TFC07 Posted July 29, 2013 Share Posted July 29, 2013 That's the practical reason, but CONCACAF have dressed it up as the "defending champions" getting in free. That's actually supported by the fact that we had to qualify for 2000, I remember a 4-team group with El Salvador and others. If we were to do it again it could be a group between us, the 5th place Caribbean team, and the 5th and 6th place Central American teams with two advancing to the tournament. Let's say Canada is better than Mexico. What would CONCACAF do then? Would Mexico have to qualify for Gold Cup instead of Canada? My point is that it isn't fair for Canada to play qualifying games for Gold Cup if other NA teams don't have qualify at all. There needs to be a North American tournament and team finishes last plays against 5th place Caribbean team and two last place Central American teams for last two Gold Cup spots. That will be fair, but I am not sure money is there to make it happen though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Bob Posted July 29, 2013 Share Posted July 29, 2013 Ewwww, aim a little higher. I hope someday Canada's soccer team is so good that Russell Teibert's crosses become powerful enough to launch satellites into space. But right now, playing as well as the Americans is a sufficiently unrealistic, high goal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madmonte Posted July 29, 2013 Share Posted July 29, 2013 I hope someday Canada's soccer team is so good that Russell Teibert's crosses become powerful enough to launch satellites into space. But right now, playing as well as the Americans is a sufficiently unrealistic, high goal. He might as well launch them into outer space, maybe someone would get onto the other end of it, out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smartlikefox Posted July 29, 2013 Share Posted July 29, 2013 I hope someday Canada's soccer team is so good that Russell Teibert's crosses become powerful enough to launch satellites into space. But right now, playing as well as the Americans is a sufficiently unrealistic, high goal. Yep, as much as it pains me to say, the Americans are building a very good program on the backs of the MLS. They've had the same problem with young players deciding to play for other countries that we've had but now those young players are deciding to play for the US instead because they actually have a good program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob.notenboom Posted July 29, 2013 Share Posted July 29, 2013 He might as well launch them into outer space, maybe someone would get onto the other end of it, out there. Chris Hadfield would get on the other end of them and nod them in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Macksam Posted July 29, 2013 Share Posted July 29, 2013 I hope someday Canada's soccer team is so good that Russell Teibert's crosses become powerful enough to launch satellites into space. But right now, playing as well as the Americans is a sufficiently unrealistic, high goal. No, not really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keegan Posted July 29, 2013 Share Posted July 29, 2013 No, not really. +1 aiming to play like the Americans "someday" is pathetic ambition. Aiming to compete with them (and anyone in CONCACAF) in the next 5-7 years is a decent goal. Aiming to surpass the Americans in 10-15 years is a much better goal and definitely possible. Yes folks, we can be better than the Americans at more than hockey.. footy is next. If we can get MLS to make Canadians domestics on US teams and a decent "CHL" style league to feed players into MLS we'll be at our situation in hockey and we're not too bad at that. Hockey and footy are two sports that are more popular in Canada per capita than the USA yet they have more pro teams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canucklefan Posted July 29, 2013 Share Posted July 29, 2013 +1 aiming to play like the Americans "someday" is pathetic ambition. Aiming to compete with them (and anyone in CONCACAF) in the next 5-7 years is a decent goal. Aiming to surpass the Americans in 10-15 years is a much better goal and definitely possible. Yes folks, we can be better than the Americans at more than hockey.. footy is next. If we can get MLS to make Canadians domestics on US teams and a decent "CHL" style league to feed players into MLS we'll be at our situation in hockey and we're not too bad at that. Hockey and footy are two sports that are more popular in Canada per capita than the USA yet they have more pro teams. So, you pretend the Americans will help us to be better than them. Nice one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greatest Cockney Rip Off Posted July 30, 2013 Share Posted July 30, 2013 So, you pretend the Americans will help us to be better than them. Nice one. Why not? Canada helps the US by playing so many American players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killgod Posted July 30, 2013 Share Posted July 30, 2013 +1 aiming to play like the Americans "someday" is pathetic ambition. Aiming to compete with them (and anyone in CONCACAF) in the next 5-7 years is a decent goal. Aiming to surpass the Americans in 10-15 years is a much better goal and definitely possible. Yes folks, we can be better than the Americans at more than hockey.. footy is next. If we can get MLS to make Canadians domestics on US teams and a decent "CHL" style league to feed players into MLS we'll be at our situation in hockey and we're not too bad at that. Hockey and footy are two sports that are more popular in Canada per capita than the USA yet they have more pro teams. MLS aint ever gonna cut Canadian players a break. MLS is an American league, thinking otherwise is just kidding yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFC07 Posted July 30, 2013 Share Posted July 30, 2013 Canada is only going to get better once either we get more pro teams in American leagues (MLS and NASL with strong academy/development system in place) or we form our own league (2nd division at minimum). NCAA and US MLS teams aren't going help us that much. Canadian MLS Academy alone isn't going to cut it either. Right now, lack of pro league is killing Canada in soccer. We need players playing and training in professional environment all season long (well most of the year). For the record: our goal should be closer to being like top teams in the world. I personally think with right people and infrastructure in place, it's possible that Canada can become a powerhouse in soccer (there isn't much competition for sports in this country including hockey which is becoming a rich man sport). However all this will take a very long time (probably 30 years at least) to reach that level. That should be our long term goal! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Macksam Posted July 30, 2013 Share Posted July 30, 2013 So, you pretend the Americans will help us to be better than them. Nice one. Even if Canadians don't become domestics on US based teams, they can still become prominent in the league when we create a structure that can consistently develop players for MLS. Everything else Keegan said holds weight. His foresight is second to none. MLS aint ever gonna cut Canadian players a break. It doesn't need to. They will eventually speak for themselves. Canada is only going to get better once either we get more pro teams in American leagues (MLS and NASL with strong academy/development system in place) or we form our own league (2nd division at minimum). NCAA and US MLS teams aren't going help us that much. Canadian MLS Academy alone isn't going to cut it either. Right now, lack of pro league is killing Canada in soccer. We need players playing and training in professional environment all season long (well most of the year). For the record: our goal should be closer to being like top teams in the world. I personally think with right people and infrastructure in place, it's possible that Canada can become a powerhouse in soccer (there isn't much competition for sports in this country including hockey which is becoming a rich man sport). However all this will take a very long time (probably 30 years at least) to reach that level. That should be our long term goal! If we professionalize and develop our structure a little more like you said, Canadian soccer could be on the level of Belgium (on their good days) or Uruguay in that time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFC07 Posted July 30, 2013 Share Posted July 30, 2013 If we professionalize and develop our structure a little more like you said, Canadian soccer could be on the level of Belgium (on their good days) or Uruguay in that time. Pretty much better than any other CONCACAF nation outside USA and Mexico (even though they're not looking so dominate these days). However, this will be very long process. We need right people in charge and right teachers to teach and develop players. We got resources, interest and players to make it happen, but we need top Canadian soccer folks to get it together. Hiring Floro is a good start, but we need more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canucklefan Posted July 30, 2013 Share Posted July 30, 2013 Even if Canadians don't become domestics on US based teams, they can still become prominent in the league when we create a structure that can consistently develop players for MLS. Everything else Keegan said holds weight. His foresight is second to none. I know we are trying to get to that point. However, there's a lack of results on that matter. Until the three Canadian clubs start dominating with a majority of Canadian players in their squads, it's naive to ask the league to give domestic status in the US to Canadian players. Lot of Voyageurs argued that the Canadian clubs can't fill their squads of Canadian players due to the lack of Canadian content, yet the same people will ask MLS and to give domestic status to Canadians in the US. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Bob Posted July 30, 2013 Share Posted July 30, 2013 25 years of almost uninterrupted regression relative to our CONCACAF rivals isn't going to reverse itself in five without the waving of a magic wand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFC07 Posted July 30, 2013 Share Posted July 30, 2013 25 years of almost uninterrupted regression relative to our CONCACAF rivals isn't going to reverse itself in five without the waving of a magic wand. I don't think CONCACAF is improving as much what people are making it out to be on here. CONCACAF teams still have trouble competing against top 25 teams in the world. Panama improve recent years, but their future once their key players retire is a big question mark. Honduras and Costa Rica simply don't have resources to be top dog in CONCACAF while Mexico isn't looking so great these days. USA is the only team that is actually improving in our region. I think Canada will catch up (we're starting to see it with our youth teams) with top teams in CONCACAF in a decade if we continue growing pro game in this country and getting more young Canadians playing in pro environment as much as possible. It's a long road, but future is looking much brighter than 10 years ago for Canada soccer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madmonte Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 I don't see how anyone watching Canadian men's soccer right now can say we shouldn't aspire to the relative success of the US team. We don't have to talk about our consecutive streak of qualifying for World Cups. Our big goal that we were trying to achieve last campaign was a consecutive streak of 1...for getting to the hex...and we failed. I'd love the success of the US program right now. That said, they win a few games in a row, and everyone all of a sudden treats them like gods. Mexico is on a bit of a tailspin lately and treated like dogs. 10 games is too little to make such massive judgements...I feel Mexico can turn it around in the next few games of the hex. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unnamed Trialist Posted July 31, 2013 Share Posted July 31, 2013 I don't see how anyone watching Canadian men's soccer right now can say we shouldn't aspire to the relative success of the US team. We don't have to talk about our consecutive streak of qualifying for World Cups. Our big goal that we were trying to achieve last campaign was a consecutive streak of 1...for getting to the hex...and we failed. I'd love the success of the US program right now. That said, they win a few games in a row, and everyone all of a sudden treats them like gods. Mexico is on a bit of a tailspin lately and treated like dogs. 10 games is too little to make such massive judgements...I feel Mexico can turn it around in the next few games of the hex. The US had by far the deepest team in the tournament, the Mexican side was quite inferior, Panama performed well but with their starters doing a great job. We do not have the depth right now of any of the teams in the HEX, we are pretty well where we belong. We probably do not have a single strong top flight player (maybe Hutch), when not long ago we could have said we did. As far as I see it our only hope is to overperform with what we have if we want to see a Gold Cup final or a Hex appearance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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