That's not really in the past, though it's better than when they were calling up PDL players. Their most-capped, active defender plays for Edmonton. Their most-capped, active midfielder plays for Ottawa. Other recent call-ups play for RGV and Fort Lauderdale. Tossaint Ricketts has been without a club for like, half a year. It's a rough situation.
Jamaica finished second in Gold Cup 2015 with goalkeeper Ryan Thompson of the Pittsburgh Riverhounds in the USL.
And now they can't win a thing with the players from the EPL and the Championship. Clearly, the USL must be better.
one thing that has hurt Canada has been their inability to actually get Canadian players to play for them. they've been pretty unsuccessful with the dual-nats for various reasons. seems like they've improved recently with getting Akindele (who could have been a fringe US player) and Hoilett (finally) but Asmir Begović (Chelsea) Alain Rochat (aging but an upgrade over their NASL defense) Teal Bunbury (fringe for us, but they have a guy in India, a guy in League Two, an an unsigned guy among their forwards) Jonathan De Guzman (Napoli- 2014 WC with Netherlands, brother of a Canadian international) past: Owen Hargreaves Jacob Lensky (admittedly, he retired young due to depression, but they had lost a U23 at Utrecht before he did)
right, if the Canadian domestic issue was that much of a drag on the Canadian player, it would at least be a boon to the Canadian clubs. since Americans and Canadians count as domestic players for them, American players are basically free international signings for them (or Canadian players, if you view the MLS primary pool as the American player). yet, despite this advantage, in 18 seasons of Canadian MLS teams (Toronto - 9*, Vancouver - 5, Montreal - 4), a Canadian team has never advanced in a playoff series against an American team (Montreal's knockout win against Toronto last year being the sole playoff victory). *- admittedly, the "US as domestics rule" took effect in 2011, so Toronto was hamstrung under the old rules for its first four seasons. but still.
Good question. But the greater likelihood of earning a shirt often results in greater competition for it. They seem to lack togetherness - the cultural mosaic thing, though seemingly noble, is a main cause - heart, and belief. And I don't buy the money argument; it's a wealthy society. But it's not one to take risks. Sure, its intellectual and political classes can be progressive and innovative, but there's little tradition of prescient investment or philanthropy. I'd love to see them get it together, but I'm not holding my breath.
The implementation of 2 and 3 would provoke a rash of lawsuits. Could you imagine how La Raza or Voto Latino would react to Canadian players being deemed domestic in the US? Even MLS is too smart for that.
I honestly can't think of any succesful Canadian players now outside of Atiba Hutchinson and he plays in Turkey
I wanna see Canada in the WC but they literally don't have the players to achieve this. I wanna say Atiba Hutchinson is the best player they have. Which isn't a bad thing at all, but damn they really are floundering when they shouldn't be.
They should be floundering. They don't have the talent. They've got some young players. Cyle Larin is a real standout. There just isn't enough depth of talent. A couple of injuries and they're calling in some really marginal players. Three MLS academies, even if they're good, plus some NASL academies..................just isn't enough. They're struggling to keep up with Central America, much less the US & Mexico. And, of course they don't have "great talent." They have good talent. I don't believe Canada has called up a player from one of the "top 5 leagues" [Premier League, Ligue 1, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A] in the past calendar year. Doneil Henry is technically a West Ham player, but has never appeared in a Premier League game for them. And he's only appeared 4 times while on loan at Blackburn. I guess Scott Arfield might play for Burnley this season in the Premier League.
Just to demonstrate the talent problem, they haven't qualified for the last 4 U20 World Cup. They had a run of 4 qualifications prior to that. In those tournaments they finished 24th, 24th, 21st, and 8th..............out of 24 teams. Since 1997 they've won a grand total of two games at the U20 World Cup. Those games were against Burkina Faso and the Czech Republic. Not bad wins, but not Colombia either. The US has won 15 games at the U20 World Cup over that period.
I'm pretty sure I remember them only needing a tie from that game to advance to the Hex and eliminate Honduras in the semifinal round of qualifying. I could be mistaken with that, but I'm almost positive that a win would've automatically seen them through, at the very least. Now regardless, Honduras would've been favored to win a do-or-die game over Canada in the afternoon heat in San Pedro Sula, so the loss isn't that surprising in and of itself, but losing a game 8-1 when you're in position to advance with a tie? I still can't quite believe what a disaster that was for them.
Shrug. There was no difference between 2-1 and 8-1. Once they were behind and had to throw the kitchen sink at Honduras, it just opened them up for additional pain. I wonder what Canada's road record in WCQers over the last 5 cycles or so is. Road games in CONCACAF are challenging, even for Mexico and the US. Canada really struggles to pick up points on the road in games that matter. In 2014 qualifying they beat St. Lucia, Puerto Rico, and Cuba on the road. Didn't pick up a single point on the road against anybody reasonably good. So far in the 2018 cycle they picked up a good road point in El Salvador that could be a difference maker when it comes to advancement.
No stranger to soccer disappointment in this country, I knew how bad it was going to be in San Pedro Sula, but I still watched with a flicker of hope
On any given day Canada has the potential to beat good teams. I mean,since 1985 you guys have finished in the top 3 at the Gold Cup on 4 occasions.........including two titles. It just seems like you can't make that last hurdle from being a team that on "any given day" can beat a good team to a team that can be expected to beat good opponents regularly. As much as we whine on these boards, the USMNT does beat "good teams" quite often (for instance the USMNT just beat three teams in the FIFA top 50 at Copa America. Costa Rica, Paraguay, and Ecuador). We shrugged off a victory over Paraguay like it should be expected. Paraguay is ranked ahead of Japan and Serbia. They're not chopped liver. Hope is your downfall. Your team always plays well enough for you to have hope. Your youth teams play well enough for you to think "well maybe this next generation has something." And then...................a slap in the face.
Canada has another chance now, by the way. They're in a similar position as they were last time, but it's still a chance. If they can just get a tie on the road against Honduras on Sept. 2 (and Canada beat them 1-0 in Vancouver last November), all they have to do is get more points at home against crappy El Salvador on Sept. 6 than Honduras does at Mexico that same day. (Note: This assumes El Salvador doesn't get delusions of grandeur and beat Mexico in San Salvador on Sept. 2, making things more complicated.) If Canada loses to Honduras, though, they'll need to beat El Salvador and play some severe goal differential gymnastics to have a shot.
Ha ha...I don't even care. I guess I am rooting for them a little bit, them being the plucky underdogs and all, but I'm an American with no Canadian ties. I will admit that I can't give you a good reason why this trip to Honduras will be any different from the one four years ago for them....well, maybe they'll lose by less than seven goals. They do have the exact same chance they did four years ago, though.
I don't know. I think Honduras is worse than they are 4 years ago. They finished bottom of their group at the Gold Cup without winning a game. They lost to Haiti. Although, Honduras seems to always underperform at the Gold Cup.
In what I typed below, I treated each game in terms of 3 points for a win and 1 point for a draw even if the game was part of a two leg series. For 1998: 4 points from 7 away games (0.57 per game) In the Semifinals, they drew at Panama and won at El Salvador. Both of their games against Cuba were played in Edmonton. I'm not going to research why they didn't play in Cuba. In the Hexagonal, they lost all five away games. Their opponents were Mexico, USA, Jamaica, Costa Rica, and El Salvador. For 2002: 4 points from 4 away games (1.00 per game) Before the Semifinals, they won at Cuba. In the Semifinals, they drew at Panama, lost at Mexico, and lost at Trinidad and Tobago. For 2006: 4 points from 3 away games (1.33 per game) Before the Semifinals, both of their games against Belize were played in Kingston. In the Semifinals, they lost at Costa Rica, drew at Honduras, and won at Guatemala. For 2010: 3 points from 4 away games (0.75 per game) Before the Semifinals, they won at St. Vincent and the Grenadines. In the Semifinals, they lost at Mexico, Honduras, and Jamaica. For 2014: 10 points from 6 away games (1.67 per game) In the First Group Stage, they won at Puerto Rico, won at St. Lucia, and drew at St. Kitts and Nevis. In the Semifinals, they won at Cuba, lost at Panama, and lost at Honduras. For 2018: 5 points from 4 games (1.25 per game) In Round 2, they won at Dominica. In Round 3, they drew at Belize. In the Semifinals so far, they drew at El Salvador and lost at Mexico. That's a total of 30 points from 28 away games, which is 1.07 per game.
OTOH, if you wrote down a list in order of the most likely MLS players to play one day in a major league, how many Canadians would you pass before you hit the first American? Three?