Canadian Soccer Part II

[theaub]

Hey, at least they didn't get annihilated this time around.

Baby steps, right?

It still amazes me, how our women's team can be top five on the planet, while the men's team has been more or less spinning its' tires for the better part of the last three decades, providing very little aside from disappointment.

What gives?

No one cares about women's soccer so its easier to be good at it.

Even if Pep Guardiola was the coach of this team, what the hell could he do with a bunch of players with horrible technique, minimal soccer IQ and very little tactical nous?

The players are not good enough, period.

The smartest investment the CSA could make would be to pony the cash to have 2 or 3 hundred coaches across the country work full time in obtaining UEFA coaching licenses. No individual in Canada with the title of 'Coach' should be doing so without an UEFA license, ESPECIALLY those working with kids.

People keep pointing out the huge number of kids playing in this country but never mention the people coaching these kids. Potential is great but if you don't have individuals who can identify, unlock, develop and nurture that potential, you might as well not be in the business altogether.

I've said this many times before but if Xavi had been Canadian, he probably would have been phased out of the game by the time he was 13. Not big enough, not fast enough, blablabla.

Secondly, we desperately need some kind of identity. What the hell is Canadian football supposed to be? Physical players who can run hard? Terrible and clearly not good enough. Figure out what we would like to be and implement it from the u-14 to the senior level.

If I was in charge, no single player under the age 13 would play a second of football on a pitch or turf in this country. Futsal year round from 6 to 13 years old. Then and only then do you start breaking them in on grass. 10 to 15 years of this and we would no longer see so many mediocre players with brutal first touches and poor ball control on our senior side at the very least.

The wheels are already in motion for this, but its not like you just snap your fingers and a golden generation shows up. The CSA was in absolute shambles until say...2011 so its been five years and a true LTPD system has just been started to be implemented which means at least another 20 years before you truly see the results of it (if it goes well). Of course, you shouldn't need a full fledged LTPD system to beat El Salvador's C-team on the road (or if we want to be honest, to knock five past a totally disinterested El Salvador team on Tuesday but I digress).

The general problem with the men's team is barring an absolute miracle on Tuesday, its another 3+ years until they play another meaningful match (lol Gold Cup). So everyone stops caring about the MNT and then they drop back in for a couple of months etc

 

[Wee Baby Seamus]

No one cares about women's soccer so its easier to be good at it.

I think it's actually even more specific than that: it's no coincidence that, with the exception of Brazil, all of the women's soccer powers are very highly developed countries. From what I can tell, women's soccer gets funding when there's money to burn. Because women's soccer is globally treated as secondary to men's, less developed countries don't prioritize it, so more developed countries such as Canada, which are absolute garbage in the men's game, are able to become big players in the women's because they can devote the infrastructure. And it helps that, because of this success, you get girls being inspired by people like Christine Sinclair, which continues a cycle of investment, both fiscal and emotional, in women's soccer.

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

Youth soccer is still being hampered by inept coaching. The local youth team got their 3rd coach in 9 months. My friend quit after he realized how in over his head he was... The boys have pretty much adopted the long ball strategy anyways. They desperately tried to get me to coach since I at least know the basics but I declined since it was a volunteer position with long hours.

What you saw 20 years ago in youth soccer is what you see now. It's bloody terrible to watch. I never sugarcoated it...my friend should have never been a coach. His experience was playing FIFA 12.

 

[littleD]

Youth soccer is still being hampered by inept coaching. The local youth team got their 3rd coach in 9 months. My friend quit after he realized how in over his head he was... The boys have pretty much adopted the long ball strategy anyways. They desperately tried to get me to coach since I at least know the basics but I declined since it was a volunteer position with long hours.

What you saw 20 years ago in youth soccer is what you see now. It's bloody terrible to watch. I never sugarcoated it...my friend should have never been a coach. His experience was playing FIFA 12.

It will take decades for youth soccer in Canada to rid itself of long ball "strategy."

 

[IHaveNoCreativity]

Jason DeVos will help change this

 

[Suiteness]

The wheels are already in motion for this, but its not like you just snap your fingers and a golden generation shows up. The CSA was in absolute shambles until say...2011 so its been five years and a true LTPD system has just been started to be implemented which means at least another 20 years before you truly see the results of it (if it goes well).

What I saw from the LTPD was an intention to tackle the symptoms instead of attacking the disease. The entire nonsense about not keeping track of scores in tournaments or games or whatever is a great example. Why is there such a focus on scores in u-7 soccer? Well if you're a coach who doesn't have a clue on how your players are progressing, why they're not progressing and what needs to be done for them to progress, you will think that winning games is a way to measure progress. So instead of working on developing the technical aspects of the game with your players (which is what youth soccer should be all about), you focus on winning games. Youth soccer suddenly becomes hoofing long balls to bigger, stronger, faster kids who score a ton of goals. Case and point...

Youth soccer is still being hampered by inept coaching. The local youth team got their 3rd coach in 9 months. My friend quit after he realized how in over his head he was... The boys have pretty much adopted the long ball strategy anyways.

What you saw 20 years ago in youth soccer is what you see now. It's bloody terrible to watch. I never sugarcoated it...my friend should have never been a coach. His experience was playing FIFA 12.

There you go. It's complete nonsense that volunteers with zero knowledge of the game can end up coaching teams.

UEFA certification should be the absolute minimum to coach the game ESPECIALLY with kids. Until you resolve that issue, we're going nowhere.

 

[EchoesoftheEighties]

Jason DeVos will help change this

Quality

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

There you go. It's complete nonsense that volunteers with zero knowledge of the game can end up coaching teams.

UEFA certification should be the absolute minimum to coach the game ESPECIALLY with kids. Until you resolve that issue, we're going nowhere.

Exactly. At age 8, kids should be learning the fundamentals. Games should be more competitive yet structured (coaches have to always be interactive). Refs and linesmen need to be better trained to call offsides and infractions. In the two games I filled in for as coach...it was frustrating to see the one linesman ignore blatent offsides.

I mentioned this before but I spent some time in an Italian youth soccer team (coached by a former Serie B player) and the difference between there and here is night and day. You barely spend time on refining individual skills there since you work on them during your own time. Losing is a big deal, but screwing up formation and messing up defensively is a cardinal sin that will see you get yelled at.

 

[IHaveNoCreativity]

Quality

It's his job now actually.

 

[Hackett]

Hey, at least they didn't get annihilated this time around.

Baby steps, right?

It still amazes me, how our women's team can be top five on the planet, while the men's team has been more or less spinning its' tires for the better part of the last three decades, providing very little aside from disappointment.

What gives?

The women's team plays in a much smaller pond. I think the only reason the Canadians are better on the women's side is because many countries still have a culture where women are not supposed to participate in sport.

Canada just happens to be one of those nations that is further along in accepting women in higher levels of sport, but I wouldn't expect this type of advantage to last forever. Eventually, other nations will probably evolve, and the pool wont be as small anymore.

 

[theaub]

What I saw from the LTPD was an intention to tackle the symptoms instead of attacking the disease. The entire nonsense about not keeping track of scores in tournaments or games or whatever is a great example. Why is there such a focus on scores in u-7 soccer? Well if you're a coach who doesn't have a clue on how your players are progressing, why they're not progressing and what needs to be done for them to progress, you will think that winning games is a way to measure progress. So instead of working on developing the technical aspects of the game with your players (which is what youth soccer should be all about), you focus on winning games. Youth soccer suddenly becomes hoofing long balls to bigger, stronger, faster kids who score a ton of goals. Case and point...

There you go. It's complete nonsense that volunteers with zero knowledge of the game can end up coaching teams.

UEFA certification should be the absolute minimum to coach the game ESPECIALLY with kids. Until you resolve that issue, we're going nowhere.

Not that I disagree with your ideas, but there needs to be realistic expectations. The CSA is hilariously underfunded compared to every other sport on a per player basis...if they had Hockey Canada funding, then yeah it would be fair to expect subsidized coaching courses that would allow every high level coach in the country to have top class qualifications. But that's never going to happen.

What needs to happen in the short term is there to at least be some sort of Canadian coaching course that means that if you're coaching at any level you're not just a volunteer playing hoofball but at least have an idea of how to teach ball control and tactics. And then an advanced course for anyone who is coaching above house league level. And then not just a technical director, but a number of regional crosscheckers who can make sure the programs are being implemented (and a national HPT centre for identified players up to the U-14/U-16 level where they would then be integrated into the pro team's academies would be optimal here).

The concept is right though. The level of coaching is just so bad here...its honestly amazing that a guy like Hutchinson is able to succeed at such a high level without leaving Canada until he was 19. Its embarrassing how little actual soccer skill our team has because no one ever taught them how to pass a ball.

 

[DoyleG]

It's his job now actually.

And he'll get nowhere.

Especially given the role he had in getting rid of our last competent coach.

 

[Rob]

Why is it that men in this country absolutely suck at any sport that involves a ball? Seriously sick and tired of this.

If you are comparing them to the women's national team then yes, it looks very bad. However, the reason the women are ranked so high is that Canada is just far ahead of many other countries when it comes to female athletics.

 

[IHaveNoCreativity]

And he'll get nowhere.

Especially given the role he had in getting rid of our last competent coach.

What role was that ?

 

[Tuggy]

So tonight we need to put up our own 8-1

The only glimmer of hope is that El Salvador has absolutely nothing to play for. But expecting us to score goals is asking a lot. Of course, Mexico still needs to win and do it convincingly. I give us about a 1% chance...

 

[Blender]

I think it's actually even more specific than that: it's no coincidence that, with the exception of Brazil, all of the women's soccer powers are very highly developed countries. From what I can tell, women's soccer gets funding when there's money to burn. Because women's soccer is globally treated as secondary to men's, less developed countries don't prioritize it, so more developed countries such as Canada, which are absolute garbage in the men's game, are able to become big players in the women's because they can devote the infrastructure. And it helps that, because of this success, you get girls being inspired by people like Christine Sinclair, which continues a cycle of investment, both fiscal and emotional, in women's soccer.

I definitely think that this is the case. We're a country that has respected and financed women's sports for a long time now, and the results speak for themselves. It's not surprising that other countries with similar values have done the same and are seeing similar results.

The pool of talent and development is far larger in the men's game, and we really need to improve the systems we have if we are going to compete. Based on population and the number of soccer players we have, it isn't unreasonable to expect better development than we curently get.

 

[CanadianFlyer88]

So tonight we need to put up our own 8-1

The only glimmer of hope is that El Salvador has absolutely nothing to play for. But expecting us to score goals is asking a lot. Of course, Mexico still needs to win and do it convincingly. I give us about a 1% chance...

Are you sure?

El Salvador refuses bribe to fix match vs Canada

El Salvador's national football team say they have refused a bribe to fix Tuesday's World Cup 2018 qualifying game against Canada.

At a news conference, team members played an audio recording of the person allegedly offering various incentives.

Canada must beat El Salvador - who cannot qualify - in Vancouver, and hope Mexico defeat Honduras in the final round of Group A games to stand a chance of progressing.

...

"They played an 11-minute conversation with the attempted match-fixer. He was offering each player a variety of money per minute depending on the result they could get. The most they would have got for allegedly fixing the match would have been about $3,000 per player."

Hill said the offer was allegedly made by an El Salvadorian who knew some of the players, but who wanted to aid the Honduras national team.

 

[theaub]

How bad do you have to be where someone offers you money to 'only' lose 1-0 to Canada?

Clearly they now need to show they aren't being bribed by losing 5-0 right

 

[Tuggy]

Sounds legit.

 

[Tom ServoMST3K]

I have no faith in a Canadian team to put up a big number in the goals for column.

Mexico will need to give us a big hand.

Both games ending 3-0 is the most realistic scenario for a Canadian advancement.

 

[Tom ServoMST3K]

Are you sure?

El Salvador refuses bribe to fix match vs Canada

Am I crazy or shouldn't this be a HUGE deal?

 

[theaub]

It is in Central America, but its par for the course with MNT coverage here

If Canada does the relatively impossible and advances we'll get some solid drive-by coverage from MSM about it being fixed.

 

[Tom ServoMST3K]

It is in Central America, but its par for the course with MNT coverage here

If Canada does the relatively impossible and advances we'll get some solid drive-by coverage from MSM about it being fixed.

The theoretical fix would be in against Canada's favour.

 

[theaub]

The theoretical fix would be in against Canada's favour.

Yes, the hot takes of 'Canada advanced...but it was probably fixed' will be out in full force

 

[Tom ServoMST3K]

Yes, the hot takes of 'Canada advanced...but it was probably fixed' will be out in full force

Canada Advanced, despite a fix attempt. would be my guess.

Wonder if they don't make it (which is like 95% to happen) what would happen.