Well that was terrible. 2 goals from goalkeeping errors, 2 goals from giving the ball away under no pressure (one an attacking free kick).
Hard to think of any guys who had a good tourn overall. Surman and Herdman both looked capable at times but not much else.
Hard to think of any guys who had a good tourn overall. Surman and Herdman both looked capable at times but not much else.
A week ago there were certain pundits calling for Surman and Herdman to be drafted straight into the senior team. Wonder what those people think now. I thought that was all a bit premature at the time.
There is a possible reason to fast track Herdman (think Stensness and Boyd)... so if he ever gets good enough Canada won't come calling. Although friendlies don't count for cap tying someone... so I'm not sure what matches NZ actually play that could cap tie him other than OFC qualifiers.
Even then, the current rules allow under 21 players to still switch after a competitive appearance, so long as they have no more than three, so maybe push that back to November 2024. Herdman turns 21 in August 2025. The Canada head coach will also have no difficulty having a quiet word in his ear about being 'injured' for a window if he wants to keep Jay open for their own 2026 World Cup.
Last year's Canadian guest (Juneof86) said Jay Herdman was no where near the Canadian team. He was only in their wider group U20 setup after all. Doubt much has changed 6-12 mths later.
He's also got his large silver fern tat, so there should be a FIFA bylaw that says that is equal to playing 3 competitive matches to be cap tied! Herdman junior was born in NZ (unlike say Stensness). Everyone is different, but I think country of birth can create a stronger bond, than just straight parentage. I understand that mystery man Champness was born in NZ, so might explain him choosing us over Aus.
I’m still lurking Coochiee! I came away with a positive opinion of Herdman after watching a small amount of the US match and all of the Guatemala match (I’m still annoyed we lost to those guys, but we had a poor qualifying tournament on the whole). As you say Herdman was in camp and didn’t make the final squad of 20 for our qualifying run. I think we over-rated some players at European clubs who didn’t perform well enough in qualifying and we probably could have used Jay. There’s a 2003-born Canadian that we didn’t use in qualifying who looks like he’s off to the UEFA U21s with Croatia now. One of the players we did call up for qualifying just got called up by the Portugal U18s yesterday… so while I think it’s odd that the son of our national team manager is playing for another country, we have a lot of players with a lot of options and trying to keep them in the fold is a juggling act.
In the bigger picture, there are players of a similar age (or the same age) as Herdman playing in MLS at the same position. Some aren’t impressing (and some are), but they are getting first-team minutes. I haven’t seen the Vancouver reserves yet this season, but Habibullah has four goals in 10 and Coupland has 2 goals and 3 assists so far and they’re both 2003-born and play similar positions as Herdman… so we’ll see where he fits with that group when he returns from Argentina before I even think about him breaking into the Whitecaps’ first team. He’s young so things can change quickly, but there’s nothing to think he’s going to break into the senior Canadian team by 2026.
If he even wants that at this point. I noted that tattoo and felt he seemed pretty committed to being an All White.