Canada charts path to success
Nations League will be first test
TORONTO Head coach John Herdman sees a clear path to the 2022 and 2026 World Cups for Canada’s men’s soccer team, and it begins with the Nations League.
Herdman outlined Canada’s eight-year plan to qualify for the 2026 World Cup on its own merits on Tuesday, even though it could earn an automatic berth as a co-host with Mexico and the United States.
One of Herdman’s first steps is leading Canada to a strong showing in CONCACAF’s Nations League, a new format that will include all of the organization’s 41 member nations.
The Nations League will be divided into three groups and will crown a champion at the end of every competition. It will also serve as a qualifying path for the biennial Gold Cup and is expected to influence seeding in future World Cup qualifying.
“We hopefully will be a stable diet for Canadians, not only the hardcore fans,” said Herdman. “There’s a journey here, we can see it all connect, every result is critical, it’s a league. We either finish at the top of the league and be successful or bottom of the league and we’re rubbish. I think the fans can get behind that.
“It’s not like we’re going to take random friendlies in Spain against New Zealand for what purpose, I don’t know.”
Canada will begin the Nations League Qualifying series on Sept. 9 at the U.S. Virgin Islands and will host Dominica at Toronto’s BMO Field on Oct. 16. The Canadians will face St. Kitts and Nevis on the road on Nov. 18 and then host French Guiana on March 26.
The top 10 teams from the qualifying round of the Nations League will advance to the newly expanded 16team Gold Cup in 2019, joining the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama and Trinidad and Tobago. The Gold Cup teams will also form the top of the three groups that make up the new continental league. There will be relegation and promotion between groups A, B and C.
“Those four matches give us an opportunity to really start assessing the players,” said Herdman. “It’s not a given that you’re going to qualify for the Gold Cup. Every game is critical to our success in achieving a World Cup qualification berth.”
Herdman sees this as an opportunity to engage fans and help draw in top-tier players that hold dual citizenship that have previously opted to play for countries other than Canada.