cornerkick

Atiba vs Balotelli in today's game..
 
 

Atiba vs Balotelli in today's game..
 
 

Atiba vs Balotelli in today's game..
 
 

Atiba vs Balotelli in today's game..
 
 

Atiba vs Balotelli in today's game..
 
 

Atiba vs Balotelli in today's game..
 
 

Atiba vs Balotelli in today's game..
 
 

Atiba vs Balotelli in today's game..
 
 

Atiba vs Balotelli in today's game..
 
 

Atiba vs Balotelli in today's game..
 
 

Atiba vs Balotelli in today's game..
 
 

Atiba vs Balotelli in today's game..
 
 

Atiba vs Balotelli in today's game..
 
 

Atiba vs Balotelli in today's game..
 
 

Happy Birthday Atiba. Looks like he will be great one heck of a 39th birthday present, coming next month, a ticket to the World Cup. It really shows those the persevere and never give up reap the rewards. Congrats to him.  
 

They’d go far…I also think Canada could take on any qualified team from Asia.   The AFCON tourney has been poor, which is disappointing given some of the talent there.  In addition to the mediocre play (lots of low blocks, play not to concede tactics), you see half full stadiums, some empty, and fans died in a stampede outside a stadium.  

Lol I don’t think it works like that. As Jamaican as I am, I’m a proud Canadian. But as proud Canadian as I am, I’m proud of my background. 

Im sure a lot of our guys would share my sentiment. 
 

For how a big a player he is and where his career is going Jonathan is so down to earth. He seems to appreciate it all and takes nothing for granted. Having met him on a few occasions he is very gracious with him time, happy to meet the fans, sign some autographs, take photos etc. Yes he seems to prefer staying outside of the spotlight and let his play on the field do the talking. 
Even though Phonzie is a much bigger personality and in the spot light a lot more, they are very similar in how grounded they are and have such an appreciation for where they have come as children of immigrants. Taking nothing for granted. 

Throwback to the TSN documentary on the '86 team
 

if you haven't seen the Fifa 1986 movie, the entire thing is great... but this post is more about the brief mention of Canada in it, at 32:20, referred to as a bunch of semi-professionals:
the video won't embed here due to copyright, but you can click the link: 
 
we're gonna see some different scorelines come November
:
 

thanks for providing the additional details on the leadup to 86, as well as the tourney.  i'm surprised Hungary was an unknown back then, as I thought that was where a lot of players and tactics came (Puskas?), but maybe all that innovation was prior to political changes in country. 

The video has been blocked.  But, yes after the NASL folded (two years earlier) many of the players professional careers veered towards the the indoor game.  The indoor game, was not even futsal, but was played in hockey arenas with hockey boards.  That's who we sent to the WC.    In 1982,  a Concacaf side (i think it was El Salvador) lost 11-1 to Hungary so everyone got scared and went to Mexico with the objective of avoiding embarrassment.  And the team played that way.  I watched the games on TV and it was not pleasant to watch.     But the goal of the brass was that this was the start of several WC's so this was an opportunity to get our feet wet,  i bought it.  Problem is,  we never went back.  Hence the game never caught on in Canada, in part,  because, we scored no goals, got no points and we didn't play in a way that would attract fans, so all those fans that existed continued to cheer for their ancestral national sides or flocked in greater numbers to their ancestral  national sides.  plus there was no truly establish professional clubs to follow. 
Another problem with 1986,   is that it was basically a BC side. Most of the players came from the west coast.  Part of that made sense because the Whitecaps were a powerhouse in the NASL before it folded.   You can debate whether or not there was favoritism but, you can safely say that if the large population base of central Canada is not a factor in the team composition, your base will probably be poor because your talent pool is very limited and restricted. 
There were one or two decent players in 1986 but they moved to play indoor soccer and their indoor clubs tried to stop them from going to play at the WC.  Imagine that.   In the first game versus France our bunkering style did succeed against a French team who had some big stars.   France scored rather late in the game.    Another problem in 1986 was the group we were in.    Its not that it was a strong group but it had two eastern block countries when the Cold war was still around.  Not sexy. The eastern block was isolated from the west so very little was known about their players and their talent and abilities.   There was no casual fan who would have known anything about the teams from the Soviet Union and Hungary and that would have tuned in to watch.  Plus the games versus Hungary and Soviets were played on a week day in Canada and in early afternoon.  So very few watched because of the time it was played and because the two opponents had no known players or stars.
In 1986 we had no where close to the talent we have today.  In fact, many of the subsequent WC teams may have been better than that 86 team.  Its just that in 1986, Concacaf was poor (even the US was no good) and there was a lot of political instability in central America.  After 1986, and when the political instability in central america subsided,  the rest of Concacaf got really good and were accelerating their improvement at a rate much faster than Canada.     
For these reasons and others, Canada was never able to leverage from their 1986 experince.  thats a few of the reasons we never went back.   We never had another NASL until MLS came around and this is the biggest reasons why we went to the WC in 86 and in 2022. 

They’d go far…I also think Canada could take on any qualified team from Asia.   The AFCON tourney has been poor, which is disappointing given some of the talent there.  In addition to the mediocre play (lots of low blocks, play not to concede tactics), you see half full stadiums, some empty, and fans died in a stampede outside a stadium.  

It can be added after 

could the result be voided and 3 points awarded to Jamaica?  playing games behind closed doors doesn't seem enough for something like this...