BEHIND THE PLAY #25

What a ride. I’ve never really paid too much attention to Copa Americas but I knew that the South American teams are very passionate about it. The just-eliminated Uruguay players going into the stands after the game and throwing haymakers at Colombian supporters they felt weren’t being respectful to their family members supports that.

As I wrote two issues ago, I got swept up in the excitement and made a last minute trip with my son to catch the opening game between Canada and Argentina. We lost but respectably. It only got better for CanMNT supporters after that. A tremendous run to the semi-finals was met with the same result the began with: a 2-0 loss to Argentina.

Lots of random things stuck in my head about Canada’s run and how the team may benefit and/or improve from this going forward. So for your bullet-list loving pleasure, I present some of these indiscriminately (aka ‘lazily’).

• The CSA just alleviated a good chunk of their current and ongoing cashflow problems with this tournament. The fourth place team is guaranteed US$4m with third getting an extra million. That is very helpful and from accounts I’ve read this money bypasses Canada Soccer Business and goes entirely to the CSA. Factor in the new $4 per player fee increase approved at the last CSA Annual Members Meeting (with $1 going directly to the new Northern Super League, a professional league for women) starting in 2025 and you have added C$7.6m in revenue over the next year for a fourth place finish at the Copa and C$9m for a third place finish. Clearly that Copa money is not an annual supplement but it still comes at a very helpful time and will help bridge the organization through until 2026 World Cup money arrives.

• TSN using Fox Sports for Copa America coverage is embarrassing when you have both Alexi Lalas and Carli Lloyd openly bashing Canada. The over-compensating rage-farming they indulged in because the US couldn’t get out of their group is not what I paid a month’s subscription to listen to. TSN finally ponied up some cash to send a crew to Met Life Stadium for the semi-final to do their own production but it’s too little too late and just reinforces how they see soccer as an occasional event rather than a core property they would be smart to invest in.

• Jesse Marsch makes C$2m/year managing the men’s national team. Gregg Berhalter was just fired by the US Soccer Federation yesterday. He made US$2.3m in 2022 (C$3.1m) but that was with World Cup bonuses. There’s nothing online that says what his current salary is/was. Would be interesting to know if Marsch has a clause in his contract that says he can leave if offered the US MNT job. It would be very tempting for him, especially if he was getting a $1m plus more per year. If he did leave it would be a massive setback for the CSA to lose him after establishing this momentum whether you liked him as the pick for the job or not. It would also be deviously smart for the US Soccer Federation to poach him if they felt he was the best candidate as it would help them and disrupt us.

• As good as our run in the Copa was there are clearly some very serious concerns about our play. The number of times that teams got behind our back four with acres to spare was really concerning. Happened several times in the first game against Argentina and more critically against Venezuela for their goal to tie the game. This is basic defensive shape stuff. Even crazier is that, in the Venezuela example while we’re protecting a 1-0 lead, we pushed nine players forward for a throw in the attacking third only to get caught 1v1 when we quickly lost possession and they launched the ball forward. Yes, Crepeau was bizarrely out of position but how do we get caught 1v1 in a situation like that?

• Years into Phonzie’s career with the national team there is still no clear consensus on which position he should play. His inconsistency in this tournament was also a concern. Average and inconsequential in some games while exhilarating and game-changing in others.

• Venezuela blunder aside, Crepeau is the clear starter and unless he loses form dramatically, the way the team plays out from the back should factor in his strengths and weaknesses in this area. He is more Pickford than Ederson when it comes to this.

• Our reliance on Jonathan David and Cyle Larin through the World Cup qualifying games and their ability to produce at an incredible clip in that process has made us complacent in that we assume they will always bring that form. They didn’t for this tournament and we were caught short for effective Plan B options.

• David being asked to play as a false nine a good ten yards in behind Larin was questionable. David is a finisher and has the pace to run onto longer balls played in behind. Getting him close to goal, with service, is what makes him effective.

• It’s really unfortunate that Jacob Shaffelburg and Ali Ahmed’s best positions are the same. I can see them being key players for this team for a long time if they continue to improve as they have the past year or two.

• I know Marsch is a 4-4-2 diehard but I’d like to see a back three of Johnston, Bombito and Cornelius. This would allow Phonzie to push to left mid in a four with Eustaquio (please regain your 2021-22 form) and Kone in the middle with competition for the right side of midfield between Tajon, Laryea, Ahmed (if he can adjust) and maybe even a pushed up Alistair Johnston (with Kamal Miller slotting into the aforementioned back three very comfortably). Shaffelburg, David and Larin would then be the three forwards with Theo Bair (who really should’ve got some time at this Copa given the poor form of Larin and David), Liam Millar, Jacen Russell-Rowe and Tani Oluwaseyi providing competition. I like Osorio but he’s 32 and will be 34 come the World Cup. At best he will be a 60th minute sub as needed. That’s 19 players mentioned. FIFA’s sad concession to players increasingly being run into the ground and be injured more often was to raise the size of rosters for the 2026 World Cup to 26 players from 23 (while increasing the maximum number of games played in this World Cup by teams to eight). That leaves room for seven more, two of which will be keepers.

• I’ve heard conflicting views on whether Ryan Gauld may be eligible to play for Canada in time for the World Cup. If he is you have to assume the CSA is making this a top, top priority. He would be a fantastic linking midfielder and one who plays a bit higher up the field than Eustaquio. He also scores.

• We just played Holland, France, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Venezuela and then Argentina again in the past five weeks with a final game against Uruguay on Sunday. Yeah, we started with a four-buzz waxing from the Dutch but if you give us a mulligan on that one we are 2W, 2L and 2T in what is easily our most difficult stretch of games in a condensed period of time ever. After the Uruguay game, it will be five games against teams who are all in the top eight of the ELO ratings (more current than FIFA rankings) including the current World Cup champions twice. Venezuela is 18th. We are 32nd. Only Chile is behind us at 40th. We were never embarrassed (aside from maybe that first game against Holland). That’s amazing.

Note: This will be the last Thursday newsletter until September. Monday only until then.