Shakes My Head At Canadian Soccer
It’s not even 2009 and already Canada is out of the running for the next World Cup. I have always said the Canadian Soccer Association has no idea how to run an organization that can complete in the top levels of soccer and they continue to prove me right. It gets even more frustrating when the blue print exists just south of the broader. Look how far United States football has come since 1986. In that year Canadian was in the World Cup and the U.S.A were a laughing stock. Fast forward to today and we see the United States has developed the game from the bottom up and are now a respectable footballing team in world circles while Canada has regress.
For the second World Cup in a row Canada has failed the advance to the final six teams who will then be paired down to three who advance to the World Cup. This time it only took four games for Canada to be mathematically eliminated. I’m not even saying that Canada should qualify for World Cup but with the talent on paper they should at least sneak into the top 6 spots. What is an even bigger shame was that Canadian soccer was primed to explode heading into the first qualifying match against Jamaica at BMO field in Toronto. Usually playing in Toronto and even Montreal is a disadvantage since there will be so many people cheering for the visitors but that crowd on August 20th was largely made up of Canadian fans who were willing their team on. After an early Canadian goal it was not meant to be as Canadian goalie Pat Onstad misplayed a ball which gifted Jamaica the tying goal. From that game Canada never recovered from and it will be another four years before Canadian soccer from a national team point of view will show any life.
With those results I ask myself how did Dale Mitchel even get the top job? He was given the platform to boost soccer in Canada when they hosted the under 20 World Cup back in 2007. How did that team perform? No goals in three games on home soil no less and this was the man who was given the top job before the under 20 World Cup even started? Even more frustrating was in the Gold Cup Canada gave a performance to be proud of under then caretaker coach Stephen Hart losing to the U.S 2-1 in the Semi Finals. Despite being down 2-0 Canada got itself back into the game and were robbed of a last second tying goal on a B.S offside call in order to set up a U.S-Mexico final. Clip shown below.
One day I hope to see Canada back in a World Cup but nothing from this current Canadian set up leads me to believe it will happen in 2014 either. Maybe I’m part of the problem as I don’t even get my hopes up thinking Canada might at least make it to the final six that will then determine who advances to the World Cup. Sadly I fully expected this to happen but cheering for Portugal and having my hopes dashed every two years by them is enough for me.
October 14th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Ok call that BS but the US still would have beat Canada in extra time. That was a bad game played by the US, one of the worst of our Gold Cup if not the worst. Canada has the same problem the US does. Poaching!! Canada COULD have Owen Hargreaves, but he really was a long shot his dad played for a team in Canada but he was raised British. Also he was eligable for all the home nations and was going to play for Wales until England U-21 asked him to play. Canda also could have had Jonathan De Guzman he was much more likely, but he chose the Netherlands. A midfield with both Guzman’s and Hargreaves pretty good. The same goes for the US look at Rossi on Italy hes like our Hargreaves, parents from Italy so he chooses to play for Italy. Neven Subotić who plays for Dortmund is another one the US could have used, since being overlooked by Bradley and the rest of the goons hes looked into playing for Germany. However, it is really pathetic Canada is alright out of contention, dont really pay much attention to you guys, but that coach is terrible. Fire him just like we need to fire Bradley.
October 14th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Subtonic also could play for Bosnia or Croatia
October 15th, 2008 at 3:53 am
Thank you for the feedback. Good info/points in your comment.