Honduras blocks road to Russia
WORLD CUP: Canada faces do-or-die match in September with an old nemesis
TORONTO — Nobody understands the highs and lows of international soccer better than Canadians. They support a team that rarely plateaus. There’s a revolving door of good and bad results.
Mixed results at recent Gold Cups have been followed by quality World Cup qualifying wins.
“I find that we’re too high and too low,” Canadian Soccer Association president Victor Montagliani told Postmedia in Mexico City.
“We get a half-decent result and people think it’s the next generation. Then, we don’t get a result and we get caned again.”
The slim margins that exist in CONCACAF qualifying facilitate extreme shifts in public perception on a game to game basis.
On four points through two Group A (Round 4) games, the Canadians were the talk of the town as recent as last week. Fans were hopeful Les Rouges would put on a performance against Mexico at B.C. Place.
Instead, El Tri hung a 3-0 result on Canada which brought things into perspective. Mexico followed that up Tuesday night with a pedestrian 2-0 win over Canada in Mexico City.
“I’m not going to say that having 55,000 fans (in Vancouver) wasn’t great, but it’s about playing the right way and, ultimately, getting results with the senior team,” Montagliani said. “That’s always been our focus.”
From that perspective, last week’s home loss must be viewed as a disappointment when you consider the Canadians played better Tuesday night on the road at hostile Azteca Stadium.
“I think we always knew it would come down to the last game or last two games,” Montagliani said.
A collision course with Honduras, to be exact.
The question is whether head coach Benito Floro, whose all-time record with Canada sits at 7-10-9, can accomplish what Stephen Hart failed to four years ago, when Canada was embarrassed 8-1 in San Pedro Sula. They’ll meet again in a do-or-die qualifier on Sept. 2.
Floro’s tenure
Floro’s current contract ends if Canada fails to advance to the hexagonal qualifying round for the fifth straight World Cup cycle.
Montagliani says he hasn’t thought about a potential coaching change.
“We’re in the present now,” he said. “It was about (this month’s qualifiers) and then it’s about the May friendlies.”
More broadly, the CSA’s top boss pointed to a positive culture shift within the program that Floro helped orchestrate.
That said, there remains an external perception that hasn’t completely changed. Floro has been both revered and smeared by fans and media the past three years.
“We’ve got to get results,” Montagliani said. “He’s going to be judged by that.”
Speaking of culture
Montagliani is hoping to change the culture within CONCACAF if he’s elected confederation president on May 12.
The CSA’s top boss told Postmedia earlier this year he’ll bring business experience to a confederation that’s remained economically stagnant.
“I’ve been travelling quite a bit,” he said. “The response has been positive.
The region needs a guy like Montagliani to come in and shake things up as the scandal-plagued confederation attempts to reinvent itself.
Someone say change?
Floro said this week it’s more difficult to reach CONCACAFs final round of qualifying than it is to reach Russia 2018.
“It should be the opposite,” Montagliani said.
As it stands, six teams — the top two finishers in each of three Round 4 groups—advance to CONCACAF’s final round of qualifying. From there, the top three automatically qualify for the World Cup, while the fourthplace finisher enters an intercontinental playoff.
The criticism of the current qualifying path is that there’s so little room for error during the penultimate round.
Advancing to the final stage is often determined by one or two games.
Montagliani left open the possibility that CONCACAF’s qualification process could change.
“There have always been factors, the cost being one for the economically smaller countries,” he said. “The other thing was the amount of friendlies the U.S. and Mexico would traditionally play, which generated revenue.”
Would CONCACAF be better served using a South Americanstyle qualifying model that uses more games?
“I think there’s some merit to that,” Montagliani said.
World Cup bid
It’s time to put up or shut up for the CSA if it’s serious about hosting the 2026 World Cup.
Montagliani expects preliminary aspects of the bidding process to begin this fall.
“FIFA will come out with a laundry list of what needs to be done,” Montagliani said.
“We’re going to have to put up our hand once we get it and then go from there.”
Bizarre but true
Canada can advance to the hexagonal even if it doesn’t score another goal.
Back-to-back goalless draws against Honduras and El Salvador in September would be enough, as long as neither of those sides beat Mexico.
The Canadians have scored just one goal during this qualifying stage.