by Gian-Luca
Canada lost 1-0 to Poland today, continuing this nation's woes when it comes to playing in the month of November. The result, while not exactly encouraging, is at least a far more respectable scoreline than the debacle on Saturday, and the same can be said of the performance as well. Canada was bolstered by the addition of Tomasz Radzisnki (still proving to be crafty and clever up front) and especially by Dejan Jakovic at the back in the place of Richard Hastings. Jakovic made some excellent, well-timed tackles and helped to bail out his central defensive partner Kevin McKenna, who continued to look rusty, no doubt a result of a relative lack of playing time in Europe this year, an all-too-common theme with Canada's European-based players on this roster. Rustiest of all was keeper Lars Hirschfeld, who, while making a number of decent stops from long-range shots (which is where most of Polands's chances came from other than their goal and a goal-post they hit in the second half), didn't seem to be able to collect any of the many crosses sent into the box. His timing looked off, most notably on one occasion where an attempted punch of the ball was whiffed on completely. I don't think I've ever felt that nervous about a keeper in the Canadian goal as I was in this game (though it should be noted that he had no chance the well-taken Polish goal).
The Canadian team looked somewhat more organized defensively however, which indicates that some of the problems against Macedonia can be put down to collective team rustiness. With a few more days together the team looked better but still struggled in retaining possession going forward. And the well-drilled Poles, coming off a World Cup Qualifying campaign which kept them busy in recent months, made it difficult for Canada to regain possession once we lost it. Canada did create a few chances but often mis-fired on their best ones or didn't manage to make that final pass. Which isn't exactly something that Canadian soccer fans haven't heard before. In a game like this Canada needs to do well on free kicks and corner kicks to have its best chance of scoring, and we continue to be extremely unimpressive, both in the delivery into dangerous areas and by any challening for the few that are taken properly. The lack of proficiency on set pieces is one reason Canada is now scoreless in 3 consecutive matches.
A few positives - the play of Jakovic and to a lesser extent Jamie Peters on the right wing (his review would be more positive if he had finished off probably the best Canadian build-up in the two games by shooting right away instead of trying make one move too many). And it was good that everyone saw some playing time in the two-matches, including Jonathan Borgeault. Its so far from Canada's next meaningful match that it's difficult to take too much from these games played against teams we will not play a meaningful match against unless we can qualify for a World Cup. The most valuable lesson learned from these two matches - its better for our players to be playing regularly in North America than to be sitting on the bench most of the time in Europe. With more Canadian jobs available in the MLS (especially starting in 2011) I'd like to see more of our boys flock back here. McKenna and Hirshfeld for example, would both be look great in a Whitecap uniform in 16 months time.
In the end, despite the results and a lack of goals, I'm glad that we did get a couple more matches under our belt. Let's get many more of these please, CSA - including a whole bunch on the grass at BMO Field next year. Just like Mo Johnston, you no longer have the FieldTurf excuse to fall back on.