No, not the national team.
In a match that was a major milestone of accomplishment, our 2014 World Cup team lost their first friendly 1 – 0 in Jamaica Sunday evening. The result there is secondary. What does matter is this match and the preceding training camp mark the first time our association demonstrated the will to make campaign and preparation two active words in their vocabulary.
It’s our under 20 women.
Marking another milestone, but of the worrisome kind, this group failed to qualify for July’s under 20 world championship. After a so-so showing in group play, they lost out against Mexico in the first shot at a berth in Thursday’s semi-final, then failed to grasp the third and final spot with a dismal performance versus Costa Rica Saturday. Canada had never lost to either of these teams in CONCACAF qualifying at this age group.
Please do not go thinking this is only under 20 girls and therefore not a very big deal. Optimism ran higher for this group than any of our other hopes. They also happen to be unfortunate enough to be the most current example of a faulty supply of properly prepared talent produced by a burgeoning youth system.
Unfortunately, this is not just a glitch and it is not just something that happens as a new coach tries transforming a team to a new style of play. Every Canadian soccer fan should be worked up about failure of the proportion we saw in Guatemala. What is wrong with not being good enough is .... well, just that, .... not good enough. When do we say this is unacceptable!
Watching how those Mexican women dominated ours in every way possible, I was thinking, no hoping, Carolina Morace had simply made the wrong choices in selecting her team. Then, next up, Costa Rica’s technical ability to impose their game on our team made matters far worse.
Wasn’t long ago no one in the western hemisphere could come close to beating a team from United States or Canada. We have looked on while that pattern changed but still, still there is no way to adequately explain how Costa Rica could have passed us by.
The best I can determine from digging into available figures and having been down there sniffing around their program, is in that country, only 3% of all soccer players are women. On a base of only 36,000 registered youth players, that means the Costa Rican coach had to uncover his players from a tiny pool of 1,080 under 18 girls. Most of the community clubs in the GTA have more girls than that on their registry. And how do they find their way on to the “seleccion”? By showing up, on their own initiative to one of the two day, once yearly, talent evaluation sessions conducted at the Project Goal training center outside San Jose. There is a cap of about 110 participants so 8 to 10 teams are set up. They play games, without coaching, from 8 am until 4, and all the coaches of all the selecciones nacionales sit, watch, and grade players.
It doesn’t matter who Carolina Morace picked to make up her team.
And that brings me back round to the title of this commentary.
At the club level, Canada is still not producing players who are comfortable with the ball. Players who can collect a ball without it getting away from them on the first touch. Players with confidence and coolness to work their way out of pressure with an intelligent choice, and defenders who don’t panic with clearances to no-where. This tournament team made very few attempts to build plays from the keeper or the back line. In five games I don’t recall a single forward willing to run at a defender much less give hints she could beat them.
It was Mexico and Costa Rica who put on the attractive display of football Morace has been promising we will see from Canada’s team.
Obviously she can’t do that yet. Even if they knew how, none of our national team coaches of either gender at any level have that luxury.
There are words of parents that haunt me from my days of youth soccer coaching. “My boy plays hockey and he only comes out here for the summer but he can still hoof the ball further down the field than these other kids who have been playing indoors all winter.”
To think, there are 100 or so adults on the sidelines cheering on the biggest, toughest, fastest, hoofer of the ball and turning them into local heroes. It hasn’t really changed I suppose. Is that what happens with big, clumsy machines?
Could Carolina make her life easier if she scouted only at the academies? Something has got to give. Everywhere!
Comments
the current youth system in this country does not produce talented players becasue from the age of 8 to 12, the most important age for the technical and coordination development of the player, we assign the boys and girls to coaches who have no experience not only in teachinng the technicque but also in the game.
I think it is time to stop blaming the current system of not producing talented players and put the blame on the selection of players by these coaches. Players with the skill you describe are there but those coaches do not take those players. The problem is not with the youth system as much as it is with the people running our National program. Players are chosen more on where they live than on their skills.
Poor article, there are plenty of youth players in this country who are comfortable on the ball. If they are not selected then where does the fault lie?
at this time, it is essential that we look at the difference in funding, which leads to both training and preparation for any youth national team to prepare for the qualification process and/or world youth championships. it is not important to blame the coach, the style, the player selection, the technical or tactical capacity of the players at this time. what is most important is to evaluate the amount of time the players, team, coach or program has been together to prepare for the qualification tournament. in fact, less than 10 years ago Canada was second in the U19 world youth championships based on a combination of factors. most importantly, the funding provided by the CSA for the team to be together for two years leading into the competition. the players at that time were exposed to a minimum of 100 days per year of training camps and/or international competition prior to the event. with this experience the players were more capable of handling with the pressure of the qualificati
Multifaceted problem,very poor financial support at all levels of the sport, questionable selection process at regional, provincial and national level - I believe the talent is there but missed or over-looked. Poor programming at the Provincial level secondary to average coaching at best. As a country we should refocus on coach education and take player development away from the provincial organisations - they have shown that they cannot deliver !
at this time, it is essential that we look at the difference in funding, which leads to both training and preparation for any youth national team to prepare for the qualification process and/or world youth championships. it is not important to blame the coach, the style, the player selection, the technical or tactical capacity of the players at this time. what is most important is to evaluate the amount of time the players, team, coach or program has been together to prepare for the qualification tournament. in fact, less than 10 years ago Canada was second in the U19 world youth championships based on a combination of factors. most importantly, the funding provided by the CSA for the team to be together for two years leading into the competition. the players at that time were exposed to a minimum of 100 days per year of training camps and/or international competition prior to the event. with this experience the players were more capable of handling with the pressure of the qualificati
Andrea is spot on. I am a full time technical director of a club and we have the least experienced coaches working with the most important ages of development. "golden ages of development" (u9-u14)
the best coaches only want to work with the best players and the best teams which dont end up being very good as the players were not taugh the proper skills and understanding of the game. The focus on results and preparing for the next game at the young ages is what hurts us the most.
Canada does have talented players at younger ages, the challenge is how to develop them into value for senior teams. Having provincial programs that reduce the number of players to 20+ each year does not leave a large pool. In fact it may discourage players who were not in the 20+. Perhaps a more regional focus, with more talented coaches will help produce a larger talent pool of players.
Hey Head Coach, you say “the best coaches only want to work with the best players and the best teams”. . What would it take to get these “best coaches” to work with players who have some amount of potential, and make them better players?
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