CBC-Sports

Offside: Fixing Canadian Soccer - Getting to the World Cup

May 25, 2009 05:09 PM | Posted by   Jason de Vos  

CBC Sports soccer commentator Jason de Vos examines the state of Canadian soccer in Offside, a multi-part blog series exclusive to CBCSports.ca. In this final installment, de Vos, a former captain of Canada's national team, takes a look at what Canada has to do to qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Canada has only qualified for the World Cup once: the 1986 tournament held in Mexico. Since then, we have made six attempts to qualify for that elusive festival of football, and on every occasion we have come up short.

I was involved in three of those qualifying campaigns. I played sparingly in the 1998 campaign, but I had two full attempts at reaching the World Cup in 2002 and 2006.

I have been asked many times over the years if I have any regrets about my playing career. I always answer that question the same way; I have no regrets - because I did the very best I could every time I stepped on the field - but I have some disappointments.

The single biggest disappointment for me was never making it to the World Cup.

A feasible goal?

Some players dream of leading their country to glory, of lifting the World Cup in front of an audience of millions. I was too much of a realist to ever think that Canada would win the World Cup during my playing days, so for me the dream was getting to that stage. To be able to play against the best players in the world, to represent my country against the best from Brazil, Italy or England, would have been remarkable. That it didn’t happen for me still hurts to this day.

So what do we have to do in Canada to make it to the World Cup? Is it even feasible for us to hope for, let alone expect, qualification for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil?

This is the part where the optimist in me wants to say, “Absolutely!”

But the realist in me knows that even if we make sweeping changes to our system of player development today, and we mandate improvements in coaching standards across the country, we are not going to see the benefits of those changes for at least a decade.

I have already written about the changes that I would like to see in player development, so I won’t go over those again. I’m hopeful that changes will be forthcoming, because we will see an improvement at the international level if we can begin to develop a larger pool of talented players from which to choose our national team. That improvement could lead us to the World Cup in the future, but what do we do in order to qualify between now and then?

No more excuses

In my opinion, what we need to do is eliminate excuses.

At the professional level, everything that is done for the players is done to eliminate excuses. The training facilities are superb, the food is excellent, the travel and accommodations are first class and your equipment is immaculate. If just one of those things is not up to par, players will use it as an excuse when they lose a game or perform poorly.

There is an expression in football, called the “5 P’s” - Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance. If your preparation is first class, the only thing left to do is play the game. There can be no finger pointing, no “blame game”, where players blame everyone and everything but themselves. You win if you’re good enough, and you lose if you’re not. It is as simple as that.

You would think that when you are selected to represent your country, that the level of professionalism and the level of preparation would exceed anything you experience at the club level. After all, playing for your country is the highest level of professional football in the world. It only stands to reason that those players deemed talented enough to represent their country would receive nothing but the best.

Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case when it comes to the Canadian team.

Poor travel arrangements and substandard training facilities are two of the common areas of frustration for many of the players on the national team. Prior to the 2003 Gold Cup, we were forced to train in a public park in Vancouver, because no one had the foresight to make arrangements for us to train at a decent facility. There were people walking their dogs where we were trying to train, and there was more than just grass on the playing surface, I can assure you.

Travel is always going to be a contentious issue, especially when your best players are plying their trade in Europe and your qualifying games are in places like Mexico and Honduras. I am told that during the previous World Cup qualifying campaign, the players’ travel arrangements were very good. Unfortunately, having to fly half way around the world to play a game of football is always going to leave a few players disgruntled.

No place like home

Maximizing home-field advantage is also something that we must do in order to qualify for the World Cup in 2014. It is not something we have been especially good at over the years.

In 2000, prior to a World Cup qualifying match in Edmonton against Trinidad and Tobago, someone on the organizing committee thought it would be a good idea to have a steel drum band playing on the pitch before the game. Nothing like creating a warm, friendly environment to make your opponents feel at home, is there?

In our last qualifying attempt, we only managed to pick up two points from three home games. That simply isn’t good enough.

In order to make the most of home-field advantage, we have to play the games where the players feel they can win. If that place is Montreal, play all the games there; if that place is BMO Field in Toronto, play all the games there; if the players want to play in Iqaluit, then let them play all the games there. Why? Because if they feel they can win there and they don’t, it is down to them and them alone.

Home-field advantage is also about having a pro-Canadian atmosphere at our home games. That certainly wasn’t the case when we played Honduras in Montreal during the last campaign. There were far more people supporting Honduras than our boys in red, and quite frankly, it was an embarrassment.

By contrast, the home game against Jamaica in Toronto was far more supportive. This was largely due to the efforts of the Voyageurs, the Canadian soccer supporters group, as well as Toronto FC supporters groups, such as the Red Patch Boys and U-Sector. We have to do a far better job of reaching out to these groups by offering them significant discounts for group ticket purchases and letting them be instrumental in creating an intimidating atmosphere - believe me, it makes a massive difference.

Just the beginning

So if our travel arrangements, hotel accommodations, food, training facilities, choice of match venue and fan support are all in our favour, what does that leave?

The players.

Ultimately, that is what the players want. They want an opportunity to be judged against the best in our region without any strings attached. Strip away anything that can be used as an excuse, and if they don’t qualify, they will have no one to blame but themselves.

We heard a great deal of criticism coming from the players when they failed to qualify for next year’s World Cup in South Africa. Many of those criticisms were probably accurate, but the thing that got lost in it all is that the players didn’t play up to their potential.

There is a lot of individual talent on that team, but they didn’t come together as a group when it really mattered. How much of that was down to their perceived criticisms we’ll never know. It would be nice to see how far they can go towards qualifying for Brazil in 2014 without any excuses to hold them back.

Can we get to the World Cup in 2014? Are we talented enough to grace that stage? Right now, it is too early to tell, but I’m certainly looking forward to watching us try.

This is the final blog of the Offside series, but this is by no means the end. In fact, I would suggest that this is just the beginning - the beginning of change. Your comments and feedback are being heard by the powers that be, and they are stimulating a discussion. I intend to continue that discussion with the Executive of the CSA in order to work towards improving the game of soccer in our country.

As always, I will keep you posted.

On Saturday May 30th at 2 p.m. ET, join us for a special edition of CBC SportsWeekend on the main CBC network The beautiful game takes centre stage as we examine the issues facing Canadian soccer. Join hosts Scott Russell and Jason de Vos as they delve into the major issues facing the game in Canada based on Jason’s blog series on CBCSports.ca: OFFSIDE: FIXING CANADIAN SOCCER. Among the guests, Academy Director for Toronto FC Earl Cochrane, FC London President Ian Campbell and Toronto FC Goalkeeper Greg Sutton. We’ll also hear reaction from the Montreal Impact, Vancouver Whitecaps and Toronto FC.

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