some canadian guys writing about soccer

Alright, one moment to lament what could have been… Why? WHY wasn’t Stephen Hart managing Canada during World Cup qualifying? And yes, it’s a rhetorical question.

And with that, on to tonight.

There were positive omens right from the national anthems. The El Savadorian support in Columbus turned out to be fairly ordinary, so much so that the gigantic Canadian flag unfurled by the Voyageurs at one end of the stadium actually made it look on TV for a few moments like we were the more impressive supporter group.

We were certainly the more impressive team. Over the course of 90 full minutes, Canada beat El Salvador. I can’t even… I mean they beat them like Germans would beat them. Basically Canada neutered a side that overran Costa Rica last Friday. The same Costa Rica that brought their “B+” team to the Gold Cup. The same Costa Rica now topping the Hex.

By the 30th minute I was trying to concoct a joke about whether Julian De Guzman is actually the product of some sort of secret ‘mixed sperm in a cup’ agreement between Xavi and Iniesta. By the 65th minute I was comparing him to Wayne Gretzky. He stifled El Salvadorian attacks before they  crossed the middle of the pitch…. He played like he knew where the ball was going before it did.

And as for the debate on the Voyageurs’ board today about whether DeRo should have played for Canada, (which as a Winnipeger I can comfortably say is really more about nationwide resentment of Toronto than anything else) well, it no longer even fucking matters! Canada, welcome to your new wide men: Josh Simpson on the left and Will Johnson on the right.

After a slow start, they both proved just as legitimate as the three central midfielders – Hutchinson, Bernier and De Guz – in terms of attacking threats. As for those three in the middle, they were so fluid and interchangeable you couldn’t tell which was meant to be attacking and which was meant to be defending.

Ok, I’m drunk, I’m partisan and this game wasn’t perfect. Sutton had his moments with distribution, Big Gerbs’ second goal in this tournament was the result of horrific defending, and Bernier and Hutch missed absolute sitters in the 48^th and 69^th minutes, respectively. But Jesus Christ. This is a fantastic result.

I know, I know… please believe me I know. It could all turn to tears in the quarterfinals. But whether you’re a Canada supporter, a Canadian club supporter, or a blogger who lives in Canada and writes about European football… Does it really matter now?. Folks, we have ourselves a tournament! And blind hope is what being a supporter is all about.

Ole!

This entry was posted on July 8, 2009 at 12:24 am and is filed under Gold Cup with tags Canadian national team. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.