Group A
Ireland
Canada
Greece
Northern Ireland
Jamaica
Group A will be interesting to watch. The obvious favorites to make it out are Ireland and Jamaica, but Northern Ireland, Greece, and Canada definitely have a chance. All it takes is one upset to get into the playoffs. The great thing about this pool is that all the teams play pretty much the same style. All of these teams control the ball the well, in turn controlling the tempo of the game. The tempo in this group should be much lower than the other groups, because these teams consist of very experienced players that take their time in setting up chances.
Prediction: In finishing order: Ireland, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Greece. I think we'll see Ireland make it through for sure. The real battle will be determining who else comes out. Jamaica and Northern Ireland had an even game in the group stage last year, so it should be good again this year. Jamaica even lost to Canada last year, so there's another spin on it. It looks like a 2008 Group C reunion for Jamaica, Canada, and Northern Ireland. Greece is the other team, always a threat to upset a big name team.
Game To Watch: Ireland vs. Jamaica. A meeting of two classic tournament rivals.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
61 comments:
Ireland and Jamaica will go through here. But Canada seems to be Jamaica's kryptonite, so we'll see.
when you say ireland, do you mean ROI or northern ireland? just to clear any confusion that may occur in future posts.
Alright if you think Northern Ireland will make it out and not ROI than your crazy. ROI will make it no doubt. Second place... not to sure. Should be a tight race for the second spot. Canada and Jamaica always play hard but Northern Ireland is a shocker team and Greece somehow manages to games. So it should be a good battle for second in this pool as well.
Ok well ROI easy first place. Second place is tough to pick, it all depends who comes out and plays each game. i think Northern Ireland just gets by and advances.
I got to go with ROI and Canada coming out of this pool. Canada always could score goals and with the addition of a goalie this year should be able to hold off both Greece and NI to come out of this pool. Canada always beats Jamaica! Side note: The opening game this year should be a great one if Canada shows up to play.
Canada is over rated. who do they have that is good?
Julian De Guzman
are pppl actually going to write off roi from winning the whole think. i heard some of their pick up and they have serious depth. my pick to win it
who are these people that ROI has picked up?
ROI lost 3 stellar players who in my opinion are virtually impossible to replace. really, who could replace benno, manz and bacleau?
To my knowledge these are the Transactions ROI has made this off-season:
IN: Stephan Kreig(huskie midfielder), Owen Mcfadden(huskie midfielder), and Derek NG(huskie goalie)
Obviously these are just rumours that I've heard. It will be interesting to see who Ireland has on the pitch this year.
Special One
haha 1 out of 3 is not too bad. i know they have picked up someone better than both brett and benno. and about 5 other guys. seriously watch out
i think leigh sembaluk will help ROI a tid smidge...just a thought
Well "better than you", you are now better than me. Joking aside I was hoping to be the first to report that Leigh Sembaluk is in for ROI this year, filling in for the lost Bachelu.
Kudos.
Special One
interesting... i still think brett is a bit better than leigh. but it should make for an interesting pool and tournament.
tough to compare the 2, seeing as they Play different positions and do different things.
Ireland in first even though they have lost the majority of there good players. possibly jamaica in second if they smarten up this year and give the arm band to a really leader and not a little boy who can barly play. lets just hope they start playing like really jamaicans. yes thats a chanllenge ! greece is screwed with out yianni harbis canada always fun to watch and northern ireland stink but no it out for a good time
who exactly did ROI lose? i only thought they only list tristan, benno and brett. did they loose any more?
Jamaica has a chance if Kevin can get his 5 youth players to play as a unit. They are probably the fastest, most skilled youth players in the province.
Kevin will need to get in shape, take charge and PRAY....easy!
ha ha !!
sorry to say, but i don't think his 5 youth players are going to be playing all at the same time, and are not going to cause a big problem for anyone if they do.
who are they're top 5 youth players? i know troy is one of them but i dont think hes coming back this year...
i heard they have Justin Manz coming back from injury in good shape and a solid season with the university of victoria.. he'll add a good scoring presence n speed
I don't know where your getting your info there Special One... but from the sounds of it.. Eoin isn't playing in the tournament this year, as he was thinking of playing for ES... and as for NDawg playing goalie.... I don't think that is very likely... he is now a known striker and no longer plays net... that I highly doubt he'd be strapping on the mitts.
Special One is just full of false information. He also said Leigh was coming back, which, surprise, is totally false.
No, i said Leigh was coming back, and special one agreed with me... the truth is out there...
you were both pretty eager to report it, i guess it was only a matter of who could post it first.
I say you share the prize for being wrong. And that prize is a football in the groin. You both get one.
i have heard the eoin is playing for germany after his finals.
Hey...well as for Can vs Jam yes they always beat them. Everyone focuses on Kevin but put the right man on him and he is shut down. Now i know that some say Canada does not have much but they do have one player that know exactly how to shut Kevin down. That is Dwayne Head. Yes getting older by the year but has played with Kevin and against Kevin and let me tell you from experience playing with Dwayne for years, he know just what to do and how to stop Kevin and get under Kevin's skin. I think just because of this Canada will be Jam once again. It is to bad for Kevin as we are very good friend. Keep representing the old guys out there. Thanks for the years Eugene :) Hope anyone out there that is following this blog and played for Eugene is happy to see some of his early 1980's players still putting a show on.
was that a serious comment? dwayne head to shut down kevin? i think canada has more problems to worry about than kevin when they play jamaica
I will put five dollars on kevin to win that battle
any takers
ya no kidding, i am not really a jamaica fan but they do have some threats other than kevin, if canada's game plan is to only shut down kevin, wow.. no wonder why you guys suck, there are other capable players on jamaica that can play which i will not name the players because only ppl that actually know regina soccer or soccer in general can name those players. so canada can actually scout or just sit on there fat asses and lose there games.
I am from Regina and i am curious to know who you think there other capable players are. also, who do you think are there top 5 young or youth players?
Jamaica's other players are Shane, Garfield, Adam, Justin. Their youth players are Josh, Andrew, Sheridan and Garrett. I don't know about a 5th player.
There maybe more players as Kevin does not want to continue loosing.
do you think the 4 youth players are any good? just curious.
why are you in so infactuated with the youth players?
why? because I heard from a couple people that there only decent. Ive also heard that Jamaica has a pretty quick squad and I was just wondering if people were talking about these 4 players. I don't know why people cant just answer that simple question and be done with it.
doesn't appear anyone is talking about them
Ok well never mind then
Sounds to me like sprite might just be a youth player himself. Maybe he's looking for a little bit of props from people on here. Good luck with that! Back to soccer talk, who thinks ROI are douch bags?
i can't wait for ROI to show up to each game 5 minutes before without stretching or kicking a ball around and completely smash everyone in their group.
haha they could show up ten minutes late to beat canada
And proving me correct, the douch bags come out.
I can see how some players or one player inparticular from ROI can be viewed as a dousche bag... but to term the whole team as db's is a little unfair.
ROI is so deep that they could play down a man, show up 10 mins late and still beat Canada ahaha
that is true..
Whether it was their whole team that agreed that defacing the tournament trophy was a cute idea or whether it was just one player, doesn't really matter. It makes the whole team look like a bunch of terds. Good soccer or not.
Cheezy ahhah your a joke i have seen on you on the team canadas blog and you probably play for them, in fact its really easy to see that Real Deal is a part of team canada too TEAM CANADA IS A JOKE!!, lets go JAMAICA!
Whatever, you're (not your) tremendously astute to figure out that the Real Deal and I are part of team Canada. Must have took quite some detective work on "your"(not you're) part. That said, if you think that team Canada is a joke, Jamaica is a national lampoons full length feature film. Jamaica has yet to finish in a medal position, Canada has! Jamaica has yet to beat Canada in any game they have played. Guess we'll have to wait to see on April 25th if your Jamaica can get away from what is sure to be another defeat by the "Joke" Team Canada.
Play nice, boys.
Jamaica finished 2nd the first year and 3rd the following 2 years...only missed medal status last year..
My mistake thanks for the correction.
All i got to say to sprite 23 is they aren't decent these 3 youth are great!, they just have to work, and get that confidence and to Schweinsteigher you mite not be to keen on these 3 youth rite now but wait and see, just wait and see! Jamaica's 3, u-18 players WATCH OUT FOR! Andrew Banerjee, Josh Odukamaya, and Garrett Peters!
Team Canada comes out with a 1-0 loss to ROI. For team Canada this is a win, the rest of the teams in pool A better take team Canada serious because they have come out to play this year. Go team Canada!
a loss is a loss...
A loss is a loss, but everyone expected Canada to get blown out. If they had they would have been down for the rest of the tournament. Instead they leave the game with heads high and are should be able to gain momentum off of the game. As well, this tournament always seems to come down to goals for and against, -1 for a game isn't bad in that respect.
HAHA! andrew banerjee as someone to look out for? thats a joke right? i'm going to look for him in the stands, so I can make fun of him to his face about his youtube video.
Oh k, umm I was just talking in general about all the u-18s, do you know this andrew banerjee kid? Because I seen all them @ practice and heard these are the "young players", you must have something against him to single him out LOL, and a youtube video haha, thats cool he has one, I just searched his name and the youtube video isn't that comedic??? It's pretty decent, but overall Jamaica will probably kick the shit out of Germany anyways as your name hints that you are representin' Germany. Good luck anyways, let the playing speak for itself instead of ppl dissin on this blog!
I never thought the day that Ole said something intelligent would come... but ya I agree... a loss is a loss... maybe you gained respect... but at the end of the day if you lose all three games 1-0... where did that get you?
Oh no way, a youtube video... that's AMaZing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_Lc-JthVs4
take a look
Post a Comment