For himself he did. And that's fine, he's entitled and one can argue moral justification since he was pretty much entirely developed in the Netherlands, but I won't be cheering for him as a Canadian.
Could be his loss as a young Canadian for a National program who is putting the infrastructure in place for a successful future. New top training centers one in Toronto and one in Vancouver. Two SSS with top natural pitches in Montreal and Toronto. Even a natural surface in the Atlantic region in Moncton. The venue was built specifically for soccer and Track and Field. New stadiums being placed in key cities for soccer and CFL football. Be it they are artificial turf. Any major event or match temporary grass pitches have proven to be a very workable option. The US has seem to have been the only country able to and/or willing to host the gold cup. Canada now has the ability to co host as Mexico has done in the past or take a step to hosting especially after having the WWC experience under their belt after next year.
That's a positive way of looking at it, all be it a little naive. First, Moncton is no longer a turf surface, it been dug up and an artificial surface has been installed to keep it in line and consistent with the all artificial pitchs in the WWC. The men won't play in any of the new stadiums as none of them are turf and yet all are or will be FIFA approved and 2 star rated. Why would the Americans want to co host anything? If Canada wants the Gold Cup we'd have to go get it and it would have to be played on artificial surfaces. No one would pay the money to install temporary turf pitches for the Gold Cup. Its profile in mainstream Canada just isn't big enough. As for player development I think we are in one of the sorriest states that I can remember. At one time we had 100 Canadians playing in the old NASL. And now with 3 teams in the MLS and two in the new NASL and the MLS rules screwing us royally, how many do we have? The one positive to take away is things have to get better because they can't get much worse.
The main reason to host it would be to raise the profile of the CMNT and CONCACAF soccer in general. The Gold Cup gets good crowds, largely due to the large diasporas in the USA, who would have no problem coming up here to support their teams. The numbers in MLS right now aren't great, however the three MLS academies are turning out some good talent. They're mostly 17-21 years old, so the bulk of these players aren't ready to grab starting spots on MLS clubs yet, but 4 years down the road it could be a very different story. As the Canadian talent pool grows, MLS will up their Canadian quotas for the three Canadian MLS clubs. There is also some good young Canadian talent developing in Europe as well. So things don't look so great right now, but the road ahead looks good, albeit quite long. WC 2018 doesn't look very promising, but when it comes time for qualifying for 2022 I believe it will be a whole different picture.
I would say this is one of our lowest points for Canadians developing in Europe. I can remember the time that three Canadians signed in the Dutch Eredivisie in one day (Johnson, Wagenaar, Friend IIRC) . Now it's getting rare to see anyone sign for a decent sized Euro club. I am hoping that is because of the the academies doing that job of developing and keeping players but for us to move forward the MLS situation has to get a lot better.
Agreed that the European situation is not as good as it once was, most of our players over there are spending much time warming benches, but what I'm focusing on are some young talent over there still in development. There's Carreiro and Petrasso at QPR, Piette at Dusseldorf, Gasparotto at Rangers, Stanese at Augsberg, among a few others. But still, the bulk of our talent is going to come out of the three MLS academies, and it's going to be years before these bear enough fruit to assemble a good competitive CONCACAF squad, but the future looks promising in my opinion. IF the three academies can between them produce 2 MLS starting quality players each year, then by the 2022 qualification cycle we'll be looking pretty good.
A lot going on in Canada in 2015. WWC followed by Pan Am games. I believe that it is official that the Pan Am mens soccer will be a U22 tournament. Could/Would it benefit CMNT to host at least the Canada's pool of games in SSS stade Saputo vs a Country that may not travel well. Would could it be realistic to put in temporary Natural Grass at Olympic vs a bigger drawing opponent or even at TD place in Ottawa? Or would this be just too much following the WWC?
It seems like both NASL clubs Ottawa and FCE are providing more roster spots for Canadian players. Hamilton appears to be on the tract for a NASL club as well. Would this be a better option for Canadian players to play in the US/Canada DII level where they would be getting on the field more for a Canadian club be a better option than having to go oversees to sit on the bench at lower divisions. Or is the NASLjust not a good enough platform at this time to develop players from the 3 MLS academies and/or University level players to turn pro. How much support can the Soccer Canada support these NASL clubs? Would having U23 players benefit more by staying home and playing in the NASL
I think that the vast majority of players who make up the CMNT in the future will come through the academies of the three MLS clubs, though they may not necessarily being their youth careers there. Any NASL academy players with top potential will likely get gobbled up by one of the big three before they become pro. Some late bloomers may spend their entire youth career in NASL (and others) and then go on to bigger things. Otherwise I imagine most of their top graduates will be MLS journeymen and high level NASL players.
Unfortunately Carreiro has been released which is kind of where I was going with all this. It seems that in the past the player's agents would steer the players to a particular place, some were good for development (Germany) and some were not (England). I can remember when Scotland was the place to be for Canadians, then it became Norway/Sweden and Germany and Holland. And unfortunately now we can only seem to get players placed in Finland or our bigger names not get paid in Turkey. I can only hope that the MLS academies do a better job and start getting Canadians in the lineup because getting big team playing time in Europe seems to be the worst that I can recall.
We need to do a better job of instilling the mentality that you are Canadian first and whatever your parents ethnicity is second. I readily admit I cheer for Portugal (I married into a Portuguese family), in absence of Canada. But I also am first to say that if Canada and Portugal ever met I'd cheer for Canada because that is my true country. However after meeting many people throughout the World Cup my opinion seems to be in the minority, at least with fans, perhaps not players, but it seemed quite apparent that if the "nation of their parents" came calling and Canada came calling, they'd leave. That disgusts me. Everyone should be Canadian first. Instead I find myself hoping foreign-born MLS players who are now gaining Canadian citizenship will represent Canada in order to give the program the level of decency I expect it should be, a level that it would be at had all these defectors not brushed Canada aside in the first place. Yes, that's right had all the defectors and non-committal types committed to Canada we'd have been in Brazil, not Honduras. De Guzman, Hoilett, Begovic, Vitoria...
1. What if you emigrated elsewhere and Canada was playing the host country? 2. A kid like JDG2 went to Holland when he was 12, spent his teenage years there immersed in Dutch culture, and Dutch soccer, learned the language, became a citizen, etc. I don't blame him for choosing Holland, although I don't like that he said he was still undecided when he had made his choice. The inverse situation is Begovic, who's Bosnian but grew up in Canada. You can't advocate absolutes for both scenarios... 3. This is a temporary problem, IMHO, which has much to do with the fact that there was a vacuum in Canadian soccer pre-MLS academies. The most talented players are integrating MLS academies and playing for Canadian youth teams, with a certain belonging to the program. Someone like JDG1 exiled himself to Europe early on and had essentially no connection to Canadian soccer before the Nats came calling.
Not hat it makes up for what we've lost, but there are small gains we get from the likes of Marcel deJong, who was born in Canada to Dutch parents who returned to Holland when Marcel was still a baby, so he has very little connection to Canada. He's been open about the fact that he chose Canada because he never would have made the Netherlands squad. From a moral perspective, that's not great, but it's a gain for us. As for Hoilett, seems he's just not interested in playing for anyone internationally, or at least playing for either Canada or Jamaica is not worth his while, though if he'd get a call for England he'd probably take it (not going to happen though). His younger brother Jaineil remains a possibility for us.
My problem is the rich get richer proposition in all of this. Countries with established league systems, the best academies and far superior national teams are of course more attractive to an expatriate Canadian. But where is Canada compensated for this? Essentially 5 players in 5 scenarios have defected and we're the ones left with egg on our face. The past is the past, but for the future we need to indoctrinate the players that we develop that they are Canadian first. And if if means calling up a naive 16 year old to secure him long term, then call him up. It may not be moral, but neither is England, Holland, Portugal, Greece, Italy and any other World Cup or Euro Cup regular benefiting from our naturalized players.
From what I "heard" and it is a rumor so take it for what it is worth. Had Canada made the Hex for 2016 he would have shown up. Pretty poor work ethic/attitude if you ask me. Show up after most of the grunt work is done and take De Ro or Teibert or some other players spot. No thanks.
That would be a tough call. If someone stands aside waiting for the team's success before committing, it'd be morally wrong to allow them on, but if they're good enough to improve the team's chances then it'd be hard to say no. I for one would not think less of a coach who told such a player no, even if it means it reduces our chances for a given year.
Well I understand another selfish, mercenary, deserting piece of shit has taken advantage of Canadian resources and stabbed us in the back. I'm not even going to name the scumbag, I'll leave that for someone else. Peeps, it will keep happening as long as we allow ourselves to be victimized. We blame the CSA, Canada, multiculturalism, stars of the Zodiac, everybody but the perpetrator of the action. These clods use social media to promote themselves, I say take to social media and give them some true promotion.
Don't know what DM means (Deutsche Mark?) but it looks like the latest traitorous ahole accepted $10,800 worth of carded Canadian athlete money before fecking us. Sorry bout the language but I think that was the straw that broke this camel's back.
Agree that it's crap of him to use our national resources then jump ship, though I'm bearing in mind that as far as the CMNT goes he's no big loss to us. There are a number of young players ahead of him in line if you ask me.
Ahead of a guy who made the WC squad for the Netherlands (a semi - finalist, possible finalist)? Canada not even making the hex in CONCACAF shows how much we need guys like him.