theaub5 Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 Leagues Loaded: England, Spain, Germany, France, Italy (top league) Database: Medium, of nationality (North America), all international players (Rest of World) Total size: 38,000 players There are a couple of database edits I have made, they'll be made generally clear early on (and in no way make it easier for me). I have also added in themodelcitizen's Copa America Centenario which Canada will hopefully be participating in come 2016 (more on that later as well). I will be taking control of all aspects of the national program (MNT/U-20/U-23) starting in January 2013. The goals...win I guess. Probably should start by getting to the hex first... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaub5 Posted November 13, 2012 Author Share Posted November 13, 2012 It was supposed to be different this time around. The dark days of past World Cup qualifying campaigns were somewhere in the distance, a blend of disappointment, sadness and outright bewilderment. It was tough to pick which moment was the worst. You could have picked the 2002 qualifying rounds, right after Canada had achieved its greatest tournament triumph in its history; defeating Mexico en route to capturing the Gold Cup. The Canucks started it off against Trinidad & Tobago in Edmonton, where the visitors were greeted by a steel drum band on the sidelines so they would feel 'at home.' Not surprisingly, the quest for Japan/Korea was over almost as soon as it begun. Or was it in 2004, when Canada opened up the road to Germany with a home loss again, this time to Guatemala in front of 6,500 Guatemalan-Canadians in Burnaby, followed by allowing late equalizers both home and away to Honduras en route to an early elimination. Or maybe it was September 6, 2008, when Canada's hopes to qualify for South Africa were dashed by the Hondurans again, this time in Montreal in front of a sea of blue as Los Catrachos celebrated in front of their large traveling contingent. But Canada cruised through the first round of qualifying in 2011, albeit against minnows Puerto Rico, St Lucia and St Kitts and Nevis. After being drawn into a terrible semi-final group for the 2008 semi-final round that featured two eventual World Cup entrants in Mexico and Honduras along with a tough Jamaican side, the 2012 group had an aging Honduran squad, Panama and Cuba. The Canadians, who had not won a meaningful World Cup qualifying match on the road since 1996, started off with a win in scorching Havana and a draw to the Hondurans. Even the most pessimistic Canadian supporter seemed optimistic. And then, Canada had a match at BMO Field against Panama. It wasn't like the last three rounds, where opposition fans outnumbered the Canadian supporters. With 17,000 red-clad supporters in Toronto cheering for the home side, Atiba Hutchinson's quick free kick was directed into the goal by Dwayne De Rosario, and as the final whistle sounded, it was the Canadians all alone in first place in the group. For once, there was media coverage about the national team, and it wasn't the same old story about Canada losing. While a trip to Panama City was unsuccessful, a home win against a shorthanded Cuban team made it very simple. Heading into their final match in San Pedro Sula, Canada just needed a single point to knock out the country that had been their tormentor for the last eight years, and all of the ills from 2004 and from Montreal in 2008 could be washed away with it. A trip to the final round of qualifying for the first time since 1997 seemed so close. The match didn't start out too badly either. A quick turnover by the Hondurans led to a half-chance in front of goal for Toisant Ricketts. Perhaps Canada could pressure them and even grab a goal! Just as the positive thoughts started dancing through everyone's heads, Honduras scored. And then they scored again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. The final whistle blew. Honduras 8. Canada 1. Once again, the media coverage was back. This time, it was just the re-hash of 1,000 old stories. That Canada just wasn't meant to be a soccer country, and they should leave it to these Central American and Caribbean countries that breathe the sport. That everyone should just accept that the dream of qualifying for the World Cup is only that, something that shouldn't even be considered. That every four years, everyone should just pick the country of their ancestry and fly that flag on their cars because the Maple Leaf certainly won't be seen in those massive stadiums anytime soon. The Canadian manager re-signed, and the national program in this country moved right back to square one. And that is where we begin. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Widzew Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 Where in Canada are you from? If your from Canada lol. Not many Canucks around these parts... best of luck in your save! I look forward to it Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaub5 Posted November 14, 2012 Author Share Posted November 14, 2012 Where in Canada are you from? If your from Canada lol. Not many Canucks around these parts... best of luck in your save! I look forward to it Thanks! I'm from Toronto as well (well, technically Thornhill but close enough). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisler26 Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 Blimey! Another Leaf! Lol. Good luck. Canada is the country of my heart, if not my birth! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaub5 Posted November 14, 2012 Author Share Posted November 14, 2012 A brief history of Canadian soccer As the Canadian national team isn't exactly significant, I think its only fair for me to give a bit of background. To the timeline (and this may not be brief)! 1888 - A team of touring Canadian internationals play a series of matches against British Isle club teams, including a pair of matches against Newton Heath. The Canadians finish with a record of 9-5-9. 1904 - Canada wins the first ever Gold Medal in Men's Soccer, defeating a pair of American teams in St. Louis to claim the prize 1925 - The Canadians earn their first ever official international victory, beating the United States 1-0 in Montreal 1957 - After a 30 year dispute with FIFA, Canada participates in World Cup qualifying for the first time, finishing second in their group behind Mexico 1981 - Fresh off finishing first in a qualifying group that included Mexico, Canada participates in the 1981 CONCACAF Championship, where the top two teams will advance to the 1982 World Cup. Canada only needs a victory over Cuba to advance but a late goal gives the Cubans a 2-2 draw and sends El Salvador through 1984 - Canada advances to the knockout round of the Olympics for the first time since 1984, where they face a heavily favoured Brazilian team. The Canadians send the game to extra time level at 1-1 where Dale Mitchell appears to score the winning goal, only to have it ruled incorrectly offsides. The Brazilians go on to 1985 - Canada storms through their CONCACAF championship group and only need a win over Honduras to qualify for the World Cup. Behind goals from George Pakos and Igor Vrablic, the Canadians to qualify for their first ever World Cup1986 - Travelling to Mexico for the World Cup, the Canadians hold defending EURO champion France scoreless for almost 80 minutes before conceding and lose 1-0. 2-0 losses to the Soviet Union and Hungary follow, leaving the Canucks as one of the few teams to have participated in a World Cup in their history but not score. 1993 - The Canadians take on Australia in the CONCACAF/OFC playoff, and after a 2-1 win in Edmonton just need a draw in Sydney to go through to a final playoff with Argentina. However, the Canadians and have never been closer to World Cup qualification since1997 - Canada participates in the final North American qualifying round (the hex) and finish last in the six team group. To this day they have not returned to this round of qualifying. 2000 - After winning a coinflip to advance over South Korea in the Gold Cup, the Canucks take on a Mexico side that has dominated North American play. However, Richard Hastings and move onto the semi-finals. After a win over Trindad & Tobago, Canada defeats Colombia 2-0 to win the tournament and go to the 2002 Confederations Cup.2003 - Canada loses in extra time to Spain in the quarterfinal of the U-20 World Cup, the farthest that Canada has advanced in the tournament. 2007 - After the days of the NASL and specifically the Toronto Blizzard, top-level pro soccer returns to Canada as Toronto FC makes their debut in MLS. BMO Field in Toronto eventually becomes the main stadium for men's national team matches. 2007 - Canada advances to the semi-final of the Gold Cup, where they take on the United States. After falling behind 2-0, Atiba Hutchinson appears to net the equalizer deep into second half stoppage time, but an costs the Canadians a chance at extra time against a 10-man American squad.2007 - Canada hosts the U-20 World Cup, the first time they have hosted a major international tournament. Featuring David Edgar and former Canadian Asmir Begovic, the Canadians set a dubious record by becoming the only host nation of a major tournament to not score a single goal as they are bundled out in the group stage. 2011 - Vancouver joins the MLS as the second Canadian side, and are the first to make the playoffs during the 2012 season, where they lose to Los Angeles in a wild card match. 2012 - Montreal follows the Whitecaps as the third MLS team from Canada Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaub5 Posted November 14, 2012 Author Share Posted November 14, 2012 January, 2013 MNT News The 2013 Gold Cup groups were announced, and our group is pretty favourable. It was a rough go for a couple of teams in the final round of World Cup qualifying, as Panama and Jamaica didn't make it through their regional tournaments to advance. Costa Rica is the best team in the group but hopefully we can slide by El Salvador and Guyana and get a decent quarterfinal matchup Groups Furthermore, we filled up our friendly schedule for the year. The marquee match of the year will be a Canada Day battle with Argentina heading into the Gold Cup, and the first match of the year will be against Armenia on February 5th. 2013 Schedule Based on Canada's results in World Cup qualifying, both Jonathan de Guzman and Junior Hoilett do not plan to suit up for the Canucks any time soon. De Guzman, the brother of Canadian player Julian De Guzman, will continue to wait for a call from Holland, while Hoilett will attempt to forego the Home Nations rules and play for England. Youth Team News Qualifying for the 2013 U-20 World Cup is getting set to start, and the Canadians have been drawn into a group with Cuba and Costa Rica. Matches will take place in early March, and the top two teams in each group advance to the quarterfinals, where the four winners will move onto the World Cup which will take place later in the year. U-20 Qualification Groups World News This will focus on major club events (ie Champions League and end of year standings), as well as key international events and World Cup qualifying as appropriate. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaub5 Posted November 14, 2012 Author Share Posted November 14, 2012 Also just to get it out there, any feedback is appreciated. If you'd like to see something followed, would prefer imgur links instead of embedded pics or anything else, just let me know and I'll see what I can do. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cerud Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 Another Canadian! You'll find a few of us here, theaub5. Welcome, and looking very forward to this! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 Good luck, I have an odd fondness for Canada (having never been there, but knowing a couple of awesome people from there) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaub5 Posted November 15, 2012 Author Share Posted November 15, 2012 February, 2013 Match Day! Our quest to the top begins on a cold, dry day in the capital city of Yerevan, Armenia to take on the 86th ranked home side (somehow Canada's ranked 133rd). With a limited budget, we're only calling 19 players for friendlies, but we did manage to get most of the top players out. Toisant Ricketts is out with a foot injury, but the rest of the squad is pretty much the first choice side. Canada Squad The match started off with a bang, as Burnley defender David Edgar forced a turnover and fed a quick ball to Simeon Jackson who set Olivier Occean through on goal. The striker didn't miss, blasting the ball past keeper Roman Berezovskly to make it 1-0 Canada within a minute. The Armenians pressured for the rest of the half, but even with a 5-1 shot on target advantage the home side went into half behind. The second half turned into a standstill as both sides were unable to crack the other team's midfield. Captain Henrik Mkhitaryan had the best chance for Armenia, but his shot from six yards out was deflected wide by Lars Hirschfeld. The Canadians put the match away in the 78th minute, as Russell Teibert's corner was banged around in the box for a bit before left back Ashtone Morgan scored his first goal for Canada. Canada - 2, Armenia - 0 Goals CAN: Occean 1', Morgan 78' Cards None Match Stats MNT News Our win moved us up six spots to a fearsome 127th. That's an impressive 13th in CONCACAF, sliding in behind powerhouses Surinam (93), Grenada (111) and Cuba (125). At least we'll be able to have a ranking battle with Grenada next month! World News Major Tournaments Cameroon defeated Nigeria 1-0 to claim the African Cup of Nations CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying Costa Rica 1-1 Panama Mexico 3-1 Jamaica USA 2-0 Honduras UEFA World Cup Qualifying Group Standings We'll do top three Group 1: Belgium, Scotland, Macedonia Group 2: Italy, Czech Republic, Denmark Group 3: Germany, Sweden, Austria Group 4: Turkey, Hungary, Holland Group 5: Switzerland, Norway, Iceland Group 6: Portugal, Russia, Israel Group 7: Slovakia, Greece, Bosnia Group 8: England, Poland, Ukraine Group 9: Spain, Belarus, France Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaub5 Posted November 15, 2012 Author Share Posted November 15, 2012 Another Canadian! You'll find a few of us here, theaub5. Welcome, and looking very forward to this! Good luck, I have an odd fondness for Canada (having never been there, but knowing a couple of awesome people from there) Thanks to both of you As well, I am moving to imgur links within the posts as they are showing up too small on my CPU. Also allows me to post more when necessary (when the time comes) without clutter. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
London City Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 Good luck! I will be following this with interest. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameuss Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 I've got a soft spot for Canada after spells with Toronto in the MLS - after winning both the Copa America and Gold Cup with the US, I'd hope to win the latter with Canada this time around - could be quite a challenge! Good luck with this, always nice to see something different Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rancer890 Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 Good luck...are you going to try to win with the real life team? IE no Hoilett and de Guzman in which the game always calls up... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaub5 Posted November 15, 2012 Author Share Posted November 15, 2012 Good luck! I will be following this with interest. Thanks! I've got a soft spot for Canada after spells with Toronto in the MLS - after winning both the Copa America and Gold Cup with the US, I'd hope to win the latter with Canada this time around - could be quite a challenge!Good luck with this, always nice to see something different I played like 50 years as Canada in FM '09 and won the Gold Cup once, so yeah its quite the challenge. Mexico generally becomes unbeatable in these games (although based on the youth they're bringing up that seems to be realistic). Good luck...are you going to try to win with the real life team? IE no Hoilett and de Guzman in which the game always calls up... Yup I declared De Guzman for Holland and Hoilett for England...if Jamaica makes the WC I'll use certain things to make him play there. If Jamaica sucks and England never calls him up he could always play in 2018! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaub5 Posted November 16, 2012 Author Share Posted November 16, 2012 March, 2013 Match Day! It turns out we jumped up to 101st in the world over the past month, so a couple of wins over Grenada and Nicaragua should push us into the top 100 headed into the Gold Cup. As these matches don't mean much, I used them as an opportunity to call up some guys who will probably be on the fringe of the Gold Cup squad. Most of the key starters like Josh Simpson, Atiba Hutchinson and Olivier Occean didn't make the trip over from Europe. Canada Squad The first match was in Grenada, and from the start the Canadians put pressure on the home side, but weren't able to take advantage. Instead, it was Grenada stunning everyone as Anthony Agustine slammed a rebound past Lars Hirschfeld to go up 1-0. A shellshocked Canada was outshot 6-1 in the first half and it appeared that a slide down the rankings was forthcoming. After a second half that seemed very similar, the Canadians started to pressure and Marcus Haber's first international goal salvaged a disappointing 1-1 draw. Grenada - 1, Canada - 1 Goals GRE: Agustine 18' CAN: Haber 90' Cards GRE: Appleton 70', Rennie 83' CAN: Teibert 78' The national side then made the trek from the Caribbean to Central America to take on Nicaragua, hoping to rebound from the disappointment. However, the Canadians put forth one of their worst efforts in years, allowing an inferior home side to have 61% of the possession and almost double the shots on goal. After allowing the first goal on a breakaway from Samuel Wilson, Canada struck back as Will Johnson's wondergoal put the sides level going into half. Nicaragua dominated the second half as the Canadians seemed to tire on an abnormally breezy Central American night, but the match was destined to finish tied. Two matches, two very disappointing draws for Canada and they will need to pick it up heading into the next set of friendlies in June. Nicaragua - 1, Canada - 1 Goals NIC: Wilson 29' CAN: Johnson 41' Cards CAN: Johnson 67' Youth Team News We've also announced our squad for the U-20 qualifying tournament to be held in Seattle at the start of April. While players like Luca Gasparotto and Keven Aleman are the well-known players on the squad, Nick Nonni looks like he will be an anchor in the Canadian midfield for years to come. Canada U-20 Squad There were three pre-tournament friendlies that took place, the first two in Montreal against Honduras and Aruba and the final one in Toronto against Jamaica. Canada - 2, Honduras - 1 Canada - 2, Aruba - 0 Canada - 2, Jamaica - 0 World News If the World Cup started today... Host: Brazil Africa: Nigeria, Cameroon, Algeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana Asia: Japan, Qatar, South Korea, Kuwait Europe: Scotland, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Switzerland, Portugal, Slovakia, England, Spain, Hungary, Poland, Greece, France North America: USA, Mexico, Costa Rica Oceania: New Zealand South America: Argentina, Colombia, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BadManager Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 Good luck with this. There aren't many threads based around managaing national sides, and Canada is an interesting one. Any trophies will be well deserved. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cerud Posted November 16, 2012 Share Posted November 16, 2012 Tough on the two draws, but the squad is still gelling with your system. Should bbe good in tme for the Gold Cup. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Widzew Posted November 17, 2012 Share Posted November 17, 2012 you have a tough save going. Even tougher opting to go without Guzman and Hoilett. I might make a similar save except with my birth nation of Poland. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaub5 Posted November 17, 2012 Author Share Posted November 17, 2012 April/May, 2013 May as well combine the two months here CONCACAF U-20 Youth Championship Time to attempt to qualify for Turkey! The rules are very simple. There's four groups of three teams with a round robin. The top two teams advance, and are seeded based on group position and randomly drawn for the quarterfinals. The winners of these matches qualify for the World Cup and the tournament continues for pride and a trophy. Hopefully we can just qualify as we haven't done so since hosting the event in 2007. We start off with the group stage matches against Cuba and Costa Rica. We start out strong, with Paul Jelicic and Bryce Alderson scoring in the first half to put us up 2-0 at the break. The Cubans do manage to snatch one back, but we get three different goalscorers in the second half to cruise to a 5-3 victory. Costa Rica isn't much of a match either, as Jonathan Mason and Alderson both score on ridiculous half-volleys to give us a 2-0 win and put the Canadians top of the group. Group Stage Matches Canada - 5, Cuba - 3 Canada - 2, Costa Rica - 0 The quarterfinals matched us up with Panama with a chance to advance to the World Cup in August. Nick Nonni played a fantastic 90 minutes and added a goal en route to a 3-0 cruise into the semis to take on the overpowering Mexicans. We switched to a more defensive style for the match and managed to push it to penalties. Conrad Trafford was playing with a significant knock that turned out to be a broken foot but he was able to score a needed penalty to send it to a sixth round of shooters. After Maxime Crepeau made a strong save, it was Nonni again scoring to give us a shock victory and a spot in the finals. Our chance for the first trophy for Canada in awhile would run through the United States, who ousted Costa Rica in the semi-final. The Americans jumped to an early lead behind an own goal from Samuel Piette and a skilled strike from Tim Mitchell made it 2-0 early in the second half. Jelicic grabbed one back but it was quickly offset by a deserved penalty call that was converted by American striker John Ellison. We were unable to make the complete comeback and fell 3-2. Still, a valiant effort that will hopefully translate to the actual big tournament. Knockout Round Matches Canada - 3, Panama - 0 Canada - 0, Mexico - 0 (Canada wins 3-2 on penalties) Canada - 2, United States - 3 As well, the group stages were announced in late April. Our group is pretty difficult, with France as the headliners along with South Korea and Ecuador. We'll probably need three or four points to get to the round of sixteen and will be tough U-20 Group Schedule World News Major World League Results Premier League La Liga Serie A Bundesliga Ligue 1 Good luck with this. There aren't many threads based around managaing national sides, and Canada is an interesting one. Any trophies will be well deserved. Thanks, if I can win a Gold Cup I'd be thrilled Tough on the two draws, but the squad is still gelling with your system. Should bbe good in tme for the Gold Cup. Hopefully, have a couple friendlies here to get prepped for it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cerud Posted November 17, 2012 Share Posted November 17, 2012 Nice job in qualifying for the U20s World Cup. Give our youth a chance Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaub5 Posted November 17, 2012 Author Share Posted November 17, 2012 June 2013 Match Day! I announced a 26 man provisional sqaud for the Gold Cup that will start in mid-July. It'll need to be cut down to 22 after a couple of friendlies against Venezuela and Wales, so I'll use both of those as experimental friendlies to try to find the right tactics after the disappointments in Central America back in March. There's a decent mix of young and old in the side; some players like Dwayne De Rosario, Kevin McKenna and Lars Hirschfeld potentially having their last hurrahs on the international stage while youngsters such as Russell Teibert, Adam Straith and Randy Edwini-Bonsu try to make a good impression for the future. Both of the pre-cut friendlies take place in Montreal and we start it off on June 7 against Venezeula. Once again, the first half is a disaster, as we are dominated in possession and shots on target. The short passing game isn't working, especially between Atiba Hutchinson and Julian De Guzman in the midfield. Even worse, starting midfielder Will Johnson picks up a knock and needs to be substituted in the 38th minute. We go into the half outworked, but still scoreless. I try to change up some things after half and it seems that Venezuela is just taking shots from distance but not really threatening. Unfortunately we can't even sniff the 18-yard box, just seemingly content with passing it around the periphery and turning it over. As it seems that it'll settle into a scoreless draw, Juan Arango puts forth a long ball that Salomon Rondon runs onto and slots past a helpless Lars Hirschfeld. We leave the pitch to a smattering of deserved boos and my first defeat as national team manager. Canada - 0, Venezuela - 1 Goals VEN: Rondon 83' Cards CAN: Occean 32', Hume 78' VEN: Rincon 45' After that disappointment, I decide to switch up the lineup a bit for the match against Wales. It also works as an excuse to get some of the fringe squad players some legitimate playing time to determine who will make the tournament squad. Unfortunately it doesn't start well once again, as Craig Bellamy finds himself free on the left flank, cuts inside and slams a low shot past a diving Milan Borjan. Less than ten minutes in we're trailing again. However, it does seem that the newer tactics are working well. Moving away from a reliance on short passing, we start to float more balls into the box and take dangerous runs. It pays off just before the half hour, as Edwini-Bonsu takes a run down the right flank, cuts into the box and is lightly tackled by Neil Taylor. Thankfully the ref gives us a bit of a break and calls for the penalty, which Patrice Bernier coolly slots home after a short taker debate with De Rosario. Similar to the Venezuela match, we enter the half tied but this time we have been the better team. We continue to dominate in the second half, and it all comes together ten minutes after the kickoff. Edwini-Bonsu once again shows his speed down the flank and plays a brilliant ball into open space at the top of the 18. Simeon Jackson gets a step on his man, runs onto it and without breaking stride pushes the ball past a diving Wayne Hennessey. 2-1 Canada. We keep the pressure on for another quarter hour before going into a defensive formation and closing the match out. We have to make cuts now, and then its out to Alberta for a match against Edmonton FC followed by friendlies against Jamaica and Argentina. Canada - 2, Wales - 1 Goals CAN: Bernier 35' (pen), Jackson 55' WAL: Bellamy 8' Cards None We make the final four cuts; unfortunately there's also a fifth cut that we have to make as starting keeper Lars Hirschfeld breaks his foot in training. As such, Milan Borjan will be the man between the sticks for the tournament unless he gets hurt as well. Our cuts end up being defender Ashtone Morgan, midfielder Nikolas Ledgerwood and forwards Issey Nakajima-Farran and Iain Hume. Canada Gold Cup squad We travel out West to take on the NASL side, and dominate them. We do have a defensive lapse for a few minutes in the first half and concede a couple of goals, but really its just a tuneup and its shows. We head back to Montreal for a battle against Jamaica before the Canada Day friendly at BMO against Argentina. FC Edmonton - 2, Canada - 5 Goals FCE: Gigolag 15', Vorbe 17' CAN: Johnson 2', Edwini-Bonsu 19', Cavallini 59', 90', Occean 86' Cards None We finish off our series of matches in Montreal against the Jamaicans. Randy Edwini-Bonsu was something like the 25th man picked onto the preliminary roster, but there is a strong chance that he will open the Gold Cup starting as the right winger after scoring the only goal in a 1-0 win. Canada - 1, Jamaica - 0 Goals CAN: Edwini-Bonsu 50' Cards CAN: De Guzman 72' JAM: Phillips 20', Virgo 78' Onto the final match of pre-Gold Cup competition (yeah its only July 1st but we'll cheat a little here). There's no Messi or Aguero, but the Argentines have still brought a loaded roster over to Toronto, and the north end of BMO is full of blue and white. But we come out really strong, with Hutchinson's early strike just missing the far post. Then its De Rosario showing some surprising speed and lofting a beautiful through ball right into the path of striker Olivier Occean. Sergio Romero makes the first save but can't control the rebound that bounces right back to the Frankfurt man who passes it into the open net. Stunningly, we're ahead. The Argentines awake from their mini-slumber and press until the end of the half, but can't beat Borjan, leading to a rousing ovation from the supporters at the halftime whistle. Argentina just dominates the start of the second half, forcing Borjan to make a couple of strong saves. Unfortunately, his back four isn't helping him at all, and it finally breaks down as striker Facundo Ferreyra gets three chances right in front of goal. He is denied by the keeper and the post on the first two but drives the final attempt into the back of the net to tie the match at 1-1. All of the sudden, we stop attacking and just start chasing the ball all over the park. Thankfully the away side can't finish, and we achieve a very surprising draw, one that will certainly move us up the world rankings. Its time to head to California now to start our Gold Cup journey. Canada - 1, Argentina - 1 Goals CAN: Occean 20' ARG: Ferreyra 65' Cards CAN: Jakovic 11', Hutchinson 59' World News World Cup Qualifying Standings CONCACAF USA (13) Mexico (9) Costa Rica (8) Honduras (6) Panama (3) Jamaica (2) UEFA Group 1: Belgium, Scotland, Serbia Group 2: Italy, Czech Republic, Denmark Group 3: Germany, Sweden, Austria Group 4: Turkey, Holland, Hungary Group 5: Switzerland, Cyprus, Slovenia Group 6: Portugal, Russia, Israel Group 7: Slovakia, Greece, Bosnia Group 8: England, Poland, Ukraine Group 9: Spain, France, Belarus Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaub5 Posted November 18, 2012 Author Share Posted November 18, 2012 2013 Gold Cup Group Stage My first senior-level competition as manager is about to get underway. Now, the Gold Cups in the year before the World Cup aren't that important, as there is no Confederations Cup berth like there is for the Gold Cups the year after World Cups. Furthermore, the 2015 Gold Cup will feature as qualification for the Copa America Centenario which, if we qualify, could bring some solid exposure to soccer in this country. Nonetheless, we're looking to take advantage of the fact that some quality sides (Panama and Jamaica) didn't get in, and Mexico has only brought a 'B' squad due to their participation in the aforementioned Confederations Cup. As a refresher, here are the groups. We start off against El Salvador in Los Angeles before flying across the country to play Guyana in New Jersey. The group stage will conclude with a trip to Arlington and a battle against Costa Rica in spacious Cowboys Stadium. Its a hot, humid day in Los Angeles for the El Salvador match, which should play into the Central American's hands. They've also brought their best squad; failing to qualify out of a group with Mexico and Costa Rica in World Cup qualifying a year ago. However, we start off on the right foot. Randy Edwini-Bonsu continues his strong play, forcing a shot on net that's deflected to Josh Simpson. The left winger expertly lays it off to Will Johnson who hammers it into the short side of the goal to give us a 1-0 lead. We don't control the ball that much but dominate the play that counts and go into half up 1-0. The second half starts with one of the better goals I've seen, as Olivier Occean takes a Andre Hainault free kick and fires home a wrong-footed 15 yard volley off the crossbar and in. It looks like we're going to cruise to an opening match win, but then it gets ugly in a hurry. Osael Romero responds to the set piece success by firing in his own goal past a stagnant Milan Borjan, and then Diego Zelaya skins David Edgar and fires in the tying goal. We're a bit stunned and almost concede again, but Zelaya luckily hits the post and there's no further danger. There's a glimmer of hope late as El Salvador are reduced to ten men, but in the end its just a disappointing draw. Costa Rica ties Guyana however, so with two matches to go all is square in the group. El Salvador - 2, Canada - 2 Goals ESV: Romero 66', Zelaya 69' CAN: Johnson 10', Occean 50' Cards ESV: Quintanilla 36', Alvarez 42', Romero 56', 88', Guevara 57' CAN: None We fly into New York and travel to the Meadowlands to take on Guyana, who were a surprising entrant from the Caribbean Championship. They have no players who feature for major club teams so this should be an easy three points before a big game against Costa Rica. From the start, it seems everything is going to plan; early on we're dominating them and controlling possession. But we can't seem to find the first goal, and as the half creeps on Guyana start to find their legs. Right before the first half whistle, they counter off a corner and have a three on two advantage. Some precise passing from Chris Nurse finds Pierre Joseph and all of the sudden, after being outshot 8-1 in the first half Guyana takes a lead into the break. We come out flying in the second half, but just can't find the equalizer. Kevin McKenna misses a point blank header; Dwayne De Rosario hits the crossbar; Simeon Jackson fires a shot wide inches wide. The clock keeps ticking, but Guyana are defending well and just clearing out any danger. Marcel de Jong goes down in the 90th minute and has to be subbed off, and shortly thereafter the final whistle blows on one of the worst losses in recent Canadian memory. On the plus side, Costa Rica and El Salvador draw, so second place in the group is still very much in reach. However we will need three points against the Ticos to have any chance to advance. Canada - 0, Guyana - 1 Goals GUY: Joseph 45' Cards CAN: None GUY: Bailey 24', Joseph 34' As such, we head down to Texas needing a victory to keep any hopes of the Gold Cup alive. Unfortunately, we're also drawn up against the best team in the group, at least in terms of qualification. On the plus side, everyone seems relaxed in the locker room so hopefully we can get an upset. We come out tackling hard, and unfortunately end up injuring two of their players in the first 20 minutes, although this will likely help us later in the match. Costa Rica is dominating possession but aren't really threatening, but as we go into halftime tied a goal is needed in the second half. Thankfully, the breakthrough comes off a corner kick, as De Rosario fires in a cross and McKenna is right there to head it over the diving keeper. Bryan Ruiz just misses an equalizer with about 20 minutes to go, and that proves doubly costly for the Ticos when De Rosario takes a pass from Occean and fires a rifle into the top corner for his 23rd goal while wearning the Maple Leaf. Costa Rica seems shellshocked, and they feebly limp out of the Gold Cup. El Salvador smashes Guyana which means that we end up finishing second with four points. Costa Rica - 0, Canada - 2 Goals CAN: McKenna 61', De Rosario 73' Cards None We end up drawing Trinidad & Tobago for the quarterfinals, which should be a winnable matchup. Even better, Mexico B and the United States are on the other side of the draw, so if we can keep playing well a spot in the finals isn't out of the question. Group Standings Quarterfinal Matches Youth Team News We've also announced our squad for the U-20 World Cup, which will take place in Turkey starting on August 2nd. This squad is pretty young (8 players eligible for 2015!) but hopefully we can still be competitive. We'll be playing two pre-tournament friendlies in late July against Turkish club teams. Canada Squad Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cerud Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 Nice job on getting out of the group stages! Impressive against Argentina as well Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 Hopefully you can keep going. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DodgeeD Posted November 18, 2012 Share Posted November 18, 2012 Good to see another international management thread go up. Good luck with trying to raise the game's profile in Canada Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaub5 Posted November 18, 2012 Author Share Posted November 18, 2012 2013 Gold Cup Knockout Round So off we head into the quarterfinals, to take on Trinidad & Tobago. They cruised through Belize and Haiti before a narrow loss to Mexico B pushed them down to second in the group, but did see Kenwyne Jones suffer an injury, although it appears he will play against us. The winner of this match will take on Honduras in the semi-finals, who smacked El Salvador 2-0. The first 20 minutes clog up the midfield as the two sides feel each other out. We start to take control of the game, working the ball down the pitch but just unable to make that final incisive pass to set up a clear cut scoring chance. However, it finally comes just past the half hour mark. Off a poor Trinidad pass, Atiba Hutchinson shoots up the middle and the through ball from a backtracking Olivier Occean is perfect. Hutchinson comes in on the breakaway and coolly slots it past Marvin Phillip to give us the 1-0 lead. We strangle the match until half and enter the locker room a mere 45 minutes away from a grudge match against the Hondurans. However, Trinidad's manager clearly gave them a good talking to during the break, since they come out as a completely different side. We manage to hold them off for ten minutes, but a Chris Birchall strike from just outside the 6 yard box strikes Julian De Guzman and deflects perfectly to Jones, standing unmarked right beside goal. The flag controversially stays down as the Trinis celebrate and we're all square. In what has become a disturbing trend, after conceding we once again appear to be tentative and Jones nails the crossbar in the 59th minute. We get a bit of a break, as a poor backpass from Julius James heads behind for a Canadian corner. Josh Simpson fires it in, and its Kevin McKenna once again scoring a clutch goal rising above everyone and nodding it into the top of the goal. We have renewed confidence, and when Dwayne De Rosario comes on we start to control the match. He's become quite the super-sub, and he pops up again with just ten minutes to go, pushing Simeon Jackson in on a break which the Norwich striker converts, giving us an insurmountable 3-1 lead. Canada - 3, Trinidad & Tobago - 1 Goals CAN: Hutchinson 34', McKenna 63', Jackson 80' T&T: Jones 56' Cards None Up next are the Hondurans. Its our first matchup since the fateful qualifier in San Pedro Sula about 9 months ago, and our fans are itching for revenge. Unfortunately, we're without Occean and Will Johnson, who both picked up knocks during the previous game. As such we're going to be turning to youngster Lucas Cavallini up front and slot Patrice Bernier into the midfield. We're the late semi-final, and before our match we see the US dominate Mexico's B team 3-0. The possibility of a border battle for a trophy certainly is a good one to think about. Of course, Los Catrachos don't really care, and they dominate the first quarter hour of the match. They're firing shots from all angles, but thankfully none of seriously trouble Borjan. We get our first half-chance in the 24th minute; Jackson breaks down the right wing and cuts into the box. His pass across goal eludes Noel Valladares and lands right on the foot of Simpson, who from a seemingly impossible angle pops it into the far corner, somersaulting in joy in front of the fans. The Hondurans keep pressuring, but once again we manage to grab a break. Cavallini makes his first major impact as Osman Chavez trips him in the box, and the ref doesn't hesitate to point to the spot. I decide to let McKenna try to keep his goalscoring streak alive, and he slams it past Valladares to give us a commanding 2-0 halftime lead. By the 60th minute, we can tell the Hondurans have pretty much packed it in. Jerry Bengston scores a clearly offside goal in the 67th minute, but the frustration for them boils over, with Emilio Izaguirre picking up a yellow card. We've used our subs by the 80th minute and are pretty much on cruise control when Carlos Moran finds some space on the left and hammers a low drive past a diving Borjan. All of the sudden, its 2-1 and both Honduras and their fans are awake. They pressure mercilessly into stoppage time, and as the end comes near, we find ourselves defending a corner. Izaguirre whips it in, and it appears to be heading right to an unmarked Carlos Costly. Out of nowhere, Andre Hainault appears to head the ball out of the box, and the ref blows his whistle. A modicum of revenge, but more importantly we amazingly find ourselves a match away from the Gold Cup. Canada - 2, Honduras - 1 Goals CAN: Simpson 24', McKenna 45' HON: Moran 85' Cards CAN: None HON: Izaguirre 67', Costly 88' We haven't beat the United States in a meaningful match in a very long time. The last time we played them in the Gold Cup was 2011, where we meekly fell 2-0 in Detroit as Tim Howard solidified his claim as one of the best keepers in the world with a multitude of fantastic saves on Ali Gerba in the second half. The players seem happy just to be in the final, so I try to just keep the pressure of them and hope we can steal a result. In what seems to be the case of every match, we come out lethargic and the Americans take advantage. Brek Shea is everywhere in the first half hour, taking five shots towards goal in that period with two of them forcing Borjan to make key saves. We can't produce anything offensively, and go into half tied but clearly second best. I decide to try to get angry in the locker room, knowing that perhaps they just are the better team. But it seems that our players know they can be better, and we dominate the second half. We put eight shots on Tim Howard, but once again we just can't beat him. Hutchinson has a drive from six yards our and he somehow extends his arm and curls it around the post. De Rosario, once again subbing on and looking good has a tough angle drive that goes off his arm, the crossbar and falls on top of the net. The best chance comes right before the end of 90 minutes, when Howard makes a poor decision and comes off his line to grab a cross. Bernier has the Gold Cup on his left foot but his 25 yard strike through traffic goes inches wide. The whistle goes, and we're off to extra time. We get hard done to start the first period, as Jackson, now playing striker, is hauled down in the box with no call. However, he gets another chance right before the interval. Off a corner, the Americans clear the ball but Hutchinson comes onto it and finds Hainault, who is well out of position at the top of the 18 yard box. He appears to have some attacking mid in him though, and his through ball to Jackson is perfect. Howard makes a futile attempt to swipe our striker down and instead Jackson has the goal at his mercy and just slides it in. We could really use the old golden (or silver) goal rules, but either way its 15 minutes to an international trophy. We shut down the Americans at the start of the second overtime period. Landon Donovan has the best chance for USA, but pushes a shot from the top of the box just wide. With only five minutes to go we can taste the trophy, but disaster strikes. Fabian Johnson breaks down the right flank, having come in to play right midfield instead of his normal defensive position. He gets down low and just floats a ball into the box. 99 times out of 100, Borjan would easily just catch it and distribute it to the right back. This time, the ball keeps floating over his outstretched hand, drops just behind him and slowly bounces off the post and in. Its a truly terrible goal, but its not how, its how many and we're right back to square one. The whistle goes a couple of minues later, and the Gold Cup's coming down to something that every Canadian sports fan hates, although names like Peter Forsberg and Dominik Hasek certainly don't relate to soccer. Nonetheless, its a shootout, and Canada hasn't won in one since defeating Martinique in the 2002 edition of this tournament. We match goals for the first two shooters; Jackson and Bernier for us, and Donovan and Michael Bradley for the Americans. Then its McKenna, who scored the penalty in the semi-finals against Honduras and has goals in our last three matches. He went to the left to beat Valladares, and perhaps Howard was watching some tape as McKenna's penalty to the same area finds the keeper's outstretched palm. Howard gives a massive fist pump and you can just feel the air deflate from our team. Brek Shea consolidates the break, and after Marcel de Jong and Bradley Johnson both score its down to the final shooter. De Rosario has scored a multitude of penalties for Canada throughout his career, and he doesn't miss, so all the pressure shifts to Carlos Bocanegra. The 34 year old defender sizes up the opportunity and decides to go right down the middle. Borjan doesn't move, but the shot hits off his hands and takes off skyward. He looks up but can't find it, as it nestles into the bottom corner of the goal admist a loud roar from the Rose Bowl crowd in Pasadena. USA 5, Canada 4. Canada - 1, United States - 1 (USA wins 5-4 on penalties) Goals CAN: Jackson 105' USA: Johnson 116' Cards CAN: Simpson 29, De Guzman 98' USA: None On the plus side, our ranking should take a healthy bump. At least the CSA is pleased with me, I figured I'd be on the way out the door after the Guyana match. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaub5 Posted November 18, 2012 Author Share Posted November 18, 2012 FIFA U-20 World Cup 2013 I really like the youth tournaments in this game; its a fun way to see who will be featuring for the national side in the future. Of the 21 young men on this roster, 9 of them (Rajkovic, Melegari, Nonni, Salihovic, Jelicic, Aleman, Gasparotto, Rowland and Gantar) will be able to play again in 2015, and even better that's a large portion of the starting lineup right there. We have three pre-tournament friendlies, against Galatasaray Reserves, Sariyer and Altinordu. We get smashed 4-0 in the first match since it looks like Galatasaray decided to play a lot of their first team against us. We return the favour to Turkey in the other two preparation matches, with 6-0 and 7-0 wins respectively. It sets us up nicely for the first group stage match against Ecuador. We play probably the best game I've seen so far against Ecuador. Fabrice Bourgault is just unreal. He scores the winning goal in the 49th minute, and adds in a fantastic end to end run which ends in him beating three defenders, dancing around the keeper and then just skying a shot from two yards out. A truly embarrassing miss for him, but we'll take the win. We then take on France, who are the clear favourites in the group. However, we're able to keep them containing, mostly due to the strong anchoring of the midfield by Nick Nonni. As the game moves towards a bore draw, a Doneil Henry clearance happens to find the run of speedy striker David Rajkovic, who slides the ball past a helpless Jonathan Millieras to give us a shock 1-0 victory. Our final match is a scoreless draw against South Korea. France will likely feel hard done with a +7 goal differential compared to our +3, but we are top of the group without allowing a single goal. Heading into the knockout round, we get the United States in a rematch of the North American finals. We get an early lead as Rajkovic is brought down in the box, and Paul Jelicic converts from the spot. With ten minutes to go, we're up 1-0. However, Tim Field equalizes off a corner, and with a minute to play Omar Salgado shows why he's one of the most hyped American prospects in years, dribbling through three defenders before a long distance strike beats keeper Alex Rowland to eliminate us from the tournament. Still, a strong performance, and some of these players will certainly be entering the senior team picture in the near future. Canada - 2, Ecuador - 0 Goals CAN: Bourgault 49', Rajkovic 90' Cards CAN: Alderson 17', Aleman 41' ECU: Angulo 73' France - 0, Canada - 1 Goals CAN: Rajkovic 89' Cards FRA: Lambese 44' CAN: Melegari 16', Alderson 80' South Korea - 0, Canada - 0 Goals None Cards KOR: Kwon 42' CAN: Salihovic 50', Bourgault 70' Canada - 1, United States - 2 Goals CAN: Jelicic 32' (pen) USA: Field 81', Salgado 89' Cards CAN: Henry 6', Aleman 51' USA: Frias 61', Rowe 64' Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
London City Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 Excellent work in the Gold Cup! Trinidad and Honduras are no pushovers and you nearly toppled the USA in the final! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaub5 Posted November 19, 2012 Author Share Posted November 19, 2012 Nice job on getting out of the group stages! Impressive against Argentina as well Thanks, I wish they brought their A squad so I could've really seen how I stacked up against them Hopefully you can keep going. And I did! Good to see another international management thread go up. Good luck with trying to raise the game's profile in Canada I wish I could in real life lol...its disappointing how irrelevant the national team is here Excellent work in the Gold Cup! Trinidad and Honduras are no pushovers and you nearly toppled the USA in the final! Yeah I was surprised how well we played; the US game was rough since we were probably the better team, but just got beat on a fluke goal. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaub5 Posted November 19, 2012 Author Share Posted November 19, 2012 August/September 2013 Match Day! After our near-triumph in the Gold Cup, we travel to Switzerland to take on a country that's ranked 12th in the world. We're up to 74th ourselves, and looking to make a move towards the top 50. I decide to call up a couple younger players, although as it was during the U-20 World Cup some of the best youth players weren't available. Canada Squad Switzerland outplays us throughout the match, but we're still able to hold off for a 0-0 draw, and some more ranking points. Switzerland - 0, Canada - 0 Goals None Cards SWI: Lichtsteiner 69' CAN: Cavallini 88' We then have a couple of weeks off before moving back to Toronto for a pair of friendlies against Colombia and South Korea. This time I'm able to call up some of the youth players, and I've given midfielder Nick Nonni and keeper Alex Rowland spots on the senior team. As well, this will mark Dwayne De Rosario's last appearance with the national team, as he will retire from international football after these matches, joining Julian De Guzman who did the same after the Gold Cup. Canada Squad The first match is against Colombia, ranked third in the world. They do bring their best team, including stars like Falcao so we're going to need to be impressive to get a result. James Rodriguez scores at around the half hour mark for them and we go into the half down 1-0. We find some inspiration in the 50th minute; a through ball from Atiba Hutchinson finds Simeon Jackson, who turns and fires it through the legs of David Ospina to tie the match. Unfortunately, we're not able to hold onto the result, as on a counter Dorian Pabon fires a low strike past Rowland to give the visitors a 2-1 win. Canada - 1, Colombia - 2 Goals CAN: Jackson 50' COL: Rodriguez 24', Pabon 78' Cards None We finish off the friendly period with a battle against South Korea, who are also favoured to win. However, we come out flying. Josh Simpson takes a pass from Olivier Occean and beats Jung Sung-Ryong to make it 1-0 less than five minutes into the match. He comes up again in the 13th minute off a free kick, curling one around the wall and into the top corner behind a helpless keeper. The winger then returns the favour from the first goal, as his cross finds Occean's head to put us 3-0 up less than half an hour in. After a Park Chu-Young strike cuts the lead to two, Simpson has his second assist of the half, dropping yet another pass to Occean to head home. In one half, the Sparta Prague winger has two goals and two assists, one of the better halves of recent Canadian soccer history. The second half sees South Korea coming out stronger, but we do score a fantastic four way passing play goal to make it 5-1, with Nonni picking up an assist on the Hutchinson tally. The Koreans grab a couple late goals (including an awful goal from midfield that counts as a Borjan own goal) but they are just for consolation as we score a mammoth win. Canada - 5, South Korea - 3 Goals CAN: Simpson 3', 13', Occean 22', 40', Hutchinson 53' KOR: Park 33', Borjan 58' (og), Ku 69' Cards CAN: Hutchinson 46', de Jong 81', Johnson 89' KOR: Kim 19', Lee 20', Park 35', Oh 83' We move up to 72nd in the rankings, good for 6th in CONCACAF. While it is very early, the top six teams in the region get a bye to the third round of World Cup qualifying so that would be nice for us. World News Mexico defeats Brazil 2-1 to win the U-20 World Cup. The knockout bracket is here European WCQ Standings Two matches left to play Group 1: Belgium (18), Scotland (14), Serbia (13) Group 2: Italy (20), Czech Republic (17), Bulgaria (11) Group 3: Germany (22), Sweden (15), Austria (11) Group 4: Turkey (17), Holland (17), Hungary (16) Group 5: Switzerland (18), Slovenia (15), Norway (13) Group 6: Portugal (24), Russia (15), Israel (15) Group 7: Slovakia (19), Greece (19), Bosnia (15) Group 8: Poland (16), Ukraine (16), England (15) Group 9: Spain (18), France (13), Belarus (7) CONCACAF WCQ Standings * = qualified USA - 22* Mexico - 18* Costa Rica - 11 Jamaica - 6 Honduras - 6 Panama - 5 Fourth place team qualifies for playoff against New Zealand CONMEBOL WCQ Standings * = qualified Argentina - 37* Colombia - 30* Uruguay - 28* Paraguay - 24* Chile - 19 Ecuador - 17 Ecuador has one match in hand Africa WCQ Playoff Matches South Africa vs Ghana Nigeria vs Gabon Cameroon vs Morocco Senegal vs Algeria Ivory Coast vs DR Congo Asia WCQ Standings * = qualified Group A: Japan (20)*, Qatar (17)*, Saudi Arabia (11) Group B: South Korea (22)*, Iran (13)*, Kuwait (10) Saudi Arabia defeated Kuwait 3-2 on aggregate to advance to playoff against 5th place CONMEBOL team OFC WCQ Standings New Zealand - 18 Fiji - 7 Vanuatu - 6 Solomon Islands - 4 New Zealand advances to playoff against fourth place CONCACAF team Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cerud Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 Man, I wish Occean would score for us like that in real life! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DodgeeD Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 Two good performances at the tournaments there :thup:Quick question - why didn't you load the MLS? Surely, that would guarantee a few regents from the Canadian clubs. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaub5 Posted November 19, 2012 Author Share Posted November 19, 2012 Man, I wish Occean would score for us like that in real life! Seriously eh...last time Canada scored five goals against a real team (ie not St Lucia) was April 2, 1992 against China. Pretty long time lol Two good performances at the tournaments there :thup:Quick question - why didn't you load the MLS? Surely, that would guarantee a few regents from the Canadian clubs. I did some extensive testing on this so here are the reasons 1) Setting "load all nationalities - North America" covers the re-gen problem (and also means that the other CONCACAF teams will produce re-gens for at least the next 15 years or so 2) The MLS greatly dilutes both the calibre of player and the development of players in the academy system. This doesn't affect me as much, but it really just kills the US by, say, 2024. The only way to change it was to really increase the youth rating of the US but then that results in a whole other whack of things going wrong. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaub5 Posted November 20, 2012 Author Share Posted November 20, 2012 October/November 2013 Match Day! A trio of friendlies cap off 2013 as we travel to Guatemala in October before an Eastern European excursion in November. We were originally scheduled to play the Czech Republic there, but they have a World Cup playoff against Hungary so instead we will take on Montenegro as well as Slovakia, who are already headed to Brazil. As well, Kevin McKenna has resigned the Canadian captaincy to allow a younger core to start building for 2018. Andre Hainault has been named captain, with Will Johnson taking over from Julian De Guzman, who is now the assistant manager of the U-20 side. Canada Squad We travel down for a match against a team that would usually be considered as our equal. However, Guatemala dominates the entire match, and for all intents and purposes had no business losing the match. But we have been able to squeak out some smash and grab victories before, and on this hot Central American night its Will Johnson with a fantastic 35 yard volley goal to give us the 1-0 victory, our first win in Central America since 2002. Guatemala - 0, Canada - 1 Goals CAN: Johnson 23' Cards GUA: Marquez 78' CAN: Jackson 43', de Jong 69' We're then off to Europe for a pair of friendlies. The first match sees us take on Montenegro, and we outplay them for the majority of the match. It appears we will be hard done with a scoreless draw, but it turns even worse for us as Dejan Damjanovic spoils it for us with a close range strike to give the home side a 1-0 win, spoiling the first cap for 17 year old winger Zaccaria Melegari. We are then off to Slovakia for what should be a far tougher battle against Slovakia. Sure enough, they come out flying on the high of heading off to Brazil, and if not for Milan Borjan we would be behind early. Olivier Occean continues his great goalscoring ways for the national team, using his left foot to make it 1-0 just before half. The Slovakians come out strong again in the second half and score a pair of goals to take the lead. With us staring at another defeat, its young striker Lucas Cavallini saving the day as he gets two attempts in front of goal and converts on the second one, giving us a 2-2 draw that will at least give us some confidence heading into the new year. Canada Squad Montenegro - 1, Canada - 0 Goals MNG: Damjanovic 86' Cards MNG: Jovetic 39' CAN: Johnson 18', Hutchinson 26', Nonni 89' Slovakia - 2, Canada - 2 Goals SVK: Breznanik 48', Nemec 72' CAN: Occean 41', Cavallini 86' Cards SVK: Kucka 17' CAN: Nonni 17', Johnson 19', Jackson 66' World News World Cup Qualifiers Host: Brazil Europe: Belgium, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Switzerland, Portugal, Sl ovakia, England, Spain, Hungary*, France*, Ukraine*, Russia* South America: Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, Paraguay North America: United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Jamaica * Asia: Japan, Qatar, South Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia* Africa: Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Senegal, Ivory Coast * = qualified via playoff The surprising omissions are Chile, Australia and Holland. As Jamaica did qualify for the World Cup, Junior Hoilett has decided to represent them on the international stage. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaub5 Posted November 20, 2012 Author Share Posted November 20, 2012 December 2013/January 2014 MNT News The end of another year...we finish ranked 80th in the world, good for 7th in CONCACAF. Not great, but hopefully we can build on it heading into the 2015 Gold Cup. Canada Best XI World News World Cup Groups (rankings as of December 2013 in parenthesis) A: Brazil (33), Ukraine (23), Saudi Arabia (64), Costa Rica (72) B: Uruguay (5), Ivory Coast (6), Russia (12), United States (15) C: Belgium (10), Hungary (20), Paraguay (29), Qatar (62) D: Portugal (7), Colombia (9), Switzerland (32), Iran (58) E: Spain (1), Mexico (8), Ghana (14), Turkey (17) F: Italy (3), France (11), Nigeria (16), Japan (39) G: Argentina (2), Senegal (19), Slovakia (42), Jamaica (56) H: Germany (4), England (18), Cameroon (25), South Korea (48) My notes - Some solid FIFA rigging for Brazil's group - Mexico got hosed as they should've been seeded, making their group along with Group B the absolute groups of death and Belgium's group pretty easy - Some solid group matchups between UEFA rivals Player of the Year Team of the Year Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Widzew Posted November 20, 2012 Share Posted November 20, 2012 look at Leighton Baines there in the starting team of the year... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cerud Posted November 21, 2012 Share Posted November 21, 2012 Nice to see De Guzman moving into management. What are his staff attributes? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaub5 Posted November 22, 2012 Author Share Posted November 22, 2012 February-April 2014 We've announced our friendly schedule for the year...some decent matchups in here. Friendly Schedule Match Day! The year starts with a trip to Teplice, Czech Republic. Our national pool is filled with injuries, including key players such as Nick Nonni, Lars Hirschfeld and Milan Borjan. As well, Kevin McKenna announced his retirement from international soccer, and as such our squad looks like this Canada Squad We play a completely uninspired game against the Czechs, in all honestly it was so boring I don't even have anything of value to write. Marcel de Jong conceded a penalty 10 minutes in that was converted, and the rest of the match was just the Czechs aimlessly passing the ball around our box but never being able to cut through. While the squad was young, there's certainly work to be done. Czech Republic - 1, Canada - 0 Goals CZE: Sivek 11' (pen) Cards CZE: None CAN: Aleman 41' As well, for cerud: Julian De Guzman coaching attributes. Not much really; works OK with the youth but obviously won't be motivating them anytime soon. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PHILPARKINSONIDOL Posted November 22, 2012 Share Posted November 22, 2012 Absolutely brilliant story, didn't have a clue about Canadian football Tbh now I feel engrossed !! Think the worst may be yet to come though with the injuries and youth having to step up :/ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cerud Posted November 23, 2012 Share Posted November 23, 2012 Looking a De Guzman's stats...yikes... Yeah, I'd hoped he would be better in man management and motivating. May make a better coach than manager. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaub5 Posted November 23, 2012 Author Share Posted November 23, 2012 Absolutely brilliant story, didn't have a clue about Canadian football Tbh now I feel engrossed !! Think the worst may be yet to come though with the injuries and youth having to step up :/ Thanks, really appreciate it. Hoping that the youth will actually be a step up (some of these re-gens look quite good). Might take a year or two of building but just need to round into form for 2016. Looking a De Guzman's stats...yikes... Yeah, I'd hoped he would be better in man management and motivating. May make a better coach than manager. Yeah its a bit ugly, I just hired him since I felt like I needed an assman somewhere. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaub5 Posted November 23, 2012 Author Share Posted November 23, 2012 Absolutely brilliant story, didn't have a clue about Canadian football Tbh now I feel engrossed !! Think the worst may be yet to come though with the injuries and youth having to step up :/ Thanks, really appreciate it. Hoping that the youth will actually be a step up (some of these re-gens look quite good). Might take a year or two of building but just need to round into form for 2016. Looking a De Guzman's stats...yikes... Yeah, I'd hoped he would be better in man management and motivating. May make a better coach than manager. Yeah its a bit ugly, I just hired him since I felt like I needed an assman there to at least run the team for friendlies Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaub5 Posted November 24, 2012 Author Share Posted November 24, 2012 May/June 2014 Match Day! The only thing that's left for us before the World Cup is acting as a tune-up for the Russian side as they make the trip to BMO. We call up a young squad, with four U-20 eligible players in the lineup. We'll continue to bring in more youth to the squad throughout the rest of the year. Canada Squad The lineup is somewhat young, but for once we start out well, with Randy Edwini-Bonsu having the best chance of the first half as his in-close chance bounces off the post. The Russians are smothered by our centre back partnership of Andre Hainault and Dejan Jakovic, and by the 60th minute they're just bringing on the subs to keep them match fit for Brazil. We end up outplaying Russia, but are unable to find that needed goal as the match ends in a bore 0-0 draw. Canada - 0, Russia - 0 Goals None Cards CAN: None RUS: Bereztuskiy 8', Dzagoev 31', Glushakov 65', Burlak 88' Up next, the World Cup (but not for us )! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaub5 Posted November 24, 2012 Author Share Posted November 24, 2012 2014 World Cup World Cup time! Can Spain win yet another international competition? Will the Brazilians become the first team to win at home since France did in 1998? Will another South American team such as Argentina or Uruguay reign supreme, or perhaps a traditional European powerhouse such as Italy or Germany? Can a North American team make a run and possibly even be the first team to ever make a semi-final? Let us find out! Group Stage Group A The hosts started off the World Cup in style, scoring three goals in the first half hour to cruise by Costa Rica 3-1. However, their second match caused a national furor as Neymar missed a late penalty and the hosts could only glean a point off the Ukrainians. With both teams sitting on four points and an equivalent goal differential heading into the final group match, it appeared it would come down to who could run up the score against their opponent. The Ticos did the hosts a big favour, tying Ukraine 0-0 which settled the Brazilians into first after their victory over Saudi Arabia. Group B It only took a day for first real stunning result of World Cup play, as the Americans smashed and grabbed a 1-0 victory over pre-tournament darkhorse Uruguay. The South American side would recover in style, with an Edinson Cavani scoring a hat trick to lead the way to a lopsided win over the Russians and adding one more in a win over the Ivory Coast. Every country went into the final match day on three points, and it was the Americans adding to the Russian misery with a 3-0 win to advance alongside Uruguay. Although the USA did have the head to head victory, the first tiebreaker is of course goal differential and with a +4 it was Uruguay who finished first in the group. Group C The so-called 'golden generation' has been a large talking point when it comes to Belgian football, and if the group stage was any indication this could be fantastic times for a country that hadn't made it to a World Cup since Japan/Korea '02. The Red Devils had 3-0 wins in every match, with six different goalscorers throughout their romps. Paraguay escaped with 2-1 wins over both Hungary and Qatar to become the third South American team to qualify for the second round. Group D Colombia appeared to be in decent shape in Group D, earning draws against both Portugal and Switzerland in their first two matches. As both of their opponents defeated hapless Iran, on the final match day a win would be all it took for a fourth South American side to make their way into the knockout stages. Falcao scored twice, but Milad Meydavoudi was his equal, as his 84th minute strike sent the Colombians crashing out of their first World Cup since France '98. Portugal and Switzerland played to a draw but Helder Postiga's hat trick against Iran gave them the edge on goal differential. Group E After winning their last three major tournaments, Spain were held to a shock 0-0 draw from an upstart Ghana side, while the Mexicans were also upset by Turkey in their opening match to flip the group on its head. With four teams in the top twenty in the world rankings, this was clearly the group of death, and Mexico got a mammoth goal differential boost with a 5-1 crushing of the Black Stars. The African side did recover to squeeze by Turkey in their final match, but a thrilling battle between the European and North American champions that featured own goals, red cards and more ended in a 2-2 draw, sending Spain through on top with Mexico in second place. Group F Italy disappointed greatly in South Africa 2010, finishing dead last in their group. It was yet another shock for the Azzurri as they crashed out in the group stage, only managing a victory against hapless Japan, who were unable to score in any of their three matches. The Italians only needed a point against Nigeria on the final match day to move through, but were smashed 3-0 to stumble out of Brazil. The French had an easier time, winning all three of their matches to glide through into the round of sixteen. Group G Hopes were high for Argentina heading into the tournament, and they absolutely dominated Jamaica in their first match, keeping 70% possession in a 2-0 win. A draw against Slovakia and win against Senegal were enough to put them through, but it was concerning that Lionel Messi didn't score at all during the group stage. The match of the round for the neutral may have been Senegal/Jamaica, with Mame Diouf scoring all four Senegalese goals in a 4-3 victory over the Reggae Boyz. Unfortunately both teams didn't move through, as it was Slovakia taking the second spot in the group. Group H Two bitter war rivals headed Group H, with the English and Germans tying atop the group with seven points. Germany managed to beat Cameroon by one more goal than the Three Lions, which put them atop the group. South Korea had the dubious award of being the worst team in the tournament, going out with a -9 goal differential. Round of 16 The Round of 16 kicked off with an intriguing battle pitting the host nation against a country that many feel will be a world power in the near future. However, Maicon's 2nd minute goal set the stage for what turned out to be a Brazil romp over the United States by a score of 4-1. The Brazilians were joined in the quarterfinals by a South American compatriot, as Uruguay was lead by a brace from Luis Suarez in a 4-0 crushing over a weak Ukraine team. Brazil - 4, USA - 1 Uruguay - 4, Ukraine - 0 Cristiano Ronaldo didn't score, but he set up both Portuguese goals to set up a massive quarterfinal against Brazil. Belgium had their fourth straight match without conceding, as starlet Eden Hazard picked up the man of the match with a complete performance in a dominating victory over Switzerland. Portugal - 2, Paraguay - 0 Belgium - 2, Switzerland - 0 After four matches that were decided by at least two goals to kick off the knockout stages, both of these matches went to the lottery of penalty kicks. Mexico led twice against France but were unable to hold onto the advantage and embarrassed themselves by missing all three spot kicks in a 3-0 defeat. Spain once again had trouble scoring, but Iker Casillas saved the day with three penalty stops to give the Spainards a 3-2 penalty victory and keep their dreams of back to back World Cups alive. France - 2, Mexico - 2 (France wins 3-0 on penalties) Spain 0 - Nigeria - 0 (Spain wins 3-2 on penalties) Die Mannschaft found themselves trailing Slovakia with only half an hour to play but Mario Gomez took control, including a dramatic 88th minute goal off a corner that gave the Germans a big win. It was yet another disappointing tournament defeat for Lionel Messi and his Argentine side, as Darren Bent and Wayne Rooney combined to send La Albiceleste home once again at the round of sixteen, as England celebrated what was likely their greatest victory in a World Cup since Italy '90. Germany - 2, Slovakia - 1 England - 2, Argentina - 0 Quarterfinals The first day of quarterfinals saw the two remaining South American teams make the leap forward. After their stunning defeat to the Americans, Uruguay has looked like the best team in the tournament, and they made a Belgian team that had scored eleven and conceded none look amateurish. Luis Suarez and Edison Cavani tallied en route to a 3-0 win. Cristiano Ronaldo scored a big goal, but the Brazilians managed to hold on for a tense 2-1 win that sent the home side a win away from a trip to the finals. Uruguay - 3, Belgium - 0 Brazil - 2, Portugal - 1 England's World Cup run was halted by Loic Remy as Les Bleus shut down the England attack and cruised to a 2-0 victory. The second match of the day was likely the most entertaining of the quarterfinals, as Spain and Germany had a re-match of their 2010 semi-final. With the score tied in the 85th minute, Cesc Fabregas finished off a fantastic passing play to break German hearts once again. France - 2, England - 0 Spain - 2, Germany - 1 Semifinals The first semi was a re-match of the 1998 World Cup Final, where host nation France won their first ever World Cup. 16 years later, the Brazilians got a modicum of revenge, taking out the French in their backyard. Karim Benzema scored the first goal of the match but after a quick response from Dede, Neymar and Sandro added the decided tallies to move Brazil onto the finals. Brazil - 3, France - 1 Edinson Cavani led the tournament in goals scored, but it was the one that he put in his own net that he might remember the most from Brazil 2014, as his inadvertent direction of a free kick into the Uruguayan goal opened the scoring and gave Spain a 1-0 lead heading into halftime. Fernando Llorente added an insurance goal which was offset by Luis Suarez, as Spain set themselves up for a historic fourth straight major international title. Spain - 2, Uruguay - 1 Third Place Game Cavani made up for his own goal by opening the scoring in the fourth minute, and Uruguay claimed their first podium finish since winning the World Cup in 1950 in Brazil with a 2-1 win over an uninspired French team. Uruguay - 2, France - 1 World Cup Final It was the dream final. A host nation looking to claim their record sixth World Cup, against a Spanish team that hadn't lost a knockout match in a tournament since June 27, 2006. Hulk had scored two goals to get Brazil to this stage, but it was his bad angle strike in the 5th minute that just squeezed past Iker Casillas that will likely go down as the biggest goal in his life. The Brazilians smothered a Spanish team that clearly had trouble scoring goals, and had them outshot 6-1 after the first half. Neymar had a chance to put the match away early in the second half, but Casillas made a fantastic stop on a breakaway. However, shortly after Raul Albiol pulled down Hulk in the box, and the striker gave himself a World Cup Final brace when he slammed home the penalty. As the half wore on, a Brazilian crowd roared their country's team home, and blue and yellow confetti poured down from La Maracana as keeper Victor became the sixth Brazilian captain to hoist the World Cup trophy. Brazil - 2, Spain - 0 These were the exceptional players of the 2014 tournament. The world's attention will shift to Eastern Europe in 2018, as Russia will host their first ever World Cup, with the Brazilians trying to become the first repeat winner since they did it in 1958 and 1962. World Cup Best XI Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaub5 Posted November 24, 2012 Author Share Posted November 24, 2012 August/September 2014 As the closing ceremonies in Brazil drew to an end, it was time for Mission 2018 to begin. We had three matches during the early part of the European season; a trip to Denmark and a pair of home matches against CONCACAF foes. We've seen a couple of training injuries to our players at their clubs, so its a bit of a younger squad getting called up once again. Thankfully some of our U-20 stars are getting signed to larger clubs; Keven Aleman will head off to Sevilla while Zaccaria Melegari has been signed by Arsenal. August 2014 Canada Squad We play a strong first half in Brondby, but a pair of great saves from Danish keeper Anders Lindegaard keeps it scoreless into the break. The second half is a different story though; Olivier Occean finds Josh Simpson with a through ball and the winger slots it home to give us a 1-0 lead. We're still controlling the match, but disaster strikes in the 70th minute as Nicki Bille Nielsen scores on a defensive breakdown, shortly followed by Jores Okore's header off a corner to give the Danes a 2-1 advantage. With the clock reaching ninety minutes, substitute Issey Nakajima-Farran stuns the crowd with a spectacular half volley to give us a well deserved draw. Denmark - 2, Canada - 2 Goals: DEN: Nielsen 70', Okore 78' CAN: Simpson 56', Nakajima-Farran 90' Cards: None We head into the September friendly period with a pair of matches in Montreal against Honduras as Trinidad & Tobago. Bryce Alderson will have the opportunity to get his first senior team cap as the youth movement continues, while Lars Hirschfeld's Canada career will come to an end soon after the keeper announced that he will retire from professional football in December. September 2014 Canada Squad The first match is yet another battle with Honduras, who we will also play back in Central America in January of 2015. We have dominated possession through the first 48 minutes, and then a 40 yard free kick from Emilio Izaguirre just sails by a befuddled Lars Hirschfeld into the back of the net. Everything completely falls apart after that, and the Honduras strangle the remainder of the match, adding another goal just past the hour mark. Its likely the worst half we have played since I've been in charge, and against one of our biggest rivals its excessively disappointing. Furthermore, we now haven't won any of our last six matches as the supporters group is not exactly pleased with me. Canada - 0, Honduras - 2 Goals: HON: Izaguirre 48', Palacios 62' Cards: CAN: Nonni 23', Morgan 52' HON: None Our chance for redemption comes four days later against Trinidad, who we defeated in last year's Gold Cup quarterfinals. Thankfully, after playing our worst 45 minutes in the last match we probably play our best match against the Trinis. The Caribbean nation can only manage one attempt on goal in the entire match, and Lucas Cavallini's 29th minute goal is all we need to cruise to our first win in almost a full calendar year. Canada - 1, Trinidad & Tobago - 0 Goals: CAN: Cavallini 29' Cards: CAN: Alderson 55' T&T: None Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltablue Posted November 25, 2012 Share Posted November 25, 2012 Denmark draw is respectable. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaub5 Posted November 25, 2012 Author Share Posted November 25, 2012 October-December 2014 Denmark draw is respectable. One of the few results unfortunately... Match Day A couple more games to round out a disappointing 2014 before we head into a very important 2015. I had a bunch of stuff written up before my CPU crashed so I'll just stick with the text/pic summaries of these two matches. Both of them ended up knocking us down the World Rankings. October 2014 Canada Squad Canada - 2, Hungary - 2 Goals: CAN: Hutchinson 20', Cavallini 86' HUN: Koman 28', Priskin 79' Cards: CAN: Occean 3', Jackson 8', Johnson 33' HUN: Koman 17, Vass 24', Vadocz 54' November 2014 Canada Squad Jamaica - 3, Canada - 2 Goals: JAM: de Jong (og) 7', Henry 22', Ebanks-Blake 53' CAN: Cavallini 11', Jackson 52' Cards: JAM: Austin 90' CAN: Johnson 67' MNT News We finish the year spiralling down to 103rd in the world. Excessively disappointing, but we'll have plenty of matches in 2015 to try to jump back up. December 2014 CONCACAF Rankings 2014 Canada Best XI Youth Team News Groups were announced for the 2015 CONCACAF championship. We have a generally easy group, and with one of our better U-20 teams in recent memory should qualify with ease. I am hoping we can have a pretty good run in the actual tournament. CONCACAF U-20 Championship Groups World News 2014 Ballon D'Or World Team of the Year Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
theaub5 Posted November 27, 2012 Author Share Posted November 27, 2012 Aight we're going to change this up a bit. Instead of doing this month by month I'm going to have separate posts for each tournament and then just get to the rest as it happens. As such, we fly into 2015 with 3(!) friendlies, taking us into the U-20 Championship in early April. Below is our friendly schedule for the year; note that there will be some pre-Gold Cup friendlies scheduled when the groups are drawn in January. 2012 Friendly Schedule We do start off the year with a friendly, as due to the preparations for the 2015 Copa Centroamerica there are a bunch of participants looking for friendlies. Therefore, we take a team of domestics off to Notre e Sur for a friendly against the Honduran A team. By all rights it should be a slaughter, but Russell Teibert stuns everyone by making a strong run, getting a through ball from Conrad Trafford and putting one past Ricardo Canales to make it 1-0 Canada. Unfortunately, we don't do much for the rest of the match. The Hondurans continue to press, and manage to delight the home fans in the 86th minute as a series of bad clearances sets up Oscar Boniek Garcia with the easy finish to tie the match. Its disappointing that we're unable to close out the win, but the draw does move us up to 93rd in the world rankings. Canada Squad January 2015 Honduras - 1, Canada - 1 Goals: HON: Garcia 86' CAN: Teibert 7' Cards: HON: Palacios 6' The Gold Cup groups get announced in late January, and we end up in a group with tournament favourite Mexico, along with Panama and Haiti. This tournament has a large amount of importance, and not just because of the Confederations Cup berth that's on the line for the winner. Mexico, the United States and the next top four finishers will qualify for the Copa America Centenario that will be held in America in 2016, and a spot in that would give us potential matchups against some of the world's best teams including defending World Cup champion Brazil. 2015 Gold Cup Groups We schedule pre-tournament friendlies against Barbados, El Salvador and Jamaica (who once again did not qualify for the Gold Cup) to get prepared for the tournament. Those matches will take place in late May and early June. Before that though, its a couple more home friendlies against some middling opponents. We start off with a match against Saudi Arabia, who did qualify for the last World Cup after beating out Ecuador. Our squad doesn't have any U-20 players on it as they prep for the CONCACAF qualifying tournament, so players like Nick Nonni and Keven Aleman will not feature. This shows, as the Saudis are able to control the midfield early in the match. While they do dominate possession, they really don't do anything else, and after Josh Simpson scores in the 40th minute we cruise along to a 1-0 victory. The second match features Bolivia, a tricky South American side who almost strike early as Jose Luis Chavez has a gaping goal but hits the upright. The match settles into a bore as the Bolivians are clearly playing for the draw, but a late sub to bring in Simeon Jackson makes me look smart as the Blackpool striker scores twice in five minutes to lead us to a 2-0 win. The pair of wins give us a slight bump in the world rankings, and it appears that barring a disaster in the Gold Cup we should be able to clinch a bye through the first round of World Cup qualifying. Canada Squad March 2015 Canada - 1, Saudi Arabia - 0 Goals: CAN: Simpson 40' Cards: KSA: Rishani 56', Al-Hazzazi 68' Canada - 2, Bolivia - 0 Goals: CAN: Jackson 83', 88' Cards: None Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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