Neil Davidson: Friend Belongs With Canada

[Winnipeg Fury]

Striker Rob Friend shows he belongs with Canadian national soccer team

Canadian Press: NEIL DAVIDSON

(CP) - Rob Friend waited a long time for another chance to show what he can do in a Canadian jersey.

The big striker from Kelowna, B.C., was left on the outside looking in for two years - during which time the Canadian soccer team played 17 internationals. He returned to the fold last January for a friendly versus the U.S. in San Diego and has appeared in Canada's last three games, bringing his number of caps to seven.

Then-coach Frank Yallop summoned Friend for his first game, against Barbados in January 2004, but then did not call again.

"I felt like for a while I was kind of forgotten about," Friend said in an interview from the Canadian team's Florida training base prior to leaving for Jamaica on Friday.

"But I wasn't too concerned. I knew as long as I was performing at the club level, my time would come. And it did."

Back in the national team fold this year, the six-foot-four 210-pound forward scored his debut goal for the senior side in its most recent outing, a 1-0 win over Jamaica in Montreal on Labour Day.

The two teams meet in a rematch Sunday, this time at the national stadium in Kingston, Jamaica, in a game interim Canadian coach Stephen Hart expects will be competitive. Playing in Jamaica can be intimidating, the coach said.

While Canada may have been slow to pick up on Friend, others weren't. After a banner season with Norway's Molde, he joined Dutch side Heerenveen (pronounced Heron-vain) in July for a reported two million euros (C$2.84 million).

The former Canadian Olympic and under-20 regular has started every game this season with one goal to date - he had more in a productive pre-season - as Heerenveen (3-2-1) stands seventh in the table.

He's enjoyed the step up in football after three seasons in Norway, where the long-ball game dominates. The Dutch game is more technical, revolving around ball possession.

"I've definitely, definitely learned a lot in the last three months, more than I have in the last three years actually," he said.

Friend, 25, has also been well received by the local soccer-crazy fans. He has bought a house there with his California fiancee (they met while he was attending University of California Santa-Barbara).

Heerenveen is about 100 kilometres northeast of Amsterdam in the province of Friesland, which follows the team closely. The team jersey displays the flag of the region.

"It's actually pretty amazing," said Friend, who has a four-year contract. "Our town is 28,000 people and we get 27,000 every game (which is a sellout)."

While the club is home to players from Belgium, Brazil, Croatia, Denmark, Morocco, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the U.S., and the coach is Dutch, a lot of the communication takes place in English. But all the imports take Dutch lessons three times a week.

Fellow Canadian Will Johnson, a 19-year-old forward, is also with the club, and has been playing for the second team.

"He's young. He's got a good attitude," Friend said. "I know he's going to do well. He just needs to put in his time, I guess."

Notes: Hart was unable to call up MLS players Dwayne De Rosario, Ante Jazic and Adrian Serioux because of club commitments ... Hart says goalie Lars Hirschfeld, the former Canadian No. 1 who has not played for his country since March 2005, is not out of the national team picture. Hart says Hirschfeld's position with Norway's Rosenborg is more stable and hinted he may figure in games to come. The coach also intimated that forward Iain Hume, who was not called up this time, may be back for the Hungary game in Budapest in November ... Defender Chris Pozniak was not called up for the Jamaica rematch because he is in only just getting back from a foot injury suffered in the first game. Midfielder Jim Brennan, Toronto FC's first signing, was not summoned because he is without a club this season and has not played. He was in the squad for the first Jamaica match, but was not in game shape ... Veteran Martin Nash of the Vancouver Whitecaps, brother of Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash, was a late call-up, to help fill a void on the left side of midfield. ... Canada is ranked 71st by FIFA, compared to No. 77 for Jamaica.

© The Canadian Press, 2006

[loyola]

"Hart says goalie Lars Hirschfeld, the former Canadian No. 1 who has not played for his country since March 2005, is not out of the national team picture. Hart says Hirschfeld's position with Norway's Rosenborg is more stable and hinted he may figure in games to come."

OK, thanks for the word.

[Guest Jeffery S.]

quote:Originally posted by loyola

"Hart says goalie Lars Hirschfeld, the former Canadian No. 1 who has not played for his country since March 2005, is not out of the national team picture. Hart says Hirschfeld's position with Norway's Rosenborg is more stable and hinted he may figure in games to come."

OK, thanks for the word.

That implies that Lars was unwilling to risk his club stature for Canada, or at least did not want Canada to pressure him in critical moments in his club career. After having had a bad experience at Spurs, apart from salary I guess, it would be logical that he felt he needed to consolidate at his club.

The only thing is that it did seem, at least for one game, that he had claimed injury or similar doubts when in fact he was not really interested in leaving his club environment.

[RS]

quote:Originally posted by loyola

"Hart says goalie Lars Hirschfeld, the former Canadian No. 1 who has not played for his country since March 2005, is not out of the national team picture. Hart says Hirschfeld's position with Norway's Rosenborg is more stable and hinted he may figure in games to come."

Why do I see this one little blurb killing the whole thread in the near future???

[Cheeta]

Nice bit of information on the no-shows though. Can't leave that out and it seems Hart (or Neil) did go out of his way to make it know Lars isn't out of the picture. Good for him there.

You know who I realy feel for sometimes? Martin Nash. No matter what he ever does or doesn't do in what's left of his footballing days he'll always be "the brother of Steve Nash".

The man could find his 2nd wind (career wise) score the hat trick in the last match of WCQ2010 away against Mexico to put Canada through, rescue a bus load of nuns after a 60 vehicle wreck at the airport on the way back to Canada AND save a newborn kitten from being crushed beneith a runaway baggage trolly ALL-IN-THE-SAME-AFTERNOON and he'd still just be Martin Nash. The Brother of Steve Nash.

I can just hear it now. At his own wedding it will be "Do you so and so, take this man, The Brother of Steve Nash, to be your lawfully wedded husband etc, etc"

Man, that's got to suck.

P.S. Hey, makes for a pretty funny nick name though; BOSN(boe-sun) Brother of Steve Nash. Tee hee hee hee. I made a funny.

[marktci]

quote:Originally posted by Rudi

Why do I see this one little blurb killing the whole thread in the near future???

I know what you mean. It's obvious that Neil Davidson is now a part of the conspiracy.

[wildboy26]

To earn your way onto the Canadian National team through performance and ability is impossable since the team is not determined by ability or performance. Thus as nice as it would be to say Rob has been brought into the mix due to performance and ability it would be a fallacy. Obviously he now knows the right person and is liked by the right people to be included in some games, nothing else matters.

As for the Lars part that is PR stuff thrown out once and awhile sufficient to quiet naive fans for a year or so, and when the excluded individuals continues and some fans get curious, the minor PR statement is enough to suffice for another year for most. "oh yeah he is not out of the mix totally", time goes on.....no games, then a year later "oh yeah he might be called for a future game".....they do that with alot of players but thankfully enough are naive it suffices for them.

[Loud Mouth Soup]

Wow-it took 2 days. He's slowing down with his ranting

[Loud Mouth Soup]

quote:Originally posted by wildboy26

Obviously he now knows the right person and is liked by the right people to be included in some games, nothing else matters.

Please back this up with fact, not your skewed view on everything.

[wildboy26]

Yes Loud Mouth Soup, Kenny Statamaplous and Greg Sutton are superior goalkeepers to Lars Hirschfeld which is why for the last 2 years they have been called instead to the games, not because of anything to do with CSA politics. Funny how the CSA seems to be the only one who realizes that Kenny and Greg are superior to Lars however. What an idiotic moron you are.

[Loud Mouth Soup]

You gave no facts. You suck at the internet.

Give this rant a rest, would you?

[RJB]

I really don't see the bother in Lars not getting called up. Unless Greg and Kenny are costing us games, then I can't see the problem in them playing ahead of him.

Now, I haven't seen Lars play in a long time, so I can't comment on his ability nowadays, but even if he is a better keeper than Kenny and Greg, he certainly can't be miles and miles ahead of them in terms of talent. At least not to the point where his non-selection creates this much problem.

[Winnipeg Fury]

quote:Originally posted by RJB

I really don't see the bother in Lars not getting called up. Unless Greg and Kenny are costing us games, then I can't see the problem in them playing ahead of him.

Now, I haven't seen Lars play in a long time, so I can't comment on his ability nowadays, but even if he is a better keeper than Kenny and Greg, he certainly can't be miles and miles ahead of them in terms of talent. At least not to the point where his non-selection creates this much problem.

I haven't seen Kenny or Sutton have a bad game for Canada yet, so I certainly don't see either of these playing as a problem.

That said, our coaches should be including as many viable candidates as possible at this point and I would like to see both Josh Wagenaar and Lars get a shot in the very near future. It would be great if these two were called for Hungary.

[Winnipeg Fury]

quote:Originally posted by RJB

I really don't see the bother in Lars not getting called up. Unless Greg and Kenny are costing us games, then I can't see the problem in them playing ahead of him.

Now, I haven't seen Lars play in a long time, so I can't comment on his ability nowadays, but even if he is a better keeper than Kenny and Greg, he certainly can't be miles and miles ahead of them in terms of talent. At least not to the point where his non-selection creates this much problem.

I haven't seen Kenny or Sutton have a bad game for Canada yet, so I certainly don't see either of these playing as a problem.

That said, our coaches should be including as many viable candidates as possible at this point and I would like to see both Josh Wagenaar and Lars get a shot in the very near future. It would be great if these two were called for Hungary.

[loyola]

quote:Originally posted by Winnipeg Fury

It would be great if these two were called for Hungary.

With Wagenaar starting to create more chaos in Wildboy26 head......

[wildboy26]

You are so clueless to things someone with logic would have figured out long ago.

32 months ago the corrupt Canadian Soccer Association decided to conspire to demote Lars role with Canadian Soccer gradualy starting with demoting him to a non-starters role. Then 20 months ago the conspiracy reached the point to exclude him as a part of the Canadian Soccer program altogether. They succeeded in both, everything has gone as I said it would a long ago, and some fans are still confused to the obvious of what I saw 2-3 years ago and are actually expecting it to change at some point.

[Loud Mouth Soup]

Prove. With. Facts.

[BrennanFan]

quote:Originally posted by wildboy26

You are so clueless to things someone with logic would have figured out long ago.

32 months ago the corrupt Canadian Soccer Association decided to conspire to demote Lars role with Canadian Soccer gradualy starting with demoting him to a non-starters role. Then 20 months ago the conspiracy reached the point to exclude him as a part of the Canadian Soccer program altogether. They succeeded in both, everything has gone as I said it would a long ago, and some fans are still confused to the obvious of what I saw 2-3 years ago and are actually expecting it to change at some point.

your conspiracy theory is missing a motive. why, in your view, is the csa doing this to lars? and dont say i dont know.

[Grizzly]

Great conspiracies of the world:

Who shot JFK?

Was the moon landing a hoax?

Does the CIA have evidence of UFOs and aliens that they are hiding?

Was the Queen behind Diana's death?

911 carried out by Bush regime?

Why doesn't Lars Hirschfeld start for the Canadian Men's National Soccer Team?

[wildboy26]

quote:Originally posted by BrennanFan

your conspiracy theory is missing a motive. why, in your view, is the csa doing this to lars? and dont say i dont know.

1. He is not liked by the other players on the team as well, and it is about putting a "buddies group" together, not the best players.

2. He does not accept trading starting and backups for games well, which also goes against the big happy family concept of the CSA.

3. To put the best people in certain positions off the teams is done to create an illusion that the team is better then they are since "wow so and so are not good enough to make the team". That is to those who are naive that is.

4. He dares to speak out against coaches and people he does not like in the assocation in the past rather then toe the party line

5. The CSA are run by fools who would not know talent if it hit them in the face, thus they conclude despite success a more talented person is a less talented person then others coming up who was just getting lucky, thus plan to remove him in favor of those supposably(but not in reality true)more talented people.

6. The desire to have the goalkeeper role, a more prestigious role be held by somebody from Central Canada for marketing purposes.

[wildboy26]

So plenty of incentive to have initiated the conspiracy that started in part 32 months ago, and in full 20 months ago. They are able to carry it out well since most Canadian Soccer fans are accepting of a 3rd-4th best at a position playing 67% of the games, and the best not playing in almost 2 years, and not being the starter in almost 3 years. The joy of mediocrity is part of being a Canadian Soccer fan after all.

[hottoddy7]

Wow beast you really are nuts!

[BrennanFan]

quote:Originally posted by wildboy26

1. He is not liked by the other players on the team as well, and it is about putting a "buddies group" together, not the best players.

2. He does not accept trading starting and backups for games well, which also goes against the big happy family concept of the CSA.

3. To put the best people in certain positions off the teams is done to create an illusion that the team is better then they are since "wow so and so are not good enough to make the team". That is to those who are naive that is.

4. He dares to speak out against coaches and people he does not like in the assocation in the past rather then toe the party line

5. The CSA are run by fools who would not know talent if it hit them in the face, thus they conclude despite success a more talented person is a less talented person then others coming up who was just getting lucky, thus plan to remove him in favor of those supposably(but not in reality true)more talented people.

6. The desire to have the goalkeeper role, a more prestigious role be held by somebody from Central Canada for marketing purposes.

1 and 2 are justifiable, its about putting the best TEAM on the field, not the best 11 players. 3 is retarded. 4. maybe-probably. 5. i dont think so, they may think sutton is better but i think theres a dumber reason behind this. 6. dumber still.

whats more likely is that the CSA is going with an if it aint broke dont fix it mentality, a super dumb strategy, but not a huge deal bc sutton is pretty damn good too. lars' personality, likeability is also probably working against him on some level. its too bad, but thats the way it goes sometimes, especially with the keeper position.

[wildboy26]

I would not expect naive individuals to be able to see a simple conspiracy I was able to see almost 3 years ago. Canadian Soccer fans are mostly composed of people who prefer to see weaker people playing over stronger people, as that is what makes the most sense to them. Thus the much weaker Kenny Stampoooloos playing regularly over the much better Lars Hirschfeld jives with the logic of a Canadian Soccer fan, and no decent explanation needs to be given for it. That is why the Canadian Soccer Association knows they can succeed with this type of conspiracy theory, and people in other sports with fans who do not prefer/accept weaker people playing regularly over better people as Canadian Soccer fans prefer, would not allow establishment to pull of the same sort of conspiracy with success.

[Loud Mouth Soup]

Look, would you just stop whining, Mrs. Hirschfeld?