EDMONTON

As a former member of the national team, Colin Miller would like to see Canada participate in another World Cup as much as anybody.

The FC Edmonton head coach correctly predicted Germany would win the title in Brazil, citing the strength of their domestic league and depth in their squad. Unfortunately, at the moment, Canada is at the opposite end of that spectrum.

“Until we have Canadians playing first-team football, we’re going to struggle, there is no question about it,” Miller said. “We have to have Canadians playing first-team football wherever they are at. I use the example of the Gold Cup last summer. When I was in charge of the team, out of the squad that we had, we had seven players that were unattached, that didn’t have a professional team. Then out of the remaining players, I guarantee, 80% of those players were not playing-first team football. They were maybe on the second or third team.”

Miller was a member of the only Canadian team to ever qualify for a World Cup, back in 1986 in Mexico. He has also been the interim manager for the Canadian national team on two occasions, including at last summer’s Gold Cup where Canada crashed out of the tournament, failing to score a goal.

“All the professional clubs across the country, the academies are doing excellent work now, but now the question is, can we get the lads playing first-team football? We have to do that,” Miller said. “When I look at the squad that Bob Lenarduzzi had to try and qualify for the U.S. World Cup (in 1994), we were one game away from qualifying. If we had beaten Mexico in Toronto we would have qualified.

“But if you look at that squad, we had 80-90% of those players playing first-team football at a good level everywhere in the world. We have to get back to that, for sure.”

derek.vandiest@sunmedia.ca

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