Those are some lads

Whoo-Ah! Top of the group to ya! Wow what a difference a year makes. Now I won't get into theories and all that hippy mumbo jumbo but I'm sure if we all thought real hard we can figure out why Canada is doing well this Gold Cup. But it doesn't matter to me. I'm a "what have you done for me lately" kinda guy and right now it's winning!

The one thing that has sucked for the last two games was I've had to watch them on my computer. What a pain in the ass. My roomie was watching Eastern Promises on Tuesday night and tonight, unless I am a complete moron (there will be NO COMMENTS allowed on that subject, thank you) I did not see it on sportsnet. So I was subjected to the absolute worst commentating on this Setanta feed I was getting. These guys had no clue who was on our team or what they played. I mean, apparently our keeper was none other than body building guru Paul Sutton.


If that wasn't enough, I had no idea that our starting striker was none other than former WBC Middleweight Champion, Julian Jackson. That is right, never mind that he is now 48 years old, the guy can score! How many footballers can say they beat Terry Norris AND Thomas Tate?!


And let's not forget about the El Salvador game that I watched on some latino feed. At least I wasn't subjected to fake players. But I was subjected to this amazing commercial.



Guys I know what you're thinking - I WISH THEY MADE THIS FOR MEN!!

BEHOLD!


In conclusion, TV on the internet is fabulous. Team Canada are a real motley crew, but get the job done. And in future Setanta commentator, this is Simeon Jackson:


THIS is Julian Jackson

The future?

Ok well Simeon Jackson is in Leauge Two right now, but will be playing in League One due to playoff promotion next season for Gillingham and it will be interesting to see what his goal tally will be with a bit tougher competition. He was key down the stretch for this team and ended the season almost with a goal every game ratio - 21 in total this year. This is good news for Team Canada as well as we could use a potent striker to pair up with Rob Friend up front. From what's been out there in terms of pre-Gold Cup line-ups there's quite a few young players named to the friendlies - like Tosiant Ricketts, Jamie Peters and Andrew Ornoch. As much as we have lost out on a great group working their way to the World Cup, we now can see the young talent develop which we probably wouldn't have if we were still qualifying. Well I guess we get to wait and see if the CSA screws up the potential for 2014. In the meantime, here is the clip of Simeon Jackson playing in the game that got Gillingham up to the League One. He's number 10 and get's alot of airtime! And nothing says football like Green Day!!!

NOTE: I really have to start downloading these youtube clips when I copy them in. My apologies, hang tight for the next one.

Déja Vu, Part 1

Hopefully this time the second part is drastically different. Looks like Stephen Hart, the man who gave us a great run as interim head coach at the 2007 Gold Cup, will be at it again for the '09 campaign. Will the CSA be able to get this right? Have they learned from their very expensive (performance-wise and financially) mistakes over the past two years? I've said it before though, I'm not holding my breath. The problem with the CMNT isn't the players or head coach, it's the structure of this 'association' and board of directors that hinders our progress in the game. This is positive though, seeing as it seems our team all believes in Hart as a coach and I think it was Jim Brennan who said, "I will always have time for Stephen Hart". So with any luck, despite having only one friendly lined up before the Gold Cup (agh!!) the boys will be determined enough to pull something together. Canada has a solid team when you look at it on paper, and really I'm going to stay optimistic that they could get out of their group.

KEEPIN POSI IN '09!! SEE YOU IN L.A.

So confused

Word is that if Mexico loses to U.S.A. on Feb. 11 you can expect Sven Goran Eriksson to get fired. How can this be you might ask? DOESN'T HE HAVE A CONTRACT?? He's in the HEX with USA, Honduras, and Costa Rica - they are all tough teams!! You can't blame him if they lose, these are really good teams! I mean, Canada had 2 main reasons they didn't qualify, but Mexico has THREE. How can Dale Mitchell be saved and defended but the horrible Mexican FA fire poor Sven?! Something is terribly wrong south of the border when a coach leads a team to failure and can't keep his job. Who's running the show down there? If I had to guess it's one guy (aka DICTATOR) and not a smoothly running, cooperating, democratic board of directors. VIVA CANADA!!!

Whoa. Doh. Uh Oh.

Canada. Just when everything was all quiet on the international front, our CSA player of the year lashes out once again, this time for real. De Guzman pulls no punches, so just if there was any doubt what he thought of the CSA and our Canadian program there you have it in black & white. I've listened around to a few different sources on these comments and what people think of what De Guzman/other players have said about the CSA and Dale Mitchell and I'm surprised how many people still go back onto the tired argument of, "they are the players, they need to take responsibility as well, can they look themselves in the mirror and say they all put in 150%?."



And I've said it before and I'll say it again, shit rolls downhill. The players and the game played are the last link the the chain of events that either leads us to victory or defeat. I'm sorry, this should not be Cameroon where players are paying their own way (hmm which I'm sure most of us do), practicing on their own, and when they succeed it is deemed a 'miracle' or 'feel good story' - if you want to think Canada is a third world country and third world footballing standards are acceptable then so be it. I for one expect more. Over 20 years ago we qualified for a world cup with a team that was so far off the level and skill of our team now, yet we can only beat countries with populations less than one million. How can this be???

To add onto the pile, the Voyageurs, Canada's National team supporter's club, have released a statement calling for the firing of Dale Mitchell. This comes off the heels of an interesting interview from a week or so back on a Vancouver podcast with Dale Mitchell who has some interesting things to say about Canada's recent failures and staying on as the head coach.


Part of me doesn't blame him for staying on, because it is the CSA's responsibility to fire him, but another part of me would really ask - if you care about this program do you really think you are the man for the job and can lead us to victory? Or will it be every time we fail you'll just point to countries like Mexico and Honduras and say "hey we can't qualify because they are better than us". I think if the guy actually cares he should resign. He can't be that delusional and think he can lead us to victory, especially when some of our key players now refuse to play under him. If this was any European country would we even be having this debate/issue? NO. Mitchell would be long gone by now, hell, he'd probably have been gone halfway through qualifying!

I for one am glad that our best player is still speaking up and getting press on this issue. I don't care if he isn't offering any solutions (in print anyways, he has said his ideas/comments have fallen on deaf ears) - to revamp the program is not his job. The heat needs to stay on the CSA and it needs to be exposed at all turns for what it is. I am sure they have hoped and been happy to keep soccer under the radar so they can continue bumbling along in the dark unaccountable. With our current crop of players who are succeeding in the biggest domestic leagues in the world, it will come out more and more how low our standards and level of professionalism are here. I truly hope this can't go on much longer and hopefully someone will stand up and force a change.

Gotta stay positive!

I feel bad that any mention of the Men's National team lately I've been super crusty. So at least there is something good to write about for once. Although it's for his achievements at Deportivo it is sweet that a national footballer is up for the Lou Marsh Award. Gotta stay posi and hope 2009 brings our national team back together for a solid run at the Gold Cup!!

Leading Canada to Victory!

I know this is over a month late, and was released before I started this blog, but last weekend's appearance of Peter Montopoli on Soccer Saturday motivated me to at least add another voice out there to this. In his interview with Gerry Dobson, Montopoli (along with other members of the CSA in the past) left me with little confidence that anything is going to change with our men's national team. Dobson's first point blank question was the status of Dale Mitchell as the head coach and the urgency to replace him. Now let's first point out the obvious - Dale Mitchell coached our under 20 team in their World Cup that we not only lost every game but scored ZERO goals. As the Senior coach his only wins are against Martinique and St. Vincent, and the team that was touted as our best ever failed to qualify for the world cup and with games still to play (for pride!) some of our best players refused to return to duty. Montopoli's response to Dobson was that there is no rush to find another coach and they'll review this matter in the next few months when the board meets. I feel like the next thing he'll say is now is a good time to invest and not to worry Canada is running a surplus - my point being is it seems like every time I see or hear an interview with any of these guys it's like listening to Federal politicians - they can't answer questions, or circle around it and give an answer where you just sit there and think, "is this guy a $#%&%ing idiot??"

I had already downloaded the CSA strategic plan for 2009-2013 and read it again (and again today) and had to read their document on our "wellness to the world cup" - especially since Montopoli says that the response to these has been positive (well ok, maybe amoung 7 year olds and beach soccer players). It's hard to go through it and feel positive or confident that anything that is written is actually doable. Their set of goals to 2013 are getting $25 million in budget, CMNT World Cup qualification, a medal from the CWNT, a world cup bid for the womens world cup and a million+ players playing in Canada. This first thing that bothered me about this report was that it was released WHILE our CMNT was still playing games for the 2010 World Cup. So they've been eliminated, everyone can see that Mitchell is not the right man for the job, so they release a "strategic plan" saying their goal is to qualify for the 2014 World Cup! PHHHEEEW. Thank god they cleared that up. Thank god I have this report that gives me no clear idea how they are going to double their budget. Not long ago there was a report released that outlined what the CSA 2009 annual budget is. I don't want to say it's shocking because I think everyone knows how little the budget is, especially for the CMNT is. But it's shocking to think that the CSA actually thinks they can qualify for a world cup in their current state. Like I said before, it's just like politicians who can never admit that their are in the shit or the cause of it. Not long ago there was a quick blog written about Australia's path to the world cup that sheds light on what it really takes to have success.

You compile all this info and it's a bit depressing. A board that doesn't see a reason to fire their head coach - and if you ask me, I would not be surprised one bit if you see Mitchell still as head coach for the 2009 Gold Cup. A budget that is so far out of whack, with money allocated to Beach Soccer and a loss in gate receipts (well ... that's not surprising after their brilliant marketing for the Canada gamin Montreal).

This is the time get this right. We have some great players whose talents will go to waste in this current state of the national program. Clearly I am just venting because it will probably take someone way up to make a real change. Hopefully with this sport in the spotlight in Canada more than it has been in my lifetime, someone will come along and do it right. Until then ... SEE YOU ON THE BEACH!!!

My non-linear path to football history

Ok so I'm bored and other than gossip (which I should really just leave to message boards) there is nothing big going on until sunday (unless mitchell gets fired - oh wait, the CSA Board doesn't work on weekends - duh!) when the MSL cup goes down, and possibly MLS expansion news.

As I was watching ... well Mexico v. Honduras, I was thinking of the conflict of my heritage in the Canada v. Jamaica game. As I like to trumpet as often as I can my Great Grandfather was born in Jamaica, thus giving me AUTHENTIC JAMAICAN HERITAGE.

Eversley Francis Freeman was born in Jamaica around the turn of the century in a little village which might have looked like the one below. In fact he could very well be in this drawing!

He immigrates to Canada and somewhere along the lines becomes an olympic athlete

Eversley (Jake) Freeman goes to the 1920 Antwerp Olympics, but most importantly - the 1924 Paris Olympics

The same 1924 Olympics that saw South American teams compete in an 'european' football tournament for the first time, as well as the first black man to play at a professional level in Europe (Jose Andrade for Uruguay). Did Jake Freeman witness and possible rub elbows with footballing history??? I bet he did. In fact I'm positive some of that footballing DNA rubbed off on me. As is described in Soccer in Sun and Shadow this Uruguay team had only played 30 games at this point and came over to Europe and won what was at that point the best footballing tournament in the world.

Is anybody listening?

It's over. Finally. Done. For the last month or so it's felt like that bad relationship that's finished but not officially "over" until one of you moves away. So after tonight it's over and we can move on. Almost 3 months to the day there was so much hope and promise - the best national team we've ever had - the best midfield in CONCACAF ... this was what we had to look forward to



This is what we got


So we came in like lions - a strong line up with so much potential - and leave like lambs. With players refusing to play for Dale Mitchell, as many points as Haiti and only better than Suriname? and a line-up of starters earning their first senior cap. Where do we point our fingers? The CSA? The coach? The Players?

A while back when it was being made public that the players were not happy with Dale Mitchell, Craig Forrest deflected that criticism and sent it right back at the players, asking each them to look at themselves and ask if they've done all they could to get the wins for Canada. That is a fair comment coming from a former player, who had to deal with the CSA and was able to win a Gold Cup, but I really think the time needs to come where we all say enough is enough. Imagine taking a job as a sales rep and getting shown your desk that has no computer and no phone and the boss says, "make me some money!!" I'm sorry Craig but shit rolls downhill and this has been the case with the CSA for over 30 years.

Ben Knight has been writing some very good articles on this subject over the past weeks specifically two about what role does the CSA really even play in the recent success of football in Canada (answer: none), and how they've really been nothing but an obstacle to progress and what we need to do to right the ship.

I agree with everything he says but as long as the CSA is in charge of anything we are screwed. There will never be a CEO (see Fred Nykamp and his wrongful hiring/firing suit) or one person in charge as long as there is a Board of Directors having their say. My question is what do we have to do or what needs to happen to get rid of this body? These guys are a bunch of clowns and while I was digging around last night reading (and getting more and more angry) about their actions I found this which to me sums up everything. This is from last year when Colin Lindford (former president who pretty much threw up his hands and quit because of the Board of Directors idiocracy) was trying to put together proper plans but was halted over and over by the Board.

It has been reported that Linford has had problems with the board of directors over the selection of the Canadian National Team for the World Cup.

The name of Brazilian coach Rene Simoes had been circulating as Canada's next head coach and his hiring was considered a formality.

But it was Canadian Dale Mitchell, head coach of Canada's Under-20 team, who was hired as head coach of the senior squad.

Simoes reportedly wanted the job technical director as well head coach and also wanted the ability to hire his own staff, which Linford was ready to accept.

However, the board refused to ratify the agreement with Simoes and mandated that one of the jobs, whether it be technical director or head coach, had to go to a Canadian.

I don't even know where to start with that but think it sums up pretty much what goes on with the CSA. They didn't want the head coach who took Jamaica to the 98 World Cup and didn't want the former CEO from Basketball Canada - WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?? I read their plan for 2009-2013 and it is a complete joke - a sunday with the cherry being their plan of "wellness to the world cup". They actually have to point out that their goal is to make the World Cup! Gee shucks Wally, that's a great idea!! I'll save this for another day what we need to do to get this right (see USA or Australia for examples). For now I'm going to watch the game tonight and cheer on the team. I feel sorry for the players who get no support from above and when they rightfully criticize the state of the game aren't listened to. Is it any wonder why our best players either opt to play for other countries or sit out from the team altogether?

Ruuuumours ...

Since the end of the season TFC management (well Mo and Carver) have set their plans for the team in the offseason. The three main things we'll be seeing is 1. Keeping the "core" team together 2. Finding the best draft picks and 3. (let the rumours begin!!!) signing a DP!

Well it's been a busy week of hearsay now that it has been made official that this is one of their top priorities. Before the end of the season there was talk that ideally the DP would be Canadian. I have no idea who that would be because I would say there are really only two Canadians worth spending DP money at this point - Julian De Guzman and Atiba Hutchinson. Unfortunately I can't see either of them coming here considering they are both at a point in their careers where their next move could definitely be up to bigger clubs. Julian was named to La Liga's starting XI last season and Hutchinson is a key player at Copenhagen with his best years ahead of him. Other than those two guys, I would be disappointed if TFC spent DP money on any other of our internationals (no disrespect!!) but if we're getting a DP they have to be a high-impact player (imo)


Yesterday on Soccer Saturday Craig Forrest threw out the name Del Piero as an ideal target. Hey I agree ... but no way in hell! I think the shitty thing is we're going to have to be realistic with who is going to be attracted to TFC and to MLS. First off we know that money, our fan base and multicultrual city is not going to necessarily bring someone here (see Dikov, Huckerby, Sukur, Pauletta etc ...) As much as Forrest gave Seattle crap for signing Ljundberg, I actually thing THIS is the reality of MLS right now. He said it himself - he's good but way past his prime, and not at his best. Well ... we saw what happened when a supposed player who came here we THOUGHT was past his prime arrived and where is he now? OH! On loan to Milan WTF!?!? If Toronto can sign a top notch guy in his prime I'll be totally shocked. Realistically I think we might either see an older guy who is a big name and still has the goods (but not like he did in his prime) OR I'm thinking almost like a Rohan Ricketts (obviously of a higher pedigree) story where someone who was highly touted in their youth but kinda lost their way over the last few years.

November 10 is the date to mark on our calendars because that is the directors meeting where Johnson and Carver will be discussing the money needed to sign our DP. It should be interesting to see what kind of money TFC will get especially considering a report this weekend stating the MLSE is worth 1.6 BILLION DOLLARS. So 8 days to go - let the rumours continue!

The birth of a nation

Cletus, cut the umbilical...

Up until 2 years ago, I think I was in denial how much I disliked all of the sports franchises in Toronto. An NHL and MLB strike in a period of 10 years, for athletes making millions of dollars, pretty much ended my commitment and passion for following those teams.

After May 12, 2007, for me, there was only one team in this city worth supporting and there was only one place worth being on game day.

Welcome to Toronto, home of Toronto FC and Team Canada ...