You can look at last night’s 1-1 draw against Panama in one of two ways – logically, or emotionally.
If you are coming from a logical point of view you likely slept better than the rest of us. You might also be dead, or, at the very least, a confused Hamilton Tiger-Cats fan that found this article by Googling “inept Canadian football teams.”
Last night was infuriating. After controlling the ball for 80 minutes – and failing to score, as usual – they had a look down at their strips, realized that they were Canadian and PANICKED. Suddenly 10 men dropped into the 18 and instead of playing balls on the carpet through the midfield they decided to punt it 50-yards up field towards no one.
Ineffectively.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]The inevitable happened just into stoppage time. Milan Borjan, who is a nice story but not really a No 1 keeper at an international level, sort of fell on top of the ball as it squeezed over the line.
At this point the majority of fans either took a long shot of some hard liquor, leapt off the Bloor Viaduct/Lions Gate Bridge/Something really tall in your city, or did something that required major drywall repairs today – possibly a combination of all three.
We should be used to it by now, really. It’s been said that the definition of insanity is to doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result. Clearly, Canadian national team fans are stark raving mad.
(deep breath)
Logical. Ok. In a moment of reflection you can remember that yesterday’s result really didn’t set back the program. They have been struggling to score for about two years now. There was no reason to expect anything different in the Gold Cup. This tournament was always about developing the squad for this fall’s World Cup Qualifying. It was about having a look at some players and seeing what areas need to be improved.
The instinct is to suggest that the drawing Panama while only beating Guadeloupe 1-0 (the same score that the US beat them by it should be noted) is evidence that they are going to crash and burn out of the quarterfinal round. They’re not. They will be playing three versions of the Cayman Islands. Before you want to argue that point take a deep breath and really think about it.
So, there is time to turn things around before the really important games in 2012.
Making 2014 was always going to be a big ask. The more realistic goal for Canada has always been making the hex. Nothing we saw this week suggests that they are any closer – or further – from that goal. If you’re logical about it you’ll stay sane.
But, no one will blame you if you can’t do that because last night really (no, really ) sucked.