"Congrats! We're where we were twenty years ago!"
Let me hit you with this. Suppose that none of the things we say are good for Canadian soccer actually are.
In recent weeks, the Canadian men’s U-23 team beat their American counterparts 2-0 for the first time since we burned down the White House (good for Canadian soccer!). Toronto FC is the second Canadian team in four years to etch a maple leaf into CONCACAF in lines of fire (good for Canadian soccer!). The Vancouver and Toronto academies have each contributed a couple players to that U-23 effort, while the Montreal Impact academy… erm, also exists (good for Canadian soccer!). Going back further, Canada made a respectable showing in the group stages of the U-17 World Cup, where Quillan Roberts made himself a YouTube sensation.
What we celebrate are such minor milestones that, to a jaded eye, they’re almost laughable. Canada’s U-23 team won a game against a team that subsequently blew it against El Salvador and finished third in their group. Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal produce useful players, but bragging about three academies in a country of over 33 million people (plus FC Edmonton’s nascent and limited residency efforts) just makes us look like more of a joke.
Enjoy such little triumphs while they’re happening, but don’t wave one around the next day. If there were any justice in the world we wouldn’t even be counting them as achievements. Canada’s qualified for Olympics and U-17 World Cups; there have been fewer good Champions League runs but that’s only because we just recently became eligible. Back in the NASL days, our teams produced good Canadian players. Should we delight in duplicating the successes of the past, a past in which we were also a pretty crappy soccer country? “Congratulations, Canada! We’re where we were twenty years ago! We have not passed ‘Go’ and we have most certainly not collected $200! Bring me a gushing 1,500-word article on our genius!”
Of course, beating a more-hapless-than-usual American team is better than losing, and I’d rather have one professional academy per 11 million Canadians than zero. So I suppose these things are all good for Canadian soccer in the same sense as Andre Hainault making a clearance off the line for Houston. But that’s not what people usually mean with these delusions that our little half-measures are in some way going to make all the difference. We shouldn’t celebrate them any more than we’d celebrate painting one wall of a crack den.
Everyone says “we have much more work to do” at times like this but it’s blurred out by the triumphalism over small achievements and events with no long-term impact. Then there’s shock when in spite of all these glorious events, we fail to improve in any meaningful sense.
You want a highlight for Canadian soccer? The American soccer development model to which we’ve hitched our second-hand wagon has failed to qualify for the Olympics not long after failing to qualify for the U-20 World Cup. Domestically-produced American youth are falling, not rising, on the world stage and Canada is sparing no effort to join them. Not unrelatedly, former FC Tampa Bay midfielder and Canadian U-23 pool member Mozzi Gyorio recently turned down a contract from Sporting Kansas City because they wanted to put him on MLS’s risible developmental scale. He could make more money selling washing machines than he could playing at our nation’s highest level, so he’s holding out for either a better offer or another opportunity. No number of U-23 draws to Cuba makes up for players settling for a lower level because our highest is broken.
Real milestones shake the country to its foundations; they don’t become meaningless six months after they happen. Three teams in MLS, with their every game broadcast around the country? That’s big. One game never is. The Montreal Impact packed Olympic Stadium to see Santos Laguna, then sold about as many season tickets as the year before. Toronto FC packed Rogers Centre to see the Los Angeles Galaxy but drew less interest for the bigger semi-final match. Canadian academies bring in players who are already halfway through their youth soccer careers and offer them their choice of barely enough money to live on, traveling North America in desperate hope (in a system where Canadians are officially discriminated against by 16 of 19 first division teams), or getting a real job. That’s not something to celebrate, that’s something to cringe at and improve on!
By all means, fans of Toronto FC, enjoy your team’s good run and if you win party until you can’t see straight. If Canada’s U-23 team beats Mexico on Saturday I’m liable to wake up in a dumpster with Russell Teibert’s name tattooed on my face. But unless it leads to something more sustained and long-term than a hangover, it’s not a great moment for anybody but you.
Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever been taunted like this by a Canadian outside of hockey. Unfortunately I can’t even say anything back since the American team wet themselves at first opportunity.
I think the cause for optimism now revolves more around the sustainability that is currently washing through NA soccer. Pretty much since it seems like the MLS is doing well, and that it is built on a sustainable financial system – the same fate the befell the other professional NA soccer leagues, and the demise of the Canadian academy and professional system as a result of it, does not seem like it is going to repeat itself.
If you want to say we are happy to be back where we were, we at least now have the benefit of being here, learning from our problems, and taking the necessary steps at the academy level to try and sustain our level of competition. So it may be back to where we were, but we are better prepared for the conditions that could lead to our fall again
Agree with the poster above. I’m also not sure people consider beating the US a “milestone” it’s just nice to celebrate something considering the amount of heart break that surrounds the program. I guess some people go overboard with their praise but I don’t get the impression people think we’re suddenly in an great place, everyone knows there’s still work to do.
Maybe I’m missing the point of this article, it just feels like it’s raining on the parade of the little bit of positivity involving Canadian soccer….which is what every Canadian soccer fan does to themselves anyways the other 363 days a year the U-23 team doesn’t beat the US or TFC doesn’t tie a Mexican team.
The point of this article: to troll. I really hope the Score isn’t paying him for this.
“Trolling” is a hard accusation. When I troll, you’ll know it. (Dead giveaway: if I refer to “the Toronto FCs”, I’m trolling.)
The fact is, fans and pundits have been shouting “what a moment!” every time we’ve done anything for the past five years. I linked a few examples in the article. It’s honestly getting rather tiresome, and it’s distracting from the fact that we’re actually still a horrorshow.
I repeat, almost to the point that it becomes tiresome, that you are welcome to celebrate your triumphs. But let’s keep a level head and stop talking about “great moments for Canadian soccer” rather than alternate between joy and despair; the latter does nobody any good.
Yeah, how dare writers get paid for their work. That would be ridiculous.
And as someone who’s followed Ben’s work for years, let me corroborate: If he were trolling, we’d all know.
If you don’t have anything interesting to contribute, just say something against the trend! (coincidence is not lost on me).
In reality, people serious about Canadian soccer are happy about steps are being taken in the ‘right direction’. They are not clamouring at an overnight revolution. The phrase is ‘good for Canadian soccer’, not “tomorrow the World Cup Final!”. You could say ‘we are where we were in 1970s’, realizing that the world of football has moved on since the 1970s as well… thus making comparing today’s good steps to yesterday’s a more complex exercise in relativity.
I’ve spent the past few months following Argentine football and the question usually comes up “what is Canada’s sport? And how is the football? Not very big, no?”. Being able to say that two matches in the span of a week drew 49 000 and 59 000 respectively is received here as “oh things are changing then”. I don’t think an Argentine, who knows nothing about Canadian soccer beyond the 5-nil trouncing before the last world cup, is being patronizing nor delusional about the change that has happened and the potentials that brings.
Reign in the the unpragmatic optimism that doesn’t recognize the significant challenges and hard work that lay ahead – sure – but such a critical perspective on what is “good for Canadian soccer” should be constructive. Just to tear into people for one’s misreading of their optimism does not push the debate in a useful direction. People are optimistic about relatively small gains in Canadian soccer because Canadian soccer is a troubled child. Soccer is this country does need nurturing, care, effort, and from time to time basking in moments of success that make overcoming such difficulties worth while.
But isn’t “awww look at the adorable little soccer team, that’s such a good job!” a fundamentally unserious viewpoint?
I don’t think Canadian soccer needs to buck up its self-esteem; on the contrary, there are too many people in this country who have too high an opinion of their own talents as administrators. We need constant, long-term honesty with ourselves.
Then write about those people, instead of the thousands on the sidelines who have genuine and reasonable optimism that they will be able to watch soccer in this country with thousands of other people, instead of in their basement or in the pub with 3 other drunks.
You are going after the wrong people, the wrong expression, and if your goal is to put a pragmatic realism into the perspective of soccer in canada then you should be writing about a different topic.
How can we build on our successes if we don’t view them as successes, only isolated events? I don’t think anyone seriously views beating the US Olympic team or tying a mexican league team as the final peice to the puzzle – but at the same time its a stride we have not made for quite some time and it deserves some form of celebration, especially when taken in conjunction with all of the other “significant” victories you mentioned above (such as 3 professional teams televisied nationally).
Isn’t it better to celebrate our victories, to pressume that we are actually accomplishing something rather than simply take the pessimistic approach that no matter what we do there is always more to accomplish? How can we celebrate the strides we make without it coming off as “bucking our self esteem?” It may seem like minor victories, but when you take them in conjunction it speaks to a larger trend doesn’t it?
Nail on the head Ben. Soccer in this country is dominated by a Cult of Impotence that permeates every segment – adminstrators, supporters, coaches and even the players. And when you are impotent, the slightest twitch seems a big deal.
It’s funny how hypocritical this article is.
Being critical of those who are over-celebrating small successes. While at the same time the entire article is brings an amplitude of over-negativity way beyond what this relatively small issue warrants.
Even the title is ridiculous. No phrase is more debased?? Really? I can think of some. How about the phrase “America is the greatest force for good in the world”. Or “American soldiers in Iraq are fighting every day for the freedom of American citizens”..there’s two!
It’s all very illogical. What are we supposed to do? Shut our mouths until we are in the World Cup Finals?! We have to celebrate the small yet positive steps in the right direction. I dont think we are “dillusional”. We know where Canada stants, but we also know what our potential is. In any case, I do hope you write positive articles as well, because what is sport good for if it cant lift spirits that need lifting, entertain the masses, and give them hope.
Man, way to bring politics into soccer and ruin the whole thing! And the way you mis-spelled “delusional” in quotation marks had me worried I’d mis-spelled it for a second there!
Passive aggressively going after commenters spelling mistakes? For shame Mr. Massey, for shame.
Politics and soccer go hand in hand. Similar in many ways. And thanks for the spelling correction..I chalk it up to just coming off a 24 hour work shift. In any case, I hope you see that my reasoning is sound.
As for the others who are calling you a troll, I wouldnt go that far, but I do definitely think you are being quite sensationalist with this article. As a follower of The Score, and the Footy Show and Footy Blog, I think this type of article is unnecessary and quite frankly unworthy of patronage from fans of The Footy Blog/Show.