On Tuesday afternoon in Honduras Canada's Mens National Soccer Team played what was the most important game of its modern history. With a spot in the third and final round of qualifying also known as "The Hex" or "Hexagonal Qualifying Round" on the line, Canada was playing what was hyped as a pivotal match in growing the sport. Some of you will know what happened by the time you read this on Thursday, but Canada didn't just lose a game it needed to draw to advance, it absolutely embarrassed and set back Canada's soccer program with an 8-1 drubbing that is a hard pill to swallow for many CMNT supporters.
For a team that has built its identity all campaign long on it's backline and hard defensive midfield play, to get trounced in such a fashion is appalling and brings forth the question once again if Canada will ever even come close to qualifying for a World Cup if every four years when the qualifying stage comes around Canada loses out before the real big qualifying games even begin, how is this program realistically going to grow.
Going into the game I had the bad feeling that Canada was set for a downfall, the typical signs were all there. Central American environment with a national holiday mid-afternoon start time to mess with the Canadians fatigue? Check. Dubious red card given to key Canadian player in the previous game? Check. Mention of every single damn eligible player that would rather weigh out their options with other countries before committing to Canada. Double check.
It was the same old story for Canada, with just a few more eyeballs and some petty feel good pats on the backs from national media outlets for "embracing the world's game" with third page write ups in their sports sections going into the game that follow the same Canada soccer narrative. How this game is "the biggest game in Canadian soccer history" and how if they advance their EPL starlets Jonathan De Guzman and Junior Hoilett will give up their dreams of playing for the Dutch/England and begrudgingly attempt to use Canada to get into the World Cup.
Here is where the identity crisis comes in. We should be past this point already as a soccer nation, but we aren't. For every person like me who will watch and live or die with every minute of Canadian soccer, there are tem frontrunners who only watches the World Cup and anything involving Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Imagine if there was a Canadian born hockey player who wanted to wait until Canada had the best possible chance of winning the World Juniors or the Olympics to join the run halfway, would there be any chance in hell the media or the fans would let that slide? No, that player would get laughed at and shamed to the point they would never want to step foot into the country again.
At some point the Canadian Soccer Association needs to wake up and realize the way they have been doing things is never going to work. They need to develop some pride and finally say to all the players that tease the newspapers and media outlets with the hope that they will play, to decide or you will never play in a Canadian kit ever. They need to realize that playing World Cup Qualifiers in a half filled BMO Field that is largely filled with immigrants from the opposing team is unacceptable when BC Place packs in a loud 28, 000 plus for anything soccer.
It is time to give the players toiling on the U-21, U-19, and U-17 their caps as well. The old guard is largely done, and as we saw Tuesday afternoon, is largely misunderstood of what it means to play for your country. Whether it is a lack of ability, heart, or interest players like Julian De Guzman leaking stories that make it all about his brother then missing an opportunity to tie the game at one-one early is simply no longer needed.
If Canada is a mid to bottom tier CONCACAF nation, taking the same core group of players every year to major games and tournaments is just going to produce the same results. Germany, albeit a footballing powerhouse with much more infrastructure, found itself in a position where the old guard was letting them down and providing unacceptable finishes at major tournaments and in qualifying. What did they do? They implemented the same system throughout every level of the national program, gave young players their shot at the mens level, kept the veterans who were producing and providing constructive leadership and are now back as the number two team in the world behind Spain.
Canada does not have the clout of a Germany, but the game has been growing to the point that soccer is now North America's second most popular sport behind football. The game has always been a popular minor sport, but now it is up to the CSA to wake up and realize that it isn't a US or a Mexico or even a Honduras or Panama and that if it is going to get anywhere close to qualifying for World Cup 2018 changes will need to be made.
For the better part of one year, CMNT was on the verge of miraculously and I will even admit luckily growing the game. A softer group than usual that saw Mexico and the US being avoided gave Canada a golden opportunity to build the game and make the CMNT a draw in the way that the EPL, the World Cup, and Barcelona and Real Madrid have became household sporting figures in this country by giving soccer a big event feel that all fans crave. They wasted that chance and the small progress they made, now is the time to go back to the drawing board and erase the status quo. Canadian soccer needs an identity and the one it has right now certainly is never going to amount to success.
