by Gian-Luca
Sadly the 2009 Gold Cup is over for Canada, and two comments in my Gold Cup preview turned out to be, unfortunately, quite prophetic for Canada in the end. In Part D of my preview I stated:
"Without Iain Hume, Rob Friend (both through injury) and Dwayne De Rosario the team is without much of its potential offensive firepower."
"We will have to watch out for CONCACAF officiating and the ever-present desire for a Mexico vs. U.S. Gold Cup final for the organizers of the tourney hoping to make yet another miserable buck. They key to getting past this is playing so well that not even the officiating can stop us."
Both of these points (which you didn't have to be a genius to think of, let's be honest) eventually came to bite us in the ass. Canada outplayed Honduras but still didn't play well enough or sharply enough (particularly in the first half) to beat both them and the officials at the same time, which is what was required unfortunately. And once Honduras went into full bunker mode when they got the lead, it would have been nice for another established striker to go up there to help Ali Gerba pose more of a threat to Honduras. Gerba never did get a clear chance to score (his best chance coming off the McKenna header off the post which unfortunately was blocked by his own teammate, Simeon Jackson) and nobody else was quite able to step up, although McKenna, Hutchinson and Johnson all came close.
It stings to lose to Honduras yet again, this time with a roster that overall was probably inferior to ours - they probably have more key players missing than we did. But their team was good enough to win on a cheap call and by bunkering the rest of the game, and we played well but not quite our best. The two games that were most difficult for our midfield were against Jamaica and Honduras, two teams able to combat our skill by being physically dominant in the midfield (which makes the Honduran flopping all the harder to take and that Ref even more gullible, but then he did Ref the Panama-Mexico debacle, so that was to be expected).
There are a lot of positives to take from this tourney, particularly the play in the group stage which was enjoyable and fun to watch, and the development of some of the younger players. We gave up 3 goals in 4 games - one a cheap PK, one an excellent FK and one a horrific Sutton blunder. Which means that horrific Sutton blunder aside Canada gave up no goals from open play in 4 games against 4 of the better Concacaf teams. After a WCQ tourney where we were leaking goals at the back, this is a huge improvement that shouldn't be ignored.
There are negatives though as well. Going out on our last competitive games for another two years (at any age level) on yet another horrible call absolutely sucks. And if you think we are angry, the feeling can be summed up with these two comments from two of our best players:
Atiba Hutchinson: "The same thing happens over and over. I thought it was a horrible call from the ref. I think if he looks it himself, he should be ashamed. That's all I can say."
Julian De Guzman:
"I was really disappointed with the officiating, with this particular game. If I had a chance to make a tackle on this ref, I wouldn't even think twice. It's pretty obvious that would be bad business for CONCACAF if Canada was to make it to the finals or semifinals. I mean we don't bring in the crowds that CONCACAF would like."
To the Canadian team, players and staff - a job well done. You did Canada proud and can hold your head up high.