hectorj Posted September 12, 2007 Share Posted September 12, 2007 When Stephen Brunt and other mainstream Canadian journalists discuss Canadian soccer, the fact that we were goalless in the '86 World Cup always makes an appearance. It pisses me off to no end that the fact we held the world's #1 (France) goalless for almost 80 minutes and performed respectfully in the other matches is not given more creedence. To me, it is almost a sign of ignorance when this fact is mentioned, as it is not relevant. We were the only non-European team and had a woeful lead-up due to no domestic league, MISL playoffs and CSA incompetence. Hell, two of our friendlies were on the rug at BC Place instead of natural grass. Our boys did a hell of a good job and made me proud to wave the flag in Irapuato and Leon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheeta Posted September 12, 2007 Share Posted September 12, 2007 Oh, brother I feel your pain. But honestly, I don't think it's entirely unfair. Sounds maybe a bit overly harsh to the casual reader but it speaks of the times. I just wish they'd also mention that '86 was a 24 team tournament. Can you imagine the quality of the sides today if the WC was a 24 team tourny? Crazy. It was a miracle that team even qualified, never mind did as well as they did during the Mexico tourny, goaless or not. The story for Canadian football was the journey, not the destination. Dude, you at Irapuato? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbailey62 Posted September 12, 2007 Share Posted September 12, 2007 quote:Originally posted by Cheeta Oh, brother I feel your pain. But honestly, I don't think it's entirely unfair. Sounds maybe a bit overly harsh to the casual reader but it speaks of the times. I just wish they'd also mention that '86 was a 24 team tournament. Can you imagine the quality of the sides today if the WC was a 24 team tourny? Crazy. It was a miracle that team even qualified, never mind did as well as they did during the Mexico tourny, goaless or not. The story for Canadian football was the journey, not the destination. Dude, you at Irapuato? If Bobby Lenarduzzi hadn't fluffed that sitter five yards from the goal line with a gaping goal, we wouldn't have to be living through this again. Not trying to be mean Bobby. The pain you feel is probably magnitudes worse than what we feel. db Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hectorj Posted September 12, 2007 Author Share Posted September 12, 2007 Yeah, I picked up about 2 million golf balls at a driving range to make my way down there. Gerry Gray's dad, Paul Dolan's mum and Mike Sweeney's dad and bro were in our group. We saw all the Canadian games plus 5 others and had a hell of a good time. We actually thought Canada scored; in the game against the USSR, Mitchell's free kick rippled the net and from our angle it looked like it was in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gkhs Posted September 12, 2007 Share Posted September 12, 2007 Obviously, the fact that we were held goal less says little about the run of play. It seems as if each time a Canadian team is held goal less at a subsequent event it recalls some mention of 86. I remember hearing a lot about it after the Confederations Cup, and now again after the u20s. If the goal less 86 had been a one off, I think we would have stopped hearing about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparky Posted September 12, 2007 Share Posted September 12, 2007 Its time to get over it. That was 21 years ago. I agree that it was the journey and not the destination but lets put it to bed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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