Quote:
Originally Posted by M*A*S*H 4077
I hope the attitude from CSA, the players, the media, the fans is that this is not good enough and is completely unacceptable. I wish more of our players played with the scrappy heart of Arfield and de Jong out there.
They played the second half like they expected to lose
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The CSA will act concerned and offer up the usual "internal reviews" and other halfhearted attempts at identifying the problem, which amount to a lot of hot air,as it has for the better part of going on 25 years.
Hiring Devos to be part of the organizaton (it's pretty clear on TV the last couple years is that he was aiming for such a position) this week maybe a step, or maybe just more optics from the CSA to put lipstick on the pig. He's been outspoken about things a bit, and now is part of the mess, so will see what happens but I doubt very much.
Fact is Canada is not good enough. They haven't been good enough for a while. Strategic reviews and 2 year and 5 year plans with lots of modern language and glossy presentations every 4 years won't make up for the fact that the CSA has completly failed at properly moving soccer forward over the past years in this country. It may now be too late, even if the CSA has changed.
Said many times here, it was a Ontario-centric group, run offficially or unofficially by egos who were out to.promote their own self interests. Politics, backstslabbing and favouritism at all levels pretty much rendered it feeble and weak and set development to a standstill, as said egos took more time and resources to maintan their standing in the organization then worry about dealing with the issues they are supposed to.
Of course the women's side, in a totally different situation with the state of the women's game globally light years different than the men's side, some sort of validation that what they are doing is correct.
Consider this, how far has the Canadian Olympic Committee advanced elite amateur sport in this country in the past decade or two? From a few gold medals and things in tatters in late 90s and early 2000s on the summer side, they realized it wasn't right and got a plan together to fix it. It didn't happen overnight, and took a full commitment that looks past the next 4 years and into 8 and 12 years down the road. And it's now been paying off the last two summer Olympics, but it didn't come easy or quickly, but they had the right people to do it and committed to see it through.
That's what the CSA should be doing but their is no way those in power have the patience to see a decade long on longer vision through, again because they're more worried about justifying their position for the next 4 years within the highly political group that it is. So a new wing of the group with a seemingly better plan says they can do it better, replaces the existing guys, then fails because they have a shiny 4 year plan based on a lot of corporate speak and assumptions, and rinse and repeat. And over the years there may well be or have been good people, but with the many hands that wanted to take part in making the pie, the politics behind the scenes always comes out and again renders the CSA impotent,and people leave in frustration.
No easy fix. Devos, who knows. He talks a little to corporately, but he has less to lose than most I guess so he won't mind taking things and people to task, but it's turned into a tangled web of an organization, which has prevented Canada best players from being noticed in the first place nevermind then properly developed and unified as a National Team should be.
Posters in here are right, it would nice to see them just go on some storybook run, playing above their levels once they get into the Hex. Last time it was Honduras 4 years ago, this time again.
But even if they did and somehow made the WC in such a manner, it wouldn't solve the CSA. It would almost make it worse because all the massive amounts of money the CSA would get would be wasted, and the CSA would be patting themselves on the back and taking credit for something they and their structure had very little in assisting with reaching it. So any added interest or participation levels in the country that would come of it, would be wasted and the CSA would mess it up and not properly take advantage of the potential.
Maybe the COC should take over the CSA. Scrap the national team as is, or let them play out the string, but and the men's national team going forward will be the U23 team as it is in 4 years.
That way, development coincides with the Olympics in 4 years and WC QF in 3/4 years. It gets those athletes under the supervision of an organization that has shown it can properly coach and nature development of young athletes and access to prior funding without a crooked organization and it's politics acting as a middleman.
It would be a bunch of year of hurt, having 18-20 year olds as the defacto national team moving forward from today, but in the long term it would get the program off the poisonous pattern it is currently been on since the late 80s really of not doing anything progressive, then throwing up its arms and shrugging it shoulders when what they threw at the wall doesn't stick every 4 years.
