CCC Lineups

[ballerz]

Just want to get your opinions on the line up Cummins should field for May 6 and May 13. Do you think we will go with our strongest 11 and make sure we kick the snot out of Montreal and Vancouver in the home legs? What about the away legs later on - do we let up and work in our youngsters and backups? Do you work in some of our young guys and backups? Do you give Sutton some starts and get Smith, Nana, RR, Ibrahim into some games?

[Cambridge_Red]

We play our best team, no slip up needed this year.

[ilikemusic]

Full team.

We need to win this thing.

[Yohan]

Just want to get your opinions on the line up Cummins should field for May 6 and May 13. Do you think we will go with our strongest 11 and make sure we kick the snot out of Montreal and Vancouver in the home legs? What about the away legs later on - do we let up and work in our youngsters and backups? Do you work in some of our young guys and backups? Do you give Sutton some starts and get Smith, Nana, RR, Ibrahim into some games?
I think attackers should get some rest, and get some of the subs playing time.

The squad should be deep enough to handle Mtl and Van, esp at home. If not, big trouble.

I want to see Gomez play, just to see what he's all about too. Maybe Ricketts get his chance at redemption. He played well last yr vs Van and Mtl. Smith and Ibrahim to make an impact.

Vitti and Barrett to get their goals to get over the hump.

[spezz44]

^^i just dont think they will risk it this year, they need this big time.

[Yohan]

^I understand that reasoning too, but what about match fitness as the year goes on?

[spezz44]

yaa i cant say i disagree with you, but looking at at MLSE point of view they lost out on a shit load of revenue missing it last year.

[Stouffville_RPB]

Sutton gets in here. Vitti plays, as does Rohan. It could also serve a game to help get DeRo into match fitness.

I think they'll give Serioux a rest here though. I think all of our starters get a break in 1 of the games.

I want this bad and if it's up to me I put this on top of the priority list.

[ilikemusic]

MLSE is probably frothing at the mouth at the prospect of a game at Skydome like what the Impact had at the Big O.

I hope this title is being given the priority it deserves. I would rather drop 6 points in the league if it meant a guaranteed victory in the Canadian championship.

[TFCmatty]

MLSE is probably frothing at the mouth at the prospect of a game at Skydome like what the Impact had at the Big O.

:rolleyes:
skydome? no thank you

[ilikemusic]

:rolleyes:
skydome? no thank you

They will never play at BMO in February.

Well, maybe not never.

If one day BMO seats 60,000 people, is completely encircled by seats, and has a retractable roof. Then and only then will we see football played on the lakeshore in February.

[rocker]

i would just take it game by game.
They have something like 5 games in 15 days coming up.
Just look at health and tiredness and decide on a game by game basis.
I wouldn't do what the US MLS teams do in US Open Cup, which is to rest all starters and go with 100% subs. Pretend these games are all worth the same and manage it accordingly.

[T_Mizz]

They will never play at BMO in February.

Well, maybe not never.

If one day BMO seats 60,000 people, is completely encircled by seats, and has a retractable roof. Then and only then will we see football played on the lakeshore in February.
That or sudden intense global warming

[ilikemusic]

i would just take it game by game.
They have something like 5 games in 15 days coming up.
Just look at health and tiredness and decide on a game by game basis.
I wouldn't do what the US MLS teams do in US Open Cup, which is to rest all starters and go with 100% subs. Pretend these games are all worth the same and manage it accordingly.

The USOC is also a much longer tournament with a greater chance of being eliminated at any single stage. Its not really worth it for the US MLS teams to go all out until a much later stage.

This is a simple double round robin. As you say, these games should be treated just like any MLS league game. Dont be pushing guys to play, but field as strong a team as you can while paying consideration to fitness and injuries.

In all honesty, I would sacrafice the Dynamo game and the Galaxy game for the sake of the road ties with Vancouver and Montreal. Theyre outside our conference, so it doesnt matter as much if we drop points to them. Not that I want them to drop points to anybody, but IMO the Van & Mon games should take precedence.

[Oldtimer]

i would just take it game by game.
They have something like 5 games in 15 days coming up.
Just look at health and tiredness and decide on a game by game basis.
I wouldn't do what the US MLS teams do in US Open Cup, which is to rest all starters and go with 100% subs. Pretend these games are all worth the same and manage it accordingly.

I think TFC management realizes these are really important games. The difference with the US Open Cup, is that it didn't give a CCL spot until last year, so MLS sides treated it as a giant friendly competition. The V-Cup is very meaningful, as it is the only way that a Canadian club can get a CL spot.

[rocker]

The USOC is also a much longer tournament with a greater chance of being eliminated at any single stage. Its not really worth it for the US MLS teams to go all out until a much later stage.
.

well, even in the play-ins for that USOC, teams were fielding no starters.
So you lose the play-in, you're out of the tourney immediately.

[James Oliphant]

^I understand that reasoning too, but what about match fitness as the year goes on?

It's simple: if these guys can't play 40 games in 8 months, they're not fit.

When we get into situations like what Manchester United are dealing with (yesterday's UEFA CL match was their 59th competitive match of 2008-09), then we worry about fitness.

Summer weather here might take a bit more out of them, but not to the point where we should be worrying about resting healthy starters.

[spezz44]

^^i agree completely but with the salary cap.....

[Don Julio]

Play the best 11. If we need to rest people do it in a league match against a western team and play for a draw - much easier to recover from a league loss than a CCC loss.

[Yohan]

god what a horrible strategy. you NEVER play for a draw from the start of the game, because most likely you'll end up losing

[Pachuco]

We cannot afford to look weak against the Canadian USL Teams again. We need to go ALL OUT the first few games. If we get an early lead into the top spot THEN MAYBE, JUST MAYBE we'll be able to afford to play some guys off the bench. But as it stands, it would be crazy to not go all out after finding out last year that this isn't a walk in the park.

[Don Julio]

god what a horrible strategy. you NEVER play for a draw from the start of the game, because most likely you'll end up losing

Ok, I really meant hope for a draw, but the strategy isn't important. If we're going to risk losing points to rest players we should do it in a 30 game season, not a 4 game winner-takes-all tournament which qualification for provides the opportunity to go on road trips to locations where we can pick up exotic, mutated influenza strains!

^ worst sentence I've ever written. Sorry about that.

If we clinch after 1 or 2 games go ahead and play the academy team for all I care.

[TFCREDNWHITE]

You play the FULL BEST XI ....... You can't half ass it against these guys, or else you are going LOSE, just like last year!!

Its really a no brainer, Play to Win!

[mighty_torontofc_2008]

The League is our bread and butter...let some of the reserve/bench players play in the Canadian championship. Lets not lose out on a playoff spot due to a 3 team tournament

[TorCanSoc]

If USL comes to Hamilton, and is a success. Can we see USL teams cropping up in other markets? If that happens, can we see 6, 7, or even 8 teams in this thing? Watch for game burnout then.

For now. Its our top-11 same as any league game. We need to win this thing. Lets not start booking Skydome just yet. Montreal made it past three rounds of qualification to get to the showdown in the Big-O, then the Meltdown in Mexico ( buuuuhah ha hah aha haha hahahah oh man stop.... my stomach!!!! Ha aha ha hahah I can't wait to see what banner shows up taunting Montreal because of that game...buhhhah aha hah ahahahahah)

[jwfm1985]

Play the top 11, for me playing in the champions league is very very important. I was so jealous of Montreal this winter, at least until their epic fail

[james]

deffinitly play the best 11 in are first 2 or 3 games. We gotta win the Candian Championship this year. If we get far enough ahead and win the early games then we might already win it before are 4th match and then you can start some subs.