It's been the case for a while now that there are two groups of people in this country.
There are those -- the large majority, unfortunately -- who take little to no interest in the year-in, year-out exploits of our men's national team, but who'll pause once in a while to scoff in irrational self-righteousness at the team's most high-profile disappointments.
These people, thankfully, weren't watching Saturday's friendly between Canada and Denmark.
Then there are we few, we largely-miserable few, who do take a massive interest in the year-in, year-out exploits of our men's national team. We, by and large, did watch Saturday's friendly.
And if we took anything at all from the game, it was the stark realization that 2018 is a very, very long way away.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
The clearest evidence of the psychological damage inflicted by last October's loss in San Pedro Sula is that many fans reacted to the 4-0 score line -- which, in any professional soccer context, is a complete thrashing -- as "not so bad".
"Hey, at least it's not 8-1," we could all say, voices dripping with self-loathing.
No great investigation is needed into why things went awry on Saturday. Canada fielded a very young and inexperienced team -- though, in fairness, so did the Danes -- and our men's national team's depth is such that a number of our players either don't have club affiliations, play at very low levels, or haven't played very much at all as of late -- though, in fairness, the fact the game was held during a non-FIFA date did affect who would be available.
If we're calling this a "rebuilding" team, then it's important to view the process not like putting together IKEA furniture, where happy little diagrams tell you exactly what goes where and you know exactly what the finished product looks like. No, remolding the national team is like having the parts from hundreds of different Billys and Florts and Ludvigs and Knuffs dumped onto the living room floor, with no instructions or idea of whether or not the pieces you've got can actually create a usable bookshelf.
Also, you're not sure when you're going to get a full-time Allen key.
It's not going to be pretty. Saturday wasn't. And Tuesday's match against the U.S. probably won't be either. But anyone expecting something different, given the circumstances -- or who'd bought into the idea that by simply purging most of the participants in the 8-1 debacle, a fresh and energized bunch of kids would suddenly come together into a cohesive national team overnight -- is, unfortunately, kidding themselves.
These games are necessary building blocks for what's to come -- even if none of us truly know what that will be, exactly. Only when the team is able to assemble a regular core, under a full-time head coach, will we know what we're dealing with.
For now, the team will fly under the radar -- as it has for so many years -- while the difficult work of not just recovering from the humiliation in Honduras, but applying the lessons that were hopefully learned, is done.
Next up for the work-in-progress known as the CanMNT: Their cross-border rivals on Tuesday night.
Hey, at least it won't be 8-1.
We hope.
.