Canada's Quest for 2014 WC

Hmm Hoilett v. Oxlade, Walcott, Young, Sterling, Lennon. Not even a contest Hoilett doesn't even make the subs bench.

 

of course, that's why i tend to agree, while everyone else over 30 is not preferable.

 

Wow! I feel really bad for Canada and Canadian soccer fans! You did not deserve that. If the team is going to lose, at least go out with a fight. To go down 8-1 in a game of that magnitude is disgusting! Honduras is NOT 8-1 better than Canada!

While not having DeRo certainly did not help matters, the fact remains that Canada generally has yet to figure out how to get points in Central American nations not named Belize or Nicaragua during qualifying. Until they do, qualifying for the World Cup remains a pipe-dream.

 

If I him, I'm not sure I would go. There's not really much left to prove for DeRo. If the Gold Cup squad is a made up of the older guys looking to make one last kick at winning a trophy, then maybe he'll go. If it's a transitional group, where a third of the team are newcomers, then he'd be better served to stay with DCU.

 

I think consistently getting 3 points at home is the more important step right now, but you're right, away matches are an issue.

If we'd have buried Honduras at home this game wouldn't have mattered. The reality is that the CSA cares only about revenue, not qualifying for the World Cup. If they cared about qualification, our home games would take place in Edmonton or Moncton, where during international breaks it can get really cold and rainy (or even snowy), there are no significant immigrant populations, and every CONCACAF team except for the US are at a massive disadvantage.

 

Thanks, mainly, to the work of the supporters groups, this was not a factor this time around. Each of the home matches was decently attended and by vastly "pro Canadian" support. Yes, in the past, it has been a problem creating a "home match" in Toronto but we seem to be moving on from that.

 

Good point, but that's only half the issue. We need to start taking advantage of the Canadian climate. Cold + nasty precipitation = more success.

 

Perhaps....I am sure that there are many factors that go into deciding where they host the matches. Revenue potential (as you pointed out) is one, another may be direct flights from places like Europe.....in a country that already seems to have difficulty attracting our own players to play for us..the last thing we need is to provide them with another excuse....this might be slightly less of an issue for Edmonton than Moncton (using the two examples you gave) but the few direct flights from Europe that Edmonton gets may be offset by the extra travel times/length.

I, honestly, don't know what all the factors are that go into the "where to play" decision but I am willing to accept that it is not as easy as we fans like to think (probably easier for me to accept that sitting where I sit...I get that too).

 

I don't know, I mean there can't be direct flights to say Columbus from Europe, where the US plays alot of matches, or even to most Central American capitals. I have my doubts that flight pattern is a true issue. It just has to be money-related.

 

like i said, just one of the factors....that said, I don't think the US has the same difficulty convincing their own players to play for them...they even attract players from other countries (*cough*burnberry*cough*)

 

they probably would if they had grass fields there

 

Personally, I think they should be a travelling road show playing matches all over the country.....but, my personal opinion aside, I can see why it is not as simple as saying "they should do 'X' ".

Vancouver is a long trip from a lot of places and would factor into that "convincing our own 'stars' to play for us" thingy.....in both of those cities they would have to negotiate the use of the stadium...while in Toronto they have some contractual rights/obligations (not exactly sure what those are) on BMO.

To be clear, I am not arguing against the notion of playing all over the country.....I just understand that, as with a lot of things, it is probably not as "easy" as we fans seem to think it is.

I think, for example, one of the things they tried to do in this round of qualifying is treat the matches as a series of games....build some momentum and get a co-ordinated effort going to boost, pro-Canadian, attendance.......of all the things that did go wrong in the 2014 qualifying...this was not one of them....hard to argue that they were not successful in this area. (aided by a very strong supporters group movement/effort).

 

Just got "warned" by a moderator in the Columbus Crew forum for sticking up for our MLS teams and explaining our national team issues. This after some self-righteous prick suggest that all of our MLS teams should be moved to the United States, because MLS isn't working in Canada because we lost 8-1.

My post was of course received by the typical "South Park" behaviour, "Canada Sucks" and the typical American ignorance that just because we have MLS teams, we should have a sick National team, even though 2 of them are less than 2 years old, and one of them has been broken since its inception.

Just a heads up, don't talk about Canada in another forum. Apparently we don't deserve soccer/football here anymore after losing 8-1.

If that's the case, I guess the U.S. should've lost any right to compete in 1948 when they got torched 11-0 by the Norwegians, the football powerhouse that they are.

 

It really is too early for MLS to have a signficant impact on our national team. The real positive sign, though, is that all 3 Canadian based MLS teams seem serious about academies and developing home grown players.

This will not only be a positive for their own purposes (cheaper players with less cap hit) but also for the game in this country as a whole.

 

The reaction from the media thus far seems to be encouraging people to go out and get their coaching licenses so we don't have soccer mom's teaching our kids to play. Generally a good reaction but not enough.

Has Hart even addressed the media since arriving in Canada? You would think that would be a priority.

How do people here feel about recruiting foreign players playing for Canadian MLS teams to play for our national team. It's fairly common knowledge that any Brazilian not playing in La Liga, England or a BIG league isn't going to ever get called up to their national team, meanwhile these players end up playing for other countries national teams very willingly.

That being said, two names: Felipe Martins and Camilo. Thoughts?

 

The Crew forum really isn't worth visiting. They don't discuss things there, they just engage in a Crew lovefest/everyone else hatefest. Which is too bad, but there it is.

Getting back to Canada, I think the article from Jason deVos was right on in stating that our fundamental problem is the talent pool. In this regard, we need two things:

1. A higher level of talent. We need someone like DeRo to be average, not our team's all time best scorer. This is not a slam on DeRo - he's great - but we need more talent. This, in turn, comes from...

2. A larger pool of talent. Picking national team soccer players in Canada is like picking national team hockey players in a country like Germany. Yes, there are a lot of people who play the sport but there are precious few at the highest levels. You're lucky if you actually have to make a decision about who to start in a particular position.

I don't claim to know how we get from here to there but I believe that there is where we need to get to.

 

Thanks for the heads up. I should've known that not only is Colombus the armpit of America, but their Crew forum is the armpit of bigsoccer.

 

I did some investigating a little while ago (which I posted on another thread) to see what the impact of MLS was on the US team and what impact we might therefore hope to see on our national team now that we have MLS squads of our own.

To summarize, in the 1998 WC (two years after MLS started play) most of the US squad was made up of players playing in MLS. By the 2010 WC, all but four of the US team players had played in MLS to start their careers but only four were still in MLS; the rest had all graduated to higher leagues. The 2002 and 2006 US WC squads were in between. So it took the US about twelve years to really see the full benefit of their MLS teams (although obviously some benefits started earlier).

If Canada follows a similar path, we should see a noticeable benefit in time for the 2018 WCQ and full benefits in time for 2022.

 

Really, Really, Really, great post.

Hopefully, we can add more MLS teams like Edmonton and Ottawa once their 2nd division teams get going. They also had a breadth of MLS teams, I don't think 3 is enough.

 

I doubt that there will ever be more than 3 MLS teams in our home and native land.

That said, I would really see some benefit if the overall growth of the game leads to the sort of interest levels that can make a few more NASL teams viable. Ottawa is on the way....perhaps the TiCats owner is serious about Hamilton.

Some rich guy in Calgary might see the need/benefit/joy of competing with Edmonton.

Others? QC? Moncton? Victoria? Perhaps.....then there are lots of places for Canadians to play...almost an internal pyramid forming and a more meaningful Canadian Championship too.

 

Yep.

We don't have a lot of MLS sized markets (by my count 3) but it is not hard to envision a "Canadian Divsion" in NASL.