Field of View

Egyptian Riots to Continue

It was a year ago this month that Egypt’s Health Ministry officially reported on the 73 soccer fans that were killed and the hundreds more injured after the Port Said stadium riot.   Events took place after a match between Al Masry of Port Said and Al Ahly of Cairo, two teams who have come to represent different political factions in Egypt after the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak two years ago, although historically they are not major soccer rivals.  The match kick off was originally delayed by 30 minutes because Al Masry fans were on the pitch and refused to get off, which was just a sign of things to come.  During half time and after each of Al Masry’s three second half goals, their fans stormed the pitch leading to the thousands of spectators running on to the field at the final whistle.  The Al Masry fans started throwing bottles and fireworks at the Al Ahly players.  As the players ran from the field taking cover, the Al Masry fans, who were armed with knives, swords, clubs, and stones began attacking the Al Ahly fans who tried to flood the few exits to escape the stadium.

 Television images of the mayhem in Egypt showed the images as the Al Masry thugs chased people out of the stadium and afterwards there were immediate questions about the lack of security at the stadium on the day.  Cameras caught images of police officers standing by as players and fans rushed past them to escape without any protection.  An Egyptian state-owned news site called Ahram reported on the day:

Ahly’s panicked players flooded the club’s in-house television channel with phone calls to speak about the post-match horror and call on authorities to intervene and protect them.

“The security forces left us, they did not protect us. One fan has just died in the dressing room in front of me,” veteran playmaker Mohamed Abou-Treika screamed during a phone call with the club’s channel.

“People have died, we are seeing corpses now. There are no security forces or army personnel to protect us,” attacking midfielder Mohamed Barakat added.

Both players and fans of Al Ahly seemed rightly justified in questioning why the security forces at the stadium were absent on the day, raising strong suspicions that this was not fans getting out of control on the day of a big match.  This was believed to be an orchestrated event by the Al Masry ultras, as the police at the stadium were accused of allowing the Al Masry attackers to enter the visiting team’s stands and locker rooms.  Al-Masry Al-Youm, an independent Cairo daily, published phtotographs of Al Ahly’s players being evacuated from the stadium in an armored personnel carrier. 

These catastrophic events are believed to have happened because Al Ahly’s ultras are known to have played a large role in the toppling of the Hosni Mubarak regime as they teamed with the ultra supporters from the other leading Cairo club to fight against police in the early stages of the revolution.  This is apparently why the police allowed the Al Ahly fans to be attacked, as a retribution for their political movement.  Now, a year after one of the world’s deadliest soccer riots, that killed 74 and left over 1,000 wounded, a Cairo court handed sentenced 21 of those involved in the violence to death sentences.  This has caused another outbreak of violence in Egypt as after the ruling ultras from each club clashed leaving 28 dead and at least another 300 wounded.

Friends and relatives of the fans and police officers charged attempted to storm the jail where the men were being held resulting in clashes between civilians and police again as well.  The police officers who allowed the violence at the Port Said stadium a year ago to take place will not be sentenced until March, which will likely lead to more violence in a month’s time.  It was the Al Masry supporters who were mainly at fault once again for the violence last week as members of their ultras group were sentenced to death, and now the Al Ahly ultras have stated that they are waiting to react to the sentencing of the 54 other defendants including former police officers next month.

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FOV is back with top managers list

After some time off of the internet, Field of View is back with a new easier to read format and all of my old articles re-posted for your reading pleasure (with their original posting dates marked). 2013 is upon us now and rather than a 2012 best of list, I’d rather make one for the upcoming year, even though we’re now just into February. 

So welcome to my list of the best managers in the world who are currently in the game today, so no historical coaches. This list is not made up of necessarily the most successful managers but rather the ones who do the best with what they have or favourable tactical creations. This why I would choose a coach like Bielsa over Capello. I have picked managers from top leagues who have impressed me greatly over the past couple of years, either for immediate success or for building projects or making a mediocre team better. Also some are there for just being the best (or I just have a soft-spot for them, this is not based off of stats). So here we go, my favourite managers from club soccer for everyone to debate:

1. Alex Ferguson (Manchester United)

2. Jurgen Klopp (Borussia Dortmund)

3. Pep Guardiola (Barcelona/Bayern Munich)

4. Tito Vilanova (Barcelona)

5. Diego Simeone (Atletico Madrid)

6. Marceloa Bielsa (Athletic Bilbao)

7. Vincenzo Montella (Fiorentina)

8. David Moyes (Everton)

9. Walter Mazzarri (Napoli)

10. Martin O’Neill (Sunderland)

11. Andre Villas-Boas (Tottenham)

12. Francesco Guidolin (Udinese)

13. Michael Laudrup (Swansea)

14. Frank Yallop (San Jose Earthquakes)

15. Frank De Boer (Ajax)

16. Harry Redknapp (Queens Park Rangers)

17. Jose Mourinho (Real Madrid)

18. Manuel Pellegrini (Malaga)

19. Unai Emery (Sevilla)

20. Dick Advocaat (PSV)

Where a club is a club: The German Way

By Jared Mercer

*Originally posted December 13, 2012

With all German clubs from both the Champions League and Europa League advancing to the knockout stages - often in thrilling fashion, much attention is now being giving to what English and Spanish fans happily call “not the best league in the world”. Germany may have replaced Italy as the next best league when it comes to performing in Europe and people are now beginning to notice not only their on-field work, but also how the teams are functioning behind the scenes. The Bundesliga is flourishing and teams are actually turning a profit, which is surprisingly uncommon amongst top European clubs. Because of this, German clubs are less likely and less willing to sell their top talent away to other leagues.

In the Europa League, both Bayer Leverkusen and Stuttgart have done well to advance, while in the Champions League Schalke look a decent side and Bayern Munich are perennial favourites. The giants from Bavaria are contenders once again to take Europe’s top club prize again after narrowly losing to Chelsea in the final last year on penalties, a game which they never should have lost.

However, it is Borussia Dortmund, winners of the past two Bundesliga titles, who are captivating fans and neutrals alike with their strong attacking play and a youth system that is creating stars like Mario Götze. This season in Germany, Bayern Munich appear to have such a lead in the table that they may be unreachable, but it is the Champions League where Borussia Dortmund’s focus appears to be after last year’s group stage exit. Thrown into the group of death with Real Madrid, Manchester City and Ajax, Dortmund were up against it but managed to come out on top of the group and can now consider themselves one of the bookie favourites to go deep into the tournament.

Their manager, Jurgen Klopp, has brought the team back to the glory days of the mid-1990’s, winning big matches and doing so in scintillating attacking form. The managerial astuteness of Klopp is and should be lauded and the performances of star players like Reus, Götze, Lewandowski, Hummels and the rest of the squad under his discerning eye have been excellent and certainly made a fan of most neutrals. Watching Dortmund home games at the 80,720 seat Westfalenstadion with the famous Yellow Wall of fans in the standing terraces waving giant flags and chanting is something to behold.

It is this atmosphere that Dortmund’s chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke says makes the Bundesliga a considerably better experience than the Premier League among others. Watzke is a self-proclaimed romantic who is a strong supporter of the Germany’s 50% Plus One rule, which requires Bundesliga clubs to be owned by their members. Upon visiting Manchester City in the group stage, he said that it is a shame English clubs and fans are okay with being owned by Americans and Saudis and that they have banned the standing terraces, which carry most of the atmosphere.

Watzke said: “I am a little bit romantic, and that is not romantic. In England people seem not to be interested in this – at Liverpool they are fine for the club to belong to an American. But the German is romantic: when there is a club, he wants to have the feeling it is my club, not the club of Qatar or Abu Dhabi.”

Last year the 50% + 1 rule was challenged by Hannover president Martin Kind, but it was strongly backed by Watske and other Bundesliga officials. Borussia Dortmund themselves are floated on the stock market after a mid-2000’s financial collapse, but it is the members who elect the president and the four members of the club’s supervisory board. These members also get to vote to decide major issues in club policy as well.

“I was the biggest opponent of changing the rule,” Watzke said in an interview with The Guardian at Dortmund’s Signal Iduna stadium in the build-up to the City match. “Germans want to have that sense of belonging. When you give [the supporters] the feeling that they are your customers, you have lost. In Germany, we want everybody to feel it is their club, and that is really important.”

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Galaxy Make it 2 in a Row

By Jared Mercer

*Originally posted December 5, 2012. 

I don’t normally do match reports but cup finals of a certain distinction deserve some close scrutinizing.  Living in Los Angeles, I found myself at the MLS Cup Final between the LA Galaxy and the Houston Dynamo, the same two teams who contested the final last season.  Last year the final played out to a terribly dull 1-0 win for Los Angeles but this year had much more hype because it was marking the end of an era in American soccer.  David Beckham announced before the match that he would be leaving the Galaxy after the final, and there was also the possibility that American poster-boy Landon Donovan could pull-a-Cantona and retire at 30.

Both teams lined up in 4-4-2 formations but used them to different effect, which had a telling outcome on the match.  Houston played far narrower with their central midfield duo Ricardo Clark and Adam Moffatt playing far deeper to protect their defense against the potent Galaxy attack.  This allowed David Beckham a lot of room in his central deep lying playmaker role with Juninho covering defensive duties, although he is pretty strong going forward as well.  Houston’s wide players didn’t remain very wide for much of the match either. Brad Davis on the left came centrally often enough to be the Dynamo’s main playmaker while Boniek Garcia on the right found some success making cutting runs into the middle while forward Calen Carr would make the opposite run to the flank.  The Galaxy on the other hand stayed very wide throughout with Mike Magee and Christian Wilhelmsson hugging the touchlines and even the duo up front of Robbie Keane and Landon Donovan making runs to the sidelines.  This may not have been an outright attacking tactic from the outset as Keane regularly likes to drift left and Donovan as the deep lying forward found himself on the right because of the ineffectiveness of Wilhelmsson who was the worst player on the pitch that afternoon and found himself substituted in the second half.

Both teams’ right backs loved getting forward as Franklin regularly did for Los Angeles, and for me the surprising selection of Sarkodie for Houston.  It is not that Sarkodie didn’t warrant a place in the starting line up for the Dynamo it is just that Andre Hainault had held that position for Houston for the past couple seasons and had become one of the strongest defenders in MLS with a good eye for goal scoring in many crucial fixtures.   Kofie Sarkodie’s play in this match both showed his strengths and weaknesses as with Garcia cutting inside Sarkodie flew forward down the wing regularly beating Mike Magee and getting into strong attacking positions.  He nearly scored the first goal of the game but also was almost at fault for allowing the major scoring opportunity for LA.  With Sarkodie so far up the pitch, the Galaxy broke downfield with Keane and Donovan running 2 v 1 resulting in Donovan inexplicably missing the net when one-on-one with goalkeeper Tally Hall.  I am unsure as to how Hainault lost his position in the starting line up but if he doesn’t get his place back in Houston, he could slot into any team in MLS without any difficulty.

This attacking movement caught the Galaxy out at first and Houston were controlling the game for the first 15 minutes surprising everyone at the Home Depot Center.  LA were left to hit them back on the counter and it was after a couple of successful counter attacks that resulted in strong scoring opportunities that Houston took their foot off the gas a little bit and played more conservatively.  This worked to LA’s advantage and they found themselves working their way into the game.  David Beckham, in his last MLS fixture, distributed the ball extremely well as only Beckham can.  Playing in a central role he looks like his old club-mate Paul Scholes, who is also a great passer, slow of foot, which can make him slightly vulnerable defensively, but still tenacious in the tackle when given the opportunity.  Beckham’s distribution was getting his team back into the match but it seemed at first as if his teammates weren’t up to the task of finishing.  As mentioned before Donovan missed the target when through on goal and not long after Mike Magee flubbed a header in the 6 yard box after a great cross from Beckham.  Add to that Wilhelmsson’s poor play and sad diving in miserable attempts at free kicks, the Galaxy were back in the match but couldn’t quite find themselves in the driver’s seat score wise.

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Harry Redknapp’s QPR Revival

By Jared Mercer

*Originally posted November 30, 2012

Harry Redknapp, the Permier League’s maverick manager, has now taken control of his first match at the helm of the worst team in England.  A dour nil-nil draw seemed on the cards from the outset but it was definitely a more promising display, albeit against a Sunderland side incapable of scoring.  Redknapp has been a newsworthy manager for the past year, from his decline at Tottenham, to flirting with the England managerial position, and tax evasion.

Then there was all the guess work as to where he would end up next, could it be leading the Ukrainian national side?  Nope.  Old ‘Arry remains in London to try and lead Malaysian entrepreneur Tony Fernandes’ Queens Park Rangers to the global status they so desire in the paths laid out by Manchester City and PSG.  Then perhaps they can fill the new stadium they wish to build with nearly double the capacity of their current 19,000 seat west London home on Loftus Road.

QPR have some big steps to take before they can even get out of the relegation zone, which they narrowly escaped last season.  In the summer, the hoops formerly managed by Mark Hughes, went on quite the spending spree of € 14.5m to bring in Bobby Zamora, Djibril Cisse, Samba Diakite, Nedum Onuoha, Taye Taiwo, and Federico Macheda, with the hopes that this would at least get them a comfortable mid-table finish to build on.  This has not worked and now Redknapp must take over a team where he will be unable to go on a large spending spree reshaping the squad as it has happened too recently to do again.  QPR head into December as the only club in England’s four divisions still looking for a first league victory, thus arguably making them the worst team in England, or at least the largest underperformers.

The first thing Harry Redknapp should have on his agenda is setting a precedent for his starting XI as Mark Hughes was never able to find a rhythm in his team and continued tinkering with the tactics after every loss.  This has likely prevented any team cohesion from forming and judging Redknapp from his first game in charge he has made some smart, obvious, and surprising choices in his team selection. Whether or not he sticks with the XI he picked for his first match remains to be seen, but this is definitely something he will be looking to figure out straight away.  In defense Jose Bosingwa was brought back in at right back while Shaun Derry was dropped to the bench, and in midfield the muscle of Samba Diakite and finesse of Esteban Granero were added.  There was no place in the squad for Kieron Dyer, which was an easy choice, but even more surprisingly there was no place for Alejandro Faurlin either.  Surely the excellent Faurlin will find his way back in soon but on the day Redknapp said his idea was that he wanted a stronger, more athletic midfield with Diakite sitting deep alongside Stephane Mbia, which largely worked.

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Individuality vs History: Is Antonio Valencia a Man Utd number 7?

By Jared Mercer

*Originally posted November 22, 2012. 

It’s no secret. The number 7 jersey at Manchester United has been worn by many heroes, many legends.  George Best, Bryan Robson, Eric Cantona, David Beckham, and Cristiano Ronaldo being the best examples of the past four decades of legendary number sevens, but since Ronaldo’s departure, a natural phenomenon has yet to emerge as the bearer of the legendary shirt.

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10 Years of Roman Tactical Revolutions & The Return of Zeman

By Jared Mercer

*Originally posted September 19, 2012

Zdenek Zeman has returned to AS Roma, in what is yet to look like a super successful team but rather a super entertaining one.  Zeman likes to play his teams in very attack minded formations that leave space all over the pitch, which often makes the opposing team more attack-minded as well creating some of the most eye catching soccer that Italy or Europe has on offer.  In the long run this is not the kind of stuff that creates champions but it will only add to the allure of a Roma side that is (or should be) the neutrals favourite.  Roma, since the turn of the century has been at the forefront of creating new attacking formations and tactics that have influenced Europe’s top clubs and this season should be no different under their new (returning) manager.

Barcelona over the past decade have become one of the most popular teams in the world from the time Frank Rijkaard returned them to European glory with Ronaldinho to the even more successful and influential Pep Guardiola and his star player Lionel Messi.  Their passing and possession game has gained many admirers with every player on the pitch able to play the ball, essentially creating a team of central creative midfielders and discarding the traditional roles of center forward and central defender.  Zlatan Ibrahimovic couldn’t find his way into the system that has forwards like David Villa playing wide and Lionel Messi in the false nine position and defensive midfielders like Javier Mascherano and Alex Song will regularly find themselves playing in the center of the defensive line to keep everyone on the pitch moving the ball.  Not only has this been successful at the club level but also at international tournaments as Spain replicated Barcelona’s success at Euro 2012 by playing without a recognized striker with the most advanced players being Cesc Fabregas and Andres Iniesta, both Barca players.

Much credit is due to Barcelona and Guardiola for not only their vision but their ability to pull it off, however, they are not the first team to use this type of system in the past decade but they are definitely the most successful.  Roma have been using such a system since their Scudetto success in 2001 but because they are a much smaller club than Barcelona and can’t afford to buy players like Pique, Villa, Keita, Mascherano, Dani Alves, Fabregas, Song, Jordi Alba, etc. the giallorossi have had much more modest success. Roma also suffer from having their top players poached by larger teams around Europe and over the past decade have had to part with players such as Samuel, Zebina, Batistuta, Panucci, Cassano, Mexes, Aquilani, Mancini, Pizarro, and Vucinic.  Most of these players ended up at Juventus or one of the Milan clubs, while in Spain, Barcelona don’t have richer clubs to deal with and are not only able to hold onto their talent but sign top players from other smaller teams like Roma.  Therefore, Roma with a few loyal players (Totti, De Rossi) and a revolving door of new young talent have not won the Champions League or even dominated the Serie A, but in a more modest way have developed the style that many fans have come to love, and a style used by other wealthier teams to win many trophies.

If Roma had the money to keep their best players they would be able to make a push for more trophies but have done well in winning the Coppa Italia a couple times in this time frame.  It was Zdenek Zeman who started this attacking trend with Roma in his first spell with the team between 1997-99, but it was Fabio Capello who mastered it by adding a tough defense that earned Roma the title Serie A Champions in 2000-01.  Roma spent a lot of money gaining Gabriel Batistuta, Emerson, and Walter Samuel to be the new spine of the team and the investment really paid off on all areas of the pitch.  Emerson’s season ended early due to injury, which meant that Damiano Tomassi and Cristiano Zanetti were the anchors in midfield that allowed Francesco Totti, who in that season became truly world class, the freedom to burst forward from midfield and not worry about tracking back.  His goals were of great value but it was also Totti’s passing that aided the strikers with Gabriel Batistuta hitting 20 goals in 28 games in his first season at his new club.  Totti was the main creator behind the strike duo of Batistuta and Montella (or the less efficient Delvecchio), with Zanetti and Tomassi holding the fort behind them.  This would appear to be a very narrow formation but the two wing backs of Cafu and Candela were essentially wingers who marauded forward at will.

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Cassano and Pazzini Swap Milan Sides

By Jared Mercer

Originally posted September 9, 2012

Amongst all the transfers this summer, it was the Milan clubs who swapped strikers, which has been the most surprising and well planned by Internazionale.  Inter’s 28-year-old Italian striker Giampoalo Pazzini suffered a poor year with the Nerazurri, playing in 33 matches and only notching 5 goals. He quickly became one of many players offloaded in the summer transfer season by Inter as they try and reshape their squad. At AC Milan, 30-year-old striker Antonio Cassano only participated in 16 matches, scoring 3 goals but assisting on 10, with his stats tainted because of health issues involving his heart.

Both clubs decided to send their star strikers packing as Cassano questioned Milan’s ambitions after the sales of their top players Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva to PSG and he had also never really fit into the Milan fold since joining from Sampdoria anyway.  Inter wanted to cut all the dead wood loose from their poor season and underperforming Pazzini headed that list. The two former teammates at Sampdoria and good friends off the field swapped teams while remaining in Milan in what looks to be a relatively fair trade other than the fact that Milan also had to pay Inter €7 million as well as sending over a top player.

Cassano is two years older than Pazzini, and with his heart problems over the past year, that does not make him an ideal transfer target, which is perhaps why Milan had to pay the extra amount of cash to land Pazzini. But is the gulf between the two worth that many millions?

Between 2008 and 2011, which were the years where Cassano joined Sampdoria from Real Madrid before moving to Milan, and Pazzini made the move from Fiorentina to Sampdoria where they were teammates before his transfer to Inter, Pazzini did outscore Cassano with 57 goals to Cassano’s 36 with their golden years both coming while playing as teammates at Sampdoria.  This is not necessarily because Giampaolo Pazzini is a much better player in comparison to Antonio Cassano but rather their roles within the team are much different.

Cassano was largely responsible for much of the good form of his striking partner as over the course of that same time he had 28 assists to Pazzini’s 4 and often plays in a more withdrawn role.  Where Pazzini is a penalty box area striker who is on the field only to score, Cassano is a forward who likes to run with the ball, has great passing and can play on the left wing with ease as well as occasionally fill a trequartista role from time to time.  Pazzini is a goal scorer, while Cassano scores goals while creating many more, who is of more value?  The best option seems to be having both play in the same squad as they did at Sampdoria but with much of Serie A going broke, that is not an option for either side.

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Rennie’s Midseason Re-shuffle

By Jared Mercer

*Originally posted August 1, 2012. 

The recent changes made by Martin Rennie, Scottish manager of the Vancouver Whitecaps in MLS, have been questioned by many but only two games after the flurry of sales and trades it must be said that he is shaping the team for the better.

The Vancouver Whitecaps had really turned things around this season after finishing dead last in all of MLS last season in their first year of top flight North American soccer since the old NASL of the late 1970s and early ’80s. At the midseason point they sat very comfortably in a Western playoff position hovering between 3rd and 4th behind Real Salt Lake and San Jose, and although they struggled to score regularly despite what would appear to be one of the most potent strike forces in the league on paper, their defense has been one of the best in the league. The partnership of Jay DeMerit and Martin Bonjour in the center has been solid while Alain Rochat and Y.P. Lee are the best right and left backs in the league. The South Korean has been particularly impressive since signing for the Whitecaps in the offseason and is regularly error-free in his judgment, tackle, passing, touch, movement, etc. Leading up to this season most of the questions surrounding Vancouver were at the defensive end as looking at the attacking force of Le Toux, Hassli, Camilo, and Chiumiento, fans and pundits alike believed Vancouver would be pouring in the goals, but they’ve done a better job of preventing them.  Yet that is where they have struggled all season, and despite a good record in late July, manager Martin Rennie has decided to ring in the changes to prepare his team for a real playoff push.

Barry Robson’s arrival from Middlesbrough had been sorted back when the season started although he was not to join up with the Whitecaps until July, and upon his arrival in the first team he has been a sensation. Occasionally guilty of taking a selfish shot or holding the ball a bit too long, Robson has been a force both offensively and defensively for the ‘Caps while also shouting orders and making himself a real general in the midfield. This is what was expected of him and the Scotsman has duly delivered. Goals however continued to be a bit shy, with only rookie Darren Mattocks regularly getting his name on the score sheet. Then came the sale of star attacking midfield man Davide Chiumiento to Swiss side FC Zurich for an undisclosed sum.  This came as a shock to many as although a bit inconsistent, Chiumiento was charged with being the true creative force in the Vancouver midfield. He was also very good friends and roommates with striker Eric Hassli, and both were said to be dismayed by the Swiss midfielder’s departure. Later that week, Martin Rennie then dealt star forward Sebastian Le Toux to the New York Red Bulls in exchange for pacey Jamaican winger Dane Richards and it was at this moment that Whitecaps fans began to scratch their heads and shake them in disapproval. While Richards has had a good career thus far in New York, he was not expected to be able to make the same contribution that Le Toux had been delivering for both Vancouver and his previous team Philadelphia. With the money from the Chiumiento sale, Rennie bought Scottish striker Kenny Miller from English League Championship side Cardiff City and then shipped Vancouver’s most popular player in Eric Hassli off to Toronto in exchange for an international spot and some draft picks. In a very short span of time, the much improved Vancouver Whitecaps had sent Chiumiento, Le Toux, and Hassli, their three marquee players, off to other teams and although Richards and Miller appeared to be decent replacements many were unhappy with losing such talented and popular players. Internet blogs and columns have been filled with questions about Martin Rennie’s plan, while although he has Vancouver in a much better position in the table and that has to be respected, how could he make such drastic moves at the mid point of a reasonably successful season for the second year franchise? There were also some rumblings about how the Scottish manager was only interested in signing Scottish players after the arrivals of Barry Robson and Kenny Miller,  but that did seem a bit harsh on Rennie. Although his plans may be drastic, they are in the right frame of mind and Vancouver should be better in the long run.

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The State of Canadian Soccer Defectors

By Jared Mercer

Originally posted July 18, 2012

Jonathan De Guzman representing the Netherlands under-20s

Halfway through the World Cup Qualifying campaign this year for Canada in the CONCACAF region has brought about the usual divisions amongst Canadians regarding the state of soccer in Canada.  With a new Canadian Soccer Association president claiming that Canada have a shot at hosting the 2026 World Cup after the success of the 2007 under-20 World Cup held in the country, some feel that Canada is undeserving and that hosting such an event should be left to the big footballing countries.  In terms of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup, where if successful it will be Canada’s second foray into the tournament after a singular appearance in Mexico 1986, Canada still have a long way to go but remain in contention with two years to go until Brazil 2014.  Before resuming the campaign this fall the main discussion on everyone’s lips once again is how with all the soccer playing defectors leaving the country to play for adoptive or ancestral nations will Canada ever succeed? 

The most popular players to be on the end of Canadian finger pointing are Owen Hargreaves: born and raised in Calgary, Alberta but to British parents, he chose to play for England and was voted English player of the year in 2006. Until injuries took their toll, he was arguably one of the best in the world in his position making him the highest profile of Canadian defectors.  Teal Bunbury of Hamilton, Ontario is the other who receives the most scorn because not only is he born and raised in Canada but his father Alex Bunbury not only played for Canada but is one of the all time leading scorers for the national side.  His desertion of Canada for arch-rivals the United States has left Canadians fuming.  Lesser-mentioned defectors include Alain Rochat of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec who decided to represent Switzerland where his club teams at the time were based. He only made one appearance for the Swiss and has never returned to the national set up, but that one appearance means he can never represent Canada. A terribly poor decision, as one would imagine that the current Vancouver Whitecaps left back would be a regular with the Canadian set up. Jacob Lensky, a native of Vancouver, British Columbia made a similar decision, making one appearance for the Czech Republic before retiring in 2011 due to depression.  Outstanding goalkeeper Asmir Begovic grew up in Edmonton, Alberta and represented Canada at the under-20 level but at the senior level decided to represent Bosnia & Herzegovina.  These players hardly get mentioned when the list of shame is read out by die hard Canadian fans, but their decisions to leave the national side are all for the same reasons as Hargreaves and Bunbury.

David “Junior” Hoilett has been a huge success for relegated Blackburn.

The latest reason this topic has arisen amongst Canadian soccer aficionados is because of the possibility of losing two young and talented players playing in top European leagues, and who have yet to commit to the Canadian national team.  The first is David “Junior” Hoilett, born in Brampton, Ontario of Jamaican heritage, who is also looking into the possibility of playing for England after his time with Blackburn Rovers.  He has rejected a number of call-ups from both Canada and Jamaica and remains in international wilderness, but could be the greatest player to come out of Canada since Hargreaves.  The other is Jonathan De Guzman of Scarborough, Ontario who unlike Hoilett and others, never represented Canada at the junior level as he chose to play for the Netherlands youth sides as he plied his trade with Feyenoord of the Eredivisie before moving to Mallorca and Villareal of Spain and now Swansea City of the English Premier League.  A sticking point for De Guzman is that his older brother Julian De Guzman has been playing for the Canadian national team for over a decade and has apparently beckoned his brother to join him in the red and white rather than the Oranje of the Dutch but has yet to convince the younger De Guzman who has yet to feature in any Dutch managers’ plans.  Canada has decent goaltenders, an average defense, and a solid midfield, but has always lacked goal-scorers and if both Junior Hoilett and Jonathan De Guzman were to join up with Canada for the current campaign to qualify for the 2014 World Cup, there is little doubt in Canuck minds that these two attacking midfielders could get Canada back to the show.

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Oranje Crushed: Why the Dutch Failed at Euro2012

By Jared Mercer

*Originally posted July 3, 2012

Along with Spain and Germany, the Dutch were pre-tournament favourites, but they went home with three losses out of three games and exit Euro 2012 along with the Irish as the only teams to have gained zero points for their efforts in Poland & Ukraine.  The question has been on everyone’s lips since the opening match loss to Denmark: where did it all go wrong?  Losing 1-0 to a defensively strong Danish side who were also unlucky to go out in the group stages was not the end of the world, but in the Group of Death it meant that the Oranje would have to get results against a good team in Portugal and the best team (aside from Spain) in Germany. Granted, the loss to the Danish was not all doom and gloom as it was a match that Holland dominated, but a timely finish from Danish star of the tournament Michael Krohn-Dehli (Christian Eriksen being surprisingly absent in all of their games) and then solid defending by the whole team as a unit, so there was some reason for optimism. Players, coaches and pundits alike have been attempting to assess the damage and wading through the garbage that was the Netherlands display at the tournament, it was never going to point to one conclusion. We will start from the beginning.

The team selection by Bert van Marwijk was a solid one considering the players available for selection as there was only one “big name” absentee after the squad was trimmed down to the final 23 man roster and that was attacking midfielder Siem de Jong.  The glaring problem for the Dutch from the beginning was although they had good goalkeepers in Stekelenberg, Vorm, and Krul, the defense that stood directly in front of the net-minder was considered shaky at best.  This was the reason I had predicted an earlier elimination for Holland than most others, because looking at their defensive options, I just couldn’t see them doing a repeat of their final appearance two years ago at the World Cup in South Africa. Van der Wiel is a good right back who can make marauding runs forward, but the center backs left much to be desired.  Heitinga is probably the best of the lot, which included Boulahrouz, Mathijsen and Vlaar, but that isn’t saying too much as I believe the Everton defender is a good center back but not a great one. Vlaar started the first game as the regular Mathijsen was out injured and he did alright for someone who has rarely represented his country. When Joris Mathijsen was deemed fit, he was immediately brought back into the side but I do not know why, other than his experience perhaps. Since his move to Malaga it has become more apparent that Mathijsen is past it, and is very very slow and should not remain in the starting XI any longer, while the adaptable Boulahrouz would have been a much better choice, he didn’t see a single minute of action at the tournament.  The left back position has been something of a nightmare since Geovanni van Bronckhorst retired and although Wilfred Bouma would have been the most likely replacement, van Marwijk went with the uncapped 18-year-old Jetro Willems, which time-and-time again looked like a terrible decision by the Dutch manager.

Without being too harsh on Willems - as he is very young and was thrust into a starting position that he was not prepared for - he was the weakest link in orange and was repeatedly beaten by players such as Ronaldo and Muller.  The idea of playing defensive midfielder Stijn Schaars at left back came and went as the tournament started and now upon reflection may have been a better option.  So regardless of how good their attack is or any poor coaching decisions that may have taken place, Holland were never destined to win this tournament with such a lackluster backline.  They should however have made it out of the group stage as I had picked them to finish runners up to Germany.  The quarter-finals could have been a breeze as the stronger teams from Group A – Russia and Poland – were eliminated and the Netherlands could have easily dismantled either the Greeks or Czechs and made it to a very respectable semi finals place, where I would have bet on them being eliminated.  Not progressing from the first stage and losing every match however is unacceptable for a team of such talent.

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