Posted by

Aaron Nielsen ,

August 30, 2016 Email

Aaron Nielsen



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@ENBSports

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I recently finished watching the Netflix documentary series Last Chance U and although the show is about an American Football team and players in Mississippi, it had many similar storylines seen in Men's professional soccer in Canada. The basic theme of the series is that talent wasn't preventing these players from succeeding in becoming superstars in the game, but instead surrounding circumstances. An under-appreciated Junior College program, Eastern Mississippi, is doing whatever it can to change this despite almost impossible odds. Most Canadian soccer supporters can relate to this. The circumstances in some ways are different, although the combination of the game being under appreciated domestically, and what Canadians are required to do to succeed individually as a professional player and collectively as a national team, makes the odds of qualifying, for example, to the World Cup very difficult. This will be a common story this week as Canada takes on Honduras in World Cup Qualifying. The most common storyline will be Canada as the plucky underdogs trying to hold on against a country in a hostile environment, with memories of our last meaningful game in the stadium an 8-1 loss. The 8-1 loss was actually the first time I ventured into writing editorial pieces, with the title "Canada - we're just not good enough", basically saying there was a lot of unrealistic hopes regarding that team. When you looked at where players from that Canadian team played professionally, and you compared it at the time with the Honduran side, Canada should have been and were heavy underdogs going into that game. This of course was no excuse to lose 8-1, and it was also not designed to defend that team but instead it was basically saying if we are expected to succeed we need to be better overall as a program and develop better players. For this Friday’s game a number of players from that team in 2012 are still a part of the Canadian set up. Atiba Hutchinson, David Edgar, Tosaint Ricketts and Nikolas Ledgerwood will be looking for redemption, while Marcel De Jong, Dejan Jakovic, Milan Borjan, and Kenny Stamatopoulos were also part of that team but didn't play in the game. Honduras have 12 players returning, including key players Maynor Figueroa, Boniek Garcia, Roger Espinoza and Emilio Izaguirre. Interestingly, Figueroa, Garcia, Espinoza, Edgar, Ricketts and De Jong are now all MLS players and all have roles with their current club, although none would be regarded as stars in the league. Truth be told, overall, this Honduran team is fairly weak. They do have two prospects up front in Anthony Lozano and Alberth Elis, both whom we identified on ProspectXI, and I actually included Lozano in my top 20 players overlooked by MLS on Red Nation Online earlier this year. While most of their side plays domestically in Honduras, some prospects are hoping to move on like Lozano, who plays in Spain, and Elis who plays in Mexico, although many will probably play their whole career in a league that is not even ranked in the top 100 in the world. This means on paper, Canada should be a much stronger team. Newer faces include Cyle Larin and Tesho Akindele, two players who won rookie of the year awards in MLS. Steven Vitoria is one who has played in Portugal, Doneil Henry and Junior Hoilett played in the English Championship last season but were also on the books of English Premier League teams, and Scott Arfield whose side won the English Championship last season and now is a regular player in the Premier League. The team has so much depth that coach Benito Floro decided not to call up MLS starters Jonathan Osorio, Will Johnson and Fraser Aird. Despite the shift in talent, Canada is still seen as heavy underdogs by the betting industry and from supporters I've spoken to there is not much confidence going into the game. Maybe I was too harsh in retrospect regarding the 8-1 loss and the circumstances Canada will be up against in Honduras will be challenging. They will be alone in a stadium of 30,000 plus people, probably not having much sleep from sound being made outside their hotel the night before and with the game being played during the hottest time of the day. However, player for player we are much better than Honduras and if we are going to compete in qualifying for the World Cup, which also includes far more difficult opponents such as United States and Mexico, we need to get points in these type of circumstances. On the other hand, if we lose maybe we just have to accept the challenge is too much for any Canadian team to succeed. Which brings me back to Last Chance U. Watching the series, you felt for many people involved in the program, from the talented players to the over aggressive coach, to the support staff and the people who supported the team as fans. However, despite a good track record, the vast majority of the players on that team are not expected to have an NFL career and most of their career highlights will be success at Eastern Mississippi Community College. That team plays in a very small bubble when it comes to American Football, and despite being far more talented than most of their opponents, they allowed circumstances to get in their way. I began to feel sorry for the people in the series who are using American Football as a way to get out of the circumstances that they have been put in. Most of the players in the program are attending Junior College because they couldn't achieve the most basic education in High School to allow them attend a Division 1 school, and even D1 football doesn't guarantee any success in life. With that said, I feel the opposite for players involved with the Canadian national team. I see great potential for players such as Cyle Larin, as his soccer career develops, and there are a number of exciting talented young players looking to follow his footsteps. The game against Honduras is not Canadian Men’s National Team’s "Last Chance". Yes, success in the World Cup would help cement Canada's development in the game, although I feel too much emphasis is put on these single games and the World Cup in general. For players like Atiba Hutchinson, David Edgar and Tosaint Ricketts, and for all who support Canada I hope we get by Honduras/El Salvador, upset the USA and Mexico in the next round, and make it to the 2018 World Cup. Personally, and probably shocking to most, I'm more interested in Canada's U-20 games this weekend in Costa Rica and how these players develop professionally rather than the hope it may bring for the 2022 and 2026 World Cups.



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.