Edmonton Journal ePaper

CANADA HAS THINGS TO LEARN — BOTH ON AND OFF THE FIELD

Team's return to World Cup after decades marred by media fumbles and poor optics

DEREK VAN DIEST Doha, Qatar dvandiest@postmedia.com Twitter: @Derekvandiest

After a disappointing loss at the 2022 men's World Cup, reality started to settle in for Canada and its soccer fans.

While the team did well to get to this point, qualifying at the top of CONCACAF, it is still far removed from competing against the best in the world, both on and off the field.

The consolation of the 4-1 loss to Croatia at the Khalifa International Stadium on Sunday was the fact Canada scored its first goal at a men's World Cup.

Fittingly, Canada's best player, Alphonso Davies, scored it 67 seconds into the contest to give his team the lead. In its lone previous appearance in 1986, Canada failed to score a goal. It was also shut out in its opening game against Belgium on Wednesday.

And while all the talk after the game and into the next day should have been in regard to the goal, which made Canadian soccer history, Davies was not made available to the international non-rights-holding media after the game, walking past the throng of journalists in the mix zone.

Davies did talk to the television rights holders, but left the international contingent of print journalists, with readership around the world, wondering what it felt like to make Canadian sports history.

That's more on Canada Soccer and Davies' representatives than it is on the 22-year-old from Edmonton. But the fact he was not made available the day after, on Monday, says something about the organization, which has been dodging one land mine after another during what will be a brief stay here in Qatar.

Not having been at the men's World Cup in 36 years, it's understandable there's a learning curve when it comes to how things are done at the biggest single sporting event in the world. But for an organization whose coaches talk incessantly about learnings (which is not even a word), there seems to be little of it actually being done here.

Canada's team was 40 minutes late to its introductory news conference, leaving journalists from all over the world waiting while they fought traffic in Doha, somehow not anticipating in a city of three million people and with a game scheduled for the same time at the Education City Stadium a few miles away that it would take more than the halfhour to get to the media centre.

Canada was on time for its second official pre-match news conference, but subsequently late for every other held at its training facility in Umm Salal, northwest of downtown Doha.

On Monday, the team was 40 minutes behind, likely because it invited family and friends to the training facility, which was actually a nice touch.

Yet, not making Davies available again for the strictly Canadian journalists in attendance (international journalists had moved on) was revealing on how the operation is run, and who is calling the shots.

It's been easier to get an audience with Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Harry Kane at the World Cup than it has for nonrights -holders to talk to Davies.

Now if they bring him out, it will be moot because Canada has been eliminated from the tournament and Canada Soccer, along with Davies' representatives, missed out on an opportunity to promote their star.

That's what other countries do. That's what Canada needs to do if it wants to be on the biggest stage on a regular basis.

“We are all different personalities,” said Alistair Johnston, who is a media dream, but seems to be the only Canadian player regularly made available. “You know what you're going to get from myself and Ismael (Kone), and everyone on the team is very different.”

What Canada Soccer, Davies and his representatives need to understand is that at the World Cup, there are hundreds of great stories and the team's first trip to the tournament in 36 years led by a refugee who moved to Edmonton was one worth telling.

It was Davies who should have been on the cover of a Croatian tabloid paper, not a parody of a naked Canadian coach John Herdman.

Now, having been essentially reduced to playing an exhibition game against Morocco on Thursday, the tournament will be moving on without Canada, while Messi, Ronaldo and Kane will continue to promote their team and their country.

Canada's legacy, regardless of what happens Thursday, will be of a coach showing up late to its official pre-game news conference, then nearly setting off an international incident by revealing he told his team to “f--- Croatia” in a post-game huddle after a tough loss to Belgium.

Croatian striker Andrej Kramaric thanked Herdman in his post-game news conference for the motivation to score two goals in the game. Then Croatia head coach Zlatko Dalic said Herdman did not shake his hand after the game.

“I did not see the other head coach after the match. When I lose or win, I always congratulate the winner and he was not there. I guess that's his way of doing things,” Dalic said through an interpreter. “He's obviously mad. He is a good coach. He is a high quality professional, but it will take some time for him to learn some things.”

The key for Canada Soccer is to actually learn them.

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2022-11-29T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-11-29T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://edmontonjournal.pressreader.com/article/282050511081935

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