What if they played for Canada?

[Ball in the Face]

What if Owen Hargreaves, Jonathan de Guzman, Alain Rochat, Joe Cannon, Landon Donovan & Andy Williams had all decided to play for Canada. That would be a great team, you agree.

Have I missed any players out?

[Moaca]

What if Dwayne DeRosario, Julian DeGuzman and Atiba Hutchinson had all decided to play for Canada? Oh wait, they did.

Nothing to see here. Move along please.

[henvik]

why Landon Donovan?

[Polygong]

He has some kind of Canadian connection that would qualify him to play for Canada had he chosen too. That one is a bit far fetched as he has lived his entire life in the US.

As for the others, it would indeed be great if we can coax the best who qualify as Canadian to play for us, and the point of the OP is to show how much a better national team we would have if we could do so.

That said, our MNT is constantly improving and becoming a more attractive option as time moves on. People will still opt for the better teams if they can be a starter, but if they may suspect that they'll live mostly as a sub elsewhere when they could start for Canada then we'll find more of such players sticking with us.

[CanuckFan]

why Landon Donovan?
His father is Cdn. Was a decent hockey player but never played soccer. Moved to the States as a young man.

[RedandWhite]

I know Landon's dad was from Nova Scotia but whats the story with Joe Cannon?

[Viruk42]

I know Landon's dad was from Nova Scotia but whats the story with Joe Cannon?


According to wikipedia:

Cannon's father is Canadian, which made him eligible to have played for the Canadian National Team. Joe turned down the chance, instead choosing to represent the United States National Team.

[LeGooner]

Also, Daniel Fernandes from Vancouver B.C., formerly of the F.C. Porto youth system, now playing with VFL Bochum in the German Bundesliga.

[CanuckFan]

^ And called up to the Portuguese national team for the FIFA break next week.

[Real Corona]

I'm not sure that having Cannon would be better than Onstad.

[wyly]

our final product has to improve before the exodus will stop...once our NT can qualify consistantly for the WC our Nat team will become a viable option...until then our very best will continue to accept better offers whenever they can...we're not the only country where this happens it just hurts us more than when it happens to Brazil...

[Polygong]

our final product has to improve before the exodus will stop...

Chicken and egg, how are we supposed to ge better when our best potential is going elsewhere.

What needs to happen is for FIFA to modify the rules on what it takes for someone to qualify as a certain nationality, it's too easy. Move it somewhere beyond "well his plane made a stopover in Paris once in the late 90s so he qualifies as French".

I think a couple of simples rules should cover it. Something like in order to qualify for a certain national team, one must either have been born there or resident there for greater than 10 years.

International football is evolving into club football very rapidly.

[futbol_Jonz]

Chicken and egg, how are we supposed to ge better when our best potential is going elsewhere.

What needs to happen is for FIFA to modify the rules on what it takes for someone to qualify as a certain nationality, it's too easy. Move it somewhere beyond "well his plane made a stopover in Paris once in the late 90s so he qualifies as French".

I think a couple of simples rules should cover it. Something like in order to qualify for a certain national team, one must either have been born there or resident there for greater than 10 years.

International football is evolving into club football very rapidly.

i like the stop over analogy...LOL
agree with you however, i think living in a country for 5 years would be reasonable.
In most cases i feel bad for the players of these countries with the foreigners on their national teams, because some of these guys go through the national program for years and then when they finally get to a world cup, the FA goes out and recruits "foreigners" to represent them....
see; Jamaica in WC 98
At the same time, you can't blame the players, because they all dream about playing in a WC, and if some country is going to call them to play for them and they will fulfill a dream, who wouldn't go?
I watched jonathan DeGuzman play for the netherlands today vs argentina in the olympics, and you can't blame the guy, he was one of the best for the dutch and he got to play in the olympics while alot of players in canada were wishing they could be on that pitch.

[Viruk42]

I watched jonathan DeGuzman play for the netherlands today vs argentina in the olympics, and you can't blame the guy, he was one of the best for the dutch and he got to play in the olympics while alot of players in canada were wishing they could be on that pitch.


except that we were 1 game away from making the olympics. Perhaps had Jonathan De Guzman joined Canada, they could have made it? And then he could convince his brother to come along as one of the overager. Maybe grab someone like Hutchinson as well, since he seems to gel with Julien very well on the pitch (I'm not about to guess at who is good friends with who on the CNT).

Oh! Even better! They could have asked Sutton and Radzinski to go. Bring the oldest players available with the under-23s...



But ya, I agree with both the chicken + egg point, and the stopover in Paris. 5 years living in a country is fine with me. Either that or we should just get rich Canadians (anyone know Jim Balsille?) to hire Brazilians and make sure Sepp Blatter is right about the All-Brazilian World Cup in 2014.