For the fourth time since Stephen Hart took over as manager of the Canadian national team the Red and White did not play during a FIFA break. In total, Canada has played 11 times in 15 international breaks since Hart’s appointment.
At the time of his hiring, Hart told me that he had received a commitment from the CSA to play during a majority of breaks. Previously, the CSA had failed to book friendlies, which resulted in the country dropping down the FIFA rankings and struggling to come together quickly when it did play.
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Hart understood how important getting enough games would be. “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,” he told me.
A high ranking CSA official sent me an unsolicited e-mail suggesting that Canada would play between 30 and 35 games before the start of the qualifying cycle (in the interest of fairness, at the time the cycle was understood to be starting in 2012).
It’s been much better than in the dark years of the early 2000s, but we still aren’t quite hitting the targets set. Canada has played on 73 per cent of international dates and has played a total of 14 games (including the Gold Cup). Even if we play in every window until next summer (when the cycle was thought to be starting) we will only hit 23 games. So, the 30 game promise might have been a little ambitious.
Should Canada have played today? It’s never a bad idea to schedule a game, but there are political factors at play that need to be considered. With several Canadian players in a battle to find regular playing time in Europe right now, a strong argument can be made that it would have been counterproductive to uproot them from training camps to play a one-off friendly against Jamaica. Sure, it would build familiarity ahead of the Sept 2 World Cup qualifying kick-off, but the level of competition there is such that missing this window should not be much of a factor.
Even when WCQ gets going this fall, Canada will need to be careful in making its selections. Since it is a qualifier, the clubs have no choice but to release the players, but they do have every choice in whether to employ the player once he gets back from playing. It’s important sometimes to remember your place in the footballing world. Canada’s place is at the back of the kitchen begging for table scraps. We aren’t anywhere close to being able to play the heavy in club-country negotiations and it does no one any good to have our players blackballed at the club level.
It must be stressed that the three countries up against Canada in this round are mostly made up of semi-pro players. It’s the perfect opportunity to work some depth.
In a best case scenario Canada will grab the full nine points from its first three games. If they do that, then the rest of the round could offer a great opportunity to get the u23 player pool some preparation ahead of next year’s Olympic qualifying. It’s unlikely the u23s will get much more than a week’s camp heading into the Olympic qualifiers, so that might be its only opportunity to play meaningful games before chasing a spot in London (and keep in mind that Canada was one win away from going to Beijing).
To bring it back to the original topic, there are exceptions to any rule and today might be an example of that. Yes, it’s always nice to see Canada play, but no one should be too upset that the Canucks didn’t hit the pitch today.