Worrying times for Canadian men’s game
With Major League Soccer’s 20th season set to kick off on March 6, a number of contentious player moves have placed an even brighter spotlight on the underwhelming Canadian senior men’s program.
Canada’s lone trip to the FIFA World Cup in 1986 is such a distant memory that a vast majority of the current generation is completely unaware of it. The older Canadian soccer supporters have been frustrated for a very long time and, unfortunately, there appears to be no realistic solution in sight anytime soon.
Canada sits 117th in the Feb. 12 FIFA World Rankings, sandwiched between Kenya (116) and Niger (118) and behind non-soccer powers such as Faroe Islands (T105), Botswana (T105) and Sudan (112). In the CONCACAF region, Canada sits 15th, ranked behind minnows Antigua and Barbuda (99) and the Dominican Republic (108). Since the FIFA rankings were introduced in 1992, Canada’s average ranking is a mediocre 76th.
Canada actually climbed to an all-time high of 40th in the world rankings in December 1996 before collapsing over time to an embarrassingly low 122nd in August 2014.
For those who don’t think the FIFA rankings are important, think again. One criteria necessary in order to be granted a work permit to play in the coveted English Premiership is that the player’s national team must be ranked in the top 70 in the world. There are, of course, exceptions to every rule, but in most cases this and similar rules are applied in England and other top European leagues. Calculations of the FIFA rankings have long been debated, but in Canada’s case, it accurately illustrates a negative overview of Canadian soccer that has become too blatant to ignore.
In recent times, success on Canada’s men’s side virtually begins and ends with the U17’s. Led by coach Sean Fleming, Canada’s U17 youth team has qualified for successive FIFA World Cups and is about to embark on a quest to reach its third straight tournament.
At the U20 level, Canada’s weaknesses become apparent. The U20 team has failed to qualify for the last four FIFA World Cups and if not for hosting the tournament in 2007 likely would have missed out on a fifth straight. Since most of the graduated U20 players traditionally make up Canada’s U23 Olympic team, it should come as no surprise to learn that Canada has never qualified for the Olympic Games on the men’s side.
So if things aren’t working well at the important U20 and U23 levels, how can the Canadian Soccer Association expect the senior team to compete against the world’s best? The simple answer is it shouldn’t, because at the moment, they’re not capable. In Canada’s last 20 senior matches, it has won only once with a 1-7-12 record. But that’s only a fraction of the story.
To gain further understanding of how significantly Canada has fallen in men’s soccer, it’s only fitting we compare the program to that of our neighbours and bitter rivals in the United States. In 1996, with Canada ranked 40th in the world, the U.S. sat only 22 places above in 18th spot. Today, despite dropping down to 27th in the world, the U.S. is an insurmountable 85 places above Canada.
The launch of MLS in 1996 did wonders for the U.S. program. Armed with its own league, U.S. soccer executives developed an audacious level of ambition. Their two main objectives have always been to develop the American game and its players and there’s no denying they’ve succeeded. Meanwhile, on both those fronts, Canada has fallen further and further behind.
MLS has been called the most diverse major sports league in North America, but make no mistake, it is predominantly an American league at its core.
Exhibit A: in a league that plays in both countries, why else would Canadian players still be considered “foreigners” on an American team when Americans on Canadian teams are not? Labour laws? If you say so! To date, the CSA has been unsuccessful in its implausible attempt to change that rule ... and I’m not holding my breath.
U.S. soccer has been able to get away with it and in return, its national program is consistent and steady in growth. The same cannot be said for the Canadian men’s program.
Canada’s three MLS teams (Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal) had been expected to play a significant role toward improving Canada’s grim outlook. So far, that has not transpired.
There were 19 Canadian national team players spread throughout MLS in 2014, compared with only four in 2006, but those numbers are slightly misleading. When you probe a little deeper, you’ll realize that no more than five of the 19 Canadian internationals in MLS during the 2014 season were regular starters for their respective teams.
Are the Canadian clubs not doing enough for Canadian players? Or is it simply that the Canadian players are not good enough? It’s a combination of both. Of the 24 players in the Canadian senior men’s team pool, eight are currently without a club. You read that correctly. Thirty-three per cent of Canada’s top senior players cannot find a club at the level they desire to play at. The list includes 33-year-old captain Julian de Guzman and 36-year-old Dwayne De Rosario, Canada’s alltime top scorer and former MLS MVP.
In the last two years, while MLS has been welcoming home a steady stream of U.S. internationals from their European adventures with open arms and multimillion-dollar deals, Canadian internationals have even found it difficult to earn a contract with one of the three Canadian MLS teams.
In 2015, American players will account for an average of 14 per team in MLS, compared with a paltry 1.15 Canadians per team.
With Canada’s international ranking stuck in free-fall mode and with players deemed to be below standard, these are worrying times indeed for the men’s soccer program. The Canadian Soccer Association has discussed many road maps aimed at steering the program out of the wilderness. All have failed.