USA Beats Canada 4-3 in Women's Soccer, Where is Canada as a Soccer Country

Its been over a day since the USA defeated Canada 4-3 in Extra time in the Women’s soccer Olympic Semi Final, the thought of Canada almost shocking the world is still hard to believe. In fact, I’m not sure which loss was more heartbreaking: The 2007 Gold Cup Semi Final loss to the USA in men’s soccer or Monday night’ Women’s Olympic Semi Final loss to the USA.

Perhaps both are equally heartbreaking. In 2007, Canada lost 2-1 to the USA at Chicago’s Solider Field. In the last minutes of that game Canada was denied the equalizing goal on a very controversial call that went the USA’s way. Up in to that point Canada had played well considering they were major underdogs. To tell you the truth, I remember turning the game off at halftime after Landon Donavan’s converted penalty kick made the game 2-0. A win would have given the Canadians a spot in the 2007 Gold Cup  Final against Mexico. A win in that game would have gave them a berth in the 2009 Confederations Cup in South Africa.

 

If anyone wants to refresh their memory of this painful day click here.

The women’s game on Monday is just as heartbreaking if not more heartbreaking. Canada had to play an almost perfect game if they were going to pull off the amazing upset. For the majority of the game, Canada played great. The only thing that stopped the Canadians was three fluke goals and very questionable referring at the most critical part of the game.  

The delay of game call was the worst call I’ve ever seen in soccer. The worst part of it is Canada was denied a break through moment that could have given Canadian soccer a boost at all levels of competition.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, because soccer isn’t the #1 sport in Canada, we will need to rely on a break of some sorts if we’re ever going to do something as a nation. In other words, history will never be on the Canadians side. Therefore, if Canada is to every qualify for a World Cup again, they can't ever blow leads. The difference between qualifying and not qualifying will be minuscule.

In the past, Canada has struggled to get wins in World Cup Qualifying. CONCACAF is a very competitive federation and the majority of games are one-goal games if not tie games. Currently, Canada is in a good position in Qualifying. They are sitting in second place in a four-team group that consists of Panama, Canada, Honduras and Cuba. Canada will need to finish in the top two to advance in the next stage of Qualifying.

So, where is our nation as a soccer country? Canadian soccer rarely gets much publicity. In most countries when they have a World Cup Qualifying it is the top story in the media. When Canada has a qualifying game, it’s the third story.  Traditionally, Canada doesn’t draw well for home games. When they do, the majority of the fans are cheering for the other team.

For a country that is harshly blamed for their performance on the pitch, the team is ranked 79^th in the world. Is it embarrassing? No, that being said it has to be better and can be better. Considering there are 206 teams that play soccer in the world, 79^th is in the upper half. More importantly, teams that are ranked lower than Canada somehow get to the World Cup. Therefore, there should be no reason why Canada can’t make the World Cup every once in awhile.

I'm curious what people are going to be doing on September 7^th when Canada takes on Panama at BMO Field in a crucial World Cup Qualifying game. My feeling is that there won’t be much attention towards it. Unfortunately, if Canada would have beaten USA on Monday, the win could have inspired a nation to be more attached to the game and want to watch more soccer. In reality, my feeling is Canadians will look at soccer in Canada the same way they did before Monday’s game. Canadians will look at it as disappointing or a failure. Isn’t it a massive failure when one of Canada’s player scores a hat trick but we can’t even win the game? Lets be honest, that rarely happens in hockey, let alone soccer. I don’t think we’ll see that ever happen again. That’s how rare it is.

As a nation, Canada can claim to a couple of achievements as a team, Canada qualified for the World Cup in Mexico in 1986 and Canada winning the 2000 Gold Cup. Despite Canada making the World Cup, they are one of five teams to get to the World Cup and not score a goal.

Canada will have to wait and see if a gutsy loss is good enough to inspire a nation. Some people think Canada can make the World Cup in 2014, others think in 2018 or 2022. Then there are the people that think it will take a generation to fix the CSA’s mess. The mess of trying to find the right place to play our team’s home games is just one problem. Money is another huge problem. Personally, Canada is a couple of break through moments away from making soccer big in Canada. However, for Canada to be a consistent contender in CONCACAF it could take 15-25 years.