By now the story is the stuff of urban legend in Canadian soccer circles. Facing the biggest game in years and playing the first meaningful game in Toronto in a generation, the senior men’s national team was struggling to find its grove against Jamaica in the opening game of the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign.
Everyone understood that a win was vital. Yet, allegedly, when the Canadian team entered the dressing room for its halftime talk, then manager Dale Mitchell disappeared into the coach’s room without a word. There he sat for the full 15 minutes.
No adjustments. No speech. No coaching. The Canadian team was left to their own devices in the biggest international game that most had ever played.
The result was a tepid 1-1 draw that, when combined with a loss to Honduras in Montreal days later, all-but-eliminated Canada from South Africa barely after the qualifying round had started.
This story circulated around the team for the rest of the qualifying campaign. It was used as a weapon by Mitchell’s detractors in an effort to remove him as coach. It was widely suggested that those efforts were coming from inside the dressing room, which was led by a small group of senior players that did not care for how Mitchell ran the team.
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