Posted by

Aaron Nielsen ,

September 9, 2016 Email

Aaron Nielsen



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@ENBSports

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It is easy to talk in hindsight, especially when things go wrong. However, I must say when it came to Canada's qualifying cycle for the 2018 World Cup, most of the concerns discussed here throughout the process came to be true. The response to Canada being eliminated from Russia 2018 runs the spectrum, with head coach Benito Floro taking the most heat, although no one involved in the Canadian program were left unscathed. Personally, I don't blame the players for the effort they put on the pitch, as they performed as you would have expected them based on circumstances and became hand cuffed throughout the qualifying round.



The qualifying for 2018 started in a fairly lacklustre manner as Canada was forced to start in the second round; a process they will probably have to go through for the 2022 tournament in Qatar. I attended the home games in Toronto against two of the worst ranked FIFA countries in Dominica and Belize and saw Canada using mostly what would be regarded as their fist team, and at least had strong performances from Cyle Larin and Tesho Akindele giving hope for what was to come. Tossaint Ricketts followed this up with a good performance against Belize at home in the third round, although the first sign of Benito Floro's defensive tactics came out in a 1-1 draw in the away leg, against a country ranked 166th in the World.



Despite this, my first major concerns regarding Floro was not a World Cup qualifier, or even the Men's Senior Team in general, it was how he managed the Canadian U23 side at the 2016 Olympic Qualifiers. This was a side which included a group of players who I thought could be contributors during the 2018 World Cup Qualifying campaign. Players such as Luca Grasparotto, Mauro Eustaquio, Anthony Jackson-Hamel, Hanson Boakai, Jay Chapman and Michael Petrasso.



After an unlucky 3-1 loss to the host United States, Canada came back strong against Panama with Petrasso scoring. This followed with a game against Cuba where Canada would play their new traditional 4-5-1 formation and hold on to a 2-2 tie. They would eventually be eliminated from the tournament with defensive first and underwhelming performances against Mexico and then the United States again.



What this tournament showed me is that Benito Floro was formation and tactics first, player quality second, and if you didn't fit in his system you didn't have a good chance of playing. Ironically, Canada played the US twice because Honduras beat the US in the semi-finals and the Central Americans were lead by the same forward combination that just played Canada in Honduras in 20-year old Albeth Elis and 22-year old Anthony Lozano. Petrasso would score three goals in the tournament but has since only represented Canada in friendly games in Europe.



The fourth qualifying round started last year on November 13 in Vancouver as Canada took on the Honduran side who did not include Elis or Lozano. A very even game saw Canada escape with the win on a somewhat advantageous goal by Cyle Larin. However, this did put Canada in the driver’s seat and gave them some hope as they had tied Honduras at home four years earlier. Then on November 17, Canada played what I felt then, and still now, was the defining game of the group stages in El Salvador.



In another defense-first game Canada held El Salvador to a 0-0 draw, which was praised by some in Canadian soccer circles, saying how hard it is to get anything from a game in Central America. I saw this result completely different. If Canada was going to get anything from this group, three points in El Salvador was essential and in reality Canada should win all games they play in El Salvador. The country is ranked 137th in the World, the stadium fits around 10,000 people, and especially, many of their top players were unavailable because of a match-fixing scandal.



Canada’s next two games were against Mexico, and although it was great to see 55,000 out to BC Place, it showed how naive we are as soccer country. Many people talked as though results were possible and went as far as some saying that points against Mexico was not only necessary but also achievable.



I watched these games as a fan, however, I wasn't expecting anything and feared the worst. In the end, I was generally happy that Canada survived, losing both games by a combined score of 5-0. Although the biggest issue I had with these games, especially regarding the media, is it overshadowed Canada's historic U20 win over England in Manchester. This U20 side included players like Marco Carducci, Kadin Chung, Fikayo Tomori, Marco Bustos, Alphonso Davies, Duwayne Ewart, Shamit Shome, Ballou Tabla, Luca Uccello, Jordan Hamilton and Dario Zanatta, all playing against a group of English players who I guarantee will be known English Premier League players in two to three years time.



After a long break, which included Canada not playing in the Copa Centenario after not qualifying the year before, saw the two most recent games. If evidence is needed, you can go through my old tweets as I talked about my concerns for these games based on the reality of what was ahead and the selections Floro made.



Key players not playing or out of contract were selected, while players who have had strong current club campaigns such as a Will Johnson, Jonathan Osorio and Fraser Aird were ignored. As we all know, Canada would lose 2-1 to a Honduran team who for the most part outplayed them, despite Canada gaining a 1-0 lead. Canada would then beat El Salvador 3-1 in a game that in the end didn't matter. If Canada had beat El Salvador in El Salvador they would advance on 9 points, but instead they finish third.



The only significance of the 3-1 win was Floro’s approach and substitutions during the game that created a social media storm once Canada conceded in the 78th minute. This action online led to many articles including ones with different takes on what just happened. John Molinaro’s stuck out the most to me because it was almost a direct headline of a an article I wrote four years ago, that "Canada has neither the quality nor the depth of talent to qualify for "the Hex." Within his game recap he says Floro wasn't to blame and he is no miracle worker ,something he would have to be if Canada was too advance.



I would disagree with Molinaro’s point of view, for the main reason we were eliminated solely on not beating a team who we eventually beat handily. In this article I have named a number of players who were not even considered by Floro during this qualifying campaign. Where I agree with Molinaro is that we are not a World Cup Qualifying contender and outside of Stephen Hart's Trinidad and Tobago, we would have been the worst team in the Hex and outside of an easy early schedule could have been eliminated four games in.



The major concerns I have for the National Team and moving forward is our track record of developing defenders has been horrible in what is otherwise a boom in Canadian soccer. I feel questions could be pointed at MLS Academies and even successful independent Academies like Sigma FC, who on paper look to have focused on and developed attacking players because the reality is no Canadian teams rely on Canadian defenders to be successful. Canada also needs development in terms of tactics and systems, which was Floro’s one saving grace as at least he gave the side structure, even though I feel it was the wrong system based on the available talent.



In terms of the rest of the team, we are not giving players opportunities at both MLS and National Team levels to prove they are better then the established players already in the side. In comparison, the recent Bronze winning women's team included seven players 21 or under, including 18 year old Jessie Fleming and 17 year old Deanne Rose. If I was in charge of the 2018 qualifiers, I would have had Carducci, Aird, Chung, Tomori, Grasparotto, Adekugbe, Bustos, Davies, Tabla, Chapman, Johnson, Petrasso and Osario in the first team surrounded by Borjan, Crepeau, Straith, Henry, Piette, Hutchison, Hoilett, Arfield, Ricketts, Akindele, and Larin. At the very least, if the same end result happened, 90% of the players would be back with valuable experience for the next go.



At the end of the day, we need forward-thinking and intelligent decision-making people leading the team, and not just hoping things will get better. Is Jason De Vos or whoever at CSA decision-makers able to make these types of right moves and create a clear plan going forward? As of now, I'm not sure. Where I worry for Canada after this campaign, more then I did in 2014, is the progression of the rest of CONCACAF where players like Elis, Lozano, Ismeal Diaz, Hirving Lozano, Obelin Pineda, Joel Campbell, Levi Garcia, Jordan Morris and Christian Pulisic are the new stars, not only of CONCACAF, but soon to be World Football, that we will be competing against. 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.