Canada Red E115 @CPLPodcast

New Premier Podcast: @MikeMillerFC chats with Jeff Salisbury about #CanMNT and #CanM23. @CPLPodcast

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
Welcome to the Premiere Podcast, yoursource of information about Canadian soccer. You
can find us on Apple, Spotifyand wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

(00:25):
You can also chat with us onFacebook, Twitter and Instagram at CPL podcast.
Ladies and gentlemen from Montreal, Quebec, Michael Miller. Hello everyone,

(00:55):
and welcome to this episode of thePremiere Podcast. With you as always right
from Montreal, Quebec, your host, Michael Miller, and with me today
I have a very special guest.He is the president of the Wheat Pool
straight from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Pleasewelcome Jeff Salisbury. How are you,
my friend. I'm doing great.How are you? I'm fine, thanks,

(01:19):
Still recovering from that from my secondknee surgery, but things are looking
up. That's good. How's thatgood? And how's that recovery going?
To be honest with you, it'snot easy because the weather is extremely humid
here in Montreal, so it makeseverything a lot more difficult. But at
Oncet I've started. I've started walkingwithout crutch as a few days back,
so that is such a big moment. I remember after my right ankle surgery,

(01:42):
that first step that I took withoutneeding a medical boot, and it
was just like, Okay, Ican do this again. Yeah. The
only thing, the one thing thatI'm happy about. Obviously, it's going
to take a while before I canstart walking and running like I used to,
like several months for sure of rehab. But the one thing that I'm

(02:06):
the most happy about is the factthat I haven't gained a single pound since
the start of my recovery. Man. I so when I shattered my left
leg a couple of summers ago,I hadn't you know, I hadn't been
able to do anything athletic at alluntil while even even to today, I
still haven't been able to be inthe pandemic yet. So even if I
wanted to go somewhere and just likego walking, it wasn't possible. So

(02:30):
I put on some COVID pounds,let me tell you, And it did
not help that I was partially immobile. How are you doing, though,
Are you able to police soccer again? Or is it going to take a
little bit more time? No,I might never be able to. Actually
I find out closer to June ifI'm ever going to be able to actually
run again. I still can't run, still can't jump. I can like

(02:52):
walk, but even that gets toughafter a little bit. So it was
really bad. It was My surgeonsaid it's the worst he's ever seen in
career. So well, I mean, there's still a bit of time between
none June. So as long asyou do everything they're asking you to do,
then at least you won't have anew regrets no matter what the outcome
is. Now it's over, Mike, it's over. We won't get to

(03:15):
play together. Oh that's a shame. That's okay in another lifetime, all
right, buddy, Um, Alot has happened, A lot has happened
in this uh FIFA break for theCanadian men's national team as well as the

(03:35):
Canadian Olympic team aka the youth twentythreees UM. I would suggest we start
with the youth twenty threes, sinceum, the outcome was a lot more
um final, whereas things are stillkind of things are still uh cooking for
the for the senior team, Solet's start with the youth twenty three,

(03:58):
shall we? Yeah, yeah,it sounds good, all right, perfect,
So for the you twenty three's,I mean, overall, I would
say that it was not exactly anoverwhelming tournament. I mean, sure,
we managed to beat El Salvador,but before even regretting anything about our match

(04:19):
against Mexico, I think that theone that really did usin was the draw
against Haiti. Yeah, and westill had a somewhat of a reasonable window
against Honduras and we underperformed well,I'm not underperformed, but we underachieved there
as well. And by the timewe got to Mexico, I mean,

(04:42):
Mexico being Mexico, you know,you can only do so much to to
make it to an Olympic tournament,and that's the one team that we wanted
to avoid at all costs. Butgoing back to the to the draw against
Haiti. Eight in this tournament wasnot exactly a full squad. They've had

(05:04):
all types of problems showing up witha full squad to these matches, including
against Canada. What the hell happenedthere? We were set up tactically,
tactically wrong. I think I thinkwe we didn't press their back line enough
in the sense of, you know, we we were missing, um,

(05:27):
somebody up top alongside Buchanan to reallyscare them, you know, I mean,
hindsight's twenty twenty. But I thinkthat would have been a match to
maybe put maybe start um Dass uptop beside Buchanan. I mean, that
kid's got insane wheels and he's gotreally excellent close control of the ball.

(05:49):
You know, you you you feedthat kid over and over again and uh
and provide them some outlet passes.I think something would have happened in that
game to try and remember if hecame on. If he did, it
was quite a bit later in thematch and Haiti had already basically bunkered down
and we're ready to play for thedraw. So um no, actually that

(06:09):
at that point they were pressing useven harder. So it was yeah,
yeah, we were the ones thatwere lucky to come away with the draw.
Hope. All the people were justshouting out their screen for what I
just said. But yeah, youknow, I it was definitely a missed
opportunity. We we probably should havegotten something more from that game. We

(06:30):
probably should have converted some of ourfirst half chances and just didn't. Um.
But I really think that comes downto a lack of chemistry with that
U twenty three group. I mean, let's look look at it this way.
If we had our actual A oneU twenty three squad, you know,
and this isn't make believe land becauseit would never happen, But that

(06:53):
would mean that we had Fawnsi,we had Jonathan David uh Tao Correanu would
have been there. Um. Thentrying to think of who else from the
senior squad that played in the twogames for the senior team, who all
would have been there? I mean, that's a completely different squad. I
think I saw the other day somebodysaid that there were I think nine players

(07:14):
for the senior team who were eligiblefor that you twenty three teams, So
I mean, you know, youyou put that team out and I think
we give Mexico real hard run fortheir money for winning the tournament, if
not perhaps even win the whole thing. But I mean, that's that's not
Canada Soccer's focus. And honestly,Jeff, excuse me for interrupting you,

(07:35):
but no, go ahead. Iactually heard from the grape vine that,
had it not been from for theglobal pandemic, the plan was to bring
an a squad to the Olympic tournamenthad we qualified. However, um,
and that's the thing. Clubs don'thave to release their players for you twenty

(07:58):
three squads and fly and that's abig problem. They're only they're they're they're
only uh, they only have torelease their players for senior squads. And
you know, from one country toanother, from one league to another,
from one club to another, clubshave different policies. And would we have
been able to to to to getFonzie for the YOU twenty three for the

(08:22):
U twenty three squad, Maybe maybenot, But one thing's for sure,
Jonathan David was not even available forthe senior squad, right, Yeah,
that's what I say. You know, that's why I mean, you know,
if in Make Believe Land, wecould have had a completely different squad
out there. I mean, basicallynine players who were on that senior roster

(08:43):
could have been starting for that Utwenty three team, right, But I
mean, you know, we werewe were talking on the Cynical Challenge podcast.
We just recorded an episode yesterday andand Grace by the Waker, and
congratulations to you and Jeff Paullis andGrayson Grayson news and congratulations to you guys.
I've been watching every single week.Yeah, for sure, no surprise

(09:03):
that you don't know Grayson's name.He's sort of just the throwaway of the
groups. So but so he mentionedthat, you know, for the average
Canadian sports fan, they don't reallycare that much about the World Cup.
I mean, the World Cup isa big event that happens, but for

(09:24):
your average Canadian sports fan, itdoesn't resonate to them like it does to
the average sports fan in most countriesaround the world, right, whereas the
Olympics is a huge deal. Imean, I know, you know,
I work with people that are payattention to kind of what's happening in the
lead up to the Olympics because theOlympics matters to Canadians more than the World

(09:48):
Cup does. There's no denying that, at least in our neck of the
woods in Saskatchewan. I would sayprobably in the Prairies in general. But
yeah, it has her guest andsay just countrywide that the Olympics matter way
more and the World Cup does.So, you know, do you think
it's because we haven't like obviously we'vequalified only once, But I mean it

(10:09):
wasn't eighty six. I mean Iwas I was like a year or two
years old in eighty six. I'venever seen Canada in a World Cup.
I think you're about the same ageas me. Right, So we don't
have a you know, we don'treally have a World Cup tradition in this
country, whereas the Olympics team Canadais everybody from every single sport, right,
So you're gonna get the casuals totune in because you know, the

(10:33):
casuals are gonna watch every single thing. They're gonna watch judo and boxing and
cycling and what have you. Andit's easier for the casual to identify with
the Olympic team. That that beingsaid. That being said, and I
really want to get your opinion aboutthat specifically. I don't really feel like

(10:54):
we do have an Olympic program whenit comes to Canada soccer in this country,
and it's unfort because we have anavalanche of talent. Do you think
that it's something that could should forsure? But do you think that it's
something that could be addressed for futurefor future Olympic Games? Right? Yeah,
Well, it sounds like from whatyou you mentioned before, it sounds
like Canada Soccer was looking to addressthat this time around. Had it not

(11:18):
been for for pandemic circumstances. Imean, you know, we would need
an official source to actually confirm thatof course, but UM yeah, I
think you know, there's a lotand Grace in the game brought up this
this point that there's probably a lotof money or maybe it was JP that
did it, but there's probably alot of money to be had for Canada
soccer funding wise, from say theyown the podium program, et cetera.

(11:39):
If the men's team was to qualifyfor the Olympics, and it would put
Canadian soccer a bit more in thelimelight. Um, if we were to
take part in that Olympic tournament,right, so you know, it's it's
definitely an opportunity missed. M Wasit really possible because has of current COVID

(12:01):
situation, in the current COVID situation, pandemic situation, and what kind of
had to happen when it came toplayer choices. It's tough to say.
I mean, nobody, nobody butJohn Herdman and the higher ups in Canada
Soccer nor the answer to that.But you know, um yeah, I
think I think in the future it'sdefinitely something that the program should focus heavily

(12:22):
on and and should send the absolutebest U twenty three squad that we have
UM in order to qualify. Imean, the US was basically in the
same boat. They weren't able tosend their strongest team and they lost out
to the Honduran squad that we drew. So honestly, you know, we
get a better result in that Haitimatch, and that that game against the
Yanks was definitely winnable. You know, I would just to put everything in

(12:45):
context though. In context, Jeff, Honduras is an issue which is taking
the Olympic Games very seriously when itcomes to soccer. I mean, it's
their third straight qualification to the fourthYeah, there ago, So I mean
I understand that beating the US isan accomplishment and of itself in the Conquercaffe
region, but Honduras weren't exactly anunderdog. I think that we drew them,

(13:11):
we could have beat them, butthey weren't just your throwaway team that
could have been easily beaten. They'rea serious They're a very serious occuation when
it comes to their youth twenty threeI mean, hashtag fh. But you
know in the end it yeah,I mean again, like look at Mexico.
Mexico one gold in that Olympic tournamentin twenty twelve, right, and

(13:35):
they're gonna be gunning for a medalthis time around a gain when it comes
to nations like Mexico, Honduras,some the other Central American countries and the
Summer Olympics, the Olympic football tournamentis probably one of, if not the
largest event for that country. Rightfor Mexico, I mean, they're they'll
be disappointed if they don't win goldat the at the Tokyo Olympics. That's

(13:58):
that's what that's their dedication to thistournament, right And the Hondurans same thing
they want. They're they're going thereto medal because that's that's an opportunity for
that nation to medal at the Olympics. I mean, how often do you
hear Honduras meddling at either the summerdefinitely not the Winter Olympics. You know,
that would be a that would bea Wikipedia search probably to see,

(14:20):
you know, how often and whenthe last time was at that a Honduran
athlete medaled at the Olympics. Umoutside of perhaps they're their football program,
right, So that's that's what we'reup against. That's that's what the pinning
U twenty threees are up against.They're up against programs who are hell bent
on getting there and and getting amedal because that's the way their country gets

(14:43):
a potential gold, silver, bronzemedal at at these Olympic Games. Now
you're mentioning a few names, afew players that you would have liked to
see in this you twenty three squad. Now the other way around, which
players from this at Olympic team,this current Canadian Olympic team impressed you enough
for you to want to see moreof them, Let's say in the next

(15:07):
few months, uh, with theCanadian men's national team, with the senior
team. Yeah, I think obviouslyBuchanan, I think he would be worth
calling in probably more of the ofa of a depth player, um,
you know, in case of injury. But he's definitely a capable footballer.
I would say that Weatherspoon had apart me, not Weatherspoon. Um um,

(15:31):
oh goodness sakes, Uh, well, okay, I'll move on.
Yeah. Das Diaz is definitely onewho I think. I mean, the
kid's got raw talent. You couldsee it on display. He's he's got
a fantastic first touch. He's greatwith the ball. To see, he's
able to drive at defenders, andand uh and and win some space.

(15:52):
I mean, yeah, that kidneeds to get cap tied sooner rather than
later, because God knows, hestarts developing at an even more incredible pace.
And look, Juventus are looking athim. I don't know if you
heard this, it came out today. They're actually they're actually asking about him
right now. Yeah, yeah,I mean, you know, that's that's

(16:12):
awesome. And let's hope the kiddoes commit to the senior national team,
you know, and hopefully the Fonzieeffect is something that pulls him in,
right. So, um, yeah, those are the top two, Diaz
and Buchanan for sure. I think, um, part of my heart wants
to say pantamis, however, manhis distribution, or not really his distribution,

(16:36):
but just his his competence under underpressure of just clearing the ball was
not good. He had a numberof botch clearances as tournament that only two
the entire tournament, and the timingwas so awful that they ended up costing
this basically. So yeah, Imean that's that's you know, that's part

(16:56):
of his game that really needs toimprove before he you would be worth having
a look on the net on thesenior side. So yeah, I would
say it was those two players.Um. A lot of people have said
maybe Baldissimo would be worth taking aflyer on for the senior squad, but
um, And I'm trying to thinkeither either Montgomery or um Um, who

(17:21):
else is playing center back besides Cornelius, Metcalf, Patrick mccalf might be worth
I'm going to look as and weneed we need, we need defender depth.
That's definitely something. I mean,you know, Cornelius and broad Yard
are already players who have capped withthe senior side, so we don't really
have to worry about them. I'mjust trying to think who was on that
left side of who's our left fullback? Yeah? Yeah, and the song

(17:47):
he's actually he's Uh. I can'tremember if he's fully capp tied with the
senior squad or if he's at leastbeen part of the senior A senior camp
already, because I believe he wasthere for the two matches against UM.
Well, there was the one matchagainst Iceland, and then there were the
two games against Caribbean. Remember whothat was. Now he he was capped

(18:08):
twice with Canada, But I can'tfigure out if those gaps were hid or
I think those of those friendlies thatwere it was. It was the two
games we played against Caribbean opponent andthen the one game we played against Iceland.
UM when we were in that madrush to try and catch El Salvador
on points. Those are bad times. Oh that was that was just brutal.

(18:34):
How conquer that when the hex wasstill a thing? Yeah? Actually,
uh, it's a nice segue ofthe senior team. Unless you wanted
to add anything about the youth twentythree is no. I think we chat
enough about him. The only thing, Yeah, the only thing I would
add about this specific team is um. As I said, I want to

(18:59):
see more you twenty three friendly muchis even if we don't really have anything
to play for it between now andthe next Olympic cycle. Just in order
to keep that program going. That'swhere I wanted to think. It also
comes down to Canada Soccer's limited budget, right, because ultimately Canada Soccer is
an arm of Sport Canada and thefederal government, and because of that,

(19:21):
Canada Soccer has has a limited budgetto work with every year. You know,
the biggest thing we could hope foris a generous benefactor. UM just
simply saying here's here's you know,X millions of dollars, make make this
team make the Olympics, and makethis senior side, make and make the
senior sides make the World Cups,and just you know, we have a

(19:45):
benefactor just dump money into the programto allow us to do whatever we want.
You know, we do have agenerous benefactor by the name of One
Soccer though. Well yeah, butmedia pro that's that's propping up the CPL,
right, that's not going to propup Canada soccer. They you know,
that's probably not part of the deal. I don't know, I don't

(20:06):
know. All I'm saying is thatit would make more content for their platform,
which is a win win for them. Yeah, you know, and
we can we could talk about whatOne Soccer could do to help itself grow
all day, but that's a wholedifferent podcast. Yeah for sure, French
language content, That's all I'm gonnasay. All right, So moving on
to the senior squad. Um,I'll just quickly say that these two matches

(20:33):
to me anyway, didn't prove anythingat all, because we did exactly what
we were supposed to do. Butyou know, to me, it to
me it proved something. It provedthat we have grown a ruthless ability to
massacre minnows, and we've never reallyhad that before. Well though, I

(20:56):
mean, that's the thing. Butwe had had good teams before, don't
get me wrong. I mean backwhen when Hutching and Jewels were in their
early twenties and we had day Rowin that squad as well. You know,
it's not that we didn't have haveum competent players or anything. We
had. That's the difference, Jeff. That's the difference, Jeff. We

(21:17):
had competent players. But now thereseems to be a symbiosis between these competent
players. And I don't think thatI've seen this since the Great Squad from
the year two thousand which won theconquer Cuff Gold Cup. Hmm. Yeah,
well, I mean we have that, we have that ability. Now,
we have that ability now to justruthlessly massacre minnows. I mean,

(21:40):
my god, some I don't knowhow many times I saw the Simpsons meme
where where Homer's Krusty is beating upthe Krusty Burglar and the kids like,
stop, stop, he's already dead. How many times that showed up,
churing the match against Cayman Islands.But like, honestly, even I was
thinking, like stop, stop,they're already dead really because it was because

(22:03):
insane. Like honestly, I thinkwe took our foot after that eleventh goal
went in. It was clear wetook our foot off the pedal and we're
not pressing as hard as we hadbeen. Guys were just not wanting to
get injured to that point. ButI mean, like, you know,
that thing, that thing could havegot even more out of control. It
could have been like fifteen or sixteennil if if the guys had really kept

(22:23):
their foot right to the floor thewhole time. For sure, you know,
for sure. But here's the thing, And that's the difference I guess
between a soccer fan and a hockeyfan, because you know, you followed
the World Juniors like any other anyother Canadian boy, and you you always
hear you don't I do not.I don't give a crap the World Juniors.

(22:44):
Oh well, let me tell yousomething about the World Juniors then,
or any any international hockey tournament.Yeah, there's always talk about how it's
disrespectful to the opponent to run upthe score, right, And I've always
disagreed with this line of thinking becauseat the end of the day, it's
round robin tournament and only the topten, the top team qualifies to the
playoffs, right, And you don'twant to find yourself in a situation where

(23:07):
you held back and then you drawagainst Surinam and low and behold, they
scored more goals than you and theyand they make it to the to the
playoffs. You want to make itto those playoffs and for that you're gonna
have to do the exact same thingagainst the Ruba and obviously beat Surinam.
But if if you run out ofluck against Surinam and you end up drawing

(23:27):
that match, not the end ofthe world, because you ended up running
up the score against the teams againstwhom you were supposed to do that.
You know, I really despise this, the thinking that we're going to be
um, you know, faced witha massive obstacle with Surinam. Yes,

(23:49):
I understand they've pulled in players whoare playing in the Dutch League. Um,
but I mean that came an Islandsteam held them I think to three
and l that was in right,yeah, you know, and and sure
they put up what was it theyput six in against the Ruba. I
think it was. But you know, we need to start getting comfortable with

(24:14):
the fact that we have a squadthat is of the caliber that they are
and and like we we have playerslike Fonzie and Johnny d uh and Scotty
Arfield, who I'm sure is goingto be back in red and white for
that Haiti series in June. Um, there'll be a much bigger series to

(24:37):
play in. But you know,and we have we have much much better
footballers. I mean we didn't evenhave our our top top eighteen available.
We didn't have Jonathan David, DanielleHenry was injured. Um Scotti Arfield stayed
back for fear of picking up injuries. Uh, you know from the long
flights. And I don't blame him. I mean, let him enjoy.

(25:00):
Let him enjoy winning the season withRangers again. But that's what I was
going to say, Jeff, Imean, there's nothing left to win in
Scotland. He could have been releasedfor these matches. I understand that we
didn't really need him, but wewe got we got a Teaba and we
didn't really need him either. Butfor for I guess to create some sort
of a group dynamic. You wantto have your entire squad available for the

(25:25):
entire duration of the tournament. No, yeah, I don't. I don't
hold anything against Scottie for staying backand say no, no, I mean
neither. But that's the thing.You don't know where the decision came from.
You only know that, at theend of the day, didn't happen,
right, Yeah, And I thinkJohn kind of clarified and saying that,
you know, he wasn't really wantingto play games against minnows again like
they did all through the Nations Leaguebecause he picked he started picking up some

(25:48):
injuries back in Scotland due to thetravel, right, And it's understandable.
I mean, Scott's in the inhis latter twenties now, isn't he.
I think he's twenty eight, twentynine, Maybe you can look that up
really quick. But you know he'snot He's not spring Chicken anymore. He's
starting to enter the twilight of hiscareer where things like injuries are gonna become

(26:10):
you know, more more prevalent.So you say he's thirty two, Yeah,
Holy smokes, Scottie Artfield's thirty twoalrighty, Okay, Well, he
is in the twilight of his career. I mean that he can't, you
know. I people just need tolet it go. And and honestly,
and when it comes to that,to that series against Haiti in June,

(26:30):
and we're all assuming it's gonna beHaitia unless the Nicaraguans, I think it's
Nicaragua or Guatemala. I can't rememberwhich one of those two as in their
group. But unless unless that CentralAmerican nation pulls, you know, the
massive upset, which would be hilarious, but you know it'll it'll be against
Haiti in June. Um it's thebest time that we win one that really

(26:52):
matters against Haiti. Oh yeah,yeah, for sure. Like these games,
you know, these these uh fourunqualified to me, they're the fun
games, right, Like that's wherewe get to see five one against Bermuda,
eleven nail against the Cayman Islands.I mean that match against the Ruba.
That could be another massacre, youknow, and you couldn't hold it
against the right John and tell theboys go out there and break that record

(27:15):
you put up against the Caymans,and it could be it could be a
total another blood bath. And thenyou know, then they're just rebbed for
that curandom match. But then thetwo legged series against Haiti is what four
days the first match of that wouldbe, I think is four days after
that game against Surranam right. Imean it's a little bit arrogant. I
suppose to look past that curtandom match. But we need to respect the quality

(27:38):
of our players. We need andI'm sure it's a little bit arrogant,
but I think we can be affordedto respect the quality of our squad and
look ahead to that that Haiti series. You know, obviously John and the
players shouldn't, but as as fans, you know, we we we should
allow ourselves a little bit more arrogance. Right now, So does that squad

(27:59):
have every thing that it takes tomake it to the Oh God, yes,
losing Losing the two legged tie toHaiti would be a massive, massive
underachievement. I mean, that wouldbe you know, John would have to
get fired number one, because there'sno excuse, zero excuse to not win
this two legged tie against Haiti withthe quality that we have, just absolutely

(28:22):
no excuse. Quite frankly, inmy in my opinion, it would be
an underachievement not to at least finishtop four in the OCHO. We should
be either in an automatic qualification spotfor the for the World Cup, or
we should be in that intercontinental playoffum for that fourth spot, you know,
and that's a scary one. Imean, finishing fourth, that's that's
the scary spot because you never know. I don't have they said, I

(28:45):
don't know when they make that decisionof which confederation. I think they make
it when the groups are already alltied up, and then they do a
big event for it to draw,and that's when you find out. Okay,
yeah, I couldn't remember how theydid it the last time, because
remember Peru got drawn against New Zealandand like that was basically you know,
the Peruvians already had a stamped ticketto the Moral Cup. Wouldn't that draw

(29:06):
happen? I know that it's alwaysit's always either against Oceania or Asia.
We I can't remember of a playoffagainst South America. I don't even know
if my design it's supposed to happen. Well, I thought it was possible.
I didn't think there was anything predetermined, but you might be right.
I mean, hopefully somebody can clarifybecause as Oceania and common Bull is supposed

(29:30):
to conquer calf. I don't know. I mean, yeah, I'm not
sure how it works. Perhaps perhapsmy Africa doesn't have a half spot,
does it if it in UEFA haveonly whole spots. I don't think Africa
has a point five spots. You'recorrect, You're correct. Africa has five
spots for now, but it's gonnachange when it's gonna go up to forty
eight. Yeah. Yeah, that'sa whole nother podcast topic. Great there,

(29:52):
toy, Yeah yeah, But youknow, ultimately, it was great
to see Cavali he get his hattiein that Cayman's match because he missed Oh
my god, that's sitter that hemissed against Bermuda, the one that that
was on the doorstep that he putoff the bar. That's what I was
going to say. I was started, I was started to I was started
to be really concerned about Cavalini againstBermuda. And you know, of course

(30:18):
it's only the Cayman Islands, buta hat trick is a hat trick.
I mean yeah, it has todo something to your confidence, even if
it's only against an extremely small team, but against you got to put it
into context, right, Like CAVLINIlike, the white Caps are in what
maybe week three of their preseason Ican't even remember, but he's like,
he hasn't had any match reps atall yet. That's the first that that

(30:41):
Bermuda match I'm sure was the firstfull, you know, semi competitive competitive
eleven match that he's had um sincethe season ended last year. So you
know, at least at least hegot that hattie against against the Caymans,
and that's good. I mean,now boost's confidence. White Caps are probably
just laughing, you know, they'rejust they'll be super happy to see him

(31:04):
get that hat trick against the Caymansbecause now he's going to come back into
Whitecaps camp, you know, havingan international hat trick, and that's that'll
do nothing but boost his confidence.I mean, I'm sure he laughs a
little bit. He's like, youknow, I got a hat trick,
but it was against the Cayman Islands, you know, but still, you
know, haddie haddie in international footballis a hattie in international football. So

(31:25):
to be quite honest with you,my story of redemption for this FIFA break
has to be kind of laren becausenot too long ago, people were even
questioning whether or not he belonged inthat squad, and now I'll look at
him. Yeah, you know,I told my buddy Lee Cormish, because
we were watching that first game atthe BP's on Eighth Street, I told

(31:47):
him if Laren, if Laren hitsthe hat trick, he was on two,
he was on a break, andI said, if Laren hits the
natural hat trick or if he hitsa hattie, my next candidate shirt.
I'll get his name and number onthe back. So now I'm on the
hook for a Laren national team jersey. So somebody, somebody sent me a
link for how to do that.Any dark horses which have really impressed you

(32:12):
during this FIFA break, because obviouslywe can talk about cal Larian and Lucas
Gavelini and even Fonzie Davies really stockedup the numbers in terms of both goals
and assists during this break, butin terms of the ones which usually kind
of fly under the radar, Anyany names kind of like stood out of
the page for you. Yeah.I think Weatherspoon had a really excellent match

(32:36):
against the Caymans and showed what hecould do. I also think Tayo Correanu
raised his stock in the national programwith his performance in both games. I
mean, he was absolutely fantastic.When he came on against Bermuda, they
could not handle him. Couldn't handlehim. I mean he's a League one
Ontario product too, So hats offto that programming. Dino Rossi is probably

(32:59):
laughing all the way to the bankafter seeing that performance by Corbiano. But
yeah, those those two for sure. And I don't know why he seems
to be an under the radar guy. I think he should probably be more
of a considered starting eleven player.But Sammy had could be. I thought
he was fantastic at left back.So yeah, I hope we'll get to

(33:21):
see a lot more of Corbiano withWolves. That's it for the national teams.
Uh, Jeff, thank you forcoming. Before we let each other
go, I'm going to give youa chance to tell us what's happening in
Saskatoon with the wheat pool and withthese great news that we've heard in a
couple of weeks back. Yeah,absolutely so. Saskatoon, of course,

(33:43):
is named as the next city forthe for CPL expansion Living Sky Sports and
Entertainment, which is operated by aguy by the name of Al Simpson,
who is one of the members ofthe kind of ownership team that put together
the SKay Summer soccer series. Heh, he went ahead and um put

(34:06):
together the bid to the CPL thatthey that they accepted. So um.
Yeah. And then with the WheatPool, we're working on growing that group.
It's one hundred and fifty people plusat this point. Um, and
uh, we're gonna be working onhelping everything happen with the new stadium here
in the city too. So um, lots lots happening here and it's only

(34:28):
going to intensify in the next coupleof weeks. We're gonna be connecting on
with some of the folks at LivingSky to really start putting together a plan
to help get that stadium on thefast track so that the team can hit
the field in twenty twenty three andtwenty twenty four. Excellent at the Wheat
Pool esk on Twitter for more informationand more information on how to support you

(34:52):
guys. Yeah. So um youcan find us on Facebook or just the
Wheat Pool on Facebook. You canpop into the sort of the feeder group
which is Saskatoon Soccer supporters. Youcan always find us again on Twitter at
the Wheatpool Skum. You can findme on Twitter at Jeff d Salisbury.

(35:14):
And then I'm always all over thevarious CPL fan groups on Facebook, the
Voyagers group on Facebook and the CPLDiscord that John Eden and the Guys out
in Ottawa started, so and thenyeah, and then I'm also one of
the co hosts of the Cynical Challengevodcast and we talk about all that stuff
all the time. So hey,we're gonna I don't want to put you

(35:36):
on the spot there, but we'regonna hear from the Voyagers at some point
this season about the whole revamping ofthe of the structure over there, right.
Yeah, Well, they did thethe live session already, so I
know that they're gonna be coming upwith further details sooner rather than later.
So that's that's everything I can say. So excellent. Well, we'll stay

(35:59):
tuned then the come back anytime.You know that there's always there's always a
seat for you on this show.Yeah. Oh, and I'll have an
article coming out in the Saskatoon StarPhoenix. It should be coming out this
Thursday, So if you look upthe Saskatoon Star Phoenix. You should see
under their their op ed section therewill be a massively pro soccer article that

(36:20):
I wrote that they're going to beprinting, so very interesting. I'll make
sure that they can look at that. Okay, Well, thanks for having
me, Mike, thank you Jeff, and to you all, dear listeners.
Will cast you next week for anotherepisode of the premiere podcast