303abuser Why am I not invested personally? I don’t have time to watch everything and the product is generally poor. If Canada had a team worth watching, I probably would do so more often. And again, I’m a fan of the sport. If you mentioned the COPA to the average person here, 98% wouldn’t have a clue what you’re talking about. Could TSN help that with better coverage? Probably, but that’s a chicken and egg discussion.
Again, if you build it they will come.
I get why at the moment Edmonton might not be into what Canada is doing at the COPA with the Oilers going into Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, but at the same time Commonwealth Stadium had 44,212 in -20 degree conditions (‘The Iceteca’ vs. Mexico) during World Cup Qualifying.
That stadium holds 60,000 people as you well know. I know fans came from outside of town for the game, but I imagine most of the people attending were Albertans within driving distance and local Edmontonians. The attendance probably would have been more if it hadn’t been for the huge snow storm you guys had in the day before the game.
My point to you is if you keep dissing the team as being poor and not supporting the product, it’s not going to get any better with attitudes like that. The game is growing and has done so leaps and bounds in this country. Our population has increased to 41 million in 2024 from 30.5 million in 2000. We are an immigrant fuelled nation and those immigrants largely have one thing in common - they play football. They sure as hell don’t play hockey.
We now have academies that players can stay and develop their skills at instead of having to go to Europe. Alphonso Davies is a product of the Vancouver Whitecaps’ academy. We have a pro league with nearly province-wide representation that’s looking to expand, along with a promotion/relegation model. The women’s pro league has just been announced. Most provinces have a semi-pro league that’s affiliated with the Canadian Premier League. We have both men’s and women’s players playing at the very top level in the top leagues across Europe.
Referee development is being taken more seriously by Canada Soccer as well. We’ve sent multiple referees to both men’s and women’s World Cups in recent years. When I was reffing I saw how they’d created a pathway for people who wanted to become FIFA refs and know several people who are now involved in that pathway.
All these things contribute to pathways for budding players (and referees) to become better and gain attention from professional clubs (or higher level assignments for refs) both at home and abroad, along with inspiring much younger generations to want to be like them. That’s exactly what has happened with basketball in this country and it’s why Canada won a bronze at the FIBA World Cup last year and why we’re favoured to be one of the contenders for the gold medal in Paris this summer.
While I agree that Canada have long underachieved in the beautiful game for far too long, if you keep poo-pooing and dismissing the product you’re part of the problem. I would argue that the current batch of players are the best we’ve ever had and I don’t foresee us dropping back into the doldrums of football in the near future.
