Couldn't resist a little history. July 14, 1969 Tensions heightened by a World Cup qualifying match which saw Central American neighbours Honduras and El Salvador go to war. The army of El Salvador went into action for the first time ever on this day in 1969, crossing the border to invade neighbouring Honduras and beginning the conflict now known as ‘The Football War’. http://www.honduras.com/honduras-vs-el-salvador-football-war/
I live in Canada, and I can tell you that most people just assume Canada doesn't even have a national team. My school was obsessed with soccer, but they were pretty much all Arabs. The general public doesn't care too much.
The general public cares about the Premiership, the Three Lions, and The Tartan Army. And, indeed, most don't even know Canada has a NT.
Their hard core seem pretty committed, but that's pathetic. Historical understanding tells me that Italy command some primacy in Toronto and Montreal. Portugal even. It would help if the players felt that they were fighting on behalf of someone. I stand by what I always suspected and indeed have observed: no heart, no initiative, no guts in the collective sense, very little togetherness. But when your team is immigrant and first generation-heavy and you promote your society as a "mosaic," how much togetherness can you expect?
Yes, find it very annoying. I remember during the 2014 World Cup somebody in my match class said she's cheering for 4 teams: Brazil, Germany, Spain and Argentina. Everybody would ask me why I cheer for the USA if they probably won't win (even though most know I'm originally from Michigan).
So, in other words, they're better than you. Can I be friends with them too? And we're supposedly the victory-obsessed. They'll never understand us. Ever.
are Canadians just die hard only about hockey? I've heard they also seem to get pretty excited for lacrosse. i imagine quite a good number are also into basketball/baseball/football.
I'm not sure about the rest of Canada, but here in Ontario the NFL is very popular. I don't just mean during the Super Bowl, but for the whole season. The MLB wasn't very popular but all of a sudden when the Blue Jays made the ALCS, everybody acted like a fan. NBA is pretty popular among young people but I've noticed not very many old people are fans. Hockey of course is very popular. Lots of fans!! That was the sport I had the most media exposure growing up. But it was actually my family from Michigan that got me into the sport who are huge Red Wings. As for soccer, at one point I was one of only 3 fans at my school (middle school age). That was until I went to high school which half of the students were Arab (not an exaggeration) where many are obsessed with the sport. Of course I was pleased with that.
Another wasted opportunity for Canada.............................. What Canada really needs more than anything else is for their team to qualify for a World Cup & generate some legitimate excitement in the program. Now its gonna be 2022 at the earliest until that day comes. For all the talk about the couple of quality youngsters they're producing (Larin and company), the Central American powers, the US, and Mexico are also producing quality youngsters. Would you rather have Honduras' U23 pool or Canada's? I take Honduras' in a heartbeat, because its deeper. Larin is good, but is he Christian Pulisic good? Let's not forget that the USMNT has three Bundesliga forwards alone that weren't in the squad this past week (Johannsson at Bremen, Green at Bayern, Boyd at RB Leipzig).
Yeah, they need to have their moment like the US' 1990 cycle to jumpstart interest there. Having the three Canadian MLS teams help too.
Larin is a good MLS goalscorer, but a lot in his game doesn't translate to better leagues. He gets so many tap-ins served on a platter, and is able to take advantage of poor defending throughout the league. For Canada, where he doesn't have Kaka and bad defenders to bully, he doesn't score.
That's cause you're not in Vancouver... Canada just won't spend the money. Most of you chickens aren't old enough to remember US national team soccer pre-94 WC. Very similar to Canada's - all the raw material was there, but no unifying movement. Canada could overtake the CA squads - certain whatever team squeaks into #6 (I mean, look at TnT and Guat this go-round - two very mediocre teams, even by their standards. The problem is without a big influx of money and a big centralizing movement, any pearls that manage to get formed in the oyster beds of the foothills of Calgary or mean streets of Scarborough will likely have enough ties to get themselves a passport - and call-up - to a better country. And will certainly head abroad to develop their skills as quickly as possible. Canadian's won't care until the team starts to do something and the team won't start to do something until enough Canadians (or, less likely, Fifa) cares enough to toss them a major tournament and some money.
I feel sorry for them because I think their coach screwed them. They played aggressively and fluidly last night and scored goals and won. I get playing edefensively to protect an inferior backline. But at some point you're weakening what makes you strong. They reduced their offense to trying to bounce a lucky long ball off of Larin's head. Canada used to be top-heavy, with four or five really good players surrounded by a bunch of Scottish second-division types. Now they have a pretty solid supporting cast, at least potentially, but the star players defected to other teams. Larin will probably find the international groove in the next year or so. They have all sorts of young guys either at big club academies or looking to move there, plus the teenager Davies in Vancouver. They can build a competitive midfield core around Hoilett and Arfield. But they're going to have a find a way to build a quality backline. There are two Canada-eligible dual national defenders, 1 in Portugal and 1 at Chelsea's academy, that they could really stand getting into the fold for good. The drop in quality after that appears to be enormous. I think that's one way that Canada is like 1990s USMNT. You can find all sorts of potential in the forward and midfield ranks. But try to find a strong Canadian central defender prospect. They could also use a luckier draw. There's a pretty good chance they would be in the Hex if pulled into our group instead of with Honduras.
Actually it doesn't. How many American MLS academies are there? We'll be up 19 next season with Minnesota and Atlanta joining the league. Atlanta's already signing some of their great academy prospects like Andrew Carleton. That's not even counting the hordes of really good non-MLS academy programs in the US. How many pro clubs in Mexico and the Central American clubs have academies on par with Montreals? A ton. Canada has always had a handful of good players. They've won multiple Gold Cups. They just aren't able to generate depth with so few developmental programs. My opinion is a tough one. Not only do I not think Canada is catching the Central American powers, the US, and Mexico. I think they're falling further behind.............................. They are the 11th ranked CONCACAF nation in the FIFA rankings. And that's because they win so few games that actually matter against highly ranked opponents. Part of that is that they haven't made the hex in so long. How many games have they won in WCQing or the Gold Cup in the past 15 years against the US, Mexico, and Costa Rica? I believe they haven't beaten the US in a non-friendly since 1980. Canada never gets the "lucky draw" because they're such a lowly ranked team. They weren't in the first two pots for the draw. Canada was forced to go thru two qualifying rounds with the Caribbean/Central American minnows before they even got to this most recent group round. The draw is always going to have a chance of being tough for them until they get their act together and become one of the top 6 ranked teams in the region.
I agree, in men's soccer Canada is losing ground. No biggie. People are not too invested in it, there's more passion around the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
Oh....................and I forgot to mention: The top six seeds in the CONCACAF WCQing draw. One might note they're also the six teams that made the Hex. This is no accident. Canada will always be stuck playing two of these teams in any group they're in unless they themselves can get into the group. They could have gotten a little luckier and gotten T&T instead of Honduras. T&T away is still always a tough game, though. That's the problem. Stop whining about bad draws and do something about it. You can actually do something about it. Get your ranking up by actually beating somebody at Gold Cups.
I don't think that it does. They are essentially guest teams. Meanwhile, a wealthy nation of almost 40,000,000 people remains without a league of which to speak. In three years, of course, there will be more noise about how it's their time.