Canada has qualified for the World Cup.
You're right, it's not a senior World Cup. But it's a tournament that Canada hasn't participated in since 1995. So our boys' 2-0 win over Trinidad & Tobago on Wednesday afternoon should give some hope not only to fans of the national program, but of our pro club teams in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.
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The star of the game -- and, if the Jamaican television announcer is to be believed, of the entire tournament -- was midfielder Keven Aleman. Though he wilted somewhat in the 37-degree heat as the game wore on, he and his offensive teammates ripped apart the Trinidadian defence in the first half. Aleman himself scored an absolute cracker, shoulder-faking two defenders before pushing the ball to his left foot and ripping it into the goal from 20 yards out.
His pedigree? Toronto FC Academy.
There was captain Bryce Alderson, calmly controlling the play from the centre of midfield. The reigning Canadian male U17 player of the year was a low-key contributor, but kept things under control enough to allow teammates such as Aleman and Michael Petrasso (another TFC Academy product) to burst forth with flourishes of forward movement.
His pedigree? Vancouver Whitecaps Academy.
And Canada kept a clean sheet for the third straight game, after a 0-0 draw with Honduras and a 8-0 shellacking of Barbados. The Canadian backline was never severely tested in the showdown with Trinidad, but an organized defence can often be attributed to a strong organizing influence from their goalkeeper. In this case, that's Maxime Crepeau, who showed bravery and timing when call upon to thwart the limited attacks the Trinidad side threw in Canada's direction.
His pedigree? Montreal Impact Academy.
Last but not least, we've got Christopher Nanco. Though he did miss a few sitters in the first half, he got on the end of a tic-tac-toe play (long throw-in, header and another header) to bury Canada's first goal and get the momentum fully swinging in their direction. His bursts of speed down the right flank caused some trouble for Trinidad's defence, and he had an uncanny ability to put himself in the perfect position to receive crosses from his teammates -- and has plenty of time to work on his finishing, considering he's, y'know, a teenager.
His pedigree? Sigma FC, a private academy.
The point? To clumsily paraphrase my originally clumsy sentiment from a week and a half ago: Holy shit, we may actually be turning into a soccer nation! Our ability to draw high-quality players from the academies of our three pro teams (and, hopefully, that of FC Edmonton sometime soon), as well as private academies is a terrific sign. It means young kids with aspirations of playing soccer professionally now have serious domestic outlets for their talents.
And it means our domestic clubs can utilize the base of hundreds of thousands of youngsters playing the game in this country, funneling them up through to the first team and -- ideally, in the case of a select few of them -- onto the roster of our senior men's national team.
The biggest benefit there may be the pre-emptive prevention of defections to other nations. When youngsters ply their trade for a country through their formative years, you can only hope their sense of fealty to that nation is greater than if they'd developed their soccer talents elsewhere. (Though obviously this isn't always the case.)
During the live chat hosted here on Canadian Soccer News, a few people voiced a typically Canadian sense of worry about Aleman: Specifically, about the fact that he was born in Costa Rica, with the tragically self-defeating attitude that, if he really does turn out to be great, of course he'll choose to play for the nation of his birth.
But after the game, after the boys in red had qualified for the U17 World Cup, who was the one waving the Canadian flag with the most vigour and pride? You've got it: Aleman.
Canadian fans, we've got a lot to look forward to on both the domestic and national fronts, if this game is any indication. That may not mean much for the immediate future (Brazil 2014, or the next few years in MLS). But this could be the start of something very big, and very good, in this country.
The U17 squad will play in the CONCACAF semifinal against a very beatable Panama on Friday, with a potential matchup in the continental final against the winner of USA v. Jamaica.