A series of unfortunate events led me to the situation where I had no choice but to abandon tact and ask Dale Mitchell if the result on Wednesday against Jamaica would dictate his future as coach of the men's national team.
To start, I was late for the 3 p.m. ET conference call. A few questions had already been asked and I had no idea if any of them addressed Mitchell's future. So I fired the question I had planned to ask in the No. 3 or No. 4 spot.
Truthfully, I felt bad about it; and expressed to Mitchell that I was sorry for the abrupt line of questioning. But what lies ahead for Mitchell as coach of a team heavy with expectations is the only concern on the minds of Canadian soccer fans. Nobody wants to know the finer details of the planned preparation for Jamaica.
In an annoyed voice Mitchell spoke up: "I'm sure the media will be notified if anything is going to change in that regard."
It could have been much worse. As a relative newbie on the Canadian soccer scene the coach had every right to tell me where to stick my No. 3 question. But he didn't; and for that I must applaud the coach. Through everything Mitchell has always made time to answer questions. But while I recovered to ask a few more questions it occurred to me that maybe Mitchell should have taken the out and said he was finished with the team.
In August I wrote with great excitement how it didn't matter that our Olympic athletes were not winning medals in Beijing because our men's national team was about to embark on a memorable World Cup qualification run.
Then came the opening draw to Jamaica and three subsequent losses to Honduras (twice) and Mexico.
On Friday I looked up and down the list of players named for the fifth and final qualification match and wondered who most of them were. In two short months Canada went from a team with the widely acclaimed best midfield in CONCACAF to a team ready to allow Simeon Jackson, Sandro Grande, Chris Williams and Nik Ledgerwood run the show.
Julian De Guzman, Dwayne de Rosario and Atiba Hutchinson are nowhere to be found. Not to mention Mitchell's logic was that with nothing to play for the young players will not need to be motivated.
"We (Mitchell and De Rosario) did have a conversation about if (his) team was eliminated would this be a good time to come back in," said Mitchell of the De Rosario absence. "At the end of the day we decided it's best the younger players get the opportunity in this game and leave it at that until we get together again in the new year."
Read between the lines, outside the lines or above the lines and you will get the same answer: De Rosario will not be back if Mitchell is the man on the sidelines when the Gold Cup rolls around next summer. It is impossible; the words of the midfielder in the wake of Canada's loss to Mexico cannot be taken back.
"I don't know how someone who coached the under-20s to not score a goal in the World Cup was put in charge of the national team," said De Rosario at the time.
Mitchell may be a victim of circumstance or even unreachable expectations, but he is also a 20-year veteran of international soccer and must realize that glazing over the disappointment with rhetoric is no longer an option.