• Moderators, please send me a PM if you are unable to access mod permissions. Thanks, Habsy.

OT: Soccer thread

Altair said:
No idea. I do know there a one million people registered to play soccer in Canada, how many of those being kids I do not know, how many of those kids having access to good coaching and year round facilities I do not know.

Iceland has one high level coach for every 825 people, and with year round soccer facilities in close proximity to schools.

Canada doesn't have enough year round facilities that kids can use nor is there the coaching to assist the kids that do have access. It's no surprise that Canada can't produce any decent soccer players.
Click to expand...

That's kind of my point. There's no excuse for Canada to not have a development system that can match the player output of a place like Iceland. We don't need Iceland's system, we have 100x the population. It just shows how shit our system is that we can't match the player output of a nation 100x smaller.
 
FFS Australia is there, and they also don't care about soccer. Seems insane a country of our population and wealth is so terrible.
 
Last edited:
worm said:
especially because everybody seems to play soccer in canada
Click to expand...

true but at least in the Vancouver area, it is the poor who play soccer, it is seen as the sport you play when you cannot afford hockey, they then complain about any extra development fees

There are good players in this area but whether they are willing to pay the money necessary to become a top player is another issue.
 
MindzEye said:
That's kind of my point. There's no excuse for Canada to not have a development system that can match the player output of a place like Iceland. We don't need Iceland's system, we have 100x the population. It just shows how shit our system is that we can't match the player output of a nation 100x smaller.
Click to expand...

I'm sure some of it has to deal with the fact that it's only really been a few years when there's been a real pro soccer league in NA. So even if everyone played soccer as a kid, I guess it never was really thought of as a legit career option, so there was no point to having dedicated year-round soccer schools or anything like that. I mean, even in MLS, Canada's only had a team in the league for 10 years now, so it will likely take a little bit more time before we start seeing more kids actually go through soccer programs.

But yeah, overall, there really is no excuse for a country like Canada to not be at least a respectable team. I don't expect we'd ever win or anything, but we should be a country that's ranked 20-30 most years and at least makes the World Cup as cannon fodder most years. It doesn't feel like it should take a ton of effort to at least get to that point.
 
UWHabs said:
I'm sure some of it has to deal with the fact that it's only really been a few years when there's been a real pro soccer league in NA. So even if everyone played soccer as a kid, I guess it never was really thought of as a legit career option, so there was no point to having dedicated year-round soccer schools or anything like that. I mean, even in MLS, Canada's only had a team in the league for 10 years now, so it will likely take a little bit more time before we start seeing more kids actually go through soccer programs.

But yeah, overall, there really is no excuse for a country like Canada to not be at least a respectable team. I don't expect we'd ever win or anything, but we should be a country that's ranked 20-30 most years and at least makes the World Cup as cannon fodder most years. It doesn't feel like it should take a ton of effort to at least get to that point.
Click to expand...

I dunno, I feel like that's asking why China is horrible at hockey.

They have snow, they have ice, they have money, and they have a population many times that of Canada, but without the coaching and infrastructure I doubt we see a Chinese hockey program pumping out world class talent.
 
I don't know if China is an apt comparison. They didn't really have a middle class until 10 years ago. If in 20-30 years the Chinese are playing hockey and not pumping out world class talent, then it becomes apt.
 
Altair said:
I dunno, I feel like that's asking why China is horrible at hockey.

They have snow, they have ice, they have money, and they have a population many times that of Canada, but without the coaching and infrastructure I doubt we see a Chinese hockey program pumping out world class talent.
Click to expand...

China's still #33 in hockey according to the iihf rankings. Canada is #79 in soccer. Again, not asking for us to be #1, but you think we could at least be, I dunno, top-5 in CONCACAF or at least get to be top-50 in the world. With 48 teams soon to be making it to the World Cup, we're not even all that close to making it in without the automatic entry. We should be a little higher, at least.
 
UWHabs said:
China's still #33 in hockey according to the iihf rankings. Canada is #79 in soccer. Again, not asking for us to be #1, but you think we could at least be, I dunno, top-5 in CONCACAF or at least get to be top-50 in the world. With 48 teams soon to be making it to the World Cup, we're not even all that close to making it in without the automatic entry. We should be a little higher, at least.
Click to expand...
Top 50 in soccer is like what, top 16 in hockey?
 
China will be on par with the mid tier euro nations in hockey (switzerland, czechs, germany) within 20 years.
 
Altair said:
See you in 20
Click to expand...

Well, you can't improve things overnight. Even if you set something new up now, you're grabbing like 12 year old kids and still have to train them for 10 more years before they even have a chance of playing at the top level. I wouldn't mind seeing an "Own the Podium"-like investment to at least get us up to respectability for 2026, even if it's just 2-3 games that we'll actually see the team play.
 
Canada is big, Ontario is big, I'll go a few steps down, just talk about soccer in the Simcoe County area;

I'm in Beeton, there are two places to play indoor soccer, albeit smaller fields, within 15 minutes of me. The indoor league in Alliston is always full, not sure about Bradford.
Barrie, slightly farther away, has more than that.

My kids played Rep, my daughter for South Simcoe, my son for Barrie A. They both practiced most of the winter (you have to have a break), in gyms for conditioning and indoor pitches for practice.

There is a girl on our National team that we played with and against years back, so there is at least one person I know that made it.

On the boys side I would say there are people committed to helping soccer, but just as many that **** things up, parents meddling included.

My son is 21 now, so 14 years ago, when he played his first real game, til now, I have definitely seen growth.

He was scouted at 12 for this Huronia Development program thing, and that was how he found his way to Barrie A, which at one point was top 50 in CSL I think. It's been a while.

Anyways, I coached house league a couple years, was ast. coach on rep teams for a few years, and I"m telling you, the infrastucture is there, the politics need to go, and parents need to stop believing their kid is making the NHL.
 
The Canadian Women's team invited my daughter's team (and others) to a game at BMO, they let the girls be ball-girls at a game in T.O...they came to practices...they were awesome.

Didn't see anybody on the men's side, ever.
 
funny-cristiano-ronaldo-statue-fail-33-58dcc00c785ef__700.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top