Canada is playing a closed door friendly in California against Guatemala right now, in prep for the Gold Cup.

Our man Ali Gerba has put Canada up 1-0 in the 4th minute of play.

Extremely low-tech matchtracker is located here.

Starting lineup is as follows:

Joshua Wagenaar
Paul Stalteri
Dejan Jakovic
Kevin McKenna
Mike Klukowski
Will Johnson
Julian de Guzman
Atiba Hutchinson
Marcel de Jong
Jaime Peters
Ali Gerba

I think that's 12 all-time for Ali, 3 behind DeRo and 7 behind Mitchell for the all-time lead.

Win it for Peter Sarantopolous guys!

G-L, you probably catch my reference no?

FT

3-0 Canada

After the first by Gerba in the first half Patrice Bernier scored two in the second half.

S.

EDIT: That's according to Live Score. Apparently the piece of string that connects the CSA to the internet broke.

On the Voyageurs, Jeffrey S. is quoting a Guatemalan paper as saying it wasn't a FIFA sanctioned "A" match, so the goals won't go to their career totals.

I like how the Guatemalans only mention this after they got walloped 3-0 rather than before. I bet they'd be singing a different tune had they been on the right side of the scoresheet.

In any event, piss on them. I say we count it. This is the same Guatemalan team that drew 0-0 against Mexico the other day and it even made livescore.com, that's good enough for me! B-)

Yeah, although for some reason I have Sarantopolous being the goat of a 3-2 loss to El Salvador in Burnaby in the 1994 Qualifying semi-final round (which we eventually got out of anyway) and remember Mike Sweeney letting the ball go through his legs in 1988.

Ugh.

I'm disappointed in you G-L ! :P

October 1988. We lost 1 nil in Guatemala and then won 3-2 at Swangard. It was that infamous match in which Steve Armitage misunderstood the aways goal rule to mean away goals counted double not realizing that this was only implemented in the case of a total goals draw.

http://www.canadasoccer.com/tourney/FIFA_W...e.asp?gameId=59

All game long he was saying things like Canada is losing 2 nil but in reality the score is five nil as the two goals scored today count double. :blink:

Canada eentually went ahead and it was only in the last few minutes of the game that somebody (off-air) explained the rules to him. A game that he had written off was now a nail-biter. Not Armitages best moment!!!

Anyway, back to poor old Peter Sarantopoulos. I believe it was the second goal. Ball bounces into the box, he tries a waste high half volley, misses it badly, it spins off his foot and past Paul Dolan. Something like that anyway.

He wasn't a bad player at all so in a way I feel bad that this is how I best remember him. That play knocked us out.

db

CSA match report indicates it was Gerba with 2 rather than Bernier. And they seem to be taking it as an official "A" match (which the FIFA website also indicates, so swivel on that Guatemala!) so the goals will count for our statistics. I'm also hoping that the De Guzman first half substitution was as precautionary as they make it sound and is not a serious injury as that would really suck ball:


Canada's men's national team won 3:0 over CONCACAF rival Guatemala today in an international friendly match played in Oxnard, CA. Ali Gerba scored two goals while Patrice Bernier scored the other in Canada's second win of the 2009 season.

“In the first half, we played extremely well and created a number of chances, but still lacked that cutting edge in finishing it off,” said coach Stephen Hart. “We talked about it at half time. Then in the second half, we kept the tempo of the game high, created the chances, and scored.”

Canada went on the attack from the opening whistle, pushing forward and getting its first corner kick in the opening minutes. A few moments later, Canada was on the scoreboard with the opening goal from Gerba. It was Marcel de Jong who played the ball in from the left side before Gerba headed it in.

As the half progressed, Canada continued to maintain pressure on its opponent. Canada had the better part of possession and won four corner kicks while conceding none. Wagenaar was hardly tested behind the defensive line of Kevin McKenna, Dejan Jakovic, Paul Stalteri and Mike Klukowski.

Canada also came close to scoring a second goal in the first half. Will Johnson fired a shot just wide of the net on one opportunity and de Jong hit the crossbar on another terrific chance late in the half.

Late in the first half, Guatemala’s Fredy Thompson took down Julian de Guzman. The play brought both teams to the centre of the pitch. As this was a friendly match, both Thompson and de Guzman were replaced for substitutions.

Before the second half, coach Stephen Hart made three more changes. He switched goalkeeper Greg Sutton for Wagenaar, defender Richard Hastings for Jakovic (who had a cut on his chin), and forward Josh Simpson for de Jong. He made three more changes in the second half: Simeon Jackson for Jaime Peters, Issey Nakajima-Farran for Johnson, and Adrian Cann for McKenna.

Early in the second half, Bernier made it 2-0 on what was his first international goal with Canada’s national team. Simpson made a good run into the Guatemalan end before Klukowski played the ball to the other side of the pitch. Johnson controlled the ball in the box six yards from the line, but he pushed the ball back to an unmarked Bernier who entered the play at the top of the box. Bernier fired home the low shot past the diving goalkeeper.

Ten minutes later, it was another Canadian substitute causing trouble in the Guatemalan end. Jackson had control of the ball in the Guatemala box before he was tripped by captain Gustavo Cabrera. Canada was awarded the free shot from the penalty mark, so striker Gerba made it 3-0 with a shot to the top right corner of the goal.

Canada had more chances late in the game, but could not connect for a fourth goal against its opponent. Canada had two more corner kicks in the second half while both Simpson and Jackson had good chances to score in the final 10 minutes.

Goalkeepers Wagenaar and Sutton shared the clean sheet For Wagenaar, it was his first clean sheet in just his second game at the national level. Bernier, meanwhile, scored his first goal while Gerba scored his 12th and 13th goals. Gerba moved into fifth place on the all-time national list.

“We defended well as a whole team,” said Canada's defender and man of the match McKenna. “When we score goals, we score goals as a team; when we keep a clean sheet, we keep a clean sheet as a team. We were just a hard unit to beat.”

Canada has one more day in Oxnard before packing up and moving into Los Angeles for the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup. Canada opens the biennial confederation championship this Friday 3 July at the Home Depot Center against group opponent Jamaica.

Yeah I remember all that, but ISTR that on either the first goal or the second goal by the Guats the ball skipped through Mike Sweeney's legs off a corner in the rain to get through in the first place - a bit of a Bill Buckner play. I remember him saying after the game that he hoped that wasn't his last memory of playing for Canada. Of course he would return as a grizzled vet for 1994 qualifying which was a much better run - although his last memory will end up being missing one of the strangest looking PK attempts in the playoff shootout against Australia that ultimately knocked us out (before Argentina probably would have).

I really liked Mike Sweeney. He played hard! He was with the Blizzard when they played in the APSL I seem to recall. Some very good players on that team.

Ya, the Australia game. We missed seeing the extra time because TSN had mis-booked the satellite window so we got play-by-play from Dick Howard on a cell phone. One of Dick's best moments I must say as he really did do a fine job.

.... and then we got video for the penalties.

Didn't Lyndon score our goal during regulation? A great goal it was too IIRC.

Australia put up a really good fight against Argentina losing out by one goal in the end.

Yup, Lyndon Hooper scored from an excellent Dale Mitchell pass that tied the score 1-1midway through the 2nd and temporarily put us up 3-2 on the aggregate. Unfortunately we conceded one more and it went to PK, where we only had 10 men to choose from because striker Grant Needham got pole-axed by an Aussie in extra-time and got taken off the field on a stretcher only a minute or two after he came on and he was our second substitution (in the last year that you could only make two. Mike Sweeney had blood pouring down his face when we came got the sattelite feed back from another Aussie swipe so I always blamed the blood for his PK miss. Dale was the only one to score for Canada on 3 PK attempts (Bunbury missed the other one) and even in his last match at age 35 he was one of our best players. People forget that he just doesn't lead all-time in goals, but probably in assists as well and important goals. A shame really that many people today will only know him from his coaching stint ended so horrifically.