In early 2011 a prevailing theory emerged around the Canadian mens’ national soccer team that went something like this: although Canada was being forced to play an extra (slightly humiliating) round of World Cup qualifying against national sides that represent countries in only the loosest sense of the word, the extra six matches would come in handy as preparation for more serious World Cup qualifying.
Then those six games arrived and included both blowouts and stinkers like the two 0-0 draws with Puerto Rico and St. Kitts. Many pundits and fans declared both Canada and its opponents so mutually useless that at best there was nothing to read into the matches and at worst playing them at all was pointless.
A quick glance at the number of games group rivals will have played in preparation for the third round of World Cup qualifying says Canada should probably, in retrospect, be thankful for any time on the pitch it had.
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According to Fifa.com, Honduras will have played 10 friendlies between the end of last June’s Gold Cup and the beginning of the third round of Concacaf qualifying. Panama will clock in with seven (plus four qualifying matches last fall against weak opposition for a total of 11), and Cuba with four. The number of friendlies Canada will have played between last June and the first kick against Cuba this June 8th? Two. They will have played two friendlies – one against Armenia in February and the centennial blast against the U.S. at the start of June.
Now, one likes to think that the CSA didn’t schedule more friendlies because Canada did have those six competitive matches against the likes of Saint Lucia and St. Kitts last autumn. Add those to the total and the Canadians will have played eight matches in the intervening months between major competitions, more in line with the likes of Panama and Honduras. Although it must be said, the latter two’s friendlies have been more evenly spaced and included far tougher competition than the six matches Canada had against semi-professionals clumped together last fall.
People accuse the Canadian Soccer Association of many things -- ineptitude, inaction, inflexibility, nepotism, mismanagement, corruption, bureaucratic bungling, lack of long-term planning, lack of business acumen and lack of transparency, to name a few. Some of these criticisms are genuine while some are misplaced and simply the product of a long-suffering and marginalized fan base. The calls for more friendlies have merit though. It seem logical that the only way the Canadian mens' team can show more cohesion together on the pitch, is to spend more time together on the pitch.
But friendlies cost money. Wouldn't the CSA love to preside over a geographically compact country with a robust domestic league full of clubs willing to fork over their players mid-season for non-Fifa-date friendlies? And to be surrounded by soccer-mad countries in generally the same boat to play such friendlies against. Case in point, the Clásico Centroamericano friendly last week between Costa Rica and Honduras. Both sides broadly consisted of young, domestic-based players who were being handed a pre-World-Cup tryout by managers with the luxury to do so. (Though old dogs Carlos Costly and David Suazo did figure for Honduras.)
Stephen Hart doesn’t have that luxury. Because the CSA apparently doesn’t have the luxury of scheduling 10 friendlies in 12 months. The lack of consistent preparation will surely cost Canada at some level when qualifying kicks off again this June, but given the alternative of facing Cuba having played only Armenia and the U.S. in the preceding 12 months, maybe those excruciatingly painful matches last fall will be shown to have served some grander purpose after all.