VANCOUVER -- The quadrennial hand-wringing that accompanies every Canadian men's soccer team failure to qualify for a World Cup has begun in earnest.
When the team failed so miserably in Honduras this week, getting thrashed 8-1 in a game where they needed a draw to advance to the final qualifying stage, it was easy to predict the ensuing critical fallout.
Detractors insist the Canadian Soccer Association is too stodgy. There isn't enough program-funding. The best players produced here don't always play for Canada. We provide inferior technical development for young players.
On and on it goes.
Total Soccer Systems managing director Colin Elmes said Canada is simply not a footballing nation right now and most people don't understand how far it lags behind true soccer countries.
"In Central America, this is it for them -- this game is the most important thing in their lives," he said in an interview Wednesday. "It's like hockey on a triple dose of steroids."
He said more resources are needed for youth soccer development in Canada but feels it's also important for the senior men's team to somehow qualify for a World Cup in the next one or two rotations.
That would drive more corporate money into Canadian soccer and inspire younger players at the same time.
Elmes feels the CSA should look outside Canada when looking for a new men's national team coach, noting the success Australia had after hiring Dutch coach Guus Hiddink to head the national side in 2005. Hiddink led the Socceroos to the 2006 World Cup -- their first appearance in 32 years.
"We don't have much of a budget here but hiring from within just makes us fall on our face time after time," Elmes said. "That's no disrespect to (Canadian head coach Stephen Hart) but we really need an absolute kick in the ass when it comes to developing a stronger player mentality."
Vancouver Whitecaps president Bob Lenarduzzi said it might sound boring but feels governance changes at the CSA -- aimed at giving the organization a more national vision -- are crucial for the game's long-term success in Canada.
"I don't want to hammer the CSA because we're all a part of the solution," he said. "But it's important that we get away from provincial representation. We need business people on the board and people without a bias toward their province."
The CSA has adopted governance changes that will prevent provincial soccer association presidents from sitting on the board after 2015.
Lenarduzzi noted the U.S. Soccer Federation created a stronger national team after it adopted a more national, more pro-business model after hosting the 1994 World Cup.
B.C. Soccer Association executive director Bjorn Osieck said the 8-1 loss in Honduras was "shocking" but feels the state of the men's game can't be reduced to just one result. He stressed there's no single solution to making the men's national team more competitive.
"It requires a multi-layered solution -- in the boardroom and ultimately on the field, with more emphasis on long-term player development," Osieck said.
Vancouver Whitecaps captain Jay DeMerit, who played for the U.S. in the 2010 World Cup, said funding has been a major factor in the recent success of the U.S. team.
"The U.S. soccer program is a hugely funded program," he said after a Caps training session Wednesday. "We've also developed a certain camaraderie with the U.S. team with keeping teams together and keeping guys together in camps and player pools."
DeMerit said any number of possible factors can be cited for Canada's lack of success in World Cup qualifying -- including player confidence, managerial shifts and failure to build the right kind of program.
"But as far as I'm concerned, Canada has enough individual players to be a successful team and to continue to push toward a World Cup," he said.
DeMerit said Canadian Major League Soccer teams developing more Canadian players for MLS will clearly boost the country's World Cup aspirations.
"Any time you have a national league that can create a feeder program for your national team, that helps with less travel and keeping guys together and building more cohesiveness," he said.
Caps midfielder Barry Robson, a Scottish international whose country hasn't captured a World Cup berth since 1998, said every soccer nation on the planet wants to improve its player and team development programs.
"Everybody is looking at these issues -- whether it's England, Canada or Scotland -- because we all want to get better," he said. "I think the deeper you look at the grassroots, the more it can help. If we all do that as nations and start from scratch and try to get everybody technically better, starting from young ages and getting as many touches on the ball, you'll see big improvements in years to come."
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