On June 11, the 2010 World Cup of soccer will kick-off in South Africa. The tournament will feature the best 32 countries in the world vying to unseat Italy as the World Cup champions.
Every time the World Cup rolls around, I am faced with a familiar quandry. Who do I cheer for? Being of Norwegian, English and Danish descent, I usually have my choice of one or two of these countries to claim as my 'own' for the duration of the World Cup. The nature of the World Cup is that it is a true 'worldwide' tournament, however it becomes difficult to be completely invested in the outcome when the country of my birth is NEVER involved.
This shouldn't be the case. Population rates and the participation levels of youth in soccer dictate that Canada should be regularly in the mix for a World Cup spot.
With almost three million people playing soccer every year in Canada, the excuse for mediocrity should be generally thrown out the window. The pool of potential soccer players to draw from is enormous and, at the very least, comparable to other competitive countries.
The amount of registered players in Canada represents almost half the population of countries like Honduras and Serbia, both of whom will be playing in South Africa. Even impoverished countries like North Korea can somehow scrape together a World Cup qualifier, so why can't Canada?
In fact, in the 2010 FIFA World rankings of men's soccer teams, Canada ranked below such world powers as Macedonia, Burkina Faso and Lithuania.
Canada has been to one World Cup, in 1986, and failed to score a goal during the round-robin play. Since the eighties, we haven't again come close. In the meantime, Canada has been a relative world power in hockey, representing themselves well in a large number of international tournaments.
"Well, Canada is a hockey country" is the predictable response. Unfortunately the numbers do not bear that out. The number of registered hockey players in Canada (approx. 400,000) is an impressive number until you consider that the registered soccer players in this country are just about double that (approx. 800,000).
Soccer has been trending upwards in popularity since Canada's World Cup appearance. The fact that even hockey is a distant second to the 'beautiful game', in terms of participants, speaks volumes to how popular soccer is becoming.
It is happening all around us. Major League Soccer, the foremost soccer league in North America, has expanded into Canada and they aren't stopping now.
Already with a club in Toronto (Toronto F.C.) the MLS recently announced that they will absorb club teams from Vancouver and Montreal into their league as well. Without a base in popularity, this type of massive franchise expansion wouldn't be possible.
If soccer fans in the country are coming out of the woodwork and soccer players outnumber our ice hockey heroes, then why can't we field a National team as competitive as one from North Korea?
The answer is pretty clear. Sports organizations are dependent on strong leadership and adherence to a mission statement in order to thrive. Look no further than the Canadian Olympic team and their "Own the Podium" goal that resulted in a record number of gold medals for our country.
Canada needs an "Own the Podium" initiative for our soccer program. Why not 'World Cup in 2018' or something along those lines? It is a disservice to the elite soccer players in our country that they have to go to places like England and Germany to compete in the World Cup (see: Owen Hargreaves).
Canada has never been ranked higher than 40th in the FIFA World rankings. With all due respect to the existing top 40, that is a joke.
There have been several strides made in the growth of the Women's game, club teams and the overall level of play. The time has come to either strive for better or acknowledge that the National teams in our country are a wasted resource.
I do hope that one day I will be watching the World Cup with pride, decked out in my red and white gear. How-ever, it won't happen until someone takes a firm stance in this country and is willing to allocate leadership and resources to the cause.
The Vancouver 2010 Olympics taught Canadians that it is okay to be proud of your country and that it isn't a bad thing to want to win.
I?wonder if our soccer program was paying attention.
