Vanni Sartini: Canada is off to the round of 16! Former Whitecaps coach previews the historic match
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
So, Kirsten Price from the historic Wall Center. We head to Halifax where our World Cup insider, the head coach of the Halifax Wanderers, the CPL, the former head coach of Vancouver Whitecaps FC. He used to coach the coaches for USA Soccer. And we're pleased to welcome Vanni Sartini back to the program. How are you doing, my friend?
Very good, guys. Thanks for having me.
All right. Thoughts and observations about the 1-0 victory over South Africa.
Yeah, it was not probably the most beautiful game ever played by the Canadian national team, but they got the job done. I think they deserved to win. They had the biggest chance during the game. The development of the play wasn't that... I would say great, and then we can go in depth about it. But there was a lot of compactness, a lot of, in my opinion, being ready on the task. And at the end, you know, they were rewarded by the goal of the stacker. So, yeah, good that they won.
They were sloppy at times, Vani. When you're a coach and you see how sloppy they're being against an inferior opponent that, you know, you would love for them to look better against, what do you say to them next to eliminate sloppiness?
Well, you know, it's not that you can say, boom, don't be sloppy. The thing is that, you know, there's a couple of things. I think in this tournament, what is normally the strength of the national team has become a little bit of the weakness because the strength is the play on the wings. with having a lot of wingers that they go 1v1 and they create that space and get in, you know, create that space in between the midfielders and the defence because they win the 1v1 or the fullbacks are so scared of them that they drop, so there's space and so it's easier not to be sloppy because there's more space.
What were Vanni Sartini’s first impressions of Canada’s 1-0 win over South Africa?
But unfortunately, the wingers are, I don't want to say let down the team, but they're not... performing in my opinion at their best, you know, like Buchanan, yesterday Miller, but even Ali when he started, he did very well when he came on against Bosnia, but he didn't do perfectly when he started the game, especially against Switzerland. And so it's probably, I would say, that way because it's so important in the game of the Canadian national team in order to create that space, in order to give more space to the midfielder. Yesterday it was Eustacio and Salibao. Give more space to Jonathan David that now is required to play almost like a 10, dropping because they're not creating that space and it's not his kind of his best position.
you know, skills at that. He's not someone who can play a lot very well in between the line. He's more of a, he's more of a box guy. And, uh, so yeah, that's, that probably was the reason why.
Alphonso Davies plays for the national team for the first time in 15 months. Vanny, he looks like he made things happen when he came on in. What did you make of Fonzie and particularly where they played him and what they asked him to do after such a long drought of him playing with these teammates?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think you could see that he's not yet 100% because he tried to sprint a couple of times and he didn't beat the guy, by the way, that I think he was the best player of South Africa, the right back. I think he was really good. And... also going to dribble. But as you said, Matt, he made something happen. His first two touches, the first one was a good, like, you know, ball from the left side to the middle that creates something. And the other one was in the box where, you know, he served Jonathan David for the shot. So I think, you know... It's not by accident that we scored when he came on, you know, but at the same time, you need to be on top of your condition if you want to play at that kind of level.
So probably, you know, hopefully he's going to have more minutes in the engine when they play Saturday the game. When is it? Saturday. Yeah. So there's another week to go. So maybe Even though maybe he's not ready to start, maybe he's going to be ready to give like maybe 30, 35 minutes at a good level instead of 15.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:02–2:09
2
What were Vanni Sartini’s first impressions of Canada’s 1-0 win over South Africa?
2:09–7:21
3
How should Canada address the team’s sloppy moments after beating South Africa?
7:21–9:57
4
Why did the wingers’ performance affect Canada’s formation and midfield play?
9:57–19:04
5
What impact did Alphonso Davies have coming off the bench after 15 months out?
19:04–21:20
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from Sekeres & Price Show
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