It wasn’t as dramatic as Canada’s mens national team losing 8-1 in Honduras in World Cup qualifying last October, but the recent failure of the Canadian men’s U20 side to advance to the World Cup in Turkey should cause fans as much concern as the disaster in San Pedro Sula.
It’s possible to look at the 8-1 loss and blame it on the mistakes of the past. The current group of senior national team players is a reflection of where Canadian soccer was 10 to 15 years ago, not where it is today. There have been changes at the Canadian Soccer Association and there do seem to be some positive signs.
However, that argument can’t be made about the U20s. Built from a core of players that did go to a World Cup as U17s two years ago, much was expected from this group. Instead, they limped home with a tepid 1-2 record.
Against Cuba the Canadians were out-muscled, and they played scared. Against the United States they were defeated in all aspects of the game.
Most troubling, this was a team that played without spirit and direction. There were rumblings about discontent in the camp and no one seemed all that broken up by the fact that they weren’t going to Turkey for the World Cup.
Losing is pro forma for Canada. The country is in danger of slipping even further into soccer irrelevancy.
What’s especially frustrating about the U20 capitulation is that this cycle of players was supposed to represent Canada’s new, professional approach. The majority of the players came through the MLS academies of Toronto FC and the Vancouver Whitecaps. Having those environments in place is supposed to streamline the talent identification and it’s supposed to speed up the development of the players.
There is limited evidence that the latter is happening and the former point remains as politicized as ever.
Limiting the conversation to Ontario, it doesn’t take much searching to find someone in the Toronto soccer community eager to bash the TFC academy. The complaints made about TFCA hardly matter. What’s important to understand is that there is a reluctance to view TFCA as the legitimate top of the pyramid in Ontario, despite the urging of governing bodies.
The result of that reluctance is TFCA not getting the best of the best. Rather, because of its free-to-play philosophy, it’s getting the best players that can’t afford private academies. If ever there was an argument for the desperate need for elite development leagues in the county’s biggest markets it’s right here.
Since the professional academies have replaced the provincial teams as the main gateway to the national teams, we are still stuck in a damaging cycle where it’s unclear whether the best players are getting fair looks from the national team.
Politics, as ever, remains a destructive force in Canadian soccer.
The professional academies aren’t innocent here either. There are legitimate things they could do to improve the relationship they have with other clubs and academies that, in theory anyway, should be feeding into them. However, there remains a disconnect between the two sides.
There needs to come a time when everyone involved in the game puts aside their personal agendas to find a way forward. As much as clubs and academies might have a legitimate gripe with TFCA, for instance, it will never be solved by passive aggressive whisper campaigns.
A good way to start a positive dialogue would be for stakeholders to actually stick their neck out and speak on record about their concerns. As it is now, it’s hard to separate legitimate grievance, from bitter jealousy.
Canadian soccer has come a long way in the last seven years. However, it’s going to take a lot more work if it is to fully dig itself out of the mess it created over decades of infighting and pettiness.
A good way to start that healing would be to move away from its bitter past.
What Canadian youth soccer needs in addition to moving past its traditional pettiness is a willingness to open up the system to true, open competition among soccer organizations that seek to exist in the high performance space.
Let’s not designate an MLS Academy as top of the development period just because they have money, facilities and programs that are free of charge. Those are undoubtedly massive advantages but they don’t guarantee that the best players will emerge from those academies because there is a lot more that goes into player development.
Let the product on the field determine which groups are the best player developers in this province or in this country. Set tough standards, make them clear and transparent to everyone and then let groups seek to strive to exist at the top of the pyramid and demand accountability from them. Just meeting standards cannot be enough. Demand results if they want to remain at the top tier. Accountability is critical.
I really doubt a year and a half of development after the U17 World Cup lead us to be worse than Cuba and that the academies were the main reason for our failure. It was Dasovic’s poor tactics.
I agree with Doug here. in thh USA game, Canada looked timid and uninspired. they seem to be content allowing the Americans to run up and down the wings and control the midfield. This was clearly poor coaching and poor football philosophy. At this age the kids should be encouraged to create and attack; this forward thinking is what makes young players into good footballers; otherwise you’re left with a team of ’4th line griders’ and that might get you results in hockey but not football
The u20s are a jumping off point, not the focus of the story.
Shouldn’t there be a story about what JDG put on instagram in here as well
That too hurts the Canadian academy system.
Duane Trollins isn’t all that clever Prizby.
Get a new hobby.
The Candaian clubs should be in their own domestic league called the Canadain Premier League with 10 Soccer Clubs to boslter their national team (with youth acadmies) and international competition alas Gold Cup and Concacaf CL. This may be extreme at first but in the long run benefits everyone (mostly Canada of course) and not to mention add 3 more addition spots for expansion in the States. Orlando, St. Louis Phoenix etc..