Posted by

Aaron Nielsen ,

December 15, 2017 Email

Aaron Nielsen



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@ENBSports

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It cannot be denied that the 2017 Canadian Soccer Season was an extraordinary year. This description is appropriate as the word for the season, even moreso than remarkable. We cannot talk about 2017 without giving credit to Toronto FC for not only winning the 2017 MLS Cup, Supporters’ Shield and Canadian Championship, but no doubt becoming the greatest team in MLS history. To some this might be a regional story, but I believe it is a Canadian story because when I first started writing for RedNationOnline my first articles were about how MLS ignores and belittles the Canadian clubs, and at the time regarded us in the same category as a club like the Columbus Crew. This was an insult to all Canadians, especially the city of Toronto, and shows how naive Americans are about geography of the North American sports market as seen by MLS television ratings in 2017. I try to always be honest with my analysis and would continue to say the number one Canadian asset when it comes to the game of soccer is our willingness to support the game and how much we are willing to do so. Toronto FC fans have shown this from the beginning, and credit to MLSE for finally not ignoring this and putting as much effort into the club as they were taking out. There should also be credit to MLSE for bringing in people who, yes are outsiders and might still be unaware of the game in our country, but what they were able to do is convince a group of 50/60 people to first come to this city, then perform and succeed in winning a Championship for Toronto FC. Toronto FC also shows that success is not insurmountable. I've made critical analysis on RNO of every move Toronto FC has made over the last four years. Without the PTSD of most Toronto FC fans, I was willing to express the development and expectation of Toronto FC as the top club in MLS. From an outsider, the math is pretty easy as the club has at least five players who could play in the top divisions in the World, who are also in their prime. They have a number of MLS veterans, especially in defense, who know what it takes to win in MLS. They have some American prospects who should have long careers in MLS, as well as Tosaint Ricketts and Jonathan Osorio, who are successful Canadian players with good track records, which is a part of scouting most MLS clubs ignore. The rest of Toronto FC’s Canadian contingent show quite a bit of talent, although questions still need be asked if they are being developed correctly, and what will they become in the future is still unknown. Which unfortunately is the case with most Canadian players currently attached to MLS. A Canadian MLS Academy still hasn't developed a consistent player in MLS, and outside of good stories like Cyle Larin, Samuel Peitte, and Alphonso Davies, I have concerns for the future. In this sense, 2018 might go down as the year we lost our Canadian content aspirations for the league as the number may dwindle down to less then 10 playing any minutes next season. At least in Toronto FC’s case, they haven't given up on turning Academy players into pros, while the Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps’ actions are harder to defend after folding their USL reserve clubs. Which brings us to the other extraordinary story, and that being the growth of grassroots soccer I've seen in the country this year and the hopes for our own league, The Canadian Premier League. There were a number of great Canadian soccer stories in 2017, many of which I saw live such as Oakville claiming the first League1 Ontario spot for the Canadian Championship, as well as AS Blainville in the PLSQ. I was also very excited by stories like the TSS FC Rovers who went out their way to use an all Canadian PDL side and in talking with Colin Elmes I see he is motivated in finding the best talent in British Columbia and more importantly giving them a place to play and become better players. Other is the Canadian PDL improved their local support as well as creating interesting stories. Despite the American affiliation, I feel PDL should also get a Canadian Championship bid along with Canadian Senior Challenge Trophy winners, who in 2017 were Western Halifax out of Nova Scotia. We can't ignore the folding of FC Edmonton and what can be said was a difficult season for the Canadian clubs in USL. The issue of attendance and support these club have dealt with has been a factor and in that sense Canadians are partly to blame, because if these clubs had overwhelming support they wouldn't be in the situation they are in now. In terms of precedence for CanPL, how we ended up supporting the MLS reserve clubs, as well as FC Edmonton and Ottawa Fury, raises some red flags over the viability of the new league. That being said, I was not in favour of how these clubs were run on the field, and in many cases these Canadian sides got caught up in the mess that is American lower league professional soccer. So for me, one of the more important agendas when it comes to CanPL is creating real short and long term goals that go beyond "A League of Our Own" and truly defining what that means. That slogan itself has been used by the CFL for a number of years, and I'd say that league has more American influence than MLS in terms of Canadian players having an impact, especially stars in the league. For me, the biggest story in 2016 was not Toronto FC hosting the MLS Cup final, but was Canada U20 beating England U20 in England 2-1. It was an English team with Marcus Rashford, Kasey Palmer and number of players who later won the U20 World Cup this past year. Exiting the 2017 and going into the 2018 season, only two players from that Canadian side, Davies and Ballou Tabla, are guaranteed to play in MLS next season and both might be sold off in a year or less. If we were England, the majority of those Canadian players would be professional players now. This to me is the Canadian problem, even on the Women’s side, where we need to at least try to give them as many games in a season as possible. Canadian players are not allowed to develop to their full potential, and to be quite honest I don't think most people in Canada even care. Even today, in all of my Canadian soccer conversations, those guys are old news regarded as not good enough. Instead, people want to discuss U16, U15, U12 and even U10. The fact is, all of those players will eventually be done with their youth careers and unless we change as a soccer country, will be the exact same situation as a Marco Bustos, Kadin Chung, or DuWayne Ewart, all of whom are in today part of Unattached FC. For me, this is why CanPL is important. Otherwise I'm going to take the lead of most others and purely concentrate on the Alphonso Davies-type talent and assume all other Canadians are not good enough to play the game professionally. This is something I know is not the case. 2018 could be another extraordinary year as Toronto FC could go for back-to-back championships and are also playing and looking to win the CONCACAF Champions League. Montreal and Vancouver will look to follow Toronto FC's footsteps. We also have a World Cup, which again will put soccer on the Canadian mainstream map. Although it will only be truly extraordinary if the CanPL administration confirms the league, teams are announced, supporters groups and people in those cities buy tickets and merchandise, and there is something legitimate the 400,000 youth soccer players in our country have something to play for. Aaron Neilsen is a co-founder of Prospect XI (Prospect Eleven), a scouting network and online magazine dedicated to tracking/highlighting young players that refer to as "prospects" as well as their development pathways both within North America and worldwide. Follow PXI via www.prospectxi.com or on twitter @ProspectXI.