketing in Mtl.
Nigel doesn't provide any common sense commentary. He provides a 'Debbie Downer' accept what we are, a sack of goo soccer country, assessment. I will agree that we need somebody corrupt or not (Jack Warner anybody) to take charge of the situation in this country if it's ever going to change. At the same time I'll also point out that there is more than one way to cook a... (pick your favorite foo).
"Nobody wants to win more than Dale Mitchell...". Nigel, is that the only argument you have for why nobody could have done a better coaching job for Canada. Again, thanks for wasting my time with that one.
Does being a player on a World Cup team mean you know how qualifying works? What does it matter if you know how CONCACAF works? If Dale understands how that works why aren't we flopping around like fish out of water out there? We might as well have one the Voyageurs out there coaching the damn team, we all understand how that stuff works.
"If we don't have somebody (in Canada) than stop dreaming". No Nigel, no disrespect but get bent. I will not accept that.
Anyways, I've probably flew off the handle on this one. No disrespect Joe, I wasn't trying to pick a bone with you. I'm just extremely frustrated with the state of the game in this country and I think there are some positive and useful stories that can be written by the media (mentioned in my previous post).
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks