The goal was never to win the World Cup.
The goal – simply – was to qualify.
To do that, Canada needed to build the third, or maybe fourth-best national men's soccer team in the combined area of North and Central America and the Caribbean.
In practical terms, that meant Canada had to be better than Honduras and/or Costa Rica.
We are not better than Honduras – and because Honduras ended up in our qualifying group along with relatively mighty Mexico, that is going to be fatal.
Four more years, Canada. Four more years.
Admittedly, a lot of things have changed since four years ago, when we weren't better than Costa Rica and/or Trinidad and Tobago. (Or occasionally Guatemala.) We were better than Honduras then. Unfortunately, the referees missed it.
Canada '08 is a deeper, better soccer team. Maybe not by global standards, but compared to what Canada's been able to bolt together in the past, this team of de Rosario, de Guzman, Hutchinson, Stalteri, Hume, Friend et al. – well, there's some real scrap and creativity there.
Enough to conquer the world? Clearly not.
More than Trinidad took to the World Cup in Germany two summers ago? Well, I would have thought so. But then again. …
On the plus side, we have real money in the Canadian pro game now, and perfect little gems of soccer stadiums have popped up in Toronto and Montreal – and soon Vancouver, if there's any justice out there. Canada's national teams have places to play now, even if it's artificial turf one night and disintegrating gobbets of grass the next. These matters will be fixed by 2012.
So what about a Canadian soccer league? So our lads can stay home and play – like they do in Honduras and Costa Rica and Trinidad. Please remember that these countries are all about the size of southern Ontario. If you start in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and travel the same distance as Montreal to Vancouver, you end up in Sault Ste. Marie! Canada is a nation so vast and narrow, we don't even have our own professional hockey league. The travel costs alone of running a CSL are prohibitive – but cross-border leagues do, thank mercy, exist.
We are fortunate to have found solid, wealthy ownership for our lone MLS franchise (Toronto FC) and two ambitious USL-1 clubs (the Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps). We need more good owners in more cities far more than we need a league. By 2012, all three of these teams should be in MLS. Three new bankable owners wanting in, in other towns, would we wonderful.
As much as Canada has struggled to produce – and keep – players, the lack of world-class coaching is really starting to hurt. We need someone with a sound tactical vision who can teach. He's going to be an import, and he has to be paid whatever he believes he's worth.
That leads us to … Money.
Right now, the Canadian Soccer Association is operating on a budget of about $13-million. This has to pay for all staff, programs, national teams and wrongful-dismissal suits. It isn't nearly enough.
The CSA baffles and befuddles me on many levels, but their inability to raise cash is central to the present problem. This is a very wealthy country, filled with corporate opportunists who know how to make a buck off professional sports. Why can't that budget be tripled?
Then you can get your coach. Then Dwayne de Rosario is on TV screens everywhere, on his way to becoming a household name. Then the team becomes visible. Then the team starts to matter. Then the goal of being better than Honduras and/or Costa Rica doesn't plunge us all into heartbreak every four years.
