Also, if anyone is wondering why Canada has only played 1 friendly in the 8 months Herdman was brought on, Herdman says they're getting their off the field things in order. In addition to that, it's damn expensive to arrange friendlies.
Quote:
"One of the things that we said that we would commit to was doing things with higher quality," Herdman told reporters by telephone on Thursday. "[Bringing] the elements of tactical and technical analysis that might have been missing. Bringing the mental performance aspects that might have been missing."
The English-born coach stressed quality over quantity in the team's preparation under his guidance thus far, especially as Canada was not involved with this summer World Cup in Russia.
"For me in this stage it's doing more with higher quality with the best players, so creating an environment and events that the top players really want to be involved in rather than skimping and scraping on a camp with staff missing or not being able to service the players at the level that they receive at clubs," he said.
Herdman also pointed to the prohibitive cost of getting players together for camps, especially with other programs under the Canadian Soccer Association umbrella also needing consideration. He noted the six-figure expense of previous training camps — Herdman quoted the recent Toulon U-21 tournament in France as costing the CSA upwards of $400,000 — may not always be worth their bloated price tags. Add in the new regional tournament, and it becomes even more of a balancing act, the coach said.
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http://www.sportingnews.com/ca/socce...d159rcuzu6a03o