Knight: Historical context – from the master

Ben Knight, 09/05/08 at 10:52 AM EDT

Yesterday's item on the CSA and player development generated a broad and useful discussion.  Thanks to everyone for chipping in.
 
I just got a masterful e-mail from noted Canadian soccer historian Colin Jose, putting the whole picture together as only he can. 
 
As mentioned here before, Jose is the author of many useful books on the beautiful game in Canada, including The Story of Soccer in Canada, co-authored by William F. Rannie, and the spectacular A Complete Record of the North American Soccer League.   He's also webmaster of www.canadiansoccerhistory.com.
 
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Hi Ben,

Just a few thoughts and comments triggered by your latest blog.

Some years ago one of our grandsons wanted to play soccer, he was 5-6.  So I took him, sat and watched, and kept my mouth shut.  It was house league soccer, and he was fortunate in that first year because he had someone coaching who knew the game.  The next year, his coach was a volunteer who was a basketball coach in the winter and had never played soccer.  He was a nice man, the kids had fun.  A lady whose son was also playing said to me "Isn't it wonderful they are going to play 14 games."  I said "No lady it's a disaster they should be playing 40."  She said "What! I wouldn't allow my son to do that I want him to play basketball and hockey in the winter."  The boys didn't play 14 games, given that they spent so much time running on and off being substituted, they might have played seven.

Fast forward a few years and my grandson is in a rep team.  The coach wanting to get an early start called a practice late January, early February in a school gym.  There were something like 18 boys on this rep team, that first Saturday morning only about 7 showed up.  Where were the rest?  Playing hockey and basketball.  This went on until almost opening day, when the outdoor practices, drew more.  Hockey season was over.  This was a Hamilton team playing in places like St. Catharines, Ancaster, Malton, Brampton etc.  I think they won one game all season, and on average lost by at least 10 goals.  Players were still running on and off, unlimited substitution.  By mid-summer, there was no substitution because the team often played one, two or three short.  Reason.  Their parents were on holiday, so off the boys went to the cottage for two weeks, or on a trip somewhere.   Yet as I sat through those seasons I saw potential everywhere, boys with natural skills.

Perhaps this is not the norm across the country.  House league should be fun, but the more skilled you are the more fun it is.

Some time later I was in the Skydome one morning for a CSA press conference leading up to the two games Canada played there in around 1995.  The press conference was out on the playing field.  Tony Taylor, then the U-17 coach, showed up, he had just returned with the team from the Caribbean or Central America, and he was not a happy man.  He described how his first job in training camp was to try to get the players fit to play 90 minutes, most of then could only handle 45.  Then how it was hard to get some players released because their clubs wanted them so that they could win their local competitions, and in particular because it was more important for one ethnic group to beat another.  He pointed out that the teams we were playing down south played at least nine months of the year and were totally focused on playing soccer.  No unlimited substitution.  I wish I had a tape recorder that morning because I have always had a lot of respect for Tony Taylor as a youth coach, and I think that day he touched on a lot of important things.

Now let's look at history, always my thing.  Manchester United (formed 1902), Rangers 1873, Boca Juniors 1908, Inter-Milan 1909, Aston Villa 1874, Slavia Prague 1892, Borussia Dortmund 1909, Benfica 1904, Real Madrid 1898.  TORONTO FC 2007.  There was a time when we did have good teams that were around for many years.  Westminster Royals, Toronto Ulster, Toronto Scottish, Montreal Carsteel, and even the various incarnations of the Blizzard lasted 18 years.  But currently our only pro soccer team is now in it's second year.  Which means that we are 100 years behind Europe. During last summer's U-20 tournament, one player in particular caught my eye – Ever Benega of Argentina, then perhaps 17.  I heard people saying, if he had been born here the CSA system would never have developed him.  But the point is that the national association of Argentina didn't develop him, Boca Juniors did.  It's the clubs that develop players in the rest of the world not the national associations.  It's an apprenticeship system.  Only when the NASL existed did we have anything approaching that, and to set it up today will cost millions.

Example #1.  When the Netherlands plays in Euro 2008 next month their assistant coach will be John Van't Schip.  Van't Schip was born in Fort St. John, B.C.  His Dutch parents took him back to Holland when he was eight years old.  He grew up in Amsterdam, and by the age of 12 was in the Ajax system.  He progressed up through the various levels until he reached the first team, he went on to play 273 games for Ajax and 41 times for the Netherlands.  He wasn't developed by the KNVB but by Ajax.

Example #2.  Some years ago Owen Hargreaves was selected to attend one of the youth teams training camps.  Tony Taylor was the coach and he was under pressure to produce a team to compete in one of the CONCACAF tournaments.  He looked at Owen and thought.  "He needs one more year of development before I can use him."   Nothing unusual about that.  Owen got that year of development in the Bayern Munich youth system, and like Van't Schip made his way up through the system.  He wasn't developed by the DFB.  This is not to defend the CSA, but to point out that until we have a professional system here we are just whistling dixie.  Tony has taken a lot of stick over this, but it was a normal decision.  So where is Tony Taylor today?  He is coaching in the Glasgow Celtic academy.

On Wednesday I was at the Soccer Centre and CBC-TV was filming part of this years "Soccer Day in Canada" in the Hall of Fame.  When it was over some of us were asked where soccer in Canada goes from here.  I said my piece on camera.  Soccer in Canada needs professional CLUBS, not professional teams the way it has been in the past.  Toronto FC is on the right track and so are the Whitecaps and Impact.  The program airs May 31.

As I say, just a few thoughts.  I agree with much of what you are writing about the CSA because I have been close to it for 40 years.  But the problems are many and so much of it is parochial and people lacking is knowledge and vision.

Best wishes,
Colin Jose.
 
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Much to think about.  Much to discuss.
 
Onward!

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Knight: All quiet on the CSA front

Ben Knight, 08/05/08 at 12:46 PM EDT

Sometimes, there is no story. 
 
For all the hype and glory leading up to last weekend's Canadian Soccer Association annual general meeting in St. John's, pretty much exactly nothing has changed.
 
The biggest announcements?  Interim president Dominic Maestracci has now accepted a four-year term as non-interim president.

The new CSA strategic plan has apparently been adopted, but does not currently exist on paper in any form that can be released to the public.
 
Oh, and the FIFA Under-20 World Cup didn't lose money after all.  It's final balance sheet goes into the official books as exactly zero.  As much spent as was brought in.  FIFA, essentially, shovelled money into the hole so now there is no hole and we can wholly forget we ever thought there was a hole.
 
In other words, we actually know less today than we did before the meeting was convened.
 
All this non-action has generated almost no response from the CSA's large and previously vocal roster or critical opponents.  Canada's largely dysfunctional soccer bureaucracy managed to stroll in and out of the spotlight without actually doing much of anything, and now the criticism is dying down dramatically.
 
For myself, I'm neither puzzled nor surprised nor outraged.  I actually kind of admire the craftsmanship.
 
It won't last.  Among the unanswered questions:
 
- Will president Maestracci, with a four-year contract, listen to his new general secretary, Peter Montopoli, who is trying to remake and reorient this sadly sinking ship?  We have been assured, in the past, that Montopoli now has the wheel.  But Montopoli doesn't have a contract.  What's his job security going to be like should he start advising his captain to change course?  We don't know.
 
- What's in the strategic plan?  A document, being drafted under the wobbly and dubious title “Wellness to World Cup” will apparently be released in June.  Will it contain sane, workable answers to such chronic problems as underfunding, lack of direction and chronic multi-provincial bureaucratic paralysis?  We don't know.
 
- Can a bureaucracy with a discouraging previous record of bad communication and unsound decision making repair and reform itself, when most of its detractors feel the most important first step to reform is to simply replace the lot of them?  We deeply suspect, but we don't know.
 
The CSA has somehow, in broad daylight and under intense scrutiny, managed to cloak itself in secrecy all over again.  Those of us who have been howling for change are going to have to wait till they actually do something specific, and take it on a case-by-case basis from there.
 
So, as long as we're out on the dancefloor with no band and no disc jockey, please allow me to post a little dance card of questions for this “new” CSA:
 
- Why do we need two levels of bureaucracy running amateur soccer in Canada?  Why not combine the CSA with the various provincial boards, give them the amateur game, and turn our national teams over to a new, streamlined, effective and business-savvy new organization – Soccer Canada or some-such?
 
- Why not do a complete re-examination of provincial soccer programs?  Are provincial rep teams really the best way to develop our next generation of soccer stars?  Toronto FC and the Vancouver Whitecaps don't seem to think so.  They're both launching extensive new soccer academy programs.  They've also got better access to market capital.  They might well be wondering just what exactly they need the CSA and the provinces for, exactly?
 
- Can we re-examine the issue of artificial turf at BMO Field?  We're finding out that Canada's men's World Cup team doesn't want to play at the so-called National Soccer Stadium because the players hate the surface.  The turf was demanded by the various levels of government that paid for construction.  Is there any way to reopen that discussion?
 
Let's start with that.  Feel free to load up the comments section with questions of your own.
 
The deep lull in criticism following the CSA AGM non-event concerns me.  I admit, they didn't give us much to react to.  But is inaction suddenly acceptable?  Did the stakes suddenly and magically get lowered?
 
It's still a mess, folks – and we still don't know what the CSA plans to do about it.
 
Onward!

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Other stuff: The Voyageurs, Canada's national soccer supporters, are running a bus from Toronto to the Canada vs. St. Vincent and the Grenadines World Cup qualifying match, at Saputo Stadium in Montreal on June 20.
 
They need interested supporters to fill the remaining seats.  You must be a Canada fan, and understand that because this is a supporters' section, you'll be on your feet and chanting the whole game.
 
For more information, check out the Voyageurs website, or e-mail trip organizer Duane Rollins directly.
 
Should be an epic adventure!

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Knight: One town, two stadiums

Ben Knight, 06/05/08 at 10:26 AM EDT

So, I took a brief break from soccer Sunday afternoon, and did something I haven't done in 14 years.
 
I went to see the Toronto Blue Jays play at the ‘Dome.
 
Away from the footie pitch, and away from children's music, I work part-time with special-needs adults for a wonderful organization called Community Living Toronto.  I assist folks who have their own apartments, but need some help with normal, day-to-day
 chores. 
 
It was CLT day at the ball park on Sunday, so three clients and I trooped down to watch Jays' ace Roy Halladay pitch against the Chicago White Sox.
 
(There is a strong soccer angle coming.  I promise.)
 
I'm honoured to work with some very dear people on this job, and we all had a wonderful time.  I also got to compare the experience of watching baseball at Rogers Centre with the Toronto FC phenomenon that is rocking BMO Field right off its foundations.  It was … interesting.
 
Background: I went to 40-odd Blue Jays baseball games a year, from that famously snowy opening day in 1977 right up until about 1990.  I hated Exhibition Stadium for its dreadful sightlines, but came to dislike the ‘Dome even more for its impersonality, odd angles and non-stop blaring hype.
 
I still went occasionally, up until the strike wiped out the World Series in 1994.  Yep, I'm one of The Fans Who Never Came Back.  By the time '94 rolled around, I was a ravenous travelling lacrosse fanatic, which took up a lot of my time and passion.  I was married then, too, which took up a lot more.
 
Lacrosse became my sporting grande passion.  I didn't need the Blue Jays anymore.  Honestly didn't much miss them, either. 
 
My final baseball game was at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, in August of '94.

The Mets and the Pirates.  Lovely little 3-2 game.  Can't even remember who won.  And I honestly knew, as I sat there that night, I was probably never going to give a dime of my money to Major League Baseball – ever again.
 
(Soccer angle approaching.)
 
And so, my CLT clients and I settled into some very nice 14th-row aisle seats in short left field, and I was reunited with the grand old ritual of watching Blue Jays baseball live.  The differences from BMO Field are, indeed, hugely noticeable.
 
The Rogers Centre seats rise from the playing field at a very shallow angle.  If you're on the aisle, your view of the infield is blocked anytime anybody stands up.  Yes, you can watch the action on the Jumbotron, but at any given moment, on any given play, your view can vanish. 
 
The hype is pounding, and relentless.

Someone, somewhere, decided that baseball fans need to be entertained every single second, even though baseball is a slow, poetic, thoughtful, reflective game.  But who needs poetry when you get to guess which animated recycling truck is carrying the hidden giant baseball on the Jumbotron?
 
You're being sold something – aggressively – from the moment you enter the stadium till the second you finally get squeezed through the exit door.

And nobody seems to mind in the least that their 14th-row seats have an obstructed view.
 
My clients had an amazing, wonderful, fantastic time.  They were beaming on the subway home.  Happy, excited, it was a joy to see.  Whatever role the Blue Jays played in putting the day together, thank you very much and we all look forward gleefully to doing it again.  Whatever thoughts I'm offering now do not reflect the views of Community Living Toronto, or its clients, in any way at all.
 
I'm speaking, instead, as the starry-eyed 17-year-old who watched Bill Singer throw the first pitch to Ralph Garr of the White Sox from way WAY out behind the right field foul pole on April 7, 1977, and fell in love for years.
 
(Cue the soccer angle.)
 
If you haven't yet experienced BMO Field on a Toronto FC game day, things are hugely different.  The seats are all right on top of the play.  Clear straight views from everywhere – unless you got bought scalped tickets in the supporters' section behind the south goal and naively thought you were going to be able to sit down back there.
 
The hype is kept to a minimum.  We're informed of the waybill number the courier company used to deliver the game ball to the officials, but that passes quickly.  A watch company “sponsors” the time added on at the end of each half.

Personally, I don't think you should ever be allowed to sponsor a dimension, but no one asked me, and there you go.
 
In the end, the only thing that ever much happens at a TFC game is people who love the game, watch the game – and make a huge and happy noise cheering.
 
There is nothing really wrong with Blue Jays baseball.  I moved on long ago, but it's still a good and grand institution, and good for them for hanging in there.  I've just come to want something simpler – purer.  For years it was lacrosse, and right now it's Toronto FC.
 
There is so much less happening at BMO Field.  And it's so much more enjoyable.

Onward!

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Knight: Look out for Lampard

Ben Knight, 03/05/08 at 12:00 PM EDT

So, here's a hunch.
 
Owing to a unique pile-up of circumstances – which will never again occur in his lifetime – I think the stage is set for Chelsea midfield maestro Frank Lampard to have one of the greatest stretches of his career.
 
In the next three games, the Blues have a chance to seal two huge and significant deals – the English Premier League title and the UEFA Champions League.  Lampard, still battling back from the horrendous number of clear, open shots he didn't score on for England in that disappointing World Cup in Germany, has a golden chance to step up and silence his critics once and for all.
 
And, as always, there's one other thing. Lampard is deep in grief.  His mother passed away last week.  And as I watched him step bravely into the fray against Liverpool in the UCL semis on Wednesday, I saw something significant.
 
Mercifully, I've had very few periods of intense grief in my life.  I'll spare you the details, but there was one truly horrific one a few years back.  My editors told me not to worry, to just quit writing for a while and do whatever I had to do to get myself and my loved ones through it.
 
When the normal time to write came around, something interesting happened.  I desperately wanted to file a story.  So I did, and my editors were shocked.  I heard myself tell them, down the phone, “I just needed to do something normal.”
 
I didn't miss a deadline through that entire awful time.  Every column was a brief break from the darkness, a reminder that there would somehow, some day, be better, happier days. 

Sports columns were utterly trivial compared to what we all were going through, but that little fleeting touch of normalcy made a very big difference.
 
When Liverpool got called for that penalty in extra time, and Lampard grabbed the ball and marched it to the spot, I saw something unmistakable in his eyes.  There's not a lot of us who could call playing in a Champions League semifinal “normal circumstances,” but Frank Lampard can.  And when he buried the kick for the go-ahead goal, clutched the black armband he was wearing for his mother, and collapsed sobbing under a mob of emotion-crazy teammates, I saw it again.
 
I think the “great” Frank Lampard is being reborn.  Right now.  In these worst – and best – of circumstances.
 
This rough and lurching sea of feelings – that is buffeting Chelsea's great tactician every moment of every day – may be about to spark him to some of the greatest performances of his career.  Sometimes, the only answer is to just keep going.  Sometimes, the seemingly unbearable emotional burden is answered by a gathering of greatness.
 
I believe we may be witnessing one of those times.  If I were Manchester United – Chelsea's last-standing opponent for both titles – I would be on alert.
 
Though he never would have wished it, the stage is now perfectly set for the spectacular revival of Frank Lampard's great career.
 
Onward!

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Knight: The Dichio question

Ben Knight, 02/05/08 at 9:30 AM EDT

I'm back.  Let's work.
 
Toronto FC and Product Plug New York played a tense, messy bit of largely forgettable soccer in the howling wind and cold, soaking damp of BMO Field last night.  It ended in a 1-1 drain-off, with both sides perhaps lucky to score, and little serious chance that the tally was ever going to be higher.
 
The best news for the Torontos?  The back four, which keeps improving but didn't really have much choice after that horrendous early outing in D.C., held the dangerous New York attacking duo of Juan Pablo Angel and Jozy Altidore without a shot on goal all night.  The Reds showed good, consistent graft in-close, and got a point from a game earlier incarnations of this team could very, very easily have lost.
 
The concern, alas, was up front.
 
Fan and franchise favourite Danny Dichio struggled badly last night.  The New Yorkers switched from a three-man defensive unit to a four, and marked Dichio out of the match – a bit too easily, many observers thought.  Their two central defenders set up three to five yards either side of Toronto's isolated forward threat, and Dichio was unable to dislodge them.  He looked both deliberate and tentative on the few through balls that found him – not a promising combo in admittedly difficult weather.
 
Toronto coach John Carver – whose smiling post-game bluntness is winning admirers among the so-called experts, myself included – declined to single his striker out for criticism.  But when all his praise went to his goaltender, defenders and midfield, the flip side of the coin was up there spinning for anyone who cared to call it.
 
So I did.  Asked directly, Carver felt Dichio should have moved in close to one of his defenders, giving him one man he could turn, leaving the other fullback off on his own.  But he also rose mildly to Dichio's defence, saying he was out there to knock down high balls from the midfield, which never came.  Also, there weren't enough dangerous forward runs that could have pried the advertising-clad New York defenders off the lonely striker's back.
 
The point here is not to rip Danny Dichio.  But concern – certainly – has raised its head.
 
Some nights, lone strikers have to do all the work themselves.  With the rest of the Torontos largely gobbled up on containment duty, it fell to Dichio to find ways to get open.  On this night, he didn't.
 
The speedier and smaller Jeff Cunningham got a late look, subbing in for Dichio on 83 minutes.  He didn't have any luck slipping the chronic double coverage either.

But after tonight, I suspect he'll get a start or two so Carver can do some comparison shopping, seeing how his new midfield flies with an entirely different kind of target man.
 
Personally, I'm still hoping we get some chances to see Dichio and Cunningham working together, because they have an instinctive passing by-play that creates chances and is a lot of fun to watch.  But with the multi-faceted dangerousness of Amado Guevara prowling the netherland between midfield and attack, there really isn't room for the both of them anymore.
 
I'm certainly not going to chase a man out of town for having an off-night.  But just at the moment, the Red Rocket that is TFC is working a lot harder than its nosecone.  And that will kill you dead in the playoffs – if you manage to get there.
 
Onward!

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