Posted by

Aaron Nielsen ,

June 11, 2014 Email

Aaron Nielsen



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@ENBSports

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Turn on the television and you'll see features on soccer, walk down the street and people will be talking about soccer, bump in to a friend and there is a good chance he or she might mention soccer. Yes, once again it's World Cup time and a sport mostly ignored by mainstream media here in Canada will now be front and centre with the general public and casual sports fan, and will make daily headlines and water cooler conversation over the next four weeks. I am a fan of the tournament and it certainly helps increase my existing interest in the game, although I find the tournament now has become part of the soccer calendar, opposed to a special occasion. In the past I worked the tournament itself, which required late hours when the tournament was played in Japan/South Korea, and early hours for games in Germany and South Africa. There was also a sense of relief for summer vacation once the tournament has ended, as it is also peak time for player transfers around the world, with clubs who play the traditional winter schedule preparing for the following season starting in August. I also see how much it means to others and an honest excitement about the social occasion, either supporting a country that you have a connection to, or the party atmosphere it creates on the street. When people ask me about their team of interest and how they are going to perform, you can see they put some effort being aware of the players and the country's expectation. It allows for an interesting conversation that can lead to tactics and match ups, which shows me there is a willingness to follow the sport and in my experience World Cup actually retains an interest from people who don't follow any sport in general. However, as people watch games and the tournament progresses, people start addressing Canada, our absence, and wouldn't be great if we can be part of this party. Truthfully, it’s a hard question to answer as Canada is one of the smaller countries population-wise who has to recruit from a pool of athletes who traditionally prefer to play a sport other than soccer. This shouldn't be an excuse, and based on resources we should be beating countries such as Honduras and Costa Rica, meanwhile Australia in similar circumstances should set a great example to Canada as the Socceroos just made their third World Cup in a row. I will also say Canada's exclusion from the World Cup, and to soccer in general, is nothing more than a lack of success on the field and as a country we are part of the global soccer community as much as Italy, England, Germany or Brazil. If you look deeper at the 2014 World Cup tournament there are many connections and stories that Canada and players who play for Canada have with this tournament. Canada will be represented by assistant referee Joe Fletcher, who will participate in games. While a sore point to many, Jonathan de Guzman, who was born in Scarborough (and brother Julian plays for Canada) will be representing Netherlands at the tournament after a couple of successful seasons with Swansea City in the English Premier League. While Julian played with Hannover from 2002 to 2005, a club that included Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker, who will represent Germany in this year’s World Cup. The Canadian National Team’s most established player, Atiba Hutchinson, has played with a number of players at this year’s World Cup. He is currently with Besiktas in Turkey, a club that includes American Jermaine Jones, Portuguese striker Hugo Almeida and Cameroon defender Dany Nounkeu. While prior he played for PSV Eindhoven and played alongside Belgium midfielder Dries Mertens and Dutch players Jeremain Lens, Georginio Wijnaldum and one of the most exciting young prospect in the tournament Memphis Depay. Other Canadian national team players who were teammates of players at this year’s World Cup is David Edgar, who played with Nigerian Shola Ameobi and England's James Milner while at Newcastle United. Dejan Jakovic played along Bosnian Ognjen Vranjes when he was at Red Star Belgrade, Nikolas Ledgerwood played with American Fabian Johnson and Greek defender Jose Holebas at 1860 Munchen and Marcel de Jong has played with Koreans Sa-Chul Gu, and Dong-Won Ji, Dutch defender Paul Verhaegh and Ivory Coast midfielder Giovanni Sio at FC Augsburg in Germany. This doesn't include coming closer to home with Toronto FC player Michael Bradley a key player for United States and Julio Cesar the starting keeper for Brazil, while the Vancouver Whitecaps are represented by Iranian Steve Beitashour. In total there are 33 players who are playing this World Cup who have played at some point of their career in Major League Soccer including 15 Americans, eight players who represent Honduras, four from Costa Rica and along with Julio Cesar and Beitashour, Uruguayan Egidio Arevalo Rios, Mexican Rafeal Marquez, Colombian Carlos Valdes and Australia's key player Tim Cahill. Canadians not only have a connection with club soccer, but in 2007 when we hosted the FIFA U-20 World Cup and Chile, despite some issues at the tournament, in hindsight had an incredible roster including Arturo Vidal, Gary Medel and Alexis Sanchez. Uruguay will include the dynamic attacking combination of Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani at both tournaments. Argentina’s Angel di Maria and Sergio Aguero, Brazil's David Luiz, Willan, and Jo, Spaniards Juan Mata and Gerard Pique, Portugal’s keeper Rui Patricio, Nigerian Efe Ambrose and Japan's Shinji Kagawa all played in 2007 and will be key players for their countries in this World Cup. Finally, our national senior team has played a number of games against the CONCACAF representatives at the World Cup, but they also played friendlies over the past decade with connections to this year’s World Cup. In the past year they lost to Japan and Australia, who basically had the same squad as the World Cup team, and in 2011 they played Greece which saw the debut of Greece’s top player Konstantinos Mitroglou, as well Ecuador in Toronto. Both Sergio Aguero and Angel Di Maria scored against Canada for Argentina in 2010. While going further back, Canada played Brazil in Seattle in 2008, a team that included Julio Cesar, Maicon, and Dani Alves. In 2005 Rocco Placentino scored for Canada in a 2-1 loss to a Spanish side that included Fernando Torres, Xabi Alonso and Xavi, and in March of 2005 Canada lost 4-1 to Portugal, where Cristiano Ronaldo played his 20th international game. Working in the game for a number of years based in Canada, you can feel slighted and feel that the World is against you, and like many casual fans an outsider and truly not invited to the party. However, analyzing the reasons why I constantly have to look in the mirror and ask myself if I am providing something worthwhile, do I really understand the game and can I provide a service to it? I believe this is the same for the National Team and Canadians in general. Soccer is incredibly accepting, it is just massive in size, many times larger than any other sport so it’s hard to be noticed, and like most parties invitations are based on what you bring to them. I do have hope for Canada for a number of reasons, including a year from now hosting our own World Cup with the Women's tournament being played across Canada. Although, I would suggest to the casual fan, instead of watching 64 games in June every four years, spread them out: watch MLS, NWSL, NASL, go to a League 1 Ontario match or whatever soccer league is local to you, as I feel you will enjoy yourself doing so and be even more aware of the tournament in the next four years.