Canada feeling the heat in Mexico
WORLD CUP QUALIFYING: National team faces severe test at imposing Estadio Azteca, where it has never won
MEXICO CITY — Improbable, if not unimaginable describes Canada’s chances at Estadio Azteca.
If Tuesday’s match were a featured film, Mission Impossible would be its title.
The Canadian men’s national team has not won in Mexico City in five previous visits. Nobody believes in them.
“Impossible is nothing,” head coach Benito Floro said ahead of Tuesday’s World Cup qualifier.
“Maybe (Mexico) will consider it impossible for us to win and they’ll relax.”
Don’t count on it. Azteca is more secure than Area 51. Mexico has lost just twice here in 78 qualifiers dating back to the 1960s.
Canada had hoped B.C. Place would provide a similar safe haven when these two sides met in Vancouver last week.
“Our mistakes played in favour of Mexico,” Floro said of Friday’s 3-0 defeat. “The majority of the time we were in between. We were not initiating our press early or we weren’t seeing that we couldn’t press and dropping off.”
As a result, the lack of balance behind the ball created gaps that saw Canada become stretched in certain moments of the game. That allowed Mexico to exploit what Floro described as bad “habits” ingrained in his players.
“I’m happy with our intention,” Floro said at the midway point of this qualifying campaign. “I’m not happy with how fast we’re increasing our level. I’d like some of our mistakes to have been corrected by now.”
Ahead of Tuesday’s gargantuan test, Floro’s record sits at 7-9-9. He’s still collecting the pieces left over from a 2014 qualifying campaign that ended in disaster.
He’s critical, but confident and unafraid of brutal honesty. Floro guarantees nothing and leaves open the possibility Canada might not progress beyond this stage.
“I never say yes,” Floro said after being asked if Canada will advance. But I’m convinced our team is one of the favourites to make the hexagonal.”
Honduras and El Salvador — which meet Tuesday in Honduras — are close behind, hoping to surpass Canada for second place in Group A.
The two Central American sides played to a draw last week.
“I believe we cannot only make the hex, but also the World Cup in 2018,” Floro continued.
“In fact, I consider this round more difficult than making the hex and qualifying for the World Cup. The more games we play, the better for us.”
Whether Floro will be here beyond September is anyone’s best guess. In the months following Tuesday’s affair, his tenure will be dissected and debated.
Should he remain beyond his current contract if Canada fails to make the final round of qualifying for the sixth consecutive cycle?
“We are permanently in progress,” Floro said, adding for effect: “It’s positive.
“The progress of the team — if we’re speaking about being a serious team, a difficult team for opponents — it’s really good. But I always want more.”
Getting more out of the Canadian player has always been an issue central to the conversation.
Talk of Tuesday’s qualifier often transitioned between the match itself and the development of the Canadian player.
Floro married Friday’s defeat with a lack of tactical awareness that should be instructed at the youth ranks.