Co-Blogger Neil Acharya weighs in following Canada's 2-1 loss to unheralded Guadeloupe at the Gold Cup.
Canada took a big step backward last night at the Gold Cup, losing to underdog Guadeloupe in Miami and undoing some of the progress they made in their opening victory over group favourite Costa Rica.
Gaudeloupe frustrated the Canadians all match long with tremendous speed which they used to well on defence in which they collapsed in numbers on every Canadian who had possession and took off in transition once they had recovered the ball.
Both Guadeloupe goals were tremendous strikes while Canada’s goal by Ali Gerba was dangerously close to being offside.
One particular chance midway through the second half left Gaudeloupe goalkeeper Frank Grandel seemingly injured. A cross headed by Paul Stalteri over the bar caused Grandel to slip in a mud pile toward the left post as he shifted over to make the save.
However, Canada let Grandel off the hook, one of the few players on Guadeloupe who actually seemed that he wasn’t faking an injury. He was not tested with any shots from that point till the end of the match.
While Guadeloupe certainly established in this match that they have legitimate talent and should not be taken lightly, they also showed a complete lack of class as the majority of the second half turned the match into a complete joke.
As the match carried on in the second half, ticking closer to the 90th minute, Guadeloupe decided to delay the match as much as possible with a series of fake injuries in which their players stayed down for minutes at a time.
The most notorious was Alain Vertot, who toward the 80th minute went down and did not move for 3-4 minutes. His head was bandaged on the pitch, he went off, only to return moments later to deliver a vicious slide tackle on Canadian striker Iain Hume. As Hume was streaking down the left flank, he was lined up by Vertot and had his legs taken out from under him by Vertot who showed no sign of injury. He did not even receive a card for the play.
Perhaps that second half will be motivation for Canada when they play Haiti tomorrow in a match that will likely decide each team’s fates. Canada will be in tough as Haiti will have a pseudo home-field advantage thanks to Miami’s largest Haitian community.
That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neil__acharya@hotmail.com.
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2 comments:
It would appear to this non-soccer guy that this country has made absolutely no progress in international competition in the last 20 years, despite an explosion in soccer at the youth level. This massive disconnect between the number of kids playing the game, and this country's inability to identify and train elite players, is a question I would love to pose to someone with a great knowledge of the game than I have.
I have no great knowledge of the game,but like in all things it must be no leadership at the top.
With all the kids, and adults, playing soccer it is surprising how so far people seem to really care about Canada's dismal international performance. That is another disconnect.
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