As CONCACAF prepares for its final round of World Cup qualifying, Canada is setting up to play Cyprus. To address this, I offer up a column I wrote way back in 2002, in the run-in to the Korea-Japan World Cup. It’s sadly unamazing how little has changed.
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Whither Canada?
In a week when the world was brimming with intriguing, unusual soccer match-ups, Canada was nowhere to be seen.
If you had never heard of the World Cup or if you had no idea of the scope and importance of the giant global soccer tournament set to begin in Japan and Korea in just over a month, a quick perusal of the past week's international scores would certainly have tipped you that something big is going on.
National teams flew all over the world for midweek fixtures. Unusual flags were flying in the darndest places. And in a week when anyone could play anyone else, when African and South American teams swarmed Europe, when Costa Rica toured the Orient, when both Luxembourg and Liechtenstein actually played and got out undefeated, the red maple leaf was… nowhere.
Of course, there are daunting problems that must be overcome before Canada can play an international friendly. Players are scarce, and they are scattered all over the football world. As bizarre as it sounds, it is probably better for Canada in the long run that red-hot goaltending prospect Lars Hirschfeld turned out this week for Tottenham Hotspur reserves. Yanking him out of a Premier League set-up to play a friendly could have harmed the lad's prospects, and the country's, by extension, down the road.
But what kind of ludicrous mindset is that?
Did you ever want to go to a dance, but you didn't get invited? Worse still, did you ever find out later that you could have gone, but your date didn't bother to get tickets? Canadian soccer fans know the feeling well. It's hard to look at some of the games that were played this week and still believe Canada couldn't have been out there if they actually wanted to go.
Cameroon was in Austria. Nigeria journied way up to Scotland. England hosted Paraguay, while Brazil visited Portugal, and Uruguay turned up in Italy. The Tunisians were taking the air in Slovenia! The Costa Rican CONCACAF glory wagon rolled into Japan! And, as I hinted above, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein, tired of getting whaled by any opponent with a gross national product and a pulse, took the field against each other, and slugged out a soaring, thrilling 3-3 tie.
It's not like there's any shortage of an appetite for these games. It's not like club teams around the world aren't having to cough up players in record numbers. But Canada continues to sit out, settling for an upcoming visit to Switzerland on the same day as the Champions Cup final.
Is this all we can do? Is this the best training we can give the Paul Stalteris and Lars Hirchfelds, who will form the nucleus of whatever footballing future our nation has?
Denmark welcomed Israel. Hungary got thrashed by Belarus. Canada… didn't play.
Canada, by the way, is significantly on the rise in the latest round of FIFA world rankings. Being named the 74th-best soccer nation on the planet may not seem that much of a compliment, but it's an improvement of 18 full spots – and that’s just since Christmas. Only three nations, Cameroon, Senegal and African Nation's Cup hosts Mali, have shown greater improvement. Okay, the ranking system is ludicrously flawed, but teams are really going out of their way to play anyone they can right now. Why isn't an apparently hot, up-and-coming squad like Canada taking advantage?
Ecuador and South Africa played a goalless draw in Spain.
I find it absurd and unbelievable that there was no dance partner out there for Canada. If Finland was running around in Macedonia, why not us? If the Slovakians were campaigning in Belgium, why not us?
Canada coach Holger Osieck has told me in person that he'd love to be playing an average of one international game a month. How can that be done if Canada hugs the sidelines during a week like this?
Yes, geography's against us, but it didn't stop the United States from having a kickaround in Ireland.
Canada's approach to its chronic, meddling, nettlesome soccer problems seems way too passive. At the risk of re-repeating myself, when reality runs against you, you have a choice. You can accept reality, or you can change it. I see little or no evidence of a will to change emanating from Canada's soccer braintrust these days.
This pre-World Cup feast of international football might not produce any glorious Canadian victories, but sitting thousands of miles away on the sidelines during a week when yawning geographical chasms were being effortlessly straddled -- Malta 1, Azerbaijan 0 -- seems a dreadful waste, and the worst kind of stalling.
The major thing that all these teams, that travelled all this distance, have in common is that they all found a way to get it done.
Andorra 2, Albania 0.
Is the problem here that nobody wants to play Canada, or that the current minds in charge of booking this nation's international soccer dance card either can't or won't get the job done?
Germany 0, Argentina 1.
It's a question Canadian soccer fans need to start asking.
Turkey 2, Chile 0.
Now.
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(Originally published April 18, 2002, on Sportsnet.ca.)
(Onward!)