It can’t be done.
Those are the four most damaging words in Canadian soccer. You hear them all the time –
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- We need a national D2 league. It can’t be done
- We need a uniform long-term player development strategy. It can’t be done
- We need at least one professional women’s team. It can’t be done
- We need to get the men back to the World Cup finals It can’t be done
That last one might be true until we ban those four words from our vocabulary. For too long in Canada we’ve been blinded by the obstacles. No one talks about how we can do things, rather we debate about which of our failings is most responsible for our lack of success.
If Scarlett Johansson were to show up in a Canadian soccer fan’s driveway – naked – driving a brand new blue Ferrari that she was giving you as a gesture of her love, the Canadian fan would likely demand to know why the car wasn’t red. Maybe Ms. Johansson and Italian sports cars aren’t your thing, but the point is that we Canucks can be a negative bunch.
So, when talking about the changes that need to be made to the game in order to see it advanced, I no longer want to hear about the reasons why it can’t work. I’ve heard them. I understand them. I appreciate the challenges are significant and it’s possible that we might not be able to overcome all of them. I’ve never understood why that should prevent us from trying though.
A couple nights ago I engaged in a Twitter discussion with a couple well known supporters of the Canadian women’s team. The topic moved towards Carolina Morace’s statement that the country needed a pro women’s league to get to the next level. One of the people I was talking to called that idea “lunacy.” It was all can’t, can’t, can’t.
Clearly, creating a pro women’s league would be a challenge. Clearly. But, why in hell should we not at least try. Why should we shut down conversation about it – and every other challenge facing this sport -- because it might be hard?
Because “it can’t be done?”
Enough. It’s time to think about what can be done and to let the cynics wallow in their own misery. And, if we try and fail, then so be it.