Teach me about Canada

[vemerez]

I know you guys have a mls team now(good job) but I was wondring about the rest of the country? Canada surely has a national team right? So where do the players come from? I looked on the wiki but not much info:o

Anyway hope to see you guys do good in 2007 :)

[narduch]

Thank you for the interest :)

Cheering for the Canadian national team takes a lot of work. We don't play many home games and we haven't done well in World Cup qualifying since the 1994 edition. Add to that the fact that due to the multicultural flavour of our country, our own national team is laughed at the expense of people clinging to their old world ties. The snobbery can get disgusting sometimes :(

I guess the highlights for our nation have to be qualifying for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. We defeated Honduras on the last day to make it. At that time, Honduras was a real power in the region (along with Mexico of course). At the actual event, we lost all 3 matches in the group stage, against France, the USSR and Hungary, but we were not embarrassed.

The other big highlight has to be winning the 2000 Gold Cup. We defeated Mexico, T&T and Columbia along the way. Due to winning this event, we went into 2002 WCQ with so much confidence. But we failed to get out of the semi-final group that included Mexico, T&T and Panama. We did qualify for the Copa America and the Confederation Cup because of the Gold Cup win. We pulled out of the Copa America when the event was called off because of security concerns in Columbia. In the 2001 Confed Cup, we were defeated by Japan and Cameroon, but we managed a 0-0 tie with Brazil :)

In 2006 World Cup qualifying, we got put into the Group of Death in the semi-final round. Costa Rica and Guatemala advanced to the hex, while Canada and Honduras were out of the WCQ early.

The professional game in Canada is in disarray, but we hope that things will improve with Toronto FC of the MLS. Our three best teams professionally play in the USL Div. 1 (Montreal Impact, Toronto Lynx and Vancouver Whitecaps) Hey, Romario is playing in this league, for Miami!

As for our players, most of our best are spread around Europe:

Julian DeGuzman - Deportivo La Caruna
Dwayne DeRosario - Houston (MLS)
Sandro Grande - Molde (Norway)
Lars Hirshfield - Rosenborg (Norway)
Iain Hume - Leicester City
Atiba Hutchinson - FC Copenhagen (Denmark)
Kevin McKenna - Energie Cottbus
Tomasz Radzinski - Fullham
Paul Stalteri - Tottenham

Basically, being a Canadian fan means having a lot of hope, and a lot of heartbreak.

[CoachG]

One of our national networks asked the same thing and put together a report on the lack of football in this country.

CTV Report: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060615/canada_soccer_060615/20060615?hub=TopStories

Globe & Mail (National Newspaper from Toronto): http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060613.LETTERS13-7/TPStory/Comment

The Calgary Sun: http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Soccer/Canada/2006/06/02/1611414-sun.html

Ottawa Citizen Article: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/sports/story.html?id=24186835-e71b-4801-aa83-0d3e0fb27f26&k=65408

Essentially, the lack of support at the senior amateur level hinders us. Our youngsters have nowhere to progress - Europe is just not an option and US college is looking within as the US makes huge gains at the grassroots levels.

The lack of Media support and business support. Hockey, Football, Baseball are supported a lot more.

The Canadian Soccer Association has set up 5 National Training Centers that are design to nurture and train potential recruits at the U18 and younger levels.

Another obsticle is our geography. We are too big, travel costs are too expensive to bring in all these recruits together on a regular basis. This also makes a national league an unrealistic proposition. This is why the Canadian Soccer League folded. The travelling expenses got out of hand. Let me put it this way, London is as close, if not closer to Montreal than Vancouver.

We have semi-pro regional leagues such as the re-encarnated CSL in southern Ontario, which is the equivalent of our National 3rd division. Other provinces have premier leagues, which is composed of the best amateurs and some U16s and U18s, but again, our vast geography make it tough.

Then there is the bigger cities with USL franchises: Vancouver Whitecaps, Montreal Impact and Toronto Lynx. Both Vancouver and Montreal have experience success and are growing, with both cities building soccer specific stadiums for their franchises. The Toronto Lynx haven't faired so well and since the emergence of Toronto FC in the MLS, I question whether they're going to be around much longer. Edmonton and Calgary had USL franchises for one year which went belly up. I don't know what the problem was exactly, but I think it might be related to travel costs, not enough sponsors, poor quality play, not enough ticket money - this relates to playing in venues that were too big as well. These franchises need to play in soccer specific venues that house an atmosphere and that do not exceed 5000 seats. Anyway, I digress.

So, most of our national team players are playing in the USL, a few in the MLS and a handfull in Scandinavia and Europe. Scandinavia is a somewhat viable option for the better players that have money to get their foot into Europe as their immigration seems to be less strict to Canadians working over there. Others have some kind of European connection such as a European parent that entitles them to a passport.

But to get notice they often spend thousands to go overseas for try-outs, camps, tournaments and tours of elite teams - lots of Mulla which is not necessarily soccer elite, but money elite as not everyone can afford this. Our cream is certainly not rising to the top. Our winters make the sport expensive as there is a fee related to maintaining indoor facilities which alianates the immigrant talent and good players in the lower brackets.

Lots of problems here. It really does come down to money in the end.

For 2007 I think we can do well, but our unsigned talents have to be picked up. Nuñez comes to mind.

[CoachG]

Here is the a forum of the Canadian Fans: http://www.canadian-soccer.com/forum/default.asp

[vemerez]

Thanks guys for some good input! I was looking around at concacaf and I noticed Canada, and it really hit me like, whoa I dont know anything about em.

[Fenianbhoy]

I hearby Pledge my allegiance Toronto fc, that from here by with i will be looking for there results & that they kick as much american ass as possible. :D

Sign this pledge & get free porn.:D

[Zico]

Yes there is absolutely no support for the sport.

An interesting fact is the football is the #1 participation sport in Canada yet we can not develop talent beyond that level!!!

Its a shame... my days are done since I'm 30 now (today to be exact!!! :eek: ) but I plan on getting season tickets to our MLS team to support the game... not sure if I will go to every game but I'm getting season tickets because I hope that one day one of my kids becomes a star, at least I'll support them if they want to take that path!

[staggerlee]

Football will grow in Canada now I guarantee it. So many kids play it out here in BC that it reminds me of home (yes, England..)

Plus Toronto FC have given me a reason to get excited. I am pretty mcuh settling down for good here and I am moving to Ontario soon. Toronto are going to be my new local team (along with my perrenially beloved Liverpool) and I will spend the summer penning some Toronto chants. I'm buying a shirt as soon as I can. Come on Canada...

[upsider13259]

The other problem is most Canadians outside Ontario cannot stomach Toronto and will make an effort to NOT cheer for the Toronto MLS team.

[karmaf1]

We need MLS teams in Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton.

[varun]

We need MLS teams in Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary
i agree, definitly Montreal
and Edmonton.
i doubt anyone will bother :)

[Redstar]

ottawa too (probbly not thou)

[jak914]

I would like to see some more teams in canada. Would deffinately help canadian football. would love to see canada become more competitive in concacaf. North American could become a powerhouse :p :D

[adammac_19]

An interesting fact is the football is the #1 participation sport in Canada yet we can not develop talent beyond that level!!!



Well from experience I can say that most of the people that play football in my region (Alantic) only do it becasue it is to keep fit for hockey season. The only reason why kids dont continue with it is becasue there is no furtue in it that they can see becasue we lack the professional league and hopfully with the MLS coming in that can give young kids now a day the hope that they can make it to professional football and make a living off it.

[jak914]

let me tell from experience that here in Oak Park Illinois, right outside chicago, we have been run by the youth baseball leagues. every kid in the town seemed to play youth baseball until this summer. they are having trouble filling teams. one of the coaches told my brother that this was happening and it was due to youth soccer. so there is hope for you canadians for the kids to catch on. it will just take a little while. i mean look how long it has take for soccer to catch on at here in the states. it is really only starting a tiny bit. there is much farther for it to go.