He'd definitely be a massive upgrade. Canada don't possess any other players good enough to play in the BPL right now, and although Blackburn were relegated and he's moving on (most likely to the Bundesliga), Hoilett would be a huge asset in attack for a team that is pretty inept at finishing. Getting him and Jonathon De Guzman would be huge.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.........Simeon Jackson wonders whether Norwich is a premier league team Personally, I think DeRosario could play there also. Canada's issue right now isn't that they don't have some good players. They do. They just don't have the depth to compete consistently for qualification to important events. One or two injuries to key players and they're toast. Particularly to attacking players. You're starting these guys like Tosaint Ricketts from the Romanian second division at the moment. Just not good enough. Hoilett and De Guzman would definitely help............but I'm not sure if they'd help enough. And they better make up their damn minds pronto, as qualification is about to start.
Totally forgot about Jackson, most likely because he didn't play a whole lot this season. He plays well for Canada, but doesn't really have the size to function as a lone out and out striker who can play with his back to the goal. And I totally agree about the depth issue. The talent pool isn't deep enough to play a lot of friendlies because the same players become exhausted. That was the reason given for why we only played one warm up game before starting this round of WC qualifying. The fear was that we'd overuse our important players, and that they'd be fatigued for the important games. Although that might be true for some of the older players in the squad, I still believe getting our guys on the field together in a competitive environment is key to building team chemistry. As we saw on Sunday, it took us about 15 minutes to even get a hold of the ball, and once we settled into the game, there was no chemistry in the attacking third and we ultimately wasted a handful of solid scoring chances.
There's no doubt about that. Part of Canada's problem right now is that they play so few matches. Then they underperform in important matches (such as at the 2011 Gold Cup) due to a lack of chemistry, cohesiveness, preparation, etc. And that leads to a depressed FIFA ranking. And that leads to them being put in lower "pots" when the draw for World Cup qualifying comes around. In 2010 that meant they were in Pot C with Haiti, Cuba, Guyana, and company. {which of course meant that you were put into a semfinal group with teams from Pots A and B.........which meant you were in a group with Mexico and Honduras}. In 2014 it meant you had a bye to only the 2nd round (unlike the US in the 3rd round). Then once you made it thru that 2nd round against Caribbean trash, you were once again in Pot 3 for the semi draw. So once again you were drawn with teams from the first 2 pots. [You lucked out this particular time, but your draw could easily have been Mexico, Costa Rica from those pots.] Cuba made it into Pot 2, for Christ's sake. That's where Canada should be. People say FIFA rankings aren't important. But in cases like this, they are. How do you get your FIFA ranking up? Play some freakin' matches. Actually prepare for important tournaments, etc.
I couldn't agree more with all of this. They need to play regular matches whenever international friendly games are allowed, and they need to host training camps at least twice a year to develop their younger talent and create chemistry between the players they plan on using in important matches. Until that starts to happen, they're going to remain a 3rd rate CONCACAF team who will continue to be put up against it by having to play more difficult opponents than if they were ranked slightly higher.
What's sad about it all is it has nothing to do with the talent of the players. The competence of the CSA has fallen well behind the ambition of the players. Don't you think it's part of the reason players like Hoilett hesitate on commiting to your program? You can count the number of US-eligible (and worthy) players that end up representing other national teams on one hand (Rossi, Subotic, etc.). Despite our never-ending hand-wrining, the US has a damn good "retention rate." With Canada it seems like there's a yearly procession of players that don't end up playing for you. For instance, there was no reason for Canada to lose Teal Bunbury. If a guy's father is in the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame and he's played for your U17's and U20's...................there's no possible way you should lose him to the US. Don't you think that boils down to the incompetence of the CSA?
My whole argument is that Soccer Canada is entirely to blame. They lack funding, don't schedule enough games and never host any training camps. It's a dysfunctional organization (like so many in Canada) that has next to no idea what it's doing. Based on the info above about Canada's performance over the previous 20 years, it's obvious Soccer Canada is clueless. The formulas are broken down for everyone to see, yet they choose to ignore the facts about having to play friendlies to boost its FIFA ranking and it ends up costing us in international tournaments by way of overly difficult draws. Soccer Canada needs a total overhaul from top to bottom in the way they manage their Senior team all the way down to the grass roots level. Unfortunately that's probably not going to happen.
A couple of issues. They have some good players (and have always had a few good players at least as far back as the 90's), but not everywhere, and more to the point, no depth. Worse, most of their best players are in the attacking phase, and that's where they always seem to totally lack any form of cohesion, so they're almost wasted. Canada never seems to move as a team, their attack seems to always go something like this: get it to Jackson, or Simpson, or DeRo, and... cheer for him. Adding Hoilett I think would be another case of just one more slightly higher quality guy to get isolated and have to try to beat a bunch of defenders all on his own.
Absolutely. I'm hoping for a sea of red and white with the odd splattering of blue. Followed by a win for CAN.
The Canadian team has always had very low mental stamina. Many teams are like that, once they go behind, they just give up. After the second Honduras goal, they just stopped trying. It was over. Same with Scotland. They're another team that, so far they keep it 0-0, they can beat anyone. But as soon as they go behind, it's over for them. The USA is the opposite. Conceding all those early goals had given the team a solid mental stamina, capable of coming back and getting results after being totally outplayed for the first half hour.
I think Canada's future is actually pretty promising. They seem to have some decent talent arising. It's just all under 24. So right now, they're getting beaten pretty badly.
Yeah it's been a vicious circle: people don't care about Team Canada because they never win, so the new guys also grow up caring more for England, Bosnia, Netherlands, USA, Jamaica, Switzerland, Czech Republic, etc. and become players for those countries, which in turn means Team Canada keeps sucking and no one cares about them. The new generation is trying to break that cycle and remain loyal to Canada, like that guy John Dollery. http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...rn-uk-raised-dollery-wants-be-anti-hargreaves
with mls and nasl there is room to improve canadian football. many canadian players have a fair chance to compete , now, at high level. Without MLS and NASL it would be a disaster. it is better for the usa th have a good canadian side to improve competition in Concacaf. however it seems to me highly unlikely that canada will achieve, in a sustainable basis, the level of the usa because the interest in the game and the very very impressive development of american teams and national selection got the USA to a upper level- a level high enough to start competing to any other team for spots in quarter finals, at least, in every WC from now on. Not forgetting the almost endless pool of players the USA can have, and the general big improvement in management we see right now in US football.