Canadian deja vu at U-20

I had the amazing privilege to see Canada preform on July 5 at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton (Along with my team that I'm supporting, Chile). What I saw as
was an absolutely embarrassing performance and as a Canadian I felt let down and angry to see this level of play at this tournament from my homeland. I will not use my Chilean heritage as an excuse why I do not support Canada in Soccer, yet, as I have been talking to other "non-footy" minded sports followers, the usual answer that I get is that "Canada is a Hockey nation, and that's that." This is the typical response that I get when they here about the disastrous campaign of team Canada at this year's U-20, nevertheless, as a footy fan since age 10, this is the weakest of all excuses and this is one of the many reasons why I will not ever give my support to Canada if this type attitude continues.

If Canadians want to get ride of their embarasement, demand the Canadian Government to put as much funding into the CSA as they do with Hockey Canada, if not more. Also, and let's be frank with this, if you are not of immigrant decent within the last 30 years, more than likely you hate Soccer and do not care if Canada can get any better at it. This Anti-Soccer sentiment has been happening in Canada and English speaking North-America since the implosion of the NASL, and if one takes a good look at the crowds that has been selling out the venues and coming out to these fantastic games, the vast majority are recent immigrants, first generation Canadians or Canadians that have way more of an internationalized mind set than the majority of average Canadians.

This has to stop, and the CSA must start to demand some drastic change from the Canadian Government and from Canadians as well. How can anyone expect a team to excel if there is barely any local support, where the best Canadian Players play abroad and North-American sports reporters still treat the game today as "The Immigrant Game"? This is already creating divisions where I work. After Chile owned Canada on July 1st, I received many deathly type looks and pretty racist comments against my allegiance. It was not easy walking to my office with my Chile jersey on, as if we Chileans ruined your Canada Day Eh! But what shocked me the most was the comments that I got: "...whatever, Canada can destroy Chile in Hockey!...Who cares, it's just soccer!... Tell it to a Canadian who actually cares!"

But the facts are these: Canada sucks at Futbol because Canada does not care. Canada does not care about Futbol because it cares about hockey and the winter olympics as if those tournaments and sports have more prestige that a FIFA World Cup. And lastly, Canada sucks at Futbol because of it's own fault. Expectation were high, yes. The result, pretty much what all Canadians should have expected; a horrible team with no sense of offense, with talent to give away but could not astutely exploit those talents and with no joy for the game or when playing the game.

Canada did make it's mark though; historically speaking, no one in the history of this FIFA Youth Championships has done as badly as Canada. Not a single goal, no points gained, no matches won and did not qualify to the round of sixteen. On the bright side, it is, literally, only up from here; of course, if Canada or any non first generation Canadian or Landed Immigrant cares for Canada to succeed at the beautiful game anyway.

re: Canadians lack of technical ability
I have been aware of this for years. STOP TEACHING THE ENGLISH GAME. To all the technical people involved with the CSA............Please.............stop having these players who are strong in tackling and heading the ball captain our team. Usually, THEY CAN"T DO ANYTHING CREATIVE WITH THE BALL.........................This is relevant for the English game. And Premiership soccer is only entertaining because of the FOREIGNERS that intervene and create beauty on the field. Stop praising players with no touch on the ball. TEACH them properly. P.S. Although we have lots of respect for our "mother" England....know that their style has produced NOTHINGi in the past 30 years in international tournaments.................

I would like to comment on some of the points Dick Howard and Craig Forest have brought to attention throughout this U20 World Cup relating to skill development in Canada. As a competitve club coach I see many endemic problems based on who you know as a contact in our soccer community and how much money there is from family support as the major factor in selecting players into opportunities that should be there for all talented players regardless of contacts and financial well being. Having true scouting camps which are no longer used in this country but are still utilized in Europe and South America would be a basis of basic foundation building of soccer development and I see work with players around me that are very skilled and willing to achieve, but get turned down on the basis of poverty or lack of having important connections. A Democratic country as ours should have a support system to embody opportunities for all parts within our society for soccer excellence.
I challenge the Canadian soccer system to grab the talent that exists today in our cities in a true way of nuturing and developing to aspire for the highest level of skill. Academy systems are money based but corporate backing for soccer schools would actually highlight talent in a creative approach to building skill at the fundamental level of the game.
Stop the provincial segmentation of West and East and build on actual talent, without being coralled into set ways of trying out talented players. There should be open minded scout/coaches who give chances through open camps with longer periods of time for working the players.
I was brought up on football from the Hungarian tradition of the 50's and 60's and that era ended into corruption in the 80's. The football since then has shown no shine as the drive of pure passion of the earlier days was lost into a world of lost focus and what was learned earlier has to be relearned at the most fundamental levels of the play. Canada could learn from era's lost in other great soccer nations by seeing that achieving for the whole success of a nation is a focus worth striving for in a complete way, from parks to soccer stadiums.
Edward Nagy

I viewed Canada's games against Austria and Congo and must say I was impressed with the teams intensity in their last game. The boys played their hearts out and did everything possible that was asked from them by their coach. They dominated the game against Congo in possesion, corners and shots on net. As Canadians, I really feel we need to applaud and congratulate them for their hard work and character that they showed in this last game.

So how is it that we lost? It is not the lack of skill in this country. We have many fine young players in this country and many were playing on this team and displayed against Congo. It is not the lack of style we have available to play as we have so many players from different playing backgrounds that we could play any style we want to. I also don't think it is the lack of a professional system or money (although this would help) developing young players. How is it that ALL the African teams made it into the knock out round with likely (I'm guessing) less resources?

I think we need to take a page out of Congo's book, where they hired a coach with a proven record and gave him free range to do what ever was necessary to make a team. He then travelled around the country and formed a dedicated team out of 100 players. It was clear from their play that no one interfered, had plenty of development time with the players and that the coach got all the support he needed. His team learnt how to play as a team.

In my opinion, the Canadian team missed out on this development and were taught an outdated style. We had no alternatives to the "dump, flick and run-on style". We were terrible on the corner kicks and really didn't know what to do on set pieces. Simple things like jumping above the ball to head it down into the net did not occur. This is not a reflection on the players but the coaching.

I quite frankly am very concerned that this coach is moving on to the senior team. It appears there is an "old boys club" in the CSA which is the main reason for our lack of success. If the existing staff can't do it (as our record in the last 30 years shows), clean it out and invest in new people and give them full control like the Congo team did.

Let us support our boys though, they did everything that they could with respect to how they were trained. It was the training style that failed us.

Roland Schmidt-Bellach