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Aaron Nielsen ,

September 30, 2015 Email

Aaron Nielsen



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In my last article, profiling the squad for the 2015 Olympic Men's Qualifying team, I mentioned Canada has yet to qualify for an Olympic games. I was aware of the 1904 win, a tournament that only included Canada and two United States teams, and also aware that Canada hosted the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, where Canada lost its two games in the tournament. The first, 2-1 in front of 34,200 in Montreal, and then 3-1 to North Korea at Varsity Stadium in Toronto. Both Canadian goals were scored by Hall of Famer Jimmy Douglas, who by then was 28 years old and never really got a chance to develop his career, including opportunities in the NASL. I was very young in 1984 and most of my newly acquired sports interest surrounded the Toronto Blue Jays. who were just starting to be a decent team. I was somewhat aware of the 1984 Olympics and political issues around it, so it doesn't surprise me now that Canada participated in Men's Soccer during the 1984 Olympics. However, my guess would have been they didn't have to qualify with so many countries electing not to participate in those games. The Wikipedia page for the 1984 Olympics offers no information about qualifying, although after some further research, I found out Canada did have to qualify, including beating Mexico in a three game series that included a sudden death tiebreaker. Then, in the Olympic Games, they made the quarter finals and were eliminated by none other than Brazil in penalty kicks, who finished third in the tournament. The team has added significance because the core also played in the 1986 World Cup and 1984 was also the last season of the original NASL. In 1984 the same age restrictions of today were not attached to the Olympic Qualifying team, although most countries used a mixed lineup of established players and developing prospects. Under the management of head coach Tony Waiters, who recently took the job, the main players on Canada were starting keeper Tino Lettieri, who played seven seasons in the NASL and had just returned to the Minnesota Strikers after two seasons with the Whitecaps. There was the back four of Bobby Lenarduzzi, who had played 288 Whitecaps games and maybe the greatest Canadian soccer player, his defensive partner Ian Bridge who previously played 100 games with the Seattle Sounders, Toronto Blizzard and NASL all-star Bruce Wilson who had 276 NASL games, and Terry Moore who played in the NASL with San Diego, Tampa Bay and Tulsa.



The Midfield had Randy Ragan, who played 117 games with the Blizzard, Mike Sweeney who played with the Edmonton Drillers before moving to the Whitecaps and eventually capped 61 times by Canada. There was Paul James, who was only 20 at the time, and just completed his first season with the Toronto Blizzard, current Whitecaps color commentator Dave Norman, who was actually playing both soccer with the Whitecaps and at College Dublin in Ireland, and Garry Gray who would play a prominent role during these Olympic games and at the time was playing with the New York Cosmos previously with Montreal and Vancouver. Up front, Canada had Dale Mitchell, who by 1984 had retired from playing outdoor soccer after scoring 43 goals in 129 NASL game between Vancouver, Portland and Montreal before becoming one of the top players in indoor soccer, eventually returning to the outdoor game and scoring 211 goals in the CSL. Igor Vrablic, who played with the Golden Bay Earthquakes, but also played in Europe after the Olympics including Greek team Olympiacos. The bench included amateur players Ken Garraway, Craig Martin and John Catliff, who was in the NCAA at the time with Harvard never playing in the NASL, although became one the all-time players in the CSL. To make it to the 1984 tournament there were three qualifying rounds with the third being a 3 team tournament and the top two advancing. Canada won the 1st round easily over Bermuda winning 6-0 in Burnaby and tying 1-1 in Bermuda. Canada used mostly a "B" team with George Pakos and Terry Felix scoring two goals. In the second round Canada was drawn against Mexico. They won 1-0 in Victoria with Craig Martin scoring the goal, who was playing at the time with McMaster University in the CIAU. Canada lost 2-1 in the second game despite taking a 1-0 lead from a Ken Garraway goal, which set up a sudden death playoff game in Fort Lauderdale. Canada won the game 1-0 with Gerry Gray scoring the goal and an interesting article I found on the game had Les Wilson as the coach, who called it one of the greatest achievements in the history of Canadian Soccer.



Canada advanced to the group stage with Cuba and Costa Rica. Both games with Costa Rica ended with 0-0 draws, while Costa Rica beat Cuba at home. Canada then played Cuba in Victoria and won handily 3-0 with Mike Sweeney scoring twice and Gray adding the third. With Cuba not being able to gain more points than Canada or Costa Rica, with the remaining games the final game in the group was canceled and Canada and Costa Rica advanced. The final tournament at the Olympics was very well attended despite a number of countries boycotting the games. European powers at the time were USSR, East Germany, Poland and past champions Czechoslovakia, all qualified for the 1984 tournament but didn't send teams. Canada was drawn in Group B against Yugoslavia, Cameroon and Iraq and actually played their first game in Boston where they tied 1-1 with Iraq with Gray scoring the tying goal. Canada’s second game was in Washington DC where they lost 1-0 to Yugoslavia. Fortunately, a 3-1 win back in Boston against Cameroon saw Canada advance to the knock out stages. Dale Mitchell scored two goals for Canada and Vrablic scoring the third.



Canada played their quarter-finals game at Stanford against Brazil who had won their three group games, including beating West Germany. Brazil were a young but talented team who at the time were all playing in Brazil, many on Internacional, who won the past four state championships. In hindsight, the big name on the club was Dunga, who would play for Brazil 91 times, win the 1994 World Cup and also play in the Bundesliga and Japan J1-League. Dale Mitchell gave Canada the lead with a scrappy finish but good play to get the ball in the box. Brazil’s tying goal was equally as scrappy with Gilmar Popoca scoring in the 72nd minute. Nothing was settled in the final 14 minutes and extra time setting up penalty kicks. In the penalties, Brazil showed their class going 4 for 4 , while Mitchell and Bridge missed for Canada, knocking them out the tournament. In celebration of 100 years of Canada Soccer, the 1984 Olympic tournament was ranked 5th all-time as the greatest moment in Canadian Soccer. On that 1984 team, Lettieri, Lenarduzzi, Wilson, Ragan, Moore, Bridge, Gray, Vrablic, Sweeney, Mitchell, James, and Norman, all represented Canada at the 1986 World Cup, which has been Canada's only time in the tournament. By then there was no longer an NASL and while the full 1984 Olympic team was either playing club soccer, in the NASL or in college. The 1986 World Cup team included four players who had no club and 10 players who were playing indoor soccer for a living. I think it’s fair to say Canada's 1984 success and 1986 qualification came about because of the NASL and we can look back now at opportunities squandered with the demise of the league.



With in the Canadian soccer community and especially the great work of Colin Jose, they have tried to do a good job in keeping people aware of tournaments like the 1984 Olympics with most of the Canadian players being elected into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame. Although it wasn't until I researched this story that I was aware of how Canada performed or discovered players such as Garry Gray. Personally, it's another advertisement of why statistics and sports information are important in the game of soccer, but also embracing the game’s history like it is with Hockey and the 1972 Summit Series, for example. RedNation Online even has a connection to the 1984 Olympic Games with Canadian Tony Evangelista being a match official and referring the game between West Germany and Morocco, although that can be a story for another time.



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.