For the first two-decades-plus that I covered soccer in Canada (1989-2010) I could have easily told you what was blocking any part of the beautiful game – leagues, players, teams, national teams, and our current topic: the training and development of soccer coaches – from ever getting better here.
Take your pick, folks:
- An ineffective CSA
- A smothering, self-serving “old boys” network
- Political infighting among the provinces
- Geography
- Lack of money
- Fly-by-night team owners
- Wild, unattainable dreams
- Funding wild, unattainable dreams
- Ethnic infighting
- Media apathy
- A chronic, creeping lack of central vision or authority
- Bureaucrats who made the game work for them, instead of working for the game
Most of you can probably rhyme off another half-dozen things that could be on this list. But this particular dirty dozen covers most of it.
But this is 2011, and a lot of things have changed.
Check that – they’re in the middle of changing.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
CSA reform has pretty much routed the Old Boys, Isolated and ineffective, Dominic Maestracci is now CSA president in name only. Provincial influence on the CSA board is declining, and all presidential presidents will be gone soon. Geography can be mitigated through strong local youth leagues, and more money is arriving in the form of corporate sponsorship alliances with the CSA.
Ownership is improving – although Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment in Toronto doesn’t understand soccer, and Joey Saputo in Montreal isn’t exactly a steadying influence on a wildly impulsive and inconsistent MLS expansion team-to-be.
Canadian soccer dreams are becoming less wild and more affordable. Ethnic strife is less of an issue. Big media is sending more reporters and writing more stories. General secretary Peter Montopoli has quadrupled the CSA’s effectiveness, and more and more self-serving bureaucrats are finding themselves on the outside looking – for something else to sponge off.
What we still don’t know – yet – is what exactly is going to replace all of that. Will the reform blueprints produce real change? Will there ever be enough money? Who, precisely, is going to be running things come springtime?
Until we know that, any honest assessment of what’s still in the way is risky.
So let’s start with some general thoughts, from the soccer experts who were kind enough to contribute insights to this series.
Jason de Vos – CBC commentator, former captain of Canada, technical director of Oakville Soccer Club:
“People like to point the finger of blame at the CSA, saying they don’t do this and they don’t do that. But the truth of the matter is they were never set to make these changes that need to be made. The structure was wrong. The technical minds who understand the game, who have been involved in the game for a long time, who know that these changes need to happen, don’t have the power to make them happen. They have to be approved by people who are not necessarily trained in those areas of expertise. And that has to change.”
Frank Yallop – Head coach of the San Jose Earthquakes, former head coach of Canada:
“There’s just not enough jobs. There are only two MLS teams in Canada right now. For me, getting more coaches in the national program would be good, getting them more experience. Putting more money into the program would help pay more coaches. I think it’s just money. Look at the United States and what they did. Once they decided to really go for it, I think they did a good job of doing that.”
Ray Clark – Director of player and coach development for the CSA:
“I think one of the major, major issues we have now – and I’ve seen it first-hand myself because I have young kids and I’ve been through house-league programs – is that clubs have to develop, within their own structures, support mechanisms for those coaches out there who are working at the grassroots level. It’s not enough to have one technical director responsible for a club of three, four, five, six-thousand kids.”
Charlie Cuzzetto – President, British Columbia Soccer Association:
“I think we have to take a co-ordinated approach. Each of us, in our provinces, probably wants to do the best for our provinces. If we look at the national picture, I think we need some strong technical leadership to say ‘This is what we want. This is what we think should happen.’ Right now, a lot of people have a lot of really good ideas. We need to co-ordinate all that into one structure – our plan for the next number of years. Really, it’s not the provinces that develop players. It’s the clubs and the teams. If we can provide them with a lot of tools and some guidance, I think we’re going to go a long way.”
Alex Chiet – Chief technical officer, Ontario Soccer Association:
“I think we can only take a glass-half-full approach. The things that we’re talking about, the things that we’re working on, will help create more professional paid positions in the game – maybe not at the international level, but within a development level. Yes, you need professional elite coaches, but you also need different coaches at each development level. We need to raise the standards and expectations – and qualifications – of people that are working with the players of the future.”
Ron Davidson – Canadian Soccer League coach of the year for 2010, ex-Hamilton Croatia:
“Coach education needs to increase. If there’s only one course here, and coaches don’t have the ability to make it on those certain dates, then they have to wait another year. And a year gone past without any further development is a year lost. So definitely the CSA and OSA need to increase the coach education that is available to coaches. And also look at other systems around the world that are working, and maybe send some coaches to those systems, to monitor how they’re doing things, and develop that program within our own country.”
And then there’s Nick Dasovic, last seen as interim head coach of Toronto FC to close out the 2010 MLS season.
Smart, dedicated, experienced, talented and ambitious, Dasovic in 2011 is a cautionary tale for soccer coaches across Canada. His story is where all the limitations, short-comings and weaknesses of the Canadian soccer set-up intersect.
So let’s dive in:
Dasovic served as a player-coach in his final go-round with the Vancouver Whitecaps. He was later Dale Mitchell’s assistant with Canada, and coached a severly undermanned Canadian U-23 team that very nearly qualified for the Olympics. He holds a UEFA-A coaching licence, and is studying for his UEFA-Pro licence – the highest qualification in the game. He was dropped by Toronto FC after Dutchman Aron Winter took over the team prior to the 2011 season.
“Everybody keeps asking me what can we do? What about Canadian coaches?” Dasovic says. “I think the bottom line is: the people you have to ask are the people who make the decisions. The people who run Toronto FC, Montreal, Vancouver and Edmonton. I grew up in this country. It’s funny because I was born here, and my parents came from Croatia. When I grew up, I wasn’t a ‘Canadian.’ I was a Croatian-Canadian, because that’s the way it was where I grew up in East Vancouver. I had to become ‘Canadian’ by actually leaving the country and going to play soccer in Croatia out there. It’s kind of a backward system.”
In the wake of his departure from Toronto FC, many though Dasovic had a great chance to catch on with the coaching staff of the Montreal Impact, preparing to make their MLS debut next summer.
It was not to be.
“I was never, ever contacted by them, which is the disappointing part. I had a history there. We won the first-ever A-League championship there, and I was part of that team. I’ve got strong ties to the whole Impact organization. I thought at least a phone call would be kind of interesting, but nothing ever came of it. That’s just the way it goes.”
That decision has raised eyebrows – and ire – across the Canadian soccer spectrum.
“I was really disappointed that Nick wasn’t given an opportunity,” Jason de Vos says. “There are some that argue that he doesn’t have top-flight coaching experience, so he shouldn’t get the job of Toronto FC head coach, or he should be considered for the Montreal Impact job. But my argument is, if you don’t have experience, where are you going to get it? If no one’s ever going to give you a chance, how are you ever going to know?”
Over at the CSA, Ray Clark was visibly annoyed.
“I don’t want to point fingers at anybody, but I am disappointed that Canadian professional clubs are looking outside Canada when there are people in Canada with experience who need to be given an opportunity. That has to change – because that doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world.”
“Someone like Nick, you can argue that he’s got more coaching experience than Aron Winter,” de Vos continues. “Despite all the turmoil that was going on behind the scenes at Toronto FC, I still think he did a very credible job of steadying the ship and trying to keep things moving in the right direction. If a guy like that’s not going to get a chance, who is? Someone like Colin Miller, who’s the assistant coach out in Vancouver: if he’s not going to get a chance, who is? These guys have played at the highest level, they have experience as coaches. If you’re not going to give them a chance to be a head coach, and bring a philosophy and a style of play to a team like Toronto or Vancouver or Montreal, who else is going to do it?”
Dasovic, himself, has no ill words for Toronto FC. But as the young father of a young family, he now faces the uncomfortable prospect that any future he has as a soccer coach almost certainly lies overseas – the same dilemma that forced him to go abroad as a young player.
“I went to Croatia and ended up signing for Dinamo Zagreb, one of the most storied clubs in Croatia,” he recalls. “Then I get called into the Canada team. And I think – unfortunately for me – my life is going full-circle where it looks like, to get a coaching job, I’ll have to leave the country again.”
Next – in Part IV – where do we go from here?
Onward!
Also in this series: