On the morning after the nightmare before, it’s crucially important to separate fact from fiction.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
Yes, the structure of the CONCACAF Gold Cup soccer tournament does favour the United States and Mexico. The mathematical irregularities of a three-group format, with eight teams advancing to the quarterfinals, make it inevitable two of those teams will have easier routes forward.
That is not a conspiracy, folks. It’s no more out-of-line than letting two conference champions be the top seeds in the NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB, CFL or MLS playoffs.
And there is no proof whatsoever that any one referee in any one game has been bought off to ensure a particular team does not advance.
If you’re still stewing on either of those points, you’re having a tougher day today than you need to.
That said:
Once again, Canada has been slain at a major tournament. And for the third time in five years, horrendous officiating is at the heart of the demise. The fact that it’s Honduras – as it was in Edmonton in 2004, and Stade Saputo ten months ago (though that particular one was neither a loss nor the referee’s fault) …
Well, it hurts and hurts a sore and awful lot.
To review …
- 2004 World Cup qualifying: In two separate matches against Honduras, three officiating gaffes gift the Hondurans an undeserved penalty kick, and rob Canada of a pair of earned and needed game-winning goals.
The kill shot – fatal even though mathematical death did not come until two months later – was Mexican referee Benito Archundia’s dangerous-play call against Canadian striker Olivier Occean, even though the foot in question never got above waist-level, and was never even remotely near to the face of the Honduran defender who say seemingly dead on the Commonwealth Stadium turf for seven minutes.
- 2007 Gold Cup: Canada seemingly nabs a late equalizer in the semifinal against the States. But scorer Atiba Hutchison is wrongly ruled offside, even though his run was perfect, and he was played cleanly through when the ball struck an American defender. The referee – once again – Benito Archundia.
- 2009 Gold Cup: At least it was a different referee this time. Joel Aguilar or El Salvador etched his name in Canada’s collective backside late in the first half, when he called a penalty kick against Canuck defender Paul Stalteri for arm-hauling down Honduran striker Walter Martinez.
No question Stalteri had a hand on him, and no question Martinez went down – making a bicycle kick at the Canadian goal! Stalteri didn’t drop him. He dropped himself, making a bold attacking move which – by necessity – ends up with the guy taking the shot flat on his blue blessed backside!
Oh, and Martinez’s foot was vastly closer to Stalteri’s face than anything Occean did back in Edmonton in 2004.
The correct call? You play advantage on Stalteri’s tug, letting Martinez shoot. You then flag Martinez for dangerous play. Even if the ref misses the dangerous play call, the most that happens is Honduras gets a corner kick.
The penalty call is either a naïve mistake, or a volcanic, overhand screw job. Since I cannot prove anything more than mistake, that’s what I’m going with.
To his slight credit, at least Aguilar wasn’t buying the sickening dive-and-die tactics. Hondurans were hitting the deck in appalling numbers, refusing to rise even after it was abundantly clear the ref wasn’t buying any of it. Canada was getting calls, in other words.
But the one call they most needed – the one that hurt the most and was most utterly destructive – that one, they didn’t get.
What’s the message folks? Three times in five years, however hard Canada has worked, however well they have overcome deep and daunting disadvantage, however far their pluck, luck and courage has carried them, utterly horrendous officiating calls have destroyed their entire campaigns.
We already know CONCACAF has an allegedly corrupt leader, Jack Warner of Trinidad, whose shenanigans are tolerated because he heads a vast coalition of nations that keeps FIFA president and gaffe-o-matic Sepp Blatter in power. We also know Canada is a tiny soccer nation, even in comparison to El Salvador and Honduras, who routinely put thousands more fans in stadiums for national team games than we do.
Sure, Canada got a big push from Warner to host the 2007 World Youth Cup, and we have BMO Field – and therefore Toronto FC – as a result. A similar push may soon land the women’s World Cup, as well. That tends to work against the anyone-but-Canada conspiracy claims – especially since Canada did actually win this self-same tournament as recently as 2000.
No, I don’t believe there was any particular backroom agenda that got Paul Stalteri called for grab-and-slam in the penalty area yesterday.
And there still remains the gnawing fact that Canada squandered a half-dozen corner kicks in the second half, and that while their overall possession was pretty good, they showed about as much useful movement away from the ball as your average Rocky Mountain.
The penalty kick wasn’t, of itself, the only reason Canada lost. But I believe they had, at least, earned a grim, gritty 0-0 draw, and the right to try to save themselves in penalty kicks. Maybe that isn’t much, but bigger teams have won bigger prizes doing less than Canada did on the day.
A very clear message was sent – intentional, or not:
Do not expect a fair result. Do not expect to settle it fairly on the pitch. Sooner or later, The Call comes. And Canada will have no answer for The Call.
It’s a dark and depressing day to love Canadian soccer, folks. Even though hard proof remains elusive, the illusion that CONCACAF is a fair game has been broken, battered, and ground into the turf by a referee’s heel spikes – once again.
And one more happy time – it’s Honduras.
Onward!