Ok...Where to start? 2011 saw a new canadian club team enter Major League Soccer in the Vancouver Whitecaps,however,as expected when a new franchise enters the league,the Whitecaps are currently at the bottom of the Western Conference having won only 2 games so far in the season(past the midway point).The current situation of the Whitecaps is not a problem as it is after all their first season and the team still probably has afew things to correct...So here the situation is understandable. The Montreal Impact who is going to jump in Major League soccer next season and who won the USL in 2009 is currently second from the bottom having won only 2 matches if I'm correct.Marc Dos Santos,who had been the team's coach for the last 2 and half years,resigned not too long ago after a series of poor results by the team...The Montreal Impact board stated that despite the fact that this is the club's last season in the NASL they would take the season seriously and try to have the best season possible...The team is struggling to find it's form with a mediocre record and with MLS waiting less than a year away. And then we have Toronto FC...Wow....This club is like a puzzle.It's the club fifth season in Major League Soccer(having entered in 2007) and I don't think that there is a player left from the inaugural season.Jim Brennan and Danny Dichio both retired in the last 2-3 years and the club as seen countless players signed,only to be gone(not all of them but a lot of them) the following season.On top of my head,names like Marco Velez,Andrea Lombardo,Pablo Vitti,Laurent Robert,Rohan Ricketts,Carlos Ruiz,Amado Guevara,Colin Samuel,Chad Barrett and the list goes on...And if I recall,the club has had 5 different head coaches(1 every season).It's obvious that this team is struggling to find stability,season after season with it's lineup.The team is currently second from bottom in the Eastern Conference.Altough they are not far off from a playoff spot despite the unconvincing results,The Toronto FC board stated before the season began that they were aiming for a playoff spot this season.They way it's been going,they'll probably miss out on one... On the good side,new NASL franchise FC Edmonton is doing quite good for a team that only entered the league this year.They are currently second in the NASL only behind the Carolina Railhawks who are on a hot streak.Congrats to FC Edmonton in their inaugural season as a club. And now onto our Canadian national teams.... Our U-17s have been eliminated from the World Cup after losing to Uruguay(semifinalist),drawing against England 2-2(In a game that we almost lost),and couldn't even score in a draw against a lowly Rwanda team...Not much to be proud of...Oh and a lot of the players on the Canadian team are from the TFC academy Our U-20's failed to qualify for the World Cup in Colombia... Our Men's national team played in the Gold Cup not too long ago.The team didn't advanced and although we didn't get hammered in any of the matches,we should have done much better.We should have taken adventage of a US side that didn't play too great in the group stage...Almost had it won against Panama,and defeated Guadeloupe by a goal margin(just like Panama and the US)...Again Canada not meeting the expectations... The current Women's World Cup in Germany has seen our Canadian Womens national side after losing to host and favorite Germany,and losing convincingly against France.2 matchdays,2 losses,next match is pretty much meaningless...failure here. So Canada has failed to advance in the tournament that we qualified for to be played this year.It is an accomplishment in itself to qualify for these tournament,but we have to do more than qualify just to make numbers... Should we be worried about this with World Cup qualifying not too far away?Where do we stand and where do we go from here now?
The fact that the sport doesn't get very much attention up here is part of the blame. It's either hockey or football here from what I can see. However, I'm not too worried about the Impact. They'll be worse than anything next year in the MLS, but they'll eventually get their groove. Edmonton's great success means nothing and I know that Vancouver will be successful in the long run. As for Toronto, I'm so used to having all of their teams be mediocre that I don't see how things can be any different.
Should we be worried? No, it's not like something bad is going to happen to the nation if our soccer teams don't perform well. I'd like to see things improve, though. I think this year is a mixed bag. You've done a good job of highlighting some of the negatives so let me chime in with a more positive spin on things: Vancouver - A new club in MLS. This means more high level spots for Canadian players which will pay off down the road. Montreal - Getting ready to make the jump to MLS. Regardless of how they happen to be doing this year, they, too, will be providing more high level spots for Canadians. TFC- This year was always going to be an adjustment year to Winter and the new system. The team is improving, they've made some good acquisitions recently, and have made a massive investment in the Academy. The payoff won't begin until next year but the team appears to be actually building now, not just rolling the dice and hoping one Mo time. Edmonton - Another club. Not MLS but we need teams to bridge the tap between MLS and D3. CSL/PDL - Expansion yet again in both leagues (with more to come). Canada has never had a D3 setup like this. Twenty four teams where young players can play the game and, critically, see a path up to the higher levels above them. Women's National Team - Did not progress as far as we hoped in the World Cup. That's a bit like saying my lottery jackpot wasn't quite as large as I'd hoped. Men's National Team - Underperformed at the Gold Cup. Has been doing decently well in friendlies. Really, though, this year is not the one that counts.
Agreed, there have been some grave disappoinments this year, but looking at the long term trend we've come a very long way, with promise of moving ahead further. There are a number of Canadian cities ripe with NASL potential, including Winnipeg, Ottawa, Calgary, Quebec City and Halifax. Growth of club football will make the NCC more relevant and help us produce better homegrown talent.
To me, this aptly sums up the state of Canadian soccer. Things are improving quickly but also broadly. We aren't hoping for lucky breaks to let us qualify for the World Cup, we're building broadly toward a future where we expect to qualify. We don't have a couple of USL1 clubs waving the flag for Canadian professional soccer, we have increasing numbers of clubs at all levels. The big question is, when does it begin to pay off in measurable ways? Unfortunately, that's probably a question we'll only be able to answer in retrospect. For example, when we've just qualified for our second consecutive World Cup and to follow up our Gold Cup win we'll be able to look back and say, "it all began to pay off in 2014" or whenever.
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/fif...nadian-soccer---a-call-to-action.html?ref=rss ^^ The truth by Jason de Vos. When players are resorting back to their roots of kick and run is that Stephen Hart's fault? Is that really Carolina Morace's fault? The answer is "no." If you want to complain that the players are at a disadvantage when they play in 40C heat against Carribean countries, that's one thing. But if you're going to say that it's because they aren't good motivators or they don't know anything about tactics...you know what? That's wrong. I'm not sure how the struggles of TFC, Vancouver and Montreal have to do with the "state of Canadian soccer" but I'll tell you this, the problem with Canadian soccer as de Vos alluded to is that very few of our players don't have the technical ability to compete with other countries in CONCACAF let alone the world. Therefore, when Stephen Hart has to pick a team for the Gold Cup or WCQ, he's got a small pool to choose from and an even smaller pool who he can pencil in as a starter and not be worried. I can only speak for TFC because that's the team I follow more closely than the others but I think they are on the right track. Yes, they are a private club who want to win games in MLS, CCL, etc. and that's why they invest money into their youth academies. But they also have qualified people teaching their youth players everything from how to pass a ball, how to receive a ball, how to create space for your teammates, how to press, etc. Unless more clubs and academies in this country are doing that, I don't care how many more MLS/NASL/CSL/PDL teams there are: the Canadians playing on those teams won't be good enough to get us into the World Cup which is really the point of this eh? As for Morace, I'm glad she's teaching the senior players everything they should've been taught when they were younger. It's probably easier for her than for Hart to teach skills because the women don't have as hectic a schedule as the men and thus are able to spend extended periods of time together but that's still not enough. Again, girls need to be taught the skills at 8-12 and when they can show that they do have the skills, then perhaps pro clubs will sign them and give them the competition they need to repeat everything they learned in live action.
I think you answer your own question later in your post, but the main reason is that those teams represent the highest level of club soccer in the country. For better or worse, it is through these three teams that much of the player pool for the national team will pass over the next few years.
What I mean is, what does club performance has to do with the national team? I don't think that TFC, Vancouver and Montreal currently being outside the playoff picture in their respective leagues has anything to do with what's going on with our men's and women's teams. But I concur with that second part though. If all three of them can develope kids the right way instead of pleasing parents with wins/losses then we'll at least be in better shape than we are now.
"Annus horribilis".....as said the Queen........ the next will be better; It is like in our Venezuelan soccer, we have our ups and downs........
I agree that the way that our Women's team perform as nothing to do with the way that Montreal,Vancouver,Toronto and Edmonton play since it's not the same gender.I posted about them because the Womens World Cup is still underway in Germany in which they participated in.However,on the mens side,I disagree.You seem to forget that a few players that are regulars on the Canadian national team,play for those clubs.Here's an example,the Montreal Impact has a problem scoring goals at the moment,Ali Gerba is a striker that plays for that team on a regular basis,I also remember him playing in this year's Gold Cup.He's been in the national team setup for a few years.If he can't score in the NASL(at the moment),then we're in deep.Midfielder Julian De Guzman who plays for Toronto FC,is also a Canadian national team player,so is Adrian Cann who also plays for TFC as a defender.So if the players mentionned above are having below average performances for their club teams,chances that they carry these below average performances to the national team(unfortunately) are high since some of them are regulars on the team.Players play more often for their clubs than their national team and not the other way around.So when these players are not playing good,then it's not good for the national team either.
Yeah but unfortunately,this could take about a decade for each of these cities to have a club.But yeah,it's not like it's out of the question like we would have thought a few years back.I'm confident that we will get there eventually but the wait is killing me personally,especially when you see other countries are moving forward.
What a bunch of nonsense. The longterm looks good. NOT. Canada has never done so poorly. From 86 to now is 0 growth. And the 86 team did not even score a goal. Did they even try? Or did they try to not lose to badly. COACHING is everything. If Morace is so good, and teaching the right things then why did the team do better under the previous coach?? Is not the German coach who successfully coached CANADA now the COACH OF AUSTRALIA? What utter nonsense. The club teams have nothing to do with it. Get good International coaching. GOOD. INTERNATIONAL. COACHING. and then give them total 110 % control of the whole system, and watch the results come in, IN A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME. TAKE A LOOK AT MAGATH, FERGUSON, MOURHINO, AUSTRALIA COACHES, SPAIN, BARCA: SUCCESS, SUCCESS, SUCCESS. Why do the teams change so dramatically when they gain or lose a GOOD COACH? We were fooled by Morace. The team was SLOW, UNAGGRESSIVE, NO OFFENSIVE PLAN, AND SLOOOOOOOOW.
No. The broken record is that things are ok, and that they will get better. Take your head out of the sand. Has Canadian Soccer National Teams ever been in worse shape? Ever? We cant even score, at any tournaments.
I don't think we need to ditch Morace. Results with her have been mostly positive, and we won multiple tournament before the World Cup. I think that after the World Cup, however, she should be on thin ice for the Olympics, and that if we don't do well in the Olympics, we dump her. For the Senior men's national team and all levels of youth: We need a national technical directorate, I don't care who, or from where, just a qualified individual with a clear plan for the next decade and then some. They come in, find coaches for us and establish a Canadian style of football. Currently, our national teams are made up of a mix-and-match group of players who aren't suited to eachothers strengths, and worse, our coaches don't even attempt to play them in their best possible formations. Hopefully, with the recent reforms that have been passed, these sorts of steps will start to be taken. In addition, we need to find a coach of quality for the CMNT, and as soon as we do, broom Stephen Hart. Hart's 4-5-1 is a ridiculous formation to use with our lack of techincal and striking depth. We need to be attacking the net with multiple players in the box, and to have a strong passing game, not flooding the midfield with players who won't be able to deke out more than one or two players on any given team.
That has been our problem for years.Our current system/mess makes it very difficult to find the right rythm with our lineup.
It's always been that way. I'm hopeful that with four professional clubs with youth systems our homegrown players will spend much of their development years playing together and already being familliar with one another when they make it to the CMNT.
Unfortunately,we are looking at something that will take time.Yes,it will take time for these club to develop players of above average quality to play for the national team.We will probably see the results in about 6-8 years time at the very least.Which brings us to a question.Do/Will these clubs have the required ''tools'' to create a generation of Canadian talent?
I can't speak for other academies, but TFC's academy seems to be doing well. Certainly they have to be better than any other development system that has been used in this country.
And that, to me, is one of the two biggest reasons I think they'll succeed. Until now we've had essentially nothing. Some high-level, organized activity is infinitely better than nothing. Consider someone like Ashtone Morgan who is on Canada's U20 national team. Plays in the CSL for TFC Academy for two years and then jumps to the full team in 2010. He's played in a number of MLS league matches now. He's also played in the CCL, including away games in (so far) Panama and Nicaragua. He may or may not ultimately feature in our full national team but the kind of experience (including international away games) he's gaining now will serve him very well if he does. The best part (and the second big reason I think the academies will succeed in helping the MNT) is that none of this development is being done for the NT. It's all being done by TFC in TFC's own self-interest and just happens to benefit the NT down the road. Would MLSE ever invest $20 million in a training facility for the NT? No. Will the NT benefit from $20 million of MLSE's money? Yes.
Very good post(the entire message).Now imagine if we had 4 to 8 more clubs based in Canada that had those kind of academies/setups...That would be sick!Sorry but I couldn't help think about that...
Vancouver seems to have a decent one although I have less information available for that one than for Toronto's. Montreal has a CSL team. In the past it has served as more of a farm team than an academy in that it didn't have much of a focus on youth or development so much as a place for benchwarmers to get playing time. That seems to be changing as Montreal moves toward MLS. Given our history of no deliberate youth development, even three decent development programs can only be good for the NT.
Agreed 3 teams plus a half team FC edmonton, means there's are atleast 70+ players with real competitive experience. People keep thinking we need to compare with european leagues, the reality is we'll never reach that level of performance unless the ice caps melt and we give up on hockey.Our main goal should simply being third in North america, which means beating honduras, cuba, etc. I think this could happen sooner than you'd think. Babies steps can make a large difference.