Ben Kinght: Long road to Germany

[sstackho]

Long road to Germany

Canada's going to have to do a lot better, or the World Cup 2006 chase will end quickly.

Well, there were some positives.

Canada looked undermanned and overwhelmed for most of their disappointing 2-0 loss to Guatemala, in the opening match of round-robin World Cup qualifying before a sold-out, but understandably subdued, crowd at Vancouver's Swangard Stadium.

Undermanned? No question. Jason deVos, the rock upon which Canada's defence is built, busted a leg this past week, and won't be with the team any time soon. Iain Hume, midfield wunderkind and all-out attack star of the future, was suspended for yellow card accumulation. And then there's our old, reliable pal Tomasz Radzinski, who missed the flight from Fulham with an injured leg. Honest.

More on all of this in a moment.

Stripped of all excuses, the blunt truth is Canada got blitzed. Right from the start, Guatemala played peppy, attacking football - not what you'd usually expect from a relatively weak national side kicking off an important tournament on the road.

But it would be Canadian weakness that would be exposed on this night. Just eight minutes in, L.A. Galaxy striker Carlos Ruiz, the only man in Guatemala's starting 11 who plies his trade out-country, surged through a flat-footed Canuck back four to beat Pat Onstad from in close, putting the visitors up a goal. The surge was either perfect, or blatantly offside. I'm in the offside camp, myself. But I'm also here to tell you it was never going to make any difference.

Canada woke up and played with some genuine hustle and urgency in the final half hour, but by then Ruiz had doubled Guatemala's lead, turning Montreal Impact defender Nevio Pizzolitto into a shadow before cheekily lobbing Onstad, who was so comprehensively beaten he never even moved.

You never want to throw around the disaster word after the opening match of a six-game round robin, but you tell me. Guatemala is ranked 79th in the world by FIFA. Canada, of course, stands 96th, while the other teams in this group are Honduras (59th) and regional semi-power Costa Rica (28th).

By those numbers, if you're Canada, the home game against Guatemala is the one you have to win. Draw if you must, but at a very minimum, you have to seriously show up.

And some Canadians did. I smiled a couple of times at the midfield poise and presence of Ante Jazic, who kept his head up, and moved the ball fairly effectively throughout. Forward movement from the midfield has been an uncomfortably rare commodity for Canada in recent times. Here's hoping Jazic can keep up the good work.

There were also some very nice moments from some of the youngest, least experienced players in the Canadian team. Debutante striker Olivier Occean's first shot for his nation was a running 20-yard, slightly-off-balance bomb job that went well over the bar. Overall, he played with great energy and enthusiasm, if not precision. He was very unfortunate not to score on a sitter in the six-yard box, late in the game with the goalie long gone.

Jaime Peters came on late in the game, and showed good poise running right at Guatemalan defenders. Unfortunately, he either had nothing left for the pass, or there was nobody home to receive it. But it was a good jolt of adrenaline. I'd love to see him play that way with Iain Hume on the field.

As for the absentees:

DeVos is badly hurt, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. It's an unfortunate break (literally), but I'm sure the big central defender will be back as soon as his leg and his doctors will allow.

Hume's yellow card collection includes some inpetuous behaviour on the gifted youngster's part. He's got to understand that he's playing in a card-happy conference, and his naturally aggressive play is already sure to get him carded from time to time. Volunteering for optional yellow cards through emotion and mouthiness will get him suspended and hurt the team. I'm sure head coach Frank Yallop has already had this talk with his splendid future star. 'Nuff said, for now.

Radzinski. Did we just get fooled again? Anyone out there feel like howling "wolf" about now? Guessing won't help us here, so let's just go with what we know. Radz says he stayed in London because he has a leg injury. Radz played 75-odd minutes for Fulham last week, and when he was substituted… he jogged off the field. No limp. No obvious pain. He even grinned a couple of times on the way off.

Okay, maybe he got a knock, and it didn't flare up until later. That happens. But here's what has also happened. Throughout his international "career," Radz has always put club before country. He has openly said he doesn't like playing in games he considers low-profile. Maybe he's hurt, maybe he isn't. I just hope Yallop knows which is which, and will take all this twaddle into account when he selects the squad to face Honduras in Edmonton next month.

After all, it's not like Radzinski has ever seriously contributed to the national squad.

The quote of the night had to go to Canadian defensive legend Bruce Wilson, captain of this nation's one-and-only World Cup squad (Mexico, 1986). Interviewed at halftime, Wilson said "We need more teams like the Whitecaps, which are still in existence, to help develop players."

Well, yes. But I wonder how many other nations face that kind of existence problem? Not to quarrel with a great man (I'm a huge Wilson fan, by the way), but the deep, honest truth is we need more than that. The A-League makes an important contribution to the development of our young players, but the best of the best of our prospects aren't going to learn to stand with Mexico, the United States and Costa Rica getting their shins kicked by the Charleston Battery and Milwaukee Wave United.

I'm sure MLS will bring its own problems should it expand to Toronto, Vancouver and/or Montreal. But the standard of play will be higher, and there will finally be a true incentive for more of our players to base themselves in Canada. A Canadian MLS team - in whatever city - could be packed with national-team players, and form a crucial core of familiarity that could neatly be transferred to the international stage.

The A-League will never be able to accomplish that.

Canada has a good coach and some fine players. But losing 2-0 at home to Guatemala is the kind of result that can break up this party long before all our hopes are satisfied.

It was a bad night with few good moments. Let's hope it wasn't the beginning of the end.

Onward!

[Bertuzzi44]

nicely said

[nolando]

Devos is badly hurt??