Not quite MLS 2010", but...
November 19, 2010
Canada Using M.L.S. To Improve Its Play
Bob Lenarduzzi, president of the Vancouver Whitecaps, presents a jersey to
Jay DeMerit after he became the first player to sign with the team. The
Whitecaps begin play in 2011.By JEFFREY MARCUS
TORONTO — After the referee blew the final whistle in the Soviet Union’s 2-0 victory against Canada in the 1986 World Cup, Bruce Wilson, Canada’s 35-year-old captain, kept his sweaty No. 3 jersey, eschewing the ceremonial postgame shirt swap with his opposite number.
The tournament in Mexico was the highlight of Wilson’s career and the pinnacle for Canadian soccer. Still, three games, three defeats, all shutouts, constitutes the sum total of Canada’s World Cup experience.
“It was a great way to finish for me,” said Wilson, who played 51 times for the national team. “But it didn’t go through my mind at all that we were going to do this on a regular basis.”
Canada has not qualified for the World Cup since its one appearance 24 years ago. Meanwhile, the United States has qualified for six consecutive championships, reaching the knockout rounds three times.
“We were, way back when, ahead of the U.S.,” Wilson said.
“That’s what frustrates us now — not only is the U.S. miles ahead, the Costa Ricans, Trinidadians, Jamaicans, El Salvadorians pushed ahead and we went backward.” In an effort to catch up in a sport that has passionate support here but lags behind hockey, Canada will enter its second team in Major League Soccer next season when the Vancouver Whitecaps join Toronto F.C., which started play in 2007. Montreal will follow in 2012.
With three teams in M.L.S., Canada hopes to replicate the achievement of 1986 and match the success of the United States team, which has dominated North and Central America and become increasingly competitive on the larger international stage.
“I don’t want to make a prediction, but I do believe that in time Canada will regularly compete for one of those World Cup qualification spots for our region,” M.L.S. Commissioner Don Garber said. “And it will be because of the success of the three teams in Canada and the growth and increased quality of competition in Major League Soccer.”
Players, coaches and soccer executives acknowledge there are too few Canadian players of sufficient quality to effectively and consistently compete internationally.
“Part of our problem is that we don’t have a national league,” said Martin Nash, who played 38 times for Canada. “The talent pool isn’t as deep. We have good talent, but we’re maybe 30 players deep across the whole country at that level.”
Still, enthusiasm for M.L.S. is high. Toronto, which will host the M.L.S. Cup final at BMO Field on Sunday, drew on average more than 20,000 fans to each home game, third in attendance behind Seattle and Los Angeles. Of the 15 Canadian-born players in the league this season, five played for Toronto.
With the addition of Vancouver, and then Montreal, there will presumably be more spots in the league for Canadian players, who will be exposed to better competition.
“Hopefully, we can attract more Canadian players playing out of the country back to playing M.L.S.,” said Frank Yallop, coach of the San Jose Earthquakes and a former Canadian national team coach. “The more we can get more Canadians back into the league, playing at the level that is similar to Concacaf qualifying, the better.”
That is the formula that helped the 1986 team qualify for Mexico, when 16 members of the national team played in the old North American Soccer League — nine of them for the Vancouver Whitecaps at some point in their career.
“The reason we had success then was the N.A.S.L.,” said Bob Lenarduzzi, president of the Whitecaps and a defender on the ’86 team. “All the players from that era were playing with and against very good players. We were able to step it up at the national team level.”
While most of the best Canadian players will still play in Europe or Latin America, as the best American players do, M.L.S. will provide Canada with a professional development infrastructure and a better caliber of play to develop players.
“It’s better for Canadian soccer if we can keep some homegrown talent,” said Nash, an assistant coach with the Whitecaps since he retired last spring. “When you lose some of these players that go overseas, you lose touch, especially at younger ages.”
The Whitecaps already have an established youth development academy that is the envy of established M.L.S. clubs. Lenarduzzi says it will continue to be one of the club’s top priorities, and notes that 10 players on the first team came from the club’s development academy.
“The more players you can develop, that’s money you don’t need to spend elsewhere,” he said.
The league recently announced rules changes to encourage teams to invest in player development, allowing them to sign more of their own youth players without exposing them to the leaguewide draft, increasing roster sizes and allowing six players 24 years old and younger to be exempt from the salary budget.
Still, the first player Vancouver signed for next season is an American World Cup veteran, defender Jay DeMerit.
“It’s absolutely imperative that the teams coming in have a mandate that they develop Canadian players,” said Wilson, coach of the University of Victoria men’s team. “If you have the chance to play an American and a Canadian, you have to play a Canadian.”
This weekend, the league and the Canadian Soccer Association will discuss the number of domestic players Toronto and Vancouver must employ, with an aim of boosting the opportunities for Canadians without hampering the clubs’ ability to compete. The revised rules will most likely allow the Canadian teams to balance out their rosters with American players without all of them counting against the limit on foreign players.
“In the short term, it won’t make a great deal of difference,” Lenarduzzi said. “The players we have now are the players we have now. We can qualify the next time around, but that’s going to be by accident, not by design.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/20/sports/soccer/20mls.html?ref=sports