No news is good news???!/Canada friendly announced

October 19th, 2009 | By: Mike | 4 Comments »

Nothing too major to report on the last 2 months…here are some minor tidbits…

FIFA World Ranking Update
Canada has jumped to 53 in the FIFA Rankings after a somewhat exciting yet disappointing Gold Cup. This is our highest ranking since we were 51 in 2007, our highest being 40 in 1996.

Fan Reaction
Interesting Post from John in August:
Watched the US – Mexico game with great interest today and wondered how long (if ever) it will take for Canada to establish a compelling rivalry with either the Americans or with Mexico.
Until that happens – we will be posting about Gold Cup matchups instead of compelling World Cup matchups.
My take? You are absolutely right John, do we not have the talent to compete with the 2? Or is our nation just not entirely sold on the sport of soccer yet, simply put, is there enough interest nationally? I remember watching the Gold Cup opener against Jamaica on a Friday night and I was amazed by the lack of support. I was in an online chat where there were only 2 of us commentating the game. I was asked many times to change the channel at home, and put on something more “entertaining”. The sport needs a quick pick-me-up here in Canada. Will the expansion of the MLS north of the border help?

Finally another match!
Canada will be taking on Macedonia on November 14 in Skopje. The squad travelling to Macedonia has yet to be announced.

Tags: Team News

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Comments | Add your comment

By Jose | October 20th, 2009 at 3:02 am

Simple question of numbers if you ask me… No matter the resources of Canada, a country of 33 million in which soccer is by no means the most popular sport (is it even in the top three?) can’t be expected to produce talent to consistently compete well, even in CONCACAF.

Mexico has nearly four times the population and a million times the fanaticism. The United States, with almost ten times your population and more resources than any country in the world, can afford to lose 99% of its athletes to other sports and STILL put together a decent–if not damn fine– 23 man squad for any match.

By Jose | October 20th, 2009 at 3:07 am

(Forgot to finish up my point )

As long as Canada can’t really compete consistently against the CONCACAF giants, I wouldn’t hold my breath for a rivalry to develop.

Which sucks, really. The Central American countries have their fierce, local rivalries, and even the Caribbean countries can bounce around some bragging rights amongst themselves. But Canada is Canada :\ You qualify directly for the Gold Cup, put in a decent performance and then practically nothing for the next two years. Rinse, lather, repeat.

By Tono | October 28th, 2009 at 12:57 pm

What needs to happen to all of Canada, in order for us to get anywhere, is what I decided for myself; Canada has no real summer sport. Although the official summer sport is lacrosse, it is not massively popular. If association football could become a popular summer sport in Canada, that definitely would help.

Posted from Canada

By Tono | October 28th, 2009 at 1:00 pm

What I mean is that, since hockey is my main sport, but I have no summer sport, I’ve adopted soccer as my summer sport. If Canada were to do the same, we might actually get somewhere. I began my adoption of soccer by watching the Gold Cup last summer. It was cool, except for the fact that there were hardly any actual Canadians on our team.

Posted from Canada