FIFA rankings - why they are important and how to beat the system

[maplebanana]

3 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

So in recent years, we reached our peak in February 2022, low 30s, then relaxed in the latter fixtures of WC qualifying. Losing in Panama actually hurt us. Which probably hurt our seeding for the tournament, landing us in the hardest group (we were on the threshold, it is not entirely clear where we had to be in ranking before the draw, and how we could have ensured that).

If my memory serves, since the draw was immediately following the march 2022 window, we had known that if we had beaten Panama, we would have moved into pot 3. A few things needed to happen in order for us to have that opportunity, including I think some results going our way in CAF. But we were very much in the 'win and in' regime. Too bad the team was mostly hungover. 

[Kadenge]

5 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

.....

I think what it really says is that population need not be the key factor at all, that having a quality program, creating talent, moving it through pro systems, competing, is what is important. 

There's clear evidence of this when you see the number of high level players that were born/developed in France, England, Germany, Netherlands etc who play for North African countries, Jamaica, Suriname, Ireland, Wales, USA and others. Most of our current squad were developed in Canada. Staq and LDF being the exceptions. We need to ramp up the ID process and  get those young players into a strong developmental pathway.

[gigi riva]

9 hours ago, Kadenge said:

There's clear evidence of this when you see the number of high level players that were born/developed in France, England, Germany, Netherlands etc who play for North African countries, Jamaica, Suriname, Ireland, Wales, USA and others. Most of our current squad were developed in Canada. Staq and LDF being the exceptions. We need to ramp up the ID process and  get those young players into a strong developmental pathway.

Amen Brother

[CanadaFan123]

15 hours ago, Kadenge said:

There's clear evidence of this when you see the number of high level players that were born/developed in France, England, Germany, Netherlands etc who play for North African countries, Jamaica, Suriname, Ireland, Wales, USA and others. Most of our current squad were developed in Canada. Staq and LDF being the exceptions. We need to ramp up the ID process and  get those young players into a strong developmental pathway.

Even Staq was partially developed in Canada. We are doing incredibly well in comparison to our CONCACAF rivals. This is why CPL/L1 is so key as well to have more eyes all over the country. Now imagine what happens when the World Cup hits to inspire the youth and we have ~20 pro clubs around the country in another 10 years. 

[InglewoodJack]

18 hours ago, Kadenge said:

There's clear evidence of this when you see the number of high level players that were born/developed in France, England, Germany, Netherlands etc who play for North African countries, Jamaica, Suriname, Ireland, Wales, USA and others. Most of our current squad were developed in Canada. Staq and LDF being the exceptions. We need to ramp up the ID process and  get those young players into a strong developmental pathway.

It’s kinda crazy to think that Canada might have, pound for pound, one of the better domestic development pipelines in the world after most of the top tier nations. You take a city like Montreal, and at their absolute peak, I think the total value of say, Kone, Bombito, Crepeau, Saliba, Piette, Farsi, and a few of the other guys who grew up here, and their total transfer value might approach €100M. You look at the handful of guys that came out of the relatively (sorry) provincial city of Ottawa too, and it’s a lot of really good players that grew up in a two hour radius. 
 

Even in MLS, Montreal has frequently started 5-7 montrealers in their starting 11. I know TFC has had GTA-heavy lineups too. There aren’t many MLS teams in the US who can start a majority local lineup and still stay competitive. 
 

You project how things will progress and once some smaller cities start really producing players, especially now that dual nats like LDF, Sigur, maybe Jebbison are starting to get swayed by Canada, you almost start having crazy thoughts about where we’re going to be in 2030, 2034. Top 20 worldwide within the next decade is not completely unreachable, IMO. 

[Mihairokov]

These things seem impressive until you remember that Montreal has a larger population than Croatia, or that the Golden Horseshoe has a population nearly equivalent to Portugal. I agree that we've produced some very good players but we still have so much work to do at the grassroots level in ensuring that these players have somewhere to play at 15/16/17...

Players like David or Buchanan, for example, hopefully end up with a CPL or MLS side at 15 instead of staying local until transferring out of the country at 18. Develop more players at higher levels, receive transfer fees for them, and build upwards in a cycle from there.

[InglewoodJack]

1 hour ago, Mihairokov said:

These things seem impressive until you remember that Montreal has a larger population than Croatia, or that the Golden Horseshoe has a population nearly equivalent to Portugal. I agree that we've produced some very good players but we still have so much work to do at the grassroots level in ensuring that these players have somewhere to play at 15/16/17...

Players like David or Buchanan, for example, hopefully end up with a CPL or MLS side at 15 instead of staying local until transferring out of the country at 18. Develop more players at higher levels, receive transfer fees for them, and build upwards in a cycle from there.

I think number of clubs is more relevant than population considering the two countries you mentioned- like the other titans of the sport- have a century head start over us in developing players and the culture that surrounds it. Canada for all intents and purposes have 3 big clubs, 8 domestic clubs and a small handful of semi pro teams who have produced some very good players (Sigma, Azzuri, CS STL). That about 5 or so clubs have produced the majority of a top 40 national team, a Copa semi finalist, World Cup qualifying roster is remarkable. The CPL being a 5 year old league that has yet to produce a star player- it’s coming- and our big clubs playing in a league that disadvantages Canadian players makes it even more remarkable.  
 

Ultimately, I think we all agree that more clubs and more opportunities will unlock this. We’re already seeing the CPL start to produce U20 guys with some future potential, we just need more of it. But the vision is there, if a few Canadian clubs start producing anywhere near the talent coming out of the 3 MLS clubs, we’re going to see our team take an even bigger leap.

[Neil R.]

It's nice to see us gain another 7.65 points, putting us back over 1500 in the FIFA rankings.

I know people will say "it doesn't matter, they won't be relevant again for us until year whatever", but I think that's very short-term thinking. At some point in the future, they will matter again, and we'll be glad we were adding to our total during the non-relevant times.

[CanadaFan123]

4 hours ago, Mihairokov said:

These things seem impressive until you remember that Montreal has a larger population than Croatia, or that the Golden Horseshoe has a population nearly equivalent to Portugal. I agree that we've produced some very good players but we still have so much work to do at the grassroots level in ensuring that these players have somewhere to play at 15/16/17...

Players like David or Buchanan, for example, hopefully end up with a CPL or MLS side at 15 instead of staying local until transferring out of the country at 18. Develop more players at higher levels, receive transfer fees for them, and build upwards in a cycle from there.

I mean, that would be like comparing NHL players coming from those areas. We’ll get there.