SoccerCharacter vital to future of Canadian soccer

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Christine Sinclair, left, seen in a September exhibition, is leading Canada's World Cup qualifying efforts. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)

The past week was an interesting one in Canadian soccer, and I spent the best part of my two-hour drive home late Friday pondering the significance of the events that transpired over the last seven days.

Martin Nash, former Canadian national team player, called time on his playing career and moved into a coaching role with the Vancouver Whitecaps.  "Nashy" was a fantastic player whom I had the pleasure of having as a teammate on the national team. He was one of the most underrated passers of the ball in Canada, and I always felt he could have played at a very high level in Europe if he had only had a little slice of good luck. 

Now he moves into an off-field role with the club, where I am sure he will be a success. He has shown excellent leadership qualities in recent years, and he will use those skills to pass his knowledge on to the next generation of young Canadian talent.

Canada's Women's team got its World Cup qualifying campaign off to a positive start, coming away with a 1-0 victory over Trinidad and Tobago on Friday. 

The score line flattered T&T, as Canada had two legitimate goals chalked off for offside. Melissa Tancredi twice had the ball over the goal-line, only to be frustrated by the incompetence of the referee's assistant. Justice was served when she finished off a classic counterattacking move in the second half to give Canada a deserved victory. 

Canada takes on Guyana on Sunday, Oct. 31, and anything less than a comfortable victory will be a real surprise. Mexico crushed Guyana 7-2 on Friday, so Canadian coach Carolina Morace will want her troupes to pull off a similarly lopsided win in order to sneak ahead of Mexico on goal difference. 

It is very likely that a second place finish in Group B will result in a semi-final matchup with the powerful Americans - something both Canada and Mexico will wish to avoid. A place in the final guarantees a berth in next summer's Women's World Cup, while a third place finish means a further playoff with Italy, the fifth place finisher in Europe, for a spot in the tournament.

Closer to home, rumours abound that Jürgen Klinsmann has been hired by MLSE to restructure Toronto FC's soccer operations. The former German international player and manager certainly has the name recognition to open doors that might otherwise remain closed for the club, and from that perspective, his hiring would make sense. 

It is a step in the right direction for the club, and to think that someone of Klinsmann's stature will be working in Canadian soccer can only be regarded as a good thing. If he can use his connections within the game to bring in the right people to take the club forward, TFC will be confident of turning around their fortunes very quickly.

Doing so will require the right blend of personalities within the dressing room, and fortunately for Klinsmann, there are building blocks in place from which to construct a team.

Consider this quote: 

"I take great pride in being a good team guy. I think that's often more important than a lot of the other things you do on the field. Mind you, I think I do a pretty good job on the field as well.

If I'm not playing, I make sure that I'm, number one, ready to play. But I make sure that the guy that is playing is doing a damn good job because if he's not doing a job, it makes me look bad. So I make sure that he's ready to go and he's playing the best that he can because it ends up making me look good.

I could be a miserable SOB sitting there, and I could bring the team down with my attitude and be miserable, but what's the sense in doing that? It's a team game, and once you win, everybody wins." 

That was Toronto FC goalkeeper Jon Conway, speaking to Nigel Reed and Bob Iarusci on The Soccer Show this past Thursday.

I have yet to hear a single person at TFC have a bad word to say about Jon Conway. His attitude is exemplary, and exactly the sort of mentality that is essential in building a winning team.

Conway is perfectly suited to play a supporting role to the current number one, Stefan Frei, because not only is he more than capable of stepping in and performing well if Frei is unavailable, he is also the consummate team player. 

While it has not been officially confirmed that Jürgen Klinsmann will be tasked with the responsibility of rebuilding Toronto FC into an MLS contender, let's hope that if he is, the characters he brings to the club are cut from the same cloth as Jon Conway.

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