by Cheeta
A few words on just a few of the stories in Canadian football this past week
Reggie Boyz 1-nil!
It's hard to know what to make of Stephan Hart's Canada squad which followed up a training camp in Florida with a visit to Kingston, Jamaica this weekend. With so many new faces in so many positions it was always going to be a difficult task to judge the performances of the players in a real-wold-context, but for the Vs population who were reduced to following the match Old School, that is to say on the radio, the task has proven doubly difficult.
It takes a special eye to judge an erratic mix of youthful players expected to perform in the Caribbean heat & humidity, with any reasonable knowledge. But that is the task which lays before MNT coach Stephan Hart. It's step number one on the long road to qualifying towards Brazil 2014, and it began January 31st in Kingston, Jamaica.
Fingers & toes crossed for a spring friendly for the MNT. Especially one with an overwhelming positive result and some television coverage. And after 4 straight losses on the road a home test would also probably be welcomed by the players.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]Curse of the Suttons
Former Canada #1, Greg Sutton hasn't quite found a cure for the football bug just yet.
And in keeping with the stubborn, often illogical tenacity which has cursed most Suttons down through the centuries, our particular Sutton, Gregory of Hamilton, after having endured a couple of seasons of ill timed injuries along with the emotional experience of inhabiting the asylum which was last year the TFC locker room, sees no point in taking anything which might resemble an easy path back into the ranks of professional footballer. No sir, he's decided he'll not let inhumane adversities get the better of him any longer. He's decide he'll confront and overcome those trials, be they spawned of Hell itself, on their very own grounds. He's decided to keep goal for New York Red Bull.
Are their easier paths back into the professional ranks? For the usually technically sound and always freakishly tall Greg Sutton, absolutely. But would that be the Sutton Family way?
Absolutely not.
Good luck, Gregory of Hamilton. You sir, are going to need it.
V's Cup 2010
League schedules have yet to be released but clearly things are now far enough along to allow for the announcement of the dates for 2010 Nutrilite Canadian Championship this Thursday.
It all went a bit sketchy earlier in the year when the United Soccer League 1st Division lost most of it's teams to the break away North American Soccer League and the subsequent refusal of the United States Soccer Federation to sanction that league, but it's all set now and Voyaguers from across the country can look forward to having another go at each other this summer. All in good fun of course.
U20 Lady Canucks not going to WC
The cyclical nature of the various international tourneys and their wide ranging requirements can play havoc with the most professional of federations, but to say the limited resources of the Canadian Soccer Association can be sorrily tried by their many FIFA commitments would be understating things.
Disappointed, or just predictably disappointing results given the preparations which went into them the final product is the same. Canada's always game Lady Canucks will not be traveling this summer to the FIFA U20s in Germany.
I'm not touching this one with a 20 ft pole, not a chance. I chose life, thank you. But for those more inclined to vent, muse or simply find comfort in shared sorrow there are currently 21 pages of U20 Ladies discussions on the forum more than worth the read. So enjoy the ebb and flow and evolution of the conversations which can sometimes be found on the Voyageur's forums.