Croatia vs Canada Breakdown, Canada vs Morocco Preview, and World Cup Talk - Soccer Today with Kevin Laramee

Kevin breaks down many aspects of Canada's loss to Croatia, looks closely at Modric and Kovacic's performances against Les Rouges, and previews the Canada vs Morocco match.

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Episode Transcript

(00:10):
Good day, good night, Welcometo Soccer Today. I'm Kevin Larmay and
today we'll break down Croatia Canada lookingat a different angle, maybe giving some
soulis to all you Canedian soccer fansout there. They're a little bit of
heartbroken heading into the third game ofthe group age but already eliminated. We

(00:34):
will break down Canada's performance and howthey've found away to kind of muzzle Luka
Modrich, but I led the openingfor Kovicic to dismantle Canada. Will look
statistically at how Croatia defeated or ftop Canada in game number two. We'll

(00:57):
preview the Morocco and Canada game,and of course we will talk about the
upcoming magazine show available on YouTube,audio available podcast too, but it is
a show best consumed visually, withall the graphics and all the superb research.
I will have even more on CroatiaCanada on the magazine show at looking

(01:19):
at a couple of different angles thathave not been talked about anywhere that you
can find it here only on SoccerToday. And welcome back to the show.
All right, Canada lost for onein game number two in Qatar twenty
twenty two eliminated no points, buta goal. A Fonso Davies scored sixty

(01:41):
seven seconds in first ever goal forCanada, and it was a Fonso Davis,
aheader to remember by a Fonsie.And of course we can look at
Alfonso Davis' match versus Croatia. Nothingreally too, I guess complain about when
it comes to a Fonso Davies againstCroatia. The big I would say,

(02:07):
talking point that we will address,of course, is a usage of a
Tiba Hutchinson, maybe kept too long. A Tiba Hutchinson, the oldest player
in this tournament, littldest field playerin this tournament. At Tiba Hutchinson was
used too long and was yes dissectedby Croatia in that midfield by Brozovich,
Modrich and Chi, which in myopinion and statistically speaking, had the best

(02:32):
game for a midfielder for Croatia,and it was on that side that a
lot of it was done. Ofcourse, a Buchanan was a little bit
I guess the culprit on a coupleof occasions. Defensively, it was not
as easy. Jonathan David had adifficult game. Jonathan David is having a

(02:54):
difficult World Cup. And we're nottalking about this enough. We're not talking
about how Jonathan David hasn't shown upto Qatar yet. Fifth best striker this
season in League R seventh best strikerlast season in league are a league that
seasoned Messi playing in the league.Players like name are in the same league.

(03:15):
Well by now, Jonathan David isstill not on the score sheet for
Canada, and Canada cannot qualifying.Canada cannot perform at the highest level of
the beautiful game without their best strikerputting the ball behind the white line.

(03:36):
That is a fact and that isreality. Jonathan David versus Croatia seventy one
minutes played, one shot, oneshot on target. Heck, that's better
than the last game. First game, Jonathan David scored zero shots on target
with seven attempts, this time oneon one, zero point one expected goal.

(03:57):
That is not enough. No expectedassists, by the way, and
this expected goal is a lot lessthan game number one. Game number one
was one point zero three. Heshould have scored against Belgium. That's even
better than a Founso Davies who misseda penalty. Afounso Davies. Game number
one had an expected goal of zeropoint six off the top of my head,

(04:21):
and that is pretty good, andthat is well what usually a penalty
will give you. In this one. Afounso Davies expected goal is point two.
He actually scored on that one chance. Expected assists of point one,
but Jonathan David to go back tohim. Sixty three point six percent passing

(04:41):
accuracy, zero dribbles attempted, sozero success, zero goal creating actions,
zero shot creating actions. Jonathan Davidnot influential so far in the World Cup.
And to me that's the biggest takeaway. Jonathan David hasn't been the conduit

(05:09):
to success, the conduit to goals, the conduit to an open Kyle Laron,
the conduit and open Alfonso Davies.Jonathan David hasn't been helpful to himself
or to the team in this tournamentso far. A couple of choices that
I still haven't wrapped my head around. The use of Alfonso Davies at that

(05:31):
position shouldn't be higher. Shouldn't youuse your preferred eleven with Addie Kobe.
There a Fonso Davis up top withCaro Laron and Jonathan David m preferred Canada
eleven, which might not even beavailable to be used because of Huchinson now
and Astachio, both I guess beingquestionable for game number three Erstachio having hamstring

(05:56):
has missed practiced earlier this week.Hutchinson used to his fullest in game number
two is the available? Should wecontinue and maybe make pieta player here Morocco.
We'll get to Morocco later, butthe style of play of Morocco and
the fact that you'll need to stopMorocco in transition before they can encounter,

(06:18):
you might need a Samuel the pitbowl Piet in the midfield to break down
the passing lanes and to give alittle second more to his teammates, breaking
the momentum, breaking the flow ofthe game heading into the other half of
the field. One of the thingsthat I hope happens for Canada is a

(06:42):
three four three versus Morocco, Boyannand net no changes in the defense.
I go Miller Vittoria Johnston, whowill be joining Celtic. Congratulations Alister Johnston.
Was a pleasure covering you and beingthere when you became an amazing player
with SEEF Montreal. I would havein my four middle midfield. He has

(07:10):
four player midfield. I will ifit stuck you is available. Of course,
he's in the middle of my midfieldwith Sammlpat to my left. I
have well to the left of themidfield, sam At Koubay is first of
all, I would start him thereon the right. I do start Buchanan,
That's where I think he's useful.And up top. A three man
attack of Davies, Laren and Davidthree four three, go for broke,

(07:35):
nothing left, nothing least I fear. You go with the freedom and you
attack, But before you attack,you have to go back and look a
little bit of that Croatia game.So we will right now take a second

(07:56):
and travel back in time and lookat some of the Croatian numbers, some
of the mistakes that were done inthat Croatia game. To get ready for
what's going to be maybe the firstvictory in Canada's history at the World Cup.
Let's talk Croatia Canada. The scoreline will indicate, for one,

(08:30):
yeah, a little bit embarrassing,not the greatest of game, especially not
after saying we're gonna f them up. It all started with the funds of
Davies scoring sixty seven seconds and andfirst call of that game for Canada,
and we started the dream. Westarted to anticipate a great performance, but

(08:58):
different than in qualifying and different thanwhat is has not become the hambit.
Canada did not adjust and did nottighten up, did nut stay compacted.
They tried to play football with Croatiaand took thirty four minutes and kramer Rich

(09:20):
found the back of the net flustered. Eight minutes later, Marco Leiva made
it two two one. At thatpoint, the jig was up. At
that point, Canada was f top. Kamaich, which we will talk about,

(09:43):
had a lot of headlines making commentsafter saying, thank you manager of
Canada for the motivation. After thisgame we saw who f two and andres
kramer Rich, you're not wrong.John Herman talked about the mistakes he will
learn from, and that is onemistake he will learn from. He didn't

(10:07):
mention John Herdman that he wants tobe there in twenty twenty six. That
I ain't. Nobody is passionate aboutthis program than him, and he will
do all he can to make thisprogram reach the next level. So,
according to John Herman, he willbe there in twenty twenty six. We'll
see if that's the case. Heck, I can talk about right now if
he Ever has an opportunity to leaveand he leaves or whatever. If he

(10:28):
leaves, then Canada is in needof a new a new manager, a
new ahead of the program when itcomes to the men's national team program.
I have one name in mind,one and only one, and right now
he just got eliminated from the WorldCup earlier today. I'm talking about the

(10:48):
manager of Saudi Arabia right now atVILNAU, who has an amazing bit degree
and amazing story. I suggest,Utah, you look it up and maybe
in the next few weeks we willtalk about him. In the offseason.
Maybe we'll go a little deep diveand he showed that we can do that.
Has a little bit more chef life, and we'll talk about Ever and
his story, his history, becauselet's face it, he has a very

(11:11):
interesting history. He was a cleaner. He was cleaning apartments early in the
morning before going coaching teams and newteams, growing up and making his way
through the class as a manager.Great story. And of course we all
seen the speech. If you haven'tmid well, halftime between Saudi Arabia and

(11:35):
Argentina. It's zero zero and that'sone nothing, actually one nothing. Messy
scored. I believe I might bewrong, regardless, doesn't matter. He's
in the locker room talking to theSaudi Arabia player saying, you see Messy,
you want to take a selfie?Yeah, exactly, that's not the
time. Wake up. It's theWorld Cup. And of course, famously
Saudi Arabia comes back and beats Argentinain the opening game in that group.

(12:00):
For Saudi Arabia, let's go backthough, And of course would be my
choice, and I would give himthe keys of my nationality program any day
here in Canada, if ever there'sa chance or at least an opportunity for
a change there, of course wewish the best of John Herman. And
we're not asking and we're not sayingwe won't change. We're just saying,

(12:22):
if change is needed, Eva ismy candidate. And that's all right now.
John Herman is there, and that'sfine. The progression and looking back,
there's a lot of good things we'redone. And of course we've talked
about the mistake the Canada the fCroatia. That was a mistake, a
couple of players played too long,like Hutchinson the position of Davies. Those
are a couple of maybe mistakes here, But I want to highlight the play

(12:46):
of Canada when it comes to stiflingLuca Mudrich, who might not be Croatia's
best player anymore, but he's reallyone of their best midfielders for sure,
maybe one of the best players,but one of the best midfielders in the
world maybe still yes, but hewas not the reason why croat should be
Canada. Canada was able to well, not to muzzle him, that would

(13:07):
be a little too too much,but to maybe the best case scenario,
get not too much out of him. Here are his numbers against Canada.
When we're talking about the player LucaMudrich, who won just a couple of
years ago the Battle Dog. Heplayed eighty five minutes, sixty four touches,
three tackles and two interceptions. Onlythat that's pretty pretty low for a

(13:30):
Luca Mudrich. Seventy nine percent passingaccuracy, that's just regular for a World
Cup. Five recoveries, nothing spectacular, four shot creating actions, which is
maybe the one very good number hehas here, and he expected assists is
point five. He should have donebetter. He should have had an assist
and that wasn't the case. Canadawas able to keep Luca Mudrich off the

(13:58):
score sheet. Unfortunately, that lefta little bit more playing space for Matteo.
Covici and Kaci had a heck ofa game. Matteo played eighty five
minutes against Canada, passing accuracy ofninety one percent, five shot creating action,

(14:24):
one goal creating action, expected assistsof point eighty one, dribble success
rate of one hundred percent, ninerecoveries and five tackle In my analysis,
the goal scorers played well. LukaModrids gets the headline as the captain.

(14:45):
Kodalia manager did a great job,but Matthew kovic did the work outworked Canada,
took what was given to him andbrought it to the next level.
Numbers of that game are not necessarilyawful for Canada. Possession fifty one,
forty nine, virtually identical, passingaccuracy eighty one, eighty two eighty two

(15:07):
being Canada not bad. Fouls,Yes, Croatia played a hard, physical
game. Thirteen pounds for Croatia.Croatia twenty five tackles. That's a lot
Canada twenty nine clearances. They wereunder pressure. They survived the yes,
they allowed for but they also didtwenty nine clearances nineteen for Croatia, shots

(15:28):
and shots on target thirteen and twoat thirteen and ten. Sorry for Croatia
that's a lot and for Canada twoon target for eight. One of them
was Arnatha David. And again theyexpected goal. The entire team. They
expected goal two points at for Croatiaand zero point four for Canada. That
needs to be higher. Yes,Canada did score, but they need a

(15:48):
bit more. Hopefully there's some changein the lineup when it comes to the
Morocco game, because the Morocco gamewill be different. Morocco plays a different
type of football. Morocco does notwant to keep on possession. They don't
want to play with the rock.They want the rock to be on the
other side of the field. Ifyou smell when I'm cooking. Thirty three

(16:11):
percent possession for Morocco against Belgium ingame number two for them in game number
one against Croatia. By the way, they won against Belgium too nil and
they drew Croatia zero zero in theirfirst game in the group. The thirty
five percent possession they don't want theball. Passing accuracy around eighty percent both
games. They have a similar typeof game where they want to find their

(16:34):
opportunity on the counter. They muckit up in the middle, which brings
me to the conclusion that a Samuelpiet will be necessary in the midfield.
Needed pitball to muddy it up,mucky the water and get it done.
Get the job done. Against ateam like Morocco, Canada will try to
play with the ball, but let'snot get roped in playing football too much.

(16:57):
Canada will find there's strung if theycan find an opportunity for Davies or
David, which they should be.One on the left, one on the
right. David is better when he'sa little bit bit off axis, off
axis for a bit more space forhis left boot, a little bit more
space for his direct near post shiwith the right foot. I do believe

(17:21):
that Darthan David will be more successfulif he's on the attacking right side,
with Larns starting at the center forwardand Davies as he left striker with that
formation, maybe care the fines thoughwith the speed and the space and he
finished by a David late in thegame. Redemption victory, first ever for

(17:41):
Canada one nil late at the endof this game, which might spell doom
for Morocco and maybe Belgium rescues aterrible group stage with a presence in around
the sixteen Croatia Belgium, the gameof Group F will also take place at
the same time. Right now,Group F looks like this. We do

(18:04):
have on top of the group Croatia, who f Canada famously, one win,
one draw, unbeaten. Croatia topof the group four goals four one
goals against, a plus three differentialfour points. Morocco is second, one
win, one draw, undefeated,two goals four, zero goals against.

(18:27):
They haven't conceded yet two goal differentialplus two. That is, with four
points, which leave us to Belgiumin third spot, still alive two points,
two games played, one win,three points, one loss, one
goal four two goals against. They'veonly scored against Canada. Morocco scores twice

(18:48):
against them. They have a minusone differential for three points and Canada with
of course the famous one goal andfive against no points so far after two
losses. Who we'll make it outof this group? Oh, that's the
question. We'll take a short break. When we come back, we will

(19:08):
have a certain look and what's tocome in the next couple of days,
and talk about the upcoming magazine showin just a second right here on Soccer
Today, last magazine show which Iinvite you to subscribe to our YouTube channel

(19:56):
and get access to all the brandnew video shows that I will produce over
the next few months. Magazine showwith standings, research, graphics, amazing
thing coming your way, of course, spending more time and more quality,
quality content over quantity heading into yourscreens and your televisions and of course your

(20:19):
devices everywhere. Congratulations in the UnitedStates beating around earlier today one nil and
qualifying for the round of sixteen Englandputting the sword to will King Arthur over
the Dragons. Three nil for Englandover the whale Dragons. Gareth Bell on
his way back. I guess toLa or Willie, where will Bell go?

(20:44):
That's the question? Will he beback with? Y'll answer, That's
a question. M Let's Cup winner. Gareth Bell also eliminated from the World
Cup and might never play maybe forWales again. Maybe his international career is
over all right. Earlier today,at the recording of this podcast, Tunisia
beat Friends. Friends did nine changeunder starting eleven. Heading into this last

(21:08):
game for them, they were qualifiedalready out of Group D. Tunisia beat
them one nil, Australia getting theresults and the qualification out of Group D.
Also Denmark eliminated Tunisia. They gotthe win, but still also eliminated
Poland. Argentina a two nil victoryby Argentina. Poland, yes goes through

(21:33):
because Saudi Arabia scored a goal lates. It was two nil Mexico against Saudi
Arabia. That would mean that lthree thick are the three colors, the
green, the white, and thered of Mexico would have moved on to
the round at sixteen, but thatlate goal scored by Saudi Arabia and my
favorite manager of the entire world,and yeah, this scorda goal which means

(21:57):
that Mexico one, but also isn'teliminated for the first time in forty eight
years from the nap Naka stage.They won't participate for the NACA stage at
the recording of this podcast. Thegames that follows are Croatia, Belgium,
Canada, Meca Morocco at ten amon a Thursday, Japan, Spain,

(22:19):
very important game in Group E andCosta Rica Germany. Will Germany be eliminated
from the group stage. They wereone of my dark horses, one of
my favorites. Germany could be out. Costa Rica could surprise the world for
a second week in a row,and they could eliminate Germany after beating Japan.
Japan beating Germany crazy world Spain Japanspeaking of also an interesting game.

(22:45):
And then the group stage will finishon December second, with the following games
on Friday, South Korea, Portugalin Group H, Ghenna, Uruguay also
in Group H, Serbia, Switzerland, Cameroon, Brazil. Those are the
games that will wrap up the groupstage. We know four matchup in around

(23:07):
a sixteen Netherlands versus USA, Argentina, Australia, Franz Boland, England,
Senegal. You will have a knockoutstage preview show in the next few days.
I've already started building my graphics forthat and we're working on that over
the next few days. If youdon't know, also, we have a
little baby boy that just joined usin our lives and which means I'm not

(23:32):
as available as I once was toproduce daily content. Thank you for subscribing
to all our channels and all mychannels and all our great things here at
Soccer Today. Moving forward, EnglandSenegald will be interesting and more interesting than

(23:52):
maybe a lot of people think.All right, let's preview quickly once again
Morocco Canada before we say goodbye fortoday. Morocco Canada will be a chippy,
tight affair. Canada keeps it close, Canada keeps it in in striking
distance. Late in the game,there will be some changes. I don't
think we'll see the same players.I think we will see a three four

(24:14):
three four Canada with the likes ofthe same defenders Miller, Victoria Johnston.
I believe we'll see Addie Kube astatue if available. If not, maybe
that's where you slot Hutchinson because astatue is available. Unavailable, we'll see
I see Samuel piet and Jan Buchanan. My attacking three is a found of

(24:38):
Davies, kyl Laren and Jonathan David. Maybe some Osmo's baby and that will
help Carl Laren get it going duringgame number three. Hope you enjoyed this
version of Soccer Today. You canfollow me on Twitter at keV Larmi.
You can follow this show at SoccerTODAYESPN. Yes, the handle will change

(25:04):
very soon as also we will havea brand new website. That's it's just
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(25:27):
home. It's just I guess youchange the name on the house, does
it change the name? Not?Not really does it? Well? I
guess we will have to see UNTIand then you can follow me. Like
I was saying everywhere, thank forsubscribing to this podcast. We're back in
top one hundred and top twenties.I believe it's because of all my appearances

(25:48):
in all the great radio shows andTV networks over the last few weeks.
Thank you to all the new listeners. And I will try to do more
audio show only that's my vision goingour word Soccer Today with keV Larmie.
That's the podcast will be available asmuch as I can version audio only,
and the YouTube channel will be forst Magazine, a visually fun show with

(26:12):
a lot of graphics and research ofcourse based on numbers and analysis in death
breakdowns and of course previews like we'vebeen doing forever. And thank you for
being with me during this great renewalof soccer today as always, until next

(26:33):
time, I'm keV Laramie and Iwish you a great soccer