Well, as the old saying goes, you win some 4-0, you lose some 4-0.
Canada completed an altogether odd training camp in Morocco on Tuesday with a blowout loss to the host side that mirrored its own lopsided win over Mauritania five days prior.
Of course, the Canadian teams in those two games were the same in name only; interim head coach Michael Findlay made seven changes to the starting lineup from one game to the next, fulfilling his primary role of getting minutes to as many guys as possible, to see what the next full-time manager has to work with.
With Junior Hoilett and Will Johnson unavailable, and the national-team futures of Atiba Hutchinson and Julian de Guzman in doubt, the midfield looked predictably disjointed and unable to assert itself against a pretty decent Moroccan team still in the thick of its World Cup qualifying quest.
Both Hutchinson and de Guzman were in tears following Canada’s elimination from World Cup qualifying last month, and it would be unsurprising and understandable if one or both chose to walk off into the sunset. But where would that leave the national team?
For the moment, it means a bump in minutes for the likes of Adam Straith and Samuel Piette. But with Jonathan Osorio fitting back into the national-team mix, and others like Marco Bustos and Jay Chapman nibbling at the edges, there could soon be some competition for those spots.
Osorio and Bustos both featured in the games against Mauritania and Morocco, while Chapman was asked to join but had to decline due to injury. The ascent of those sorts of players means much more in the grand scheme of things than either a lopsided loss or lopsided win in a mostly-empty stadium in Marrakesh.
With the trip to North Africa now complete, Canada will head to Asia next month for a friendly against South Korea, as the Canadian Soccer Association continues to make good on its pledge to see the team play in every FIFA international window.
The choice of venues and opponents for these camps has struck some as strange, however, given that these aren’t the sorts of teams or environments Canada will face in World Cup qualifying.
Wouldn’t friendlies on the road in CONCACAF (even against low-level competition) be more productive? Or, could the money being used to fly Canadian players to Africa and Asia be put towards hosting some home friendlies instead? Dissecting the logistics of scheduling international friendlies is beyond the purview of this column, but suffice it to say, there are many moving parts we don’t know about (given the tight lid that the CSA keeps on its financials).
Would the appearance fee they’ll get from playing in South Korea be more or less than they’d expect to make from ticket sales for a home friendly in late autumn, two months after elimination from World Cup qualifying?
The same question could be asked of this camp, replacing “South Korea” with “Morocco” and “two months” with “one month”. These aren’t questions to which we have readily available answers.
In the long run, if the CSA follows through with its pledge to play in every international window, there absolutely must be a focus on playing games within the CONCACAF region — specifically, on the road in Central America, and right at home in Canada. That’s how to keep a fan base engaged and prepare a team for qualifying.
But at the moment, there seems to be little harm in sending a transitional player pool under a transitional manager to compete in far-flung places. The players likely appreciate the opportunity to taste some authentic couscous and kimchi.
The two top priorities, at this moment, are solidifying the next full-time manager and assessing the player pool. Once a specific head coach can begin implementing a specific approach with a somewhat narrowed group of players, that’s when CONCACAF friendlies can have real benefit on the road to Qatar 2022.
For the time being, though, the team will play these sorts of grey-zone games in the intermediate space between the Benito Floro era and whatever succeeds it. Expect wild fluctuations in rosters and score lines, and minor fluctuations in the team’s FIFA ranking… and, what the heck, try to have some fun with it.
After all, playing in every international window (even against one-off opponents on faraway continents) is definitely preferable to letting the team fall off the map entirely for months or years at a time.
But if, 18 months from now, these friendly announcements are still evoking shoulder shrugs and raised eyebrows from followers, then it will be time to begin asking some more serious questions.
