Steven Sandor's Blog

The path to men’s professional soccer in Saskatchewan appears to be set. 

Late last week, in events in Saskatoon and Regina, Joe Belan announced a project coming to Saskatchewan — the SK Summer Soccer Series. The Series will consist of a number of soccer matches involving a team of top Saskatchewan players, the SK Selects, and will feature a variety of opponents from outside the province. The first game in the series will see reigning PDL champs Foothills FC ,visit Saskatoon’s SMF. Field May 4.

As Belan explains, the project is more than just a series of games.

“We are using this as a pilot test to understand the market here in Saskatchewan for pro soccer. We view this as a stepping stone if it’s successful to ultimately bringing professional soccer to Saskatchewan.”

The new approach from Belan is in contrast to appearances from a year ago, when it looked as though Saskatchewan might join the Canadian Premier League for its inaugural season. With the CanPL season kicking off on April 27 in Hamilton, Belan credits this more cautious approach to what he had learned about the situation and what he felt necessary to know and understand before moving forward.  

“We were part of the initial discussions with other teams across the league about being part of the inaugural season. But, when we looked at it around this time last year and recognizing the complexity of putting together the whole Canadian Premier League, it is a very challenging and complex project. But we felt that we were not adequately prepared to be part of the inaugural season. We were not as well endowed from a stadium infrastructure standpoint or organization and we needed more time to prepare. And that’s why we have taken a little bit of a detour and figured that this SK Summer Soccer Series will give us a good platform from which to build an organization and ultimately work on some of these other aspects to be properly prepared when we bring pro soccer here that we’re coming out really strong out of the gates.”

In a sense the SK Summer Soccer Series is much more than just a few games for people to go and watch. Belan has assembled an organization consisting of people in the soccer community, provincial business leaders and fans. The games will give them information of how to connect to their potential market and how that market might respond. Meetings held on Thursday and Friday allowed the group to connect with various members of the business community. And a number of sponsors have already been secured for the Series including May 4 game day sponsor BMO and Saskatchewan homebuilder Homes By Dream. But Belan also points to how critical building personal connections will be in what would be CanPL’s smallest market.

“We really think that that’s going to ensure the long-term viability and success of the organization … building those links into the community and having a personal connection with all of the supporters. What I would ideally like to do is be in a position where the ownership group and the management know almost every single person that goes into that stadium. I think our message has been very well received by people and now it’s really just getting out and spreading that message and building those personal connections with people.”

The response to the games in this series will eventually determine whether Belan and his team will continue down the path to bringing pro soccer to Saskatchewan. Belan simplifies the possibilities into three potential outcomes. There could be no interest or there could be such overwhelming interest that it would seem like supporters are “demanding a pro soccer team.” The third and more likely outcome is somewhere in between , where there are “some positive indicators but also some things we need to do differently” and, in this case, the learning process would continue.

You have to give Kenneth Heiner-Moller, the coach of the national women’s team, and his charges some credit.

To finish third at a tournament, in which more than three teams were participating, without scoring a goal in open play? Impressive. With only one goal in three games? That takes effort. Not since the Seattle Sounders won MLS Cup in 2016 — without getting a single shot on target before the penalty shootout — has a team been rewarded for being as ineffective in front of goal.

Canada got the third-place spot in the Algarve Cup with a 6-5 shootout win over Sweden after the game finished in a, you guessed it, 0-0 draw. Wednesday’s 0-0 effort followed a 0-0 result with Iceland and a 1-0 triumph over Scotland which saw Christine Sinclair score the winner on a penalty.

Last week, I suggested that it was too early to panic, that the team might some time together in order to rebuild the offensive chemistry. But, after three games in a week, plus all that training time together, there hasn’t been any real improvement in Canada’s attack. And, outside of Sweden, Canada hasn’t faced what former women’s team coach John Herdman would call “top-tier opposition.” As we steam towards the Women’s World Cup, Canada isn’t looking like a team whose attack would scare the likes of the United States, Germany or France. Heck, right now, even Cameroon, who Canada will play first at the WWC in France, might be thinking there’s a way to get a point if it can batten down the hatches.

Really, where Canada finished at the Algarve Cup didn’t really matter. First or fifth or eighth, whatever. What’s important is that the team has begun the building process towards France ’19, and that means clicking offensively. Fair play, Canada’s defenders looked good through the tournament, and Sweden, outside of a seeing-eye effort that struck the bar, didn’t do much to trouble keeper Stephanie Labbe before the shootout. But, when it came to the offence, it felt like Canada was always a step short. A ball was placed just too far ahead for a striker to run on to. A cross was put too close to the keeper. A pass in the final third was left just short enough for a defender to recover.

At the Algarve Cup, no offence + steel defence = third place. But that’s not going to be the case when the stakes get higher. A spark is needed. The last thing Canadian soccer fans want is that the Algarve Cup turns out to be the canary-in-a-coal-mine moment that is warning us that we don’t have the firepower needed for France ’19. World Cups aren’t won on the backs of 0-0 draws and penalty shootouts. There will be a time when Canada will be forced to score two, maybe three times to win a game. If there’s anything Canada needs to do right now, it’s to find a way to turn chances into goals. Honestly, no one wants to hear the old adage about “we’re creating enough chances, we just need to convert them.” Soccer is about putting that ball across the line. There are no effort ribbons.

But third place on one damn penalty goal in three matches, that’s a good trick.

When Canada plays in the Women’s World Cup, there will be games where scoring opportunities will be at a premium. Managers will set up their teams with defensive blocks and will try to isolate Canada’s attacking players. There will be games where half an hour will go by without a real scoring chance.

Those games will go in Canada’s favour if, and this is  the big if, the Canadians convert that one golden chance when it comes. And that means a team has to have a clinical mindset.

So far in 2019, we’re waiting to see signs of that killer instinct. After Friday’s 1-0 win over Scotland, Canada is two games into the Algarve Cup — and, while a draw with Iceland and a narrow win over the Scots isn’t a bad haul by any means, the cold truth is Canada has one goal in the two games. And that goal, Christine Sinclair’s 179th in international competition, came on a penalty.

So, nothing out of open play.

And, just like the Iceland game, it’s not like Canada didn’t have chances. Jordyn Huitema put a shot at close range right at the keeper. Sinclair was put clear onto the Scottish goal thanks to a wonderful, defence-splitting pass from Ashley Lawrence, but didn’t even hit the net.

It’s not like Canada needs to kill its opposition for the sake of killing the opposition; but what the team has to do is start showing some finish in front of goal. Right now, the Canadians have one win, one draw at the Algarve Cup because, really, their goal hasn’t been threatened. That’s not going to happen at the World Cup. At some point, the opposition will score. At some point, Canada’s women might need to score two to win, or to find the net on that one great chance that comes to them in order to turn a 0-o draw into a 1-0 triumph.

You’re not going to get games in the World Cup where you get 10 great chances in order to score one. The old cliches like “we’re not scoring, but at least we’re creating the chances” don’t work here. With the likes of Sinclair and Huitema and Janine Beckie at the top of the attack, Canada is more dynamic now than it was at the 2015 Women’s World Cup. Now, it’s time for the talent to start paying off.

Let’s face it, you would stay off the message boards and Reddit and the soccer blogs if you wanted sober, measured analysis. What you want is reactionary, knee-jerk, panicked commentary.

So, in the wake of Canada’s 0-0 draw with Iceland to open the Algarve Cup, I could take the road less-travelled, which is to simply state that the Canadians had a lot of possession, created a lot of chances, and with regular games will get the rhythm and timing needed to turn opportunities into goals.

But, if I want retweets and reaction (and eyeballs), I’ll need to point out that, in the 2015 Women’s World Cup, Canada’s major issue was lack of scoring depth. I would point out that, despite the presence of FIFA No.2 all-time international scorer Christine Sinclair, that the book on Canada is that this is a team that still needs to take on big international opposition with the eye to winning 1-0.

And, it would be just reactionary enough to suggest that the sort of problems that plagued Canada in the 2015 Women’s World Cup looked to rear their ugly heads in the team’s early stages of the 2019 calendar. But, if you need a reminder, in 2015, Canada carried two players who weren’t at 100 per cent — Melissa Tancredi and Diana Matheson — and then ended up scoring just four times in five games. Canada never scored more than one goal in a match.

With attacking players like Janine Beckie, Deanne Rose and Jordyn Huitema now in the fold, and with Ashley Lawrence pushing up the wing and Jessie Fleming adding a dimension to the midfield, Canada has more options than it did in 2015. Yet, on Wednesday, despite having the bulk of possession — and Sinclair having a point-blank chance saved — there were hints that things were just a little bit… off. Crosses weren’t missing targets by a lot, but they were just a little too close to the keeper or maybe just a little behind the target player. When balls did find their targets in the penalty area, the reaction time was just slow enough to allow the Icelandic defenders the time to throw their bodies in front of shots.

It wasn’t a painful performance by Canada — and, for sure, this looked like a team shaking off the rust.

But, you didn’t come here for that. You came here to read that the sky is falling. So, look out! Piece of sky coming right at you!

First off, in the wake of Toronto FC’s ouster from the CONCACAF Champions League, it should be noted that several of Independiente’s players should be on the radars of MLS teams.

Omar Browne got the back-breaking away goal, as the Panamanian side, up 4-0 after the first leg, came into Canadian subzero conditions at BMO Field and got a 1-1 result Tuesday. Browne showed some real pace and power up front, and showed he could be up for bigger and better things. Speedster Ivey Romeesh was dominant in the first leg. And, in the second leg, Independiente keeper Jose Guerra made some assured save and showed, with several best-actor-candidate performances, that he can CONCACAF with the best of him. Time waster extraordinaire, that one.

All three, to me, were impressive enough to warrant more than passing interest from MLS front offices.

Basically, Independiente weren’t what we thought they were. This was a composed team, with lots of strength to win 50-50 battles and plenty of pace and finish to punish you on the counter.

Really, though, Toronto FC should have made a tie out of this thing. The Reds were up 1-0 at halftime of the second leg thanks to a perfectly weighted header from Jordan Hamilton, but really could have, should have been up by more. Justin Morrow, who provided the cross for the Hamilton goal, had a great chance to score. But, though his shot eventually got through Guerra’s legs, the keeper got just enough of it to slow the ball enough for it to not get over the line.

Hamilton had two more great chances to score off his head, but, in each of those cases, Guerra was equal to the task, making diving stops.

The Reds dominated possession, but, if the home team was guilty of anything, it was trying to over-pass the ball around their opposition. On a sandy, slow pitch, the more passes you make, the more you increase the chances of turning the ball over. In subzero conditions, with the ball playing like it needed to be pumped up, the best policy — an ugly one, to be sure — would have been to get as many red shirts into the box as possible. Pound cross after cross in there. Wait for the bad bounces.

In the second half, the visitors got the goal that put the Reds out of their misery. New Red Laurent Ciman, the veteran defender brought in to bolster the back line, was a liability for the second game in a row. In leg one, he made an ill-advised attempt to dive at Browne in an attempt to strip the ball; the striker danced around him and scored. In leg two, Ciman misjudged a ball in the air, then headed it backwards, putting Browne on a breakaway which led to a goal.

So far, through two games, it looks like Ciman and fellow central defender Chris Mavinga didn’t spend one second playing together in training camp. Of course that’s not true, but they play like two absolute strangers out there, in total isolation from each other.

Sure, Toronto FC could win the second leg 5-0, and every Reds fan can sit back and laugh about this one.

But,  wow, it’s hard to remember a Toronto FC performance as bad as this one, as the Reds were hammered 4-0 by Independiente in Panama Tuesday in the first leg of their CONCACAF Champions League round-of-16 tie.

Maybe that Juan Pablo Angel night at Giants Stadium is the only match in TFC history that can compare in terms of everything going wrong for the Reds. But, wow, the fans in Panama were treated to an absolutely dominating performance from the home side. Meanwhile, Toronto FC, like the person who puts his hand on the burner, goes “ow!” and then proceeds to put his hand back on the burner, kept making the same defensive mistakes over and over. It’s bad enough that TFC made mistakes; it’s unforgivable that the team didn’t learn from them.  

It was like this: “Wow, the quick counterattack of CAI is killing us, they’re getting behind the back line over and over.”

“Well, let’s play the line even higher. And let’s let the centre backs separate even a little more.”

“Cool.”

There was no cohesion between centre backs Laurent Ciman and Chris Mavinga, CAI forwards consistently got behind the back line, and yet they both pushed way up the field like riverboat gamblers. Auro looked to invent the position, fullback-who-pushes-forward-the-cheats-to-middle-of-field-and-doesn’t-run-back, and was regularly watching the back of CAI speedster’s Ivey Romeesh’s jersey. 

Basically, TFC was caught with its pants down, and decided not to even try and pull them back up.

Mavinga was caught not getting ball side to his mark early in the game, and Abdiel Ayarza was able to chest down a cross from Ivey Romeesh and finish neatly in the corner of the goal.

Romeesh then missed a close-in chance, blasting wide after getting further ahead of Auro than a Mercedes shooting past a Sauber.

But TFC got a lifeline and the chance to the game near the half-hour mark, when CAI defender Gerardo Negrete decided to tackle Ciman in the penalty area. Terrence Boyd, TFC’s much ballyhooed American signing, stepped to the spot and put the ball through the uprights. Problem is, soccer doesn’t have uprights. It has a goal. And this shot was nowhere near the goal.

Buoyed by the let-off, CAI finished the contest early in the second half. First off, forward Omar Browne stepped around a sprawling Ciman and unleashed a dipping shot from outside of the box that caught TFC keeper Alex Bono flat-footed.

It was 3-0 shortly after, when Romeesh deposited the ball in an open goal after an initial break by teammate Jorman Aguilar.

Romeesh made it a brace when he got behind the TFC backline, and this came after Browne knocked a free kick off the bar.

The post-Giovinco era started off in the worst possible way for the Reds, and the sky-is-falling crowd will become the told-you-so crowd for the next week, at least.

But, even with Jozy Altidore out of the lineup, TFC had enough veteran presence in the lineup to at least hold their own in Panama. But that didn’t happen. The back line, as a whole, was caught ball-watching and flat-footed. The Reds didn’t learn from early mistakes. The Reds didn’t adjust. They came in woefully underprepared and, well, it looked like no one there had even kicked a ball in preseason.

Give Canada Soccer a bit of credit: Usually, documents as other-wordly boring as strategic plans and goal-setting agendas are the stuff of press releases that are immediately deleted.

The organization instead revealed the next stages of the association’s Strategic Plan  for 2019-21 (capitalized for emphasis!) in a press conference from Toronto, streamed to the nation, with gift-for-the-gab men’s national team head coach John Herdman getting the last word in. There was a bit of showmanship to the thing. There were consistent reminders that Canada is on the right path, is getting world-class results and wow, everyone needs to rally around the World Cup that’s coming in 2026.

Considering that the numbers are showing a decline in Canadian soccer registrations and that, currently, there really is not any 2026 World Cup hype to speak of in Toronto, Montreal and Edmonton — the potential Canadian host cities for the tournament — well, maybe some smoke and mirrors are needed. Maybe the hype machine does need to be ignited.

Let’s face it. It is vitally important for Canada Soccer to rally around the 2026 World Cup as much as possible. The cities and provinces and the feds are still going to be required to write cheques to refurbish stadiums, improve infrastructure and plant some grass fields. While this is touted to be a cost-effective World Cup, these tournaments don’t come cheap. And remember that Edmonton continues to commit to the tournament, even though the Province of Alberta’s NDP government has so far not promised a dime towards the World Cup. In the end, the city will only be able to host if it’s got support from its provincial and federal partners. In Toronto, the city will need to eventually work with Premier Doug Ford, who has been on a slash and burn campaign ever since he won the election.

It’s easy to say “but these leaders and policies might not be in place in 2026,” but the truth is the decision on funding and infrastructure and stadium improvements will need to come sooner rather than later.

So, after Canada Soccer General Secretary Peter Montopoli said Canada’s men’s and women’s teams were getting ”consistent world-class results,” after Vice President Nick Bontis talked about the three pillars of “Develop, Govern, Grow,” after President Steven Reed stated that we are realizing our goals and are on the right path, after Director of Development Jason de Vos talked about giving coaches the tools they need to meet their players’ needs, after women’s coach Kenneth Heiner-Moller talked about setting even bigger goals for the national program, Herdman came out for the last word(s).

Having Herdman come out to give the final words at a press conference is like knowing that Rush is saving “2112” for the encore.

Herdman talked about how Canada WILL qualify for the 2022 World Cup, and that “we’ll lay a high-performance foundation” in that tournament. He talked about how the Strategic Plan will unite clubs, academies, MLS teams and Canadian Premier League teams under one youth-development blueprint. He talked about how the “one Canada” approach will cross the boundaries of the men’s and women’s programs — and how Canada is unique in that both the men’s and women’s coaches have worked together extensively. Basically, in a true poetic fashion, he re-endorsed the moves to transfer him from coaching the women’s team to the men’s team, and promoting Heiner-Moller to head coach of the women’s program.

“One system, one team, one Canada,” Herdman said.

“We’ve got eight years to bring this alive,” he said.

“If not you, who? If not now, when? ” he said.

And then there was the shout out to Nike, who took over as Canada’s kit and apparel provider in January.

“It’s time. We’ve just brought the biggest partner, identity in sport to sit alongside that Maple Leaf.”

So, what about this plan, then? Well, Canada Soccer canvassed the opinions of 3,000 Canadians — and used those insights to develop the next stages of the national soccer strategy. De Vos said that coach’s courses for children’s coaches and youth-level coaches are being revised, to “give coaches the tools they need to understand their players and meet their developmental needs.” With online and travelling courses, the programs should be more accessible.

But the key is to have all the programs pulling in the same direction, which leads to eventually filling both the men’s and women’s player pools. The goal is for both Heiner-Moller and Herdman to have headaches when it comes to making team selections. The goal is to force both of them to have to agonize over their rosters.

“If you’re a good team, you try to set new goals, new boundaries,” said Heiner-Moller, in the conference’s most Herdman-esque moment that didn’t come from Herdman. “ If you’re a great team, you achieve them.”

FC Edmonton announced the signings of five players on Thursday, three of them who have worn FCE colours in the NASL — veteran striker Tomi Ameobi, local midfielder Edem Mortotsi and defender Kareem Moses.

Moses will bring his familiar exuberance, and dance moves, back the Clarke Stadium.

Also joining the Eddies are former Belgian U-17 striker Oumar Diock, now 24 years of age, who will look to kickstart his career in Canada.

Diock was recommended to FC Edmonton coach Jeff Paulus by former Eddies Pape Diakite.

“This is a a player who needs a fresh start, a new beginning,” said Paulus.

And, Spanish defender Ramon Soria, who played 71 career NASL game in Ottawa and Puerto Rico, will wear Eddies’ blue in 2019. Soria was the first defender signed by the Fury (back in December of 2013) after the club joined the NASL.

Before making the deal, Paulus said he spoke for an hour with Whitecaps coach Marc Dos Santos, who was running the Fury’s program when Soria was brought to the NASL.

“There was no defender in NASL who passed the ball as well as him over the three years he spent in the league,” said Paulus. “There isn’t going to be a defender in the league who has his technical ability.”

Moses played 47 games for the Eddies over the course of the  2014 and ‘15 seasons. The Trinidad and Tobago player was originally recommended to FC Edmonton by Stephen Hart, now the coach of the Halifax Wanderers.

Paulus said, of the foreigners brought into the team, he wants players who understand the travel rigours of a Canadian league and the challenges of the climate. He said he wants players who are comfortable on artificial turf. And he wants players he knows are “top-quality characters.” He said the fact that Dos Santos was able to lead the San Francisco Deltas to the 2017 NASL championship, even though the team was financially doomed, showed what can happen when a dressing room comes together.

As well as being a versatile player who can play in a variety of formations, Moses offers that character, and Paulus knows full well that the defender was a fan favourite in his previous stint in Edmonton.

Ameobi scored 21 goals in 95 games for the Eddies over the course of four NASL seasons. With five goals, Ameobi is tied for second all-time in Canadian Championship scoring — since the national Cup title adopted the tournament format, that is. He will have the chance to surpass Toronto FC’s Sebastian Giovinco, who leads with six goals, this season.

Mortotsi appeared in 12 career NASL games with the Eddies. His signing was completed a couple of months ago, and he’s already been training and doing gym sessions with the team, as coach Jeff Paulus looks to give his side as much of an early start as possible.

With so many players from the Edmonton area, among them former Academy teammates, Mortotsi doesn’t feel like a new signing.

“The chemistry between us is really easy,” he said.

Mortotsi is 25, which will make him one of the elder statesmen on the team — and that means he sees himself taking more of a mentorship role with the younger players and Academy members than he did when he was part of the NASL Eddies.

“I’m older now. I’m more experienced,” he said. “And I can bring that and help with the younger players on the team.”

Mortotsi played for FCE at Commonwealth Stadium in a Canadian Championship match against the Vancouver Whitecaps, and he said he can’t wait to get an opportunity to play in that tournament again.

For more on Ameobi’s return to the Eddies, stay tuned to CanPL.ca for a profile on the veteran’s decision to come back to Edmonton.

One of the great tests of the success of the Canadian Premier League will come in Atlantic Canada.

No, I’m not thinking about the crowds and supporters’ culture that is taking root in Halifax — that’s a separate conversation. In this case, I am looking forward to a future where we see more young prospects from the Atlantic provinces invited to national-team identification camps; more players from the East who become the topics of national conversations.

When Halifax Wanderers are regularly fielding players who grew up in the region, whose first answers to interviewers aren’t “I’d never been to the city before this.”

On Wednesday, Wanderers announced the signing of the club’s first local player, 17-year-old Scott Firth.

“It’s a great feeling especially being local,” Firth said in a release. The fact I grew up here, to be playing pro soccer in front of faces I know and see on a daily basis is something to dream of.”

Firth won three Atlantic Canadian titles with the Nova Scotia provincial side. He also spent time with the Whitecaps Residency and auditioned for Toronto FC’s program.

Brown in Cowtown

Cavalry FC announced the signing of Jordan Brown, an English player who came up through Arsenal’s youth system and has also spent time with West Ham United. This past season, he was in the second division of the Czech League.

Brown is a former England U-17; he made seven appearances for the Three Lions’ U-17 squad, and scored three times.

“He’s had an excellent development path at some respected European clubs,” said Cavalry coach Tommy Wheeldon. “As a young player in England’s U-17 team, he was highly touted as one to watch for the future and we still believe that.  He’s the type of centre forward we’ve been looking for, a different maker that’s young, pacy and clinical with his finishing.”

The Canadian Premier League’s first game will see York 9 making the short drive south to Hamilton to face Forge FC.

The two teams will play April  27, exactly one year after the league launched its identity and branding.

(It is also my birthday, so I’d like to thank the CanPL for recognizing that two years in a row).

It’s not a surprise that Forge FC and Hamilton Tiger-Cats owner Bob Young, who was an engine in founding the league, gets the reward of having the first CanPL game played in his backyard.

Volkswagen first major founding partner, and will be a jersey sponsor for one of the teams. The CanPL announced that it is a multi-year partnership, but no dollar figures were revealed.

League commissioner David Clanahan said “I’ve told everyone that the world started spinning very fast on January 1 of this year, and a lot of things are going on in the league office. The next few months are going to be busy and filled with excitement.”

Of course, that means a lot more announcements to come, including a full schedule and when and where the other five teams will open their inaugural CanPL seasons.

Later on Tuesday, Forge unveiled another player who may figure in the game — Kwame Awuah, a former first-round pick in the MLS SuperDraft who was used very sparingly by NYCFC over the past couple of seasons. His Forge teammate, Marcel Zajac, another touted Canadian who was in the U.S. college system, decided to forgo his senior year and turn pro — to avoid the kind of fate that befell Awuah. That is, going to MLS and getting really well accommodate with the bench.