The story of Canadian soccer in 2008 spanned a handful of cities in five countries (Canada, USA, Honduras, Mexico & Jamaica); but for all the distance traveled everything you need to know took place in the six-yard box of the south end goal at BMO Field in Toronto.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
In the 89th minute of the fourth and final game of the Nutrilite Canadian Championship, veteran striker Jeff Cunningham needed only the slightest of touch to send a loose ball into an empty south end net. But the instincts that allowed Cunningham to reach 99 goals in his career let him down with No. 100 and a place in the preliminary round of the CONCACAF Champions League at stake. Instead, time expired and the visiting Montreal Impact earned a 1-1 draw and the well-earned title of best team in Canada.
Two weeks later Cunningham was traded to FC Dallas and TFC still hung its head over the reality that a team playing in an upper echelon league was ousted by a group of United Soccer League (USL) minnows.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
With BMO Field still shaking from a 47th-minute goal delivered by Canadian midfielder Julian De Guzman the visiting Jamaican men's national team lined up for a seemingly innocuous corner kick at the opposite end of the field. An in-swinger later and veteran goalkeeper Pat Onstad was picking the ball out of the south end goal.
Jamaica had drawn even with Canada in the first World Cup 2010 qualifying game for both countries. By the time the two teams would meet again in the finale of the six-game qualification process, formality would be the only thing at stake for the Canadians.
Now I despise the look-ahead-and-prognosticate articles that surface during the final few days of any year, but there are some lessons to be learned from these two separate incidents.
Between the lines of the Cunningham story lies the three-headed microcosm of TFC in its sophomore season. To start, it was well into August before Chad Barrett arrived and the team finally found consistent scoring. Historically, Major League Soccer has proven itself to be a league that rewards teams who are able to showcase consistent scoring. Second, Toronto had 28 different players named to the starting 11 under John Carver. It is safe to say this number is at least 12 too many. The last of the three heads is the confidence that comes by playing with a sense of urgency and winning the games that are expected to be won. By my count Toronto played three games that were buoyed by a sense of urgency in 2008: July 1 vs. Vancouver; the July 22 Montreal Impact game and the August 20 away game to Kansas City.
The results: Loss, draw & loss.
Not winning the Nutrilite Canadian Championship humbled TFC in 2008 and delivered a harsh 2009 message that nothing is to be taken for granted.
As for the Canadian men's national team in 2008 the Onstad example doesn't really give much insight into 2009 as most can see it will be just as bleak as its calendar predecessor. No microcosms. No expectations, really. I remember penning an article in the wake of World Cup 2002 that pointed out how CONCACAF continued to get stronger while Canada drifted along on the presumption that next time might bring better luck. I remember getting lambasted for being so negative. To date, I am still so negative. In 2008 Honduras joined perennial performers Mexico, Costa Rica and United States at the front of the line. Meaning the back is a little less crowded.
The men's national team has the comfort of the Gold Cup in 2009 but with a lame duck coach and mass mutiny at the player level, who knows what it will look like when the time arrives.
See you next year.
