Canada Remains Oh So Woeful in Shallow Region by Any Name

It wouldn’t be CONCACAF if there weren’t a squabble.

Of course, it’s not CONCACAF anymore, is it? These days, soccer’s North and Central American and Caribbean region is known as the Football Confederation.

That’s going to make things more difficult. When the acronym was CONCACAF, everyone knew what the letters stood for--Controversy, Chaos and Confusion.

TFC just doesn’t have the same potential for abuse. Not that poking fun at it is any less justified.

Take, for instance, the four-nation Gold Cup qualifying tournament that ends today at the Coliseum. Even such a minor event, designed to separate the weak teams from the really weak teams, has been beset by problems.

The fight between the Galaxy’s Mauricio Cienfuegos and El Salvador’s soccer “leadership”--to dignify another woefully inept bunch--grabbed the headlines, but the inconsistent performance by Canada should have been given equal billing.

For decades, soccer in this part of the world consisted of Mexico and then the rest.

In the 1990s, the rise of the United States to respectability means that the 38 nations of CONCACAF--OK, OK, TFC--now consist of Mexico, the U.S. . . . and then the rest.

The Canadians don’t even get a mention.

After watching their plodding performance in a 0-0 stalemate against Cuba, that comes as no surprise. Canada was as predictable as any other collection of nonentities from the lower reaches of the English and Scottish leagues, which is where most of the players languish.

The Canadians did manage to redeem themselves somewhat with a 2-1 victory over 10-man El Salvador on Friday night in a game in which Cienfuegos was red-carded in the first half.

Canada and Haiti can both clinch berths in the Gold Cup today if they tie their 1 p.m. game. For El Salvador to advance, it needs Canada or Haiti to win and then must defeat Cuba in the 3 p.m. nightcap.

Given his players’ scant playing time together, Holger Osiek, Canada’s coach, cannot be sure of even a tie.

Osiek, a no-nonsense German--is there any other kind?--was hired not long ago to take Canadian soccer into the 21st century. Making the leap from the 19th, however, is fraught with peril.

To begin with, Osiek has to troll the world’s waters to assemble his team. Any Canadian player worth a return pass long ago moved to Europe or the U.S. or South America to ply his trade. There is no Canadian professional league.

Of the 18 players Osiek brought to Gold Cup qualifying, five play in the U.S., five in Scotland, four in England, and one each in Brazil, Germany and the Netherlands. There is only one Canadian-based player on the team, and he was merely a last-minute substitute for a missing Belgium-based player.

Injuries (Fulham’s Paul Peschisolido), indifference (Anderlecht’s Tomasz Radzinski) and odd team selection (where is the Kansas City Wizards’ Alex Bunbury?) cost Osiek several stars. However, in typical coach fashion, he bristled when asked about them after the Cuba debacle.

“I’m not talking about missing players,” he said. “For me, those players count who are on the pitch. Today, we had 11 players, they are all national team players, they represent their country, and that counts. I don’t talk about absent players.”

That’s all very well, but the fact is that Canada’s standing in TFC, let alone the world, is so low that it makes it easy for someone like, say, Radzinski, who failed to show up, to put his club before his country. The sanctions that the Canadian soccer federation can impose, through FIFA, are not enough of a deterrent to offset the gains Radzinski made by showing Anderlecht that he values it as much or perhaps more.

The lack of a national league, however, is the main problem for Canada, which is ranked 97th in the world by FIFA, compared to the U.S. team’s No. 20 ranking.

“In that respect, we are way behind all the other countries in CONCACAF,” Osiek agreed. “But I don’t care. I knew when I took over that it would be a very difficult job, and I’m facing it.”

There is some preliminary talk of trying to get a pro league up and running. In July, the Canadian Soccer Assn. (CSA) announced that a Toronto consulting firm had been hired “to conduct an intensive business-plan study looking into the proposed relaunching of a new professional soccer league in 2001.”

The relaunching of something new would be a feat in itself, but in all seriousness, the CSA might be better off trying to get two or three teams--Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal--to join Major League Soccer, instead of wasting money on what is likely to be a poorly supported domestic circuit.

If a European league is seen as inevitable, why not a North American league? Would MLS Commissioner Don Garber really object to some funds from north of the border?

Bruce Arena, the U.S. national team coach, is convinced that the rise in the American team’s performance in the last year is directly attributable to MLS.

“MLS has been absolutely fantastic for our players,” he said. “The league is developing our players.

“It may not be one of the four of five best leagues in the world, but when you look around at the top leagues, it’s tough for a Spanish player to break in with Real Madrid or Barcelona, or [for an English player to break into top] teams in England [because of the leading clubs’ wealth of foreign talent].

“MLS is paying dividends and giving our players experience, and that’s a big part of our success.”

If Canada wants to escape the soccer backwaters, the CSA is going to have to wake up. World Cup 2002 qualifying is only a year away, but as matters now stand, the Canadians once again will be down there among the bottom-feeders.

And in TFC, that’s an awfully deep pool.

AT LAST, SOME OPPOSITION

The U.S. women’s national team, still barnstorming across the country, plays Brazil today in--of all places--Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium in Louisville, Ky., in the championship game of the 1999 Nike U.S. Women’s Cup tournament.

So far, the Americans have crushed South Korea, 5-0, in Columbus, Ohio, and clobbered Finland, 6-0, in Kansas City, Mo. Really competitive opposition is difficult to come by these days for the reigning world and Olympic champions.

That may change later this month when the team switches indoors to rake in more gold during the so-called “Toys ‘R’ Us Victory Tour.”

Organizers of the 12-game, 12-city event have announced a roster of leading foreign players who will make up the World Stars team that will play against the U.S.

The composition of the team will change from game to game, but the roster includes such Women’s World Cup ’99 standouts as Canada’s Charmaine Hooper; Japan’s Homare Sawa; Sweden’s Ulrika Karlsson; Mexico’s Laurie Hill; Australia’s Julie Murray and Sarah Cooper; Norway’s Ann Kristin Aarones, Hege Riise and Ingeborg Hovland; Brazil’s Pretinha, Roseli and Sissi; Nigeria’s Patience Avre and China’s Sun Wen and Xie Huilin.

“We know from experience that great players, no matter how long [or how short] they’ve played together as a team, can beat you,” said U.S. midfielder and co-captain Julie Foudy, “and these guys are as competitive as they come.”

The tour kicks off Friday, Oct. 22, in Pittsburgh, and concludes Dec. 15 in Portland, Ore. The teams will square off at the Arrowhead Pond on Dec. 9.

Meanwhile, indications are that Tony DiCicco, the U.S. coach who has 102 victories, not to mention a fistful of gold medals, will sign a new contract, assuming U.S. Soccer has enough sense to offer him a hefty raise and enough time off to enjoy his family.

DiCicco told Soccer America magazine last week that the chances are 50-50 that he will be back.

“My best scenario is, I’m coaching this team for a long time,” he said. “I love working with this team. I love the prospects of another challenge--the [Sydney 2000] Olympics--and I love the prospects after the Olympics, [of seeing] how good this team can be with new players.”

For the time being, it’s the “old” players who deservedly are reaping the benefits of a decade’s dedication.

The 36,405 fans who saw the U.S.-Finland game at Arrowhead Stadium on Thursday night made it the largest soccer crowd in Kansas City history. Today’s game against Brazil will draw a similar throng in Louisville and is being televised live on ESPN2 at 10 a.m. PDT.

“We all know we probably didn’t play our best soccer in the World Cup,” Brandi Chastain said after the latest victory. “But those games are so pressure-packed and all the teams are so good that the situation doesn’t always lend itself to wide-open games.

“So to come out here and play attacking soccer in front of such an appreciative crowd is a great feeling.”

As always, the U.S. women say just the right thing.

What a pity the Football Confederation can’t clone them.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Today’s Games

The Football Federation Gold Cup Qualification Tournament:

AT THE COLISEUM

* Canada vs. Haiti 1 p.m.

* El Salvador vs. Cuba 3 p.m.