Canadian Championship 1/4 Finals 1st Leg - Wed May 8 7:00 pm TFC @ Saint-Laurent

[los sonadores]

The second leg of the CSSL series will be the 4th game in 11 days and only 3 days after playing Montreal, because of that I could see some TFC II callups mixed in with some of the backups. It is a really crazy stretch for the Reds thru the month of May, some really match congestion. That 11 day stretch includes a mid week trip to Nashville , we shall see i guess on much roster rotation we see.

Although my initial sense of the first match of this competition was that we were dressing a few too many senior players, it now seems like the right move - on a few levels. Not sure about Bernie on a cow pitch but who else would have scored that goal? A manager either takes competitions like this seriously or he doesn’t. Given that this is the way to qualify for Concacaf league I have to endorse seriousness here.

In general, too, let’s face it, our national championship was absurd for a long time. There is nothing serious about a three team competition and all of them playing in the same U.S. league. We now have something like a real national cup and Herdman as an Englishman understands well what this means and how his club should go about it. This includes contributing to the strength of well run lower league clubs.

It’s also good to see him, not only playing out his experiments - Thompson at RCB (with Franklin beside him) and Gomis at LWB - but giving them a legit chance to learn.

Gomis, I think, will never be an adequate wing back… I suspect that is not entirely the point, however. It’s to save someone else on our not very deep roster from having to play that position against a league one ontario club, and it’s to give Gomis the experience of having to think further forward. I don’t think his pass to Osorio that wins the penalty against Dallas happens if Gomis hasn’t been an inadequate wing back against Simcoe. We may see him, in a pinch, play that position in MLS but not very often.

[los sonadores]

On Herdman after the match:

“Razzaghi’s counterpart John Herdman also heaped loads of praise on the Saint-Laurent players and staff after the match, and following the full time whistle stood at the edge of the pitch and shook the hands of everyone as they walked off.

“I want to start by saying what a performance by Saint-Laurent,” said Herdman. “I thought they were outstanding tonight. Hell of an atmosphere. Loved it. It felt like a proper cup match. I think 4,700 turned out, 6,000 tickets sold, and this is more media than I get in Toronto. So this obviously is a football city.”

“I think Saint-Laurent ought to be proud tonight. They pushed us, pushed us hard. Obviously for me what I’m happy about is the clean sheet, that was one mission. Tonight, just a professional performance, no injuries, and yeah, we got out of here. Tough night, cup match, everything you expected it to be.”

The praise didn’t stop there from Herdman, who added later in his press conference that Saint-Laurent “deserved something out of that game”, and could have probably had multiple goals in the match.”

““I said to the lads, anything can happen on these nights,” Herdman said afterwards. “A lad can score, and heartbreak, you just never know. All we can do is be disciplined and recognize the clean sheet was really important and then take our moments.

“We knew it wasn’t going to be a game you were going to be able to put an expansive plan to football. I think it’s a 64-metre pitch and we turned up in the wind and the rain, and you’re like, ‘it’s a proper cup night, lads, just stay in the fight, keep fighting, stick together and we’ll get through’.

“Thankfully we did.””

[reggie]

On Herdman after the match:

“Razzaghi’s counterpart John Herdman also heaped loads of praise on the Saint-Laurent players and staff after the match, and following the full time whistle stood at the edge of the pitch and shook the hands of everyone as they walked off.

“I want to start by saying what a performance by Saint-Laurent,” said Herdman. “I thought they were outstanding tonight. Hell of an atmosphere. Loved it. It felt like a proper cup match. I think 4,700 turned out, 6,000 tickets sold, and this is more media than I get in Toronto. So this obviously is a football city.”

“I think Saint-Laurent ought to be proud tonight. They pushed us, pushed us hard. Obviously for me what I’m happy about is the clean sheet, that was one mission. Tonight, just a professional performance, no injuries, and yeah, we got out of here. Tough night, cup match, everything you expected it to be.”

The praise didn’t stop there from Herdman, who added later in his press conference that Saint-Laurent “deserved something out of that game”, and could have probably had multiple goals in the match.”

““I said to the lads, anything can happen on these nights,” Herdman said afterwards. “A lad can score, and heartbreak, you just never know. All we can do is be disciplined and recognize the clean sheet was really important and then take our moments.

“We knew it wasn’t going to be a game you were going to be able to put an expansive plan to football. I think it’s a 64-metre pitch and we turned up in the wind and the rain, and you’re like, ‘it’s a proper cup night, lads, just stay in the fight, keep fighting, stick together and we’ll get through’.

“Thankfully we did.””

he also put in a dig at the lack of press covering tfc this seasob (2 guys lol ) and they may have a look at some st laurent players