I'd like to forward my resume.

[Free kick]

quote:Originally posted by sj

I get your point Richard and will take it onto consideration before blasting Pipe.

looks to me like everybody at the CSA is hiding behind Pipe

he is the public man at the CSA.

we are frustrated with a system that is failing to meet a certain standard that is required to get the job done

yet everybody behind Pipe is behaving as if it enough and that the problem is somewhere else and beyond their control.

I am doing the best I can to support the sport at the local level whenever I can by paying and attending games.

I am off to watch the W-league playoff between Ottawa and Toronto after work i dont own a car and I live an 1 1/2hr bus ride

not sure how many CSA staff would do the same thing.

the bottom line is they are still incompetent as an association and been like that for over 20 yrs and peoples are fed up.

Again, here is a perfect example of what I find most frustrating ( I had to change my wording to be nice) about your posts. You trot out vague and unverifiable claims like " like everybody at the CSA is hiding behind Pipe" . But later on in your post you make reference to the fact that your off to see a W-league game. Nothing wrong with going to see a W-league game but from past posts, I strongly sence that you don't hold the same passion for going to see the the canada's U20 WC team at WYC. Did you not come out and blast the CSA for choose to play the openning game in TO rather than Edm? If you held the same passion, would one not hold a bias towards a closer location to Ottawa if one held the same interest towards that event?

So now we can infer by reading between the lines that you hold a stronger sentiment towards the womens game. Again, nothing wrong with that. BUT WHAT ON EARTH IS THERE TO BE CRITICAL ABOUT THE CSA, IF YOU ARE A SUPPORTER OF THE WOMENS GAME?

[Richard]

quote:Originally posted by sj

I get your point Richard and will take it onto consideration before blasting Pipe.

looks to me like everybody at the CSA is hiding behind Pipe

he is the public man at the CSA.

we are frustrated with a system that is failing to meet a certain standard that is required to get the job done

yet everybody behind Pipe is behaving as if it enough and that the problem is somewhere else and beyond their control.

I am doing the best I can to support the sport at the local level whenever I can by paying and attending games.

I am off to watch the W-league playoff between Ottawa and Toronto after work i dont own a car and I live an 1 1/2hr bus ride

not sure how many CSA staff would do the same thing.

the bottom line is they are still incompetent as an association and been like that for over 20 yrs and peoples are fed up.

Well, incompetent as you may think the CSA, Kevan Pipe has not been the front man for 20 years. I am not an apologist for the CSA despite what some people may think. I am willing to acknowledge their successes along with recognising their failures and the difficulties with which the organization and its employees must contend, many of which are quite beyond their control. Like you I have been supporting and promoting soccer in different provinces in Canada at all levels and in different ways for 25 years. I also travel 1.5+ hours each way on transit to watch USL games and I attend local amateur matches as often as I can. I do understand however, that there is more to the problem with Canadian success or lack thereof in World Cup competition than would be addressed by firing one employee at the CSA. Constantly hammering away at that one is not going to achieve what some people want or guarantee us a spot in the next WC finals.

[Richard]

quote:Originally posted by BrennanFan

yes we are all happy about the women and the u20s, and the mls team and their field turf pitch will be fun even if not helpful to the MNT. however i think that, like what someone else recently said on this board, the MNT should somehow split from the CSA. the CSA is too pluralistic and politically correct to make the MNT their priority- thats why we havent been to the WC. maybe kerfoot can dump the caps and take on the MNT.

Kerfoot has essentially done that with the WNT. I understand he has made $1 million available to help pay the WMT members a stipend in addition to their carding money so they can focus on their preparation for the next WWC and not have to worry about McJobs to support themselves. I really hope the Whitecaps can win the W-League cup for him.

[LMW]

quote:Originally posted by Robert

It's flattering that Richard is always the first to respond to my posts. That must mean as soon as he sees my name on the board that he's interested in reading (and responding) what I have to say. Of course, Rudi is never far behind, and always feels inclined to defend Kevan Pipe, the secret love of his life. Personally, I would rather see either one of you running the CSA than Kevan Pipe. Anyone else would be an improvement. Why is that clown still running the show? Is he getting one more chance to show that he really can get Canada to qualify for the 2010 World Cup? Come on, it ain't gonna happen who ever believes that. Is he going to establish a national competitive structure? More crack, please! And pass the Pipe. Does anyone really think that Kevan Pipe has any sort of vision of where to take Canadian soccer in the next ten years? Please let us know, because the last twenty have been anything but promising.

Don't worry Robert, your are right. There needs to be a complete overhaul at the CSA. I last watched Canada in 1986 in Mexico when I was 19. I am now 39 and we have not qualified since then. Our players have not gotten that much better either. We are the laughing stock in the world of football. You can put this down to utter incompetance at the CSA.

[Moosehead]

I think Richard is an idiot.

I also travel 1.5+ hours each way on transit to watch USL games and I attend local amateur matches as often as I can.

Give me a break, you would make Kevan Pipe look good.

[sj]

the quality of the game being by played by those USL teama are in direct contrast with the one played by our various national teams.

the USL is beautiful and the one by the nats is pure ugly.

I keep watching and supporting the nats hoping that we will see an improvement and only to find out that nothing has change and that the kick and run game seems to here to stay at that level

although the players on the USl teams have the technical ability to play a beautiful passing game with flair that is why I keep coming back

while when I attend a nats game it is just in the hope that they will abandon the kick and run game that will only hold us back to apoint where the advantage we had over Mexico will disappear if it has not already.

my personal interest is second to the interest and improvement of soccer in Canada

Edmonton would have been financially at the gate a better choice for canada's first game and the CSA needs that money if you are selling a product would you limit yourself to a max of 25 thousands if you have a high potential of selling it to over $50.000 ?.

will I attend all the games in Ottawa you bet I will because I want to do my share in the hope that it will help Canadian soccer improve in the future.

as for yesterday's game I dont think that there was any CSA prominrnt staff in attendance to evaulate the skill and level of soccer on the field despite the fact that two top Canadian club teams was on display.

show you what kind of interesr they have in the local soccer scenes or may be they think that the product is inferior to theirs.

[Richard]

Moosehead clearly has moose brains as well, or should that be mush brains?

So I am an idiot for attending USL and local amateur games, or for using transit, which is it?

[Free kick]

quote:Originally posted by sj

the quality of the game being by played by those USL teama are in direct contrast with the one played by our various national teams.

the USL is beautiful and the one by the nats is pure ugly.

I keep watching and supporting the nats hoping that we will see an improvement and only to find out that nothing has change and that the kick and run game seems to here to stay at that level

although the players on the USl teams have the technical ability to play a beautiful passing game with flair that is why I keep coming back

while when I attend a nats game it is just in the hope that they will abandon the kick and run game that will only hold us back to apoint where the advantage we had over Mexico will disappear if it has not already.

my personal interest is second to the interest and improvement of soccer in Canada

Edmonton would have been financially at the gate a better choice for canada's first game and the CSA needs that money if you are selling a product would you limit yourself to a max of 25 thousands if you have a high potential of selling it to over $50.000 ?.

will I attend all the games in Ottawa you bet I will because I want to do my share in the hope that it will help Canadian soccer improve in the future.

as for yesterday's game I dont think that there was any CSA prominrnt staff in attendance to evaulate the skill and level of soccer on the field despite the fact that two top Canadian club teams was on display.

show you what kind of interesr they have in the local soccer scenes or may be they think that the product is inferior to theirs.

I have come to the conclusion that you are completely clueless about the game or organized sports in general. You cannot backup any of your claims and you are full of contradictions. You criticize the CSA not from a standpoint of a fan or someone who has a real passion for the game but rather some personal accrimony at a micro level and your accrimony stems not from a supporter's perspective or from the perspective of someone who actively follows the game from the big picture perspective .

I also noticed that your criticisms are not your own but rather bits and pieces from you have taken from others. And when pressed you trot them out without even bothering to check if they contradict or not. If you really knew anything, you would have developed your own thoughts and insights and you would not hide behind subjective generalities about people and organizational matters that one could not truly validate unless they were insiders. But I think that that is what you want, namely to use this forum to propagate a sentiment. Its shown through the fact that there is a desire weigh in to pile whenever there are posts of this nature. Why does this trouble me? because gawkers who come to this board can very easily miss read or misinterpret the sentiments. Or, get a false read especially since our numbers are realtively small. . Furthermore, valid issue that may arise ( and there are many) may easily get dismissed because of the perception that we are a bunch of whiners. Views get distorted when people use these forums for platforms for their own agenda. That is one of my biggest pet peeve with internet discussion boards, namely people trying to propagate a view to suit their own personal agendas.

what bigger contradiction could there be when on the one hand, you blast the CSA for choosing TO for the opening and closing games of the WYC. Yet on on another post, you trot out a list complaints including the fact that there have been no games played in TO.

[RS]

quote:Originally posted by sj

the quality of the game being by played by those USL teama are in direct contrast with the one played by our various national teams.

the USL is beautiful and the one by the nats is pure ugly.

Wow.

If I read that right, you just inferred that the USL teams play a beautiful game, while the national team (who have played an increasingly attractive style under Yallop in his last months on the job, like him or not) plays ugly "kick and run" soccer.

Never mind the fact that the best USL players are on the national team as it is (and even then, they are fringe players), but that statement just shows how little you actually pay attention to the game here in Canada, instead opting for the Robert approach of just bitching and complaining.

[Ivan]

Rudi, my feelings toward sj's posts are similar to Free Kick and well documented on previous threads. However, I believe he/she is referring to the women's game.

[RS]

quote:Originally posted by Ivan

Rudi, my feelings toward sj's posts are similar to Free Kick and well documented on previous threads. However, I believe he/she is referring to the women's game.

Well this is the men's forum. Why not air those grievances in the women's forum?

And really, how can anyone be dissatisfied with the way the CSA handles the women's game in this country? It seems they bend over backwards for the WNT (how many matches do they play per year?) at the expense of the men.

[sj]

yes I was speaking about the style of play of the women's game adopted by our WNT.

tell me if those two games against Holland was the kind of game that is going to promote soccer in this country as the beautiful game.

as for Toronto in one of my posts I was wondering how many of those proposed ten games per yr was going to be in the new Toronto stadium and what's in reserve for the rest of the stadiums in this country that has supported the teams.

the CSA is not simply using efficiently the resources available in this country to move the program forward.

There are four W-league in the east that can more than adequately be used as sparing partners to prepare and expose weakness of our u-20 for Bridge to correct and try in game situation even before playing the series against China and Mexico

did bridge had to wait for that series to disciver that his team makes too many defensive mistakes now that is clueless.

[Richard]

quote:Originally posted by Rudi

It seems they bend over backwards for the WNT (how many matches do they play per year?) at the expense of the men.

With the budgetary limitations and player availability hassles the CSA is faced with, plus the orders of magnitude higher FIFA ranking of the women than the men never mind a much more positive attitude, I think I would put my money behind the women too. Many times I have read here that the only way to raise the profile of soccer in Canada is for our national teams to play and win. Well, we stand a better chance of achieving that for now with the WNT than the MNT quite frankly.

[RS]

quote:Originally posted by Richard

With the budgetary limitations and player availability hassles the CSA is faced with, plus the orders of magnitude higher FIFA ranking of the women than the men never mind a much more positive attitude, I think I would put my money behind the women too. Many times I have read here that the only way to raise the profile of soccer in Canada is for our national teams to play and win. Well, we stand a better chance of achieving that for now with the WNT than the MNT quite frankly.

Sacrificing one for the other is incredibly stupid.

As much as I'm a fan of the women's game, the sport would be far better served as a whole if the men's team was respectable.

Look at the US. You think their women's team would have nearly as much resources with the USSF raking in the profits of World Cup '94 and spreading the wealth?

[Richard]

Who says the men are being sacrificed?

The upcoming events include:

2006 - U-20 Women's World Championship Russia

2007 - U-20 World Cup Canada (men)

2007 - Women's World Cup China

Makes eminent good sense therefore to focus for now on the women's and the men's youth game but that doesn't mean the men are written off. Most of the current and future MNT players are getting plenty of professional playing time with their clubs or with the U-20 program and there will be plenty of time to prepare a team for the 2010 campaign after the 2007 U-20 tournament.

[Elias]

quote:Originally posted by Richard

Who says the men are being sacrificed?

The upcoming events include:

2006 - U-20 Women's World Championship Russia

2007 - U-20 World Cup Canada (men)

2007 - Women's World Cup China

Makes eminent good sense therefore to focus for now on the women's and the men's youth game but that doesn't mean the men are written off. Most of the current and future MNT players are getting plenty of professional playing time with their clubs or with the U-20 program and there will be plenty of time to prepare a team for the 2010 campaign after the 2007 U-20 tournament.

2010 - World Cup

2009 - Hex Qualifying

2008 - group stage

2007 - U20 WC

Yup, lotsa time. About 6-8 int'l dates between U20 final and WC qualifying starting. And knowing the CSA, I'm sure they'll do a great job and organize one game.

"national team" means the men's senior team. Not women's, not u20's, not u17's, not u12's.

Qualifying for the World Cup, and even being completely embarrased in the tournament, would mean more to Canadian soccer then the women winning the Women's WC and Olympic gold and Canada winning the U20 WC.

[Richard]

Are you suggesting the women's national team does not warrant being called a national team?

Your insisting that there is only one national team - the men's - is sexist in the extreme.

"Qualifying for the World Cup, and even being completely embarrased in the tournament, would mean more to Canadian soccer then the women winning the Women's WC and Olympic gold and Canada winning the U20 WC."

Maybe in your jaundiced view but certainly not in the eyes of tens if not hundreds of thousands of other Canadians.

[BrennanFan]

i think its only logical to allocate resources proportional to the legitimacy, prestige, and value of the tournament one is trying to get to. the womens world cup is great, but where does it rank overall as an international sporting tournament? the world cup is by far the most important and respected sports championship in the world period. the womens game should get less resources than the mens game. that is not sexist. even if the 2 programs are funded equally (which i doubt), the mens game will get absolutely nowhere.

[RS]

quote:Originally posted by Richard

Are you suggesting the women's national team does not warrant being called a national team?

Your insisting that there is only one national team - the men's - is sexist in the extreme.

"Qualifying for the World Cup, and even being completely embarrased in the tournament, would mean more to Canadian soccer then the women winning the Women's WC and Olympic gold and Canada winning the U20 WC."

Maybe in your jaundiced view but certainly not in the eyes of tens if not hundreds of thousands of other Canadians.

While I don't share the view that "national team" only pertains to the senior men, I do agree that the men making it to the World Cup easily outweighs everything else the other national teams could ever accomplish.

It may not be fair, but it's the truth.

[Richard]

I suggest that simply because the current CSA focus is on the women's and the men's U-20 programs does not by any means imply they have written off the MNT program or that the budget division is inequitable in any way.

Just because we (the general public) are seeing a flurry of activity with the women's and men's youth programs does not necessarily mean the MNT program is being ignored. After all, there are three major international events taking place within the next 12 months that don't involve the MNT so it is perfectly understandable and quite reasonable that these events should be getting the most exposure.

Unless somebody can present an analysis of the CSA budget for the next five years we are all arguing from a point of profound ignorance when it comes to the allocation of CSA resources. I lean towards giving the CSA and its board of directors some credit for being sensible and rational in that regard in that I am sure they are doing the best they can with the resources they have.

Finally, I am not suggesting that the FIFA World Cup is not the biggest and most important international sports event and qualifying for the final carries with it great prestige and some not insignificant financial reward, but I am suggesting that for Canadian soccer, successes in these other events are also important and the CSA's concerns quite rightly should be with Canadian soccer.

Be careful that you don't condemn everything and everybody out of frustration at our not qualifying for the WC since the Lennarduzzi days. There is more to life and Canadian soccer than that.

[sj]

I think that qualifying for the Olympics would have some financial benefits too

the women's team is in a more favorable position to qualify for that.

[Robert]

"Simply replacing Kevan Pipe will not resolve the perceived problems with Canadian soccer." as "Simply replacing George Bush will not resolve the perceived problems with Canadian soccer." Yeah, okay Dick. How do you measure success? By the women's game it appears. Thank God the rest of the soccer world disagrees with your limited perspective, or else Christine S. would be representing Wales, or England, or where ever else her (great)grandparents came from. But WTF hey, lets remain polite little Canadians and not dare say a bad word against that saviour of Canadian soccer, "Mr. Pipe."

[Richard]

How does George Bush figure into Canadian soccer Robert?

And while I think of it, when will that book about soccer you were writing and asked me to edit be published?

[Gordon]

quote:Originally posted by Richard

Unless somebody can present an analysis of the CSA budget for the next five years we are all arguing from a point of profound ignorance when it comes to the allocation of CSA resources. I lean towards giving the CSA and its board of directors some credit for being sensible and rational in that regard in that I am sure they are doing the best they can with the resources they have.

What in the last 5 years makes you think that they will? I went looking for the CSA budgets, because I used to trot out this very same line as you are currently, but they are not online...just the 2003 A/R at their web site. But I do recall, when the 2004 budget was posted here, being absolutely flabergasted at the inability of the CSA to shuffle and significant funds from one program to another. End result...piss poor preparation for WCQ.

You frequently cite poor resources - and that is fair enough - but just what exactly is the CSA doing to enhance these resources? I don't know how hard they are goign about this Richard - but based on my experiences raising funds and seeking sponsors for a variety of charities and events - their results in this regard seems very weak. This is a rich country. It is simply not good enough to sit around pleading poverty.

If you look at the state of soccer in this country you see that we are doing very well on the recreational side of things, but credit for that has to go largely to the local and provincial organizations as they have primary impact and responsibility. The elite side is suffering though - especially once the Provincial associations bow out (i.e. players graduate from provincial youth programs). We have fallen into success on the women's side due to being one of the society's that place sufficient on opportunities for women in spor and in life generally. No accident that the US, Scandanavian and Western European nations dominate that scene. So I do not give the CSA a bunch of credit for this. The elite side is where the CSA is paramount in the Canadian soccer structure and they have done poorly here.

You cite MLS in Toronto as a "success". Perhaps it is. But (Toronto guys take a deep breath please - I am just criticisng the process) they clearly alientated a couple of important stakeholders in the professional game (Saputo and Kerfoot) by simply failing to extend to them some common courtesy's. And that speaks to both vision and competence. Similalry with the U-20 tournament (which frankly any of us could have delivered given that the only other bidder lacks the resources to hold it) and the way they yanked Edmonton's chain on the bid process for the final (again deep breath please). And then further went on to not only deminish Edmonton's success with the U-19 women's tournament but to tee up Jack Warner to do the same. And further, to suggest they selected Torono for reasons of profit, identify what they expect that profit to be, when Edmonton's bid guaranteed 1.5 times that amount. And they didn't have to...thats the rub of it..everyone and their dog would have accepted as reasonable - not necesarily agreed with but accepted as reasonable - showcasing the new stadium. Again, this speaks to basic competence, and a lack of any sort of long range consideration as anything we ever do in international soccer more significant than holding a firendly is going to involve Edmonton. Again, vision and competence.

I could go on, and on, and on...but I won't bore you with that.

[Richard]

How do you know that Kerfoot is alienated?