Who is Canada going to get whose better than Herdman? If Carlo Ancelotti is actually interested, go get him, but otherwise it's going to be hard to do better than Herdman. Canada pays him about 700k and going to be difficult to attract an international coach if that's what you're offering. And how much of the MLS coaching pool would jump at the Canada job? I'd think about Hugo Perez if I were Canada, but I think they roll with Herdman for one more cycle.
Canada surprised me during qualifying so I tip my cap to them. But in the World Cup they just fell flat and looked like the real Canada I was expecting.
Morocco had 10/11 starters vs Canada today playing in top 5 leagues. Canada has a few "tier 1" players. Enough for Concacaf qualifying. Not enough to win at the world cup. The goal now is to expand the player pool and get players playing in higher leagues. Remember, this group qualified for the World Cup in spite of the CSA and the lack of a development structure in place in Canada, not because of it.
TBH CAN qualified for WC because EVERY other CONCACAF team sucked badly this cycle. Expanding HEX to OCTO probably helped them as well (that CONCACAF President bozo worked very hard from the day one to get his team into WC). They were completely overrated due to winning CONCACAF WCQ, displayed what you would expect from any 4th tier team at WC - a lot of efforts, energy, a lot of desire, and 0 points in the end. BTW IIRC they matched a record of another world beater - El Salvador - in playing 6 games at WC and losing all of them.
It would have been interesting to see if COVID did not occur how it all would have panned out. A home-away playoff against Costa Rica or Panama (or whomever) would have been close and unpredictable.
The Mounties had a strong 2022 cycle and can hold their heads high. But just a little bit more composure could have helped in this WC. The players seemed to get lost in the moment. Canada, the players and the federation, now have the institutional memory of what it takes to compete in a World Cup. That will be something to build on.
The bigger point is the US wouldn't have been in this group. As flawed as they are, this is why the Fifa rankings matter so much. The U.S were a "pot 2 team" If the U.S. was in this group it would be Belgium, U.S Morocco and a pot 4 team.( I don't think it could be Canada because they are the same region) Canada's run up to the world cup was very impressive and I'm not here to defend the ranking or how they do the seeding, but the point is until they have a sustained run of success that gets their ranking in the top 16 they will continue to draw really difficult groups. You could even argue they had an easier group than they should since Belgium is currently ranked #2 in the world and that has been shown to be a bit of a mirage. Apologies in advance since I'm sure this has been talked about earlier. Jumping into the thread late.
I think Croatia and Morocco have been two of the best teams in the world cup. I have my doubts about anyone in Concacaf beating them. Time will tell how far they go.
I was tempted to play the "told you so" card now that Canada have crashed out, but if you take a step back, this was a historic cycle for them and hopefully the start of a new era for their NT setup. They played well against Belgium, scored their first WC goal in history, and generally looked like a threatening opponent. Those are positives they can build on. I don't think Morocco are real contenders, but they were absolutely underrated going into the tournament. They have probably the best duo of wing backs in the whole field, and Ziyech on his day can play at a world class level. This was a very tough group where there simply wasn't an easy match to be found anywhere. Realistically, Canada had one foot out the door when they couldn't get anything out of that Belgium game, where they were arguably the better side.
Hey, we are not talking about some crappy CONCACAF minnows like USA/MEX/CRC who struggled to qualify for WC, we are talking about best team in CONCACAF WCQ.
Canada played great in that first game and received one of the hardest @SS rapings from the officials that I have ever seen in a WC. Two stone cold penalties not called. Had they got that deserved win, things may have unfolded differently. At a minimum they come home with 3 points, a respectable showing.
CAN played Belgium National Senior Citizens team in their 1st game. When fit young man beats 70 years old grandpa in 100 yards dash, would you call it an achievement? No, we would call it elderly abuse.
Love to see Canada fail after their arrogant fans were spiking the football based on one good round of CONCACAF qualifying in 25 years.
Morocco has looked better than anticipated and Croatia looked very good against Canada and not as good against Belgium, but I still don’t think they rise to the level of two of the best teams in the tournament. That’s still teams like Brazil, France, and England.