Quote:
Originally Posted by polak
I think it's quite selfish to expect these kids to play for Canada. Its 100% on the CSA for becoming such a joke that this exodus of talent is such a problem. You get one shot at life. One shot to follow your dream. Most of these kids dream of winning the world cup so if they get the opportunity to follow that dream then who are you to tell them they shouldn't?
Imagine the regret that De Guzman would feel if he chose Canada over the Dutch and had to watch them potentially win the world cup in a few days while he knows that he will never in his life get that opportunity with the Canadian team and therefore will never, in his life, be able to live out his dream despite being good enough.
Like I said the CSA and Canada has no one to blame for situations like this but themselves. Canadian soccer is a joke and until the CSA figures out a way to entice Canadian talent to stay (money talks) then it will remain a joke and the best Canadians will always be playing in the world cup.... For other teams and rightfully so.
The players dont owe the CSA anything as the CSA does barely anything for them.
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I do agree with this, Canada doesn't hold their talent. I think it was just one moment of opportunity that Canada missed out on. They had Hargreaves 1 year before England did.
Here's the timeline
June 2000: Canada wins Gold Cup
- If Canada knew Hargreaves was going to be this good, they should have capped him in this tournament at 19. Canada wasn't expecting to do well anyways, cap him.
July 2000:
WCQ: Canada 0-2 T&T Edmonton
WCQ: Panama 0-0 Canada Panama City
No Hargreaves. The other team is Mexico. Is the WCQ campaign over at this point?
August 2000: This article is written:
http://www.canoe.ca/SoccerCanadaArchive/aug3_har.html
Some quotes:
Quote:
Canadian national team coach Holger Osieck says he has his eye on Hargreaves.
"He is not out of sight. I'm in touch with (Bayern Munich president) Franz Beckenbauer and I'm getting all the information," Osieck said. "He's not lost."
Asked if Hargreaves might be called up during this current round of World Cup qualifying, Osieck said: "Maybe not yet, but later probably."
"In midfield, we don't have any problems at all," Osieck added. "If he was a striker, it would make things different."
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Maybe not yet but later? what are you waiting for? You have 1 point in 2 matches. It's not like Canada's midfield were star-studded. It was guys like Martin Nash. Cap him now!
September 2000
WCQ T&T 4-0 Canada Port of Spain
The campaign is truly over, why not try and ger Hargreaves for the last 3 matches? Perhaps it's too late and he wants to play for England who will qualify instead of Canada who aren't.
Last chance
June 2001 Confederations Cup. The CSA made 2 million for being there. Last chance to entice Hargraves to play in a tournament? Probably too late cause England was about to qualify.
August 2001
Hargreaves earns first cap for England.
So was there opportunity there to cap an 18-19 year old Hargreaves? If so, other Canadians who chose elsewhere might have followed suit. I believe with Hargreaves, Canada would have qualified for 2006 cause that campaign in CONCACAF was horrible. The Central Americans were rebuilding and T&T qualified with an aging Dwight Yorke.