Sports in Canadian culture

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ That's interesting. First I've heard of it.

Same. Would consider checking it out if the pricepoint and dates make sense.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ That's interesting. First I've heard of it.

I've seen bits of it on the CBC streams in Kodi for the past while. Interesting idea but not my cup of tea. You can catch all sorts of neat stuff on the CBC streams, Canadian NT rugby, CPL etc.

It's kinda the modern incarnation of the old CBC Sportsweekend, remember that? God love Ernie Afaganis and how he used to screw everything up and Brian Williams before he totally sucked. No, I'm wrong, he always sucked. I miss Terry Leibel.

[esquire]

I always forget that CBC Gem has sports... I need to look at it more often.

[Denscity]

Team Canada mens volleyball qualified for the Olympics at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by Denscity

Team Canada mens volleyball qualified for the Olympics at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver.

Incorrect. They still have to beat Puerto Rico later today to punch their ticket. If they lose to Puerto Rico and Cuba wins its final match there will be a tie for 1st place in the standings. The winner is decided by which ever country has won the most match points. With the win over Cuba, Canada is in the driver's seat but they can't celebrate quite yet.

If the men's volleyball team does qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics it will surpass the current high of 5 teams for a non-boycotted Games — excluding the 1976 Olympics in Montreal when the country sent 9 teams as host nation. The 5 teams that have already qualified are men's and women's rugby sevens, women's softball, women's water polo, and men's field hockey.

Canada could conceivably surpass the 9 teams we sent in 1976. A volleyball win tonight against Puerto Rico would bump our Tokyo total to 6 teams and we can still qualify another 4 teams: men's and women's teams in basketball and soccer. Teams that have qualified for Tokyo 2020 in Green, qualifying still pending in Black.


Men's rugby 7s
Women's rugby 7s
Women's softball
Women's water polo
Men's field hockey

Men's volleyball
Men's basketball
Women's basketball
Men's soccer
Women's soccer

[isaidso]

Canada beat Puerto Rico 3-0 literally 30 seconds ago to book their ticket to the Olympics. That brings the total number of Canadian teams heading to Tokyo to 6, a new record. Teams that have qualified for Tokyo 2020 in Green, qualifying still pending in Black.


Men's rugby 7s
Women's rugby 7s
Women's softball
Women's water polo
Men's field hockey
Men's volleyball

Men's basketball
Women's basketball
Men's soccer
Women's soccer


The 12 teams have now been set for the Tokyo 2020 men's volleyball tournament. America is very well represented with a total of 5 entrants: Brazil, the United States, Argentina, Venezuela, and Canada. The other 7 qualifiers are as follows: Japan, Italy, Poland, Russia, France, Tunisia, and Iran.

[JHikka]

Iran won the Asian qualifier over China in men's volleyball?

Our women's soccer team will qualify but our men's soccer will have to beat a number of good teams to qualify and i'm not entirely sure they'll be able to do it.

[Denscity]

Originally Posted by isaidso

Canada beat Puerto Rico 3-0 literally 30 seconds ago to book their ticket to the Olympics. That brings the total number of Canadian teams heading to Tokyo to 6, a new record. Teams that have qualified for Tokyo 2020 in Green, qualifying still pending in Black.


Men's rugby 7s
Women's rugby 7s
Women's softball
Women's water polo
Men's field hockey
Men's volleyball

Men's basketball
Women's basketball
Men's soccer
Women's soccer


The 12 teams have now been set for the Tokyo 2020 men's volleyball tournament. America is very well represented with a total of 5 entrants: Brazil, the United States, Argentina, Venezuela, and Canada. The other 7 qualifiers are as follows: Japan, Italy, Poland, Russia, France, Tunisia, and Iran.

Wow it's like I was posting from the future. I swear that I heard we beat Puerto Rico to send us to the Olympics which is why I made my original post lol.

[megadude]

Don't know if Canadian Men's soccer can do it but we can take comfort that the program in general is on the rise. Four Canadians drafted in first round of MLS Super Draft. Last year it was three in the top ten. That won't translate into seven star players, but as long as we keep producing more and more pro level players there's got to be some benefit eventually manifesting from that. Surely we must eventually contend for Olympic spots and contend for Gold Cups.

Plus Davies scored a sick goal last week. Don't think he'll ever be world class but he could very well end up being a notch just below, which is great for Canadian soccer.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by megadude

Plus Davies scored a sick goal last week. Don't think he'll ever be world class but he could very well end up being a notch just below, which is great for Canadian soccer.

Winning Bayern's player of the month for December makes one world class, doesn't it?

He's one of the world's most valuable U21 players so i'd definitely say he's entered that realm at this point.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by JHikka

Winning Bayern's player of the month for December makes one world class, doesn't it?

He's one of the world's most valuable U21 players so i'd definitely say he's entered that realm at this point.

I was going to post something like this. If one means world class as in Messi, well maybe not, but if world class means starting for one of the top clubs in the world, and recognized as one of the world's top young talents, I think he's just about made it. And I hope to see Jonathan David up there soon as well.

[megadude]

The term world class is debatable. Even among analysts some use it loosely and some sparingly. It's a matter of one's philosophy and there's basically no right or wrong definition.

I fall more in the latter camp. Like 25 world class players at the moment kind of thing.

For soccer I need to see someone excel at a high level for like three years. And not just rack up stats because of what system or league he plays in. For instance, I've never considered Lewandowski a world class player despite the boat load of goals he's scored for Bayern.

And I don't consider the attacking Liverpool trio of Salah, Firmino and Mane as world class. But I did for Barca's trio of Messi, Suarez and Neymar.

For sports over here, I am careful when saying superstar vs star or all star player. Superstar to me means greatness and not just very good. But there is also the legacy component, like Kobe Bryant at the tail end of his career. Was not a great player, but was still a superstar because of his body of work and fame.

[JHikka]

Nonsense. Lewandowski? 74 goals for Dortmund, 147 for Bayern, and 61 for Poland, arguably one of the best number 9s and one of the best strikers of the last decade. Bundesliga Player of the Year. Ballon d'or Finalist. Bundesliga top scorer on four occasions (for both Dortmund and Bayern). He's world class.

[suburbanite]

Lewandoski is probably the second best if not the best striker in the world right now. He's been doing it for years and has 61 international goals for a lackluster Polish team so I don't see how any definition of world-class could evade him.

[megadude]

Nonsense? Again, this is based on personal philosophy. My co-worker is in the same boat as me, but he's actually a little more stringent.

I categorize players in terms of world class, and then there's a tier just below, which is where I put him.

Like I said, no right or wrong definition.

[megadude]

Here's a list of his international goals. Yes, the Poland team is average at best, but look who he's scoring against. And he has one goal total in the one Euro and one WC he's played in. And if I remember correctly, the pundits were disappointed with his play in those tournaments. I watched some of those games as my inlaws are Polish. Hell, I even have two of his jerseys. One red, one white.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...rt_Lewandowski


Bayern is a massive step above the competition in their league. And when he played for Jurgen at BVB, they obviously played a very uptempo game like Liverpool with Jurgen now. Again, to me, the system plays a big part in his stats.

"System" in soccer is not as pronounced as college football with air raid and hurry up offenses and all that. Just see Mike Leach's teams at Texas Tech and and Washington St that produced the nation's leading QB like ten times or something ridiculous, but it certainly plays a part in soccer. Henry is a legend, but I don't think he'd be if he continued playing at Juve in Italy. That Arsenal team played a certain way and I'm sure he was more suited to that, which made him a better player, but I'd say he wouldn't be considered what he is today if he didn't play for them.

[FrankieFlowerpot]

Originally Posted by megadude

And I don't consider the attacking Liverpool trio of Salah, Firmino and Mane as world class.

I'll avoid whatever you are smoking

[megadude]

I was going to post this pic before the Lewa talk. This squad is one I refer to when discussing this subject with friends. All 10 of these outfield players were considered world class at one point in their career. It lead me to think of players as world class in the here and now and players who had world class careers.

I at some point also thought of many of them as world class (even have four of their jerseys) but then I said how can so many guys be world class? So in my mind I created a next tier.

WC to me: Sol, Rooney, Owen, Becks and Cole.
Next tier: The rest, but not James.

And Lamps is one of my all time favourite players!

[isaidso]

This is a 'Sports in Canadian culture' thread not a 'Sports in European culture' thread.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by Denscity

Wow it's like I was posting from the future. I swear that I heard we beat Puerto Rico to send us to the Olympics which is why I made my original post lol.

It's a great talent to have. You wouldn't happen to know who won the Raptors - Thunder game that hasn't happened yet? That kind of information could be very useful.