CBC-Sports

Gold Cup proves it: Give Stephen Hart the job

July 20, 2009 11:09 AM | Posted by   Jason de Vos  

Once again, soccer fans across the country are licking their wounds after Canada was eliminated from another major competition, as our men’s national team was bounced out of the Gold Cup by Honduras on Saturday.

Once again, those same fans are wringing their hands at the complete ineptitude of the refereeing that we - more often than not - receive in such competitions. More on that in a minute.

Before I talk about how we played, can I just state the obvious?

GIVE STEPHEN HART THE JOB!

The players are unanimous in wanting Hart to be their manager, and they seem to respond to his methods. This is the second competition, the other being the 2007 Gold Cup, where we have played passing football and managed to pick up some decent results.

In both competitions, Hart was in charge. Coincidence? I think not.

We can search high and low for a high-priced, experienced international manager to come in and lead us to the World Cup, but until we sort out our youth development program, having that experience isn’t going to make much of a difference. Unless we do something soon about youth development, we will continue to have a small pool of talented players who will represent us at the national team level.

For the time being, I think Stephen Hart has done an excellent job. He has the players united and pulling in the same direction Despite the outcome of Saturday’s quarter-final, I would like to see the ‘interim’ tag removed from his position.

As for this year’s version of the Gold Cup, it was just about as I expected. I was pleasantly surprised that we managed to top our group, as once again we appeared to have the most difficult of the three.

We looked a bit rusty at times but that wasn’t a surprise, as the bulk of our players were in their off-season. In general, I liked the fact that we attempted to pass the ball, rather than relying on direct football and physical strength to compete. It is the only way forward for us, and I’m pleased that Hart’s philosophy is not falling on deaf ears.

I was also pleased with some of the younger players. Jaime Peters, Simeon Jackson, and Marcel De Jong did not look out of place in the full team, and I think they will all have key roles to play in future qualifying campaigns.

I continue to be impressed by Atiba Hutchinson. He is a little on the lightweight side, but I think he has all the tools to be one of the best midfielders in CONCACAF. His biggest strength is his attitude - he has little ego, and he is eager to learn and improve, which are excellent traits to have if you are an aspiring player.

As for Julian De Guzman, I’m left to wonder how much his contract situation affected his contribution.

I think he is clearly our most talented player, and just like Hutchinson, I continue to be impressed by how his game has matured over the years. He has certainly used his time both in Germany and Spain to great effect, and it has taken his play to another level.

Yet is he worth upwards of $3 million per season, as Toronto FC has offered him? Mo Johnston told us that TFC’s offer would make De Guzman the second highest paid player in Major League Soccer, behind David Beckham at $6.5 million, but ahead of Blanco at $2.94 million - you can do the math.

I’m not so sure that he is. It is vastly more money than he can expect to make in Europe, and it is certainly more than his market value. He isn’t going to score 20 goals a season, and he isn’t going to sell any more tickets, not that TFC are struggling in that department.

As a TFC supporter, I think I would rather see someone like Juan Pablo Angel taking up that DP slot - someone who will frighten the daylights out of opposing defenders. I’m not suggesting that De Guzman doesn’t deserve it, as he is Canada’s best player and he’s in his prime. I just wonder whether the return will match the investment.

De Guzman didn’t show us his best form at the Gold Cup, but that’s not to say he isn’t capable of being one of, if not the best player in MLS. One thing is for certain: if he does decide to accept Mo’s offer and come home, TFC’s playoff chances will improve dramatically.

Speaking of improving, when are we going ever going to get decent officiating? The penalty given against Paul Stalteri in the loss to Honduras was nothing short of a joke, and Paul deserves an awful lot of credit for not lashing out at the ref in frustration.

I’ve watched it a hundred times, in super-slow-motion. I’ve even paused it and advanced it frame by frame. It was simply not a foul.

Argue all you want if you think otherwise. You’ll still be wrong.

Strangely enough, it doesn’t annoy me that once again we’ve had horrendously poor officiating in a major competition. Refs make mistakes all the time, and I accept that sometimes it is going to happen to us.

What does annoy me is that when it happens to us over and over and over again, we do nothing about it. We do nothing, and we say nothing.

Can you imagine what the U.S. or Mexico would have said and done if the same thing had happened to them?

There would have been a press conference denouncing the substandard level of officiating. There would have been an open letter to the media demanding that Jack Warner holds a summit to investigate ways to improve the level of officiating. There would have been threats to boycott future CONCACAF events unless those improvements were made and fairness was guaranteed.

Yet we say nothing. When are we going to stand up for ourselves?

I want to sign this off on a positive note though, so let me finish by saying this: well done to Stephen Hart - you showed everyone who the next manager of the national team should be. Well done to the boys - you played some good stuff and gave us all a little bit of hope again after a disastrous 2008.

And well done to the fans - you proved once again that even if it ends with you licking your wounds, you will stand up for the boys every time!

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