PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
The Canadian soccer teams have hit the field and say they are ready to make history on home turf
If there’s anything that you want the captain of a Canadian men’s soccer side to say, it is exactly what Chris Mannella said on Tuesday.
“We’re here to change history, and we know it,” said the 21-year-old from Mississauga and Toronto FC 2, who was chosen by head coach Antonio Floro as the skipper for the Pan Am Games.
“Come game time, we’re not worried about tying 0-0 or not putting any goals in the net, because we know they’ll come. We’re trying to put the balls in the back of the net and make the fans cheer.”
If that statement were music it would be the Hallelujah Chorus. If it were made in the 1980s or 1990s, it would be heresy.
Because we were a relatively young nation wherein hockey and football were the primary men’s sports for a century, Canada’s soccer stylistic DNA, at least on the men’s side, has generally been far more about preventing damage than inflicting it. Traditionally unblessed with a plethora of natural history-influenced scorers, Canada has often fielded teams which were tough defensively and, well, close to non-existent offensively.
When Canada scored three goals in the final two matches to win the 2000 Gold Cup — the senior national team’s great highlight this century — veteran soccer watchers almost f ainted. But the next year, the celebrated highlight was a game with Brazil which ended in, guess what, a 0-0 tie.
It was put to head coach Antonio Floro, whose father, Benito, is the national senior team coach, that Canada’s men’s soccer has a well-earned reputation for falling back, rather than surging forward. Floro says it needs to be a combination of both.
“I don’t know exactly the philosophy here before, but it’s not our philosophy to just f all back,” Floro said Tuesday. “Our philosophy is to fight face to face, not to be afraid of any opponent, to try to keep the position, to try to play and attack fast. We do want to attack.
“We have to attack well and defend well. If a team attacks well and doesn’t defend it is no good. And if a team does the opposite … the same.
“We won’t fall back right off the start. First it is not good for the team, and second it is not the style of the national team.”
The Pan Am team, which is for players under 22, opens against Brazil at CIBC Hamilton Pan Am Soccer Stadium on Sunday, the day after all eight women’s teams see action.
Brazil, one of the most successful soccer nations in the world at all levels, has had some rough outings in the past couple of years, low-lighted by its 7-1 loss to Germany in last year’s men’s World Cup … played right in Brazil.
Rio de Janeiro has the Olympics next summer, and since the age limit is under-23 for the Olympics, the team we see Sunday is almost certainly the team which will carry the home flag in next summer’s Games.
“It’s an important game,” Floro says. “Not because it’s Brazil but because it’s the first game. You want to win, to gain confidence and to play the second game with less pressure. If our opponent was Panama or Peru (the other two teams in Canada’s group) it would be the same thing.”
Canada starts its podium drive from the back seat, as far as training together goes. While most of the players have been part of nationalteam training camps at some level and have therefore had some interaction with each other, this team hasn’t been on its own before, and Tuesday was only its second day of practice under Floro.
Peru, by contrast, has spent more than a week in intense training and the Brazilians have worked together for at least that long.
“I’m not sure how many days all the opponents have had in training but we cannot start to think we don’t have time,” said Floro. “We cannot let that affect our thinking or be an excuse. We have this week of training, and we’ll see. If we win the game maybe the week is enough. If we lose, maybe you say there is not enough time.”