Including his move to North America, his work as a youth coach, Toronto FC and the development of the Canadian national team. http://underthecoshblog.com/2016/02/11/danny-dichio-goes-under-the-cosh-interview/ On the Canadian national team “I really think in ten years time you’re going to see a very strong Canadian team that will be competing with the likes of the US and even Mexico”
Dichio is a funny one to me. He's been involved with the TFC academy for how long, since the start or close to it?And what is his development record there? I realize academies are expanding now, but it seems like he's always been untouchable at TFC. As for his prediction of competing with the U.S and Mexico, I'd love for that to happen, but I'm not sure what currently gives him that confidence.
I think it depends on what is meant by "competing with". If it means to be on par with them then that's pretty pie in the sky. If it means providing them with solid competition on a game by game basis, where there is a realistic chance that we could actually beat them, then that's a very real possibility.
Probably the steep upwards trajectory that the NT talent pool is on. Like Polygong, I don't think we'll quite catch up to Mexico and the US in ten years. I do expect we'll regularly be taking points off them both, though, especially at home. The question I find interesting is where we will be in CONCACAF by that time. I fully expect us to be in the top handful of nations. The question will be whether we will still be fighting for the third World Cup berth with the likes of Costa Rica or whether we'll turn CONCACAF from a "big two" to a "big three" confederation. I suspect that, even if we do make it a "big three" that won't become obvious until we can look back from a bit more than a ten year window.
I don't think that we'll ever become the ipso facto #3 in CONCACAF. I do expect that we will become an ipso facto top 6. We'll likely get to a point where we'll make the World Cup 1-2 out of every three tries, and make the hex pretty much every time.
The Vancouver Whitecaps former academy director from Holland was asked how long it would take Canada to become the 3rd strongest Concacaf nation that will always qualify for the World Cup if we had our own league, he said ten years. I'm not sure what kind of large upward trajectory we're on right now. Dichio's academy kids still dont get any playing time with TFC. Sure, we have a lot of USL players but that won't help with the CMNT. Without a league, we won't improve. With a league, teams like Costa Rica and Panama will still be hard to beat.
The one we can see by examining the NT's recent performance. Over 50 different players suited up for Canada in the last year. That is unheard of for our NT talent pool. The NT is winning games and hanging in games against better and better opponents. Not that we're suddenly the kings of CONCACAF but we're climbing quickly. As a net indicator (and a lagging indicator) look at our FIFA ranking. We've gone from 112th in 2014 to 85th today. Finally, yes, TFC's youth are underrepresented on the NT at the moment (although five of them have played in the last year, not counting Doneil Henry). That doesn't make Dichio's comment any less accurate nor does it mitigate the large and still increasing role all three MLS teams are playing in sending talent to the NT. I'd say its pretty hard to argue we aren't heading upwards right now.