Dwayne De Rosario made an appearance on TSN Radio in Toronto today where he talked about the final World Cup qualifying game this round, his MLS season, what happened at TFC and what ails the game here in Canada. Although DeRo was candid as always, the interview did not touch upon anything that long-time observers don’t already know.
He did touch upon something that the CSA acknowledged needed to change back when Stephen Hart was hired – the lack of games that Canada plays.
At the press conference announcing his hiring Hart said this to me:
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]“I wouldn’t have taken the job if I didn’t think (that they would schedule enough friendlies)...maybe 85 per cent of FIFA dates.” A high ranking CSA official then sent me an unsolicited e-mail claiming that “(Canada) will play 30-35 times before the next World Cup qualifying cycle.”
Yet, here we are a couple years later with DeRo still saying that Canada doesn’t play enough. Is he right? Or, is it just his perception based on years of being let down by the CSA.
To see where Canada stands in comparison to the rest of CONCACAF we looked at how many games each country in the region has played since Hart was hired. The results:
1 - Mexico – 39
2 - Honduras – 33
3 - Panama – 29
3 - Costa Rica – 29
3 - USA – 29
6 - El Salvador – 24
7 - Jamaica – 21
7 - Guatemala – 21
9 - Grenada – 20
9 - Trinidad & Tobago – 20
11 - Guyana – 19
12 - Antigua & Barbuda – 17
12 - St. Vincent and the Grenadines – 17
14 - Canada – 15
14 - Barbados – 15
16 - Cuba – 14
16 - Suriname – 14
16 - St. Lucia – 14
19 - St. Kitts and Nevis – 13
19 - Curacao – 13
21 - Belize – 12
22 - Haiti – 11
22 - Dominican Republic – 11
22 - Dominica – 11
22 - Nicaragua – 11
26 - Puerto Rico – 9
26 - US Virgin Islands – 9
28 - Cayman Islands – 7
29 - Bermuda – 6
29 - Anguilla – 6
31 - Montserrat – 5
32 - Aruba – 4
33 - Bahamas – 2
33 - British Virgin Islands – 2
33 - Turks and Caicos Islands – 2
So, not great.
There are some legitimate factors that need to be considered. Most notably, Canada does not have to qualify for the Gold Cup. If it did, they would likely have played closer to 20 games. Still, when Mexico plays 39 times and the USA 29, there is still lots of work to be done to get Canada playing more.
Bluntly, Canada should play on every FIFA date. Period. No excuses. Not every friendly needs to be high profile nor does every game need to have the European-based players called. In fact, it would be beneficial to play a few games each year with younger, hungrier players against lesser competition. As we saw with the Venezuela friendly a while back, you might be surprised by what the so-called B side can do.
But, you won’t know unless you play.