Steve Nash could rule the world, and he's damned funny

There is another viral video of Canada's greatest Steve Nash in addition to the one of him on Letterman last night.

The one for his new not-for-profit social business, Football For Good, seems just as worthy of attention, as is the fact he will be involved in an ESPN documentary about the life of the late, great Terry Fox.

Steve Nash - 'The Player' from meathawk on Vimeo.

Football For Good speaks the whole notion of how the two-time NBA MVP from Victoria, B.C., is a sports hero for Generation X. From afar, he comes across like a guy who would be the last one to describe himself as the leader of a social movement. Like he told Chuck Klosterman for that Esquire piece in 2005, "I don't even like to use the word philosophy when describing what I do for a living; I don't want to glorify the idea of playing basketball. But if you give of yourself, you do get things back." Taking a simple step like soliciting $5 donations to build a football academy in a war-ravaged region of Africa fits right in with the notion of a "hundred million solutions." It's one of just many small ideas that can take what works in our culture and improve what doesn't.

Improving the world isn't going to come from the top down or big, sweeping ideas, policy changes or mission statements the highers-up at your work like to issue periodically (and please, forgiveness if this sounds way too sincere). As Gordinier said in X Saves the World, change comes in stealth. Steve Nash kind of embodies that, or at least does for these purposes. He can do the spotlight stuff, sit in the chair and joke with Dave, ask ESPN.com's Jeff Van Gundy if his brother Stan, the Orlando Magic coach, "got laid in high school," but all of that would be mental dross if it wasn't backed by the change in thinking he represents.

He stepped up to sponsor youth basketball leagues when NBA rules kept the Raptors from doing so outside of a certain geographical radius. That's important, since with divorced-from-sanity cost of hockey, it's important to introduce girls and boys to an affordable athletic option which cuts across cultural lines. He's invested in Women's Professional Soccer, which seems to be gaining some traction in the face of tough economic times. Others can speak better to this, but it's a fair bet that when — not if — WPS expands into Canada, Nash could end up having something to do with a Vancouver team which will (ahem) probably end up beating the pants off the Toronto team. Starting a football academy in Africa with $5 donations from well-off, middle-class North Americans, well, it's a simple idea: Build better stuff for people in need. And anyone who wants to help can. It's a very Generation X idea. Meantime, you respect who came before, as he's doing by, as Jonah Keri noted, "leading the effort on a documentary about Terry Fox."



Getting back to Nash ... The easy way out is to say, "Well, it's not hard to do all that when you're paid obscene amounts of money to play point guard." That might get the point upside-down and backwards. Nash needs that platform. He wouldn't be sitting next to Letterman, getting Dave to go heh-heh-heh, if he was a hockey player or was the central midfielder for the New York Red Bulls. It's as if, on a subconscious level, something told him that if he wanted to make a difference beyond playing a sport , he should play basketball. It's a relatively global game which also is popular in the United States.

A lot of what Nash does is purely for amusement, whether it's playing basketball or his Letterman appearance. The latter probably shows it's better to appear casual, since painfully earnest can backfire. Seeing what Steve Nash is up to raises hope any of us can have a small, goofy impact on our corner of the world. In this day and age, if you're going to have a hero, it better be a guy who can laugh at himself:



P.S. Incidentally, here's an update on the next Nash, Toronto point guard Junior Cadougan, who's going to Marquette:

"Cadougan's greatest strength, however, may be his high basketball IQ. Similar to Canada's most famous basketball product, two-time NBA MVP Steve Nash, Cadougan exemplifies complete body control and court vision. Whether it be a crossover dribble, pull-up jumpshot or pick and roll, seldom will you see Cadougan rush into an offensive set or force a play that is not there."

(Nash clip via Ben Rycroft at It's Called Football. Ben talks the footy talk regularly with Duane Rollins on a podcast of the same name.

Canada - USA women's soccer live blog

It's going to be an epic clash of countries at Toronto's BMO Field tonight as the Canadian women take on the top-ranked Americans in head coach Carolina Morace's home debut. It's the 44th match between the sides (the U.S. is 37-3-4 against Canada), but only the fifth match between them on Canadian soil. Canada has never beaten the American senior team at home, losing three times and pulling off one draw. We'll find out if that will change tonight. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. Eastern, and the game will be televised live on all four regions of Rogers Sportsnet. Come join me here then for the live blog! You can also check out my full match preview here.

Canadian women set for USA clash

Tomorrow evening, a new era will fully dawn at BMO Field as the Canadian women's national soccer team plays their first home match under new head coach Carolina Morace. It's going to be a baptism by fire for Morace, though. The Canadian women are currently ranked 11th in the world by FIFA. They were initially supposed to face seventh-ranked Japan, but the Japanese team canceled their North American exhibition tour because of swine flu concerns. Replacing them will be the top-ranked Americans, a tough test for any team at the best of times but an especially difficult opponent for a new coach still adjusting to her lineup. Early results under Morace have been promising, including a second-place finish at the Cyprus Cup in March, but this match will be a challenge of a different order.

The U.S. has been much stronger over the history of their women's program, boasting a stellar all-time record of 37-3-4 against Canada. Canada's narrowly come out on the wrong side of some of the most important clashes lately, though, including 2-1 losses in extra time in both the 2006 Gold Cup final and the Beijing Olympics, the last clash between the two countries. One player to watch on the American side is striker Abby Wambach, who's always found a lot of success against Canada. She currently plays for the Washington Freedom in the new Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league and has 99 career goals for the U.S, but hasn't played an international match since breaking her leg in their last tune-up before the Olympics last summer. She's back in the American lineup and will be eager to hit the century club.

On the Canadian side, famed striker and captain Christine Sinclair is also stuck on 99 goals. She already holds national team records in career goals, single-season goals, goal-scoring streaks, minutes played, and Women's World Cup goals, and she'll come closer to yet another record tomorrow with her 130th appearance for Canada. That ties her with famed striker/defender Charmaine Hooper for second on the list and puts her only two matches back of former midfielder Andrea Neil, who's now an assistant coach with the national team. Sinclair also plays in WPS with California's FC Gold Pride.

Another Canadian to watch is goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc. LeBlanc shone in the Olympics last summer and was a big reason why the Canadians made it to extra time against the U.S. She's also done well in WPS so far with the Los Angeles Sol, including posting a shutout over Wambach and the Freedom in the league's first match. LeBlanc is the longest-serving player currently with the national team and has spent 12 seasons suiting up for Canada. She holds team goalkeeping records for both appearances (69) and shutouts (29).

One other item of note is how many players on both rosters come from the WPS. Almost all of the American players selected play in the league, which is perhaps to be expected, as domestic leagues tend to focus heavily on developing talent for their own national team. Several Canadians have also proven their talent and earned spots in the new league alongside the best players from the U.S., Brazil and Europe, though. Five of the 22 players on the Canadian roster currently ply their trade in WPS (Sinclair, LeBlanc, Kelly Parker, Candace Chapman and Martina Franko), and there's a good chance that many more of the younger players currently starring for college or USL teams could make their way to the WPS eventually. It's good for the national team to have such a high-quality league close to home, as it allows for easier trips for those players than those who play overseas.

Interestingly enough, this match is also a clash of not only female head coaches, but foreign female head coaches. Morace is famous for her work with her native Italy, while American coach Pia Sundhage has spent most of her coaching career in the U.S. but was a legendary player for the Swedish national team. She has a ridiculous record of 36-1-3 since taking the reins of the U.S. team in 2007 and led them to a gold medal in Beijing last year. She'll be looking to continue America's dominance against their northern neighbours.

The match is at 7 p.m. tomorrow night. It will be broadcast live on Sportsnet (and I'll be live-blogging it here and at The 24th Minute), but there are also apparently plenty of tickets still available if you happen to be in Toronto. This could be a great chance to get to see some of Canada's top soccer talent at home against some of the best players in the world, and it's not a frequent opportunity; the U.S. women's team has only played four of their 44 matches against Canada on northern soil. Twenty-five have been played in the U.S. and another 15 took place at neutral venues. That may change now that Canada has a great stadium at BMO Field, and a good turnout would go a long way to help that cause. Famed Canadian soccer fan Dino Rossi still has a few unsold tickets from the batch he bought in advance, and tickets are also still available through Ticketmaster. Check it out if you happen to be in the area, or stop by the live blog if you're not! It should be a great match.

[Cross-posted to The 24th Minute]

LeBlanc impressive in WPS opener

A Canadian played a huge part in a big step forward for women's soccer in the United States.

Karina LeBlanc, the long-serving Canadian international (69 caps at the senior level), made several impressive saves to preserve a 2-0 victory for the Los Angeles Sol over the Washington Freedom in the first-ever game in Women's Professional Soccer.

It's been a long road to this point for LeBlanc. According to her bio page, she was born in Atlanta but moved to Maple Ridge, B.C. with her family at a young age. She went to Maple Ridge Secondary, where she didn't play high school soccer (as they didn't have a team at that point) but starred in basketball, track and field hockey. She then spent four very successful years playing soccer at the University of Nebraska — for coach John Walker, a Queen's grad — finishing with a career record of 67 wins, five losses and three draws and a career GAA of 0.56 (36 goals against in 79 games).

After that, she joined the Boston Breakers of WUSA, the last attempt at a high-profile women's pro league in the States. LeBlanc did well with them, but the league collapsed and she wound up in the lower-profile W-League, where she had stops with at least the Montreal XTreme and the New Jersey Wildcats (perhaps other teams as well, but none of the bios available seem to reflect them).

Throughout her career, LeBlanc's been a tremendous representative for Canada. She was the No. 1 keeper for quite some time, but has more recently taken a back seat to Erin McLeod. However, she has still been a valuable presence for Canada and has proven very effective when called upon, as she was in the Olympics this summer against the United States after an injury to McLeod. I wrote at the time that LeBlanc was "a huge reason that the Canadians were even able to take the game to extra time." It's good to see her find success at the club level as well.

LeBlanc was the only Canadian international in this first game, at least according to the Washington and LA rosters online. However, there were still plenty of Canadian connections. As Neate pointed out long ago, one of the most prominent investors backing the league is Victoria's own Steve Nash (who's also now a co-owner of the Vancouver Whitecaps). Also, Canadian midfielder/forward Martina Franko is listed on the L.A. roster, although she didn't see action in this game. There aren't any details up about her yet on their site, so I'm guessing she's a recent signing. Franko has been another long-time stalwart for the national team and won W-League titles with the Vancouver Whitecaps women's team in 2004 and 2006. She's also perhaps the only Canadian women's soccer player to make it onto Jezebel.

The striker LeBlanc spectacularly denied twice was American star Abby Wambach. Wambach has been a thorn in the side of the Canadian women for years, including this past year's Olympics and the 2006 Gold Cup, so there perhaps is some poetic justice in having her stopped by LeBlanc.

Overall, it was a pretty good start for the WPS. The Sol (by the way, they should really look into Sol beer as a sponsor) and the Freedom played in front of 14,832 at the Home Depot Center in L.A., comparable to some MLS crowds. According to the CP article, organizers expected an attendance of 10,000, so this is a step up.

League superstar and World Player of the Year Marta set up the second Sol goal. In some nice continuity with the past, several long-time stars of the women's game were also involved, including Wambach and Washington goalkeeper Brianna Scurry. Mia Hamm, who perhaps has done more for the profile of women's soccer than any other person, was also recognized in a pre-game ceremony, which was good to see.

(By the way, if you've never read Gary Smith's Sports Illustrated 1999 profile of Hamm, you owe it to yourself to check it out).

That doesn't mean that the league will be a guaranteed success, though. As this excellent piece on Avoiding The Drop pointed out yesterday, there are still many concerns surrounding the league, including marketing and television. There's a lot of competition in the women's soccer market, including the NCAA game and the aforementioned W-League. Sports Business Journal's Bill King recently asked, is it really feasible to launch a new league during the current economic crisis?

I'd suggest enjoying the WPS for what it is and sending your best wishes to the Canadians involved. Games can be caught on Fox Sports World Canada every Sunday, and there's plenty of Maple Leaf-covered players, including Christine Sinclair (FC Gold Pride), Christine Latham and Candace Chapman (Boston), and Melissa Tancredi (St. Louis). We may even see Canadian-based teams some day, and WPS investors Nash and Whitecaps co-owner Jeff Mallett apparently even tried to have the Canadian senior national team (based out of Vancouver) join the WPS, but were shot down by the CSA [Marc Weber, The Vancouver Province]. That doesn't mean the dream of WPS in Canada down the road is dead either, though, as Whitecaps' president Bob Lenarduzzi left that door open with his comments in Weber's piece. Before then, if you want to see Canadian stars on Canadian soil, you should take Ben Knight's advice and head out to the Canada-Japan game on May 25.

(Cross-posted to Sporting Madness.)

Photo: Karina LeBlanc makes a save while training with the Canadian women's team in 2007 (Photo from CTV.ca).

MLS in Ottawa: Eunibomber drops the big one

The race to get to the trough is on and we'll see who finishes first.

"Eugene Melnyk's company, Senators Sports and Entertainment, wants to build on to its existing recreation hub — Scotiabank Place and the Sensplex nearby — by seeing the city build a stadium that would house a Major League Soccer franchise, creating an 'entertainment village' that would attract something in the order of four million visits a year." — Ottawa Citizen

Please bear in mind that just because Mr. Eugene says he's going to do it doesn't mean it will happen. Never, ever underestimate the incompetence and foot-dragging of Ottawa city council.

It is understandable if people see this is a body blow to the Lansdowne Live! plan, especially since Roger Shenkman, John Ruddy, et al., could end up cutting friendly neighbourhood frontman Jeff Hunt out of the picture to get a piece of action. Don't be so hasty; Duane and others on It's Called Football (you can access it through The 24th Minute) pointed out that MLS commish Don Garber tends to praise every potential expansion city to the skies, and the local media in each city tend not to notice the "pillow whispers" (Ben Knight's term) he's giving to each of the other cities.

The ballpark village is, in good friend Pete Toms' phrase, is "all the rage" in the U.S., since it is a way to dress up the fact that sports magnates are sucking at the public teat. Pete wrote an extensive piece, "When Stadium Financing and the Recession Collide" (The Biz of Baseball, Jan. 20) that covered the subject very thoroughly.

There is a huge scramble on, especially since the federal governments in both the Canada and U.S. are ready to throw money at projects which are, wait for it, "shovel ready." Melnyk can also sell this as part of Canada's push to host the 2015 Women's World Cup, a point which seems to have sailed past a lot of people, with Duane as a notable excpetion.

Please keep in mind that a lot of these stadium village projects are having trouble taking form. That's a big unacknowledged part of this story. The Wiki for the ballpark village in St. Louis next to the current Cardinals baseball stadium refers to it as "a big embarrassing turd right in the middle of the city." (It will probably get more attention this summer when the Cardinals host the baseball all-star game.)

Oakland Athletics owner Lew Wolff "heard crickets" (Examiner, Feb. 14) when he pitched a ballpark village for Fremont, California. (Wolff might have switched his sights to San Jose, where he owns , wait for it, a MLS team. Another proposed for Arlington, Texas has never got off the ground.

Beyond that, anyone who wants to build one of these has to have financing. They need tenants for any retail development. They also need developers willing to build homes in the area.

The bottom line is you cannot predict where this is headed, especially considering the rot of incumbency that permeates Ottawa city council (how are you coming along with light rail, everyone?).

In the short term, it means that two of Ottawa's irreplaceable amateur sports institutions, the Hunt's 67s in the OHL and the Ottawa Gee-Gees in CIS football, are in a bit of flux. However, and this is just coming from an outsider, it seems like Ottawa has had a blind spot with this for a good 15, 20 years, and it's caught up to them. A lot of people want something new.

The irony is original Senators owner Bruce Firestone, Cyril Leeder and co. wanted to do this two decades ago out in Kanata; they had projections of "profits that would scrape the sky," and everyone doubted them. It seems like were information rich, but cash poor.

(Incidentally, Duane pointed out the B.C. Place project for footy is a "disaster," which runs counter to what the Paper of Record said last Saturday.)

Related:
Melnyk plans ‘entertainment village’; Project would include offices, restaurants, bars, apartments, hotels for area near Senators’ arena (Patrick Dare, Ottawa Citizen)

Finally hope for Canadian soccer again

Even though Carolina Morace's appointment as the next women's head soccer coach was the worst kept secret in Canadian sport, it was still a shock to see her walk out to be announced at today's press conference at BMO Field.

Hiring the best candidate and giving her the power to operate on her own terms isn't typically the CSA's way. I doubt that anyone would have been shocked if Ian Bridge had ran out midway through the presser -- maybe with a B.C. flag wrapped around to the tune of The Boys are Back in Town al la the WWE -- to claim his rightful place as the latest CSA good ole' boy to join the coaching ranks. Instead we stood by dumbfounded that the CSA didn't screw it up. They actually got their woman.

Time will tell whether what appears to be a great move actually will pan out, but the early signs are there. Morace's English is not all that strong yet, so she had difficulty handling questions of depth. Still, she seemed to indicate that he bad old days of boot and chase soccer will be put in the past.

"Tactics are important," she said.

Well there ya go. That shouldn't be refreshing, but, well...it is.

It's, as most know, been a tough few months for Canadian soccer fans. Today, however, represents the first real piece of hope in a long time. It was time for Canada to move forward on the women's side four years ago, but now is better than never. The country is still ranked No. 11 in the world. Unlike the men's side, it has yet to fall into the abyss. Morace and the CSA said that their goal is to win, period. Full stop. Here's hoping that they are good for their word because soccer in this country needs something to grab hold of now. Maybe a Morace led Canadian team -- playing winning and attractive football -- will be just that.

Related:

• Carolina's here, and a thumbs up to the CSA (Canadian Stretford End)
• My slightly more soccer specific take at The 24th Minute

Footy: Morace to nats, Beckham bounces

The occasion of Carolina Morace's hiring as coach of Canada's women's soccer team is as good a time as any to note Rollins is going strong at The 24th minute, his spin-off soccer blog.

Duane was out front on Morace coming to Canada back in November, posing the question with respect to Morace and the Canadian Soccer Association: "Is the CSA serious about change? Or, is it just going to be the same old, same old. How the organization handles this hiring will answer that question." He'll be there at the press conference this afternoon.

A lot has to happen with the national body beyond the hiring of a coach, but speaking as a footy dilettante, Morace is a step in that direction.

Meantime, it apparently did not work out between the L.A. Galaxy and David Beckham. No one saw that coming.

CIS Corner: Putting out the call for CFRC

It is only sporting to spread that word that CFRC 101.9 (cfrc.ca in Kingston, the station which has given so many good Canadian broadcasters their start, is having its annual funding drive.

The Kinger will be hosting a CFRC alumni show on Offsides, Friday at 4 p.m. ET. Anyone who is interested in donating might want to make their call to 613-533-2572 for that fine hour of programming.

CFRC's alums includes the likes of TSN play-by-play man Chris Cuthbert and CBC Radio's Shelagh Rogers. Less famously, only slightly so, no less than five contributors to this site have been been part of the CFRC family.

So break out these checkbooks, people. This is your chance to say you donated while the next Keith Olbermann was on the air.

SOCCER

• Obviously, this has been known for a while, but Amanda Robinson, the Ottawa Gee-Gees midfielder, has transferred to a NCAA Division I school, Oklahoma State. The Gee-Gees made out decently last season when she was in the Canadian U20 team's residency program out West. It's a better calibre of soccer, presumably, so it's tough to begrudge her leaving the U of O, especially since (ahem) some of the school's other teams have been boosted by transfers from the States.

HOOPS

• Ottawa native Garry Gallimore, who was involved in a very unfortunate incident one week ago tonight during an Atlantic conference basketball game, has resigned as an assistant coach of the St. Francis Xavier X-Men, one wek after an unfortunate incident during a game in Cape Breton.
  
  It is unfortunate and one hopes it would not put Gallimore off ooaching, if he has something to contribute. It was mistake, he took ownership, but one would hope that Cape Breton U. makes sure it's proactive rather than reactive when it comes to protecting visiting coaches and players.

HOCKEY:

• Ravens/Gaels/Gee-Gees: Queen's 3-2 win over Carleton on Tuesday brought them within a point of Ottawa and within four of Carleton for the final playoff spots in the eastern half of the OUA.
  
  There is the possibility of divisional realignment in OUA men's hockey (Nipissing joining will bring it up to 19 teams). In the meantime, it would appear Queen's could get sneak in, based on the remaining schedule:

  Carleton (26 pointsw): Concordia, Ottawa, McGill, Trois-Rivieres
  Ottawa (23): McGill, Toronto, Carleton, Ryerson
  Queen's (22): RMC (twice), Ryerson

  Former 67 Brady Morrison, solid all season, finally got some offensive support in the past three games (former CJHL player Pat Doyle also had a goal and two assists in Queen's 3-2 overtime win over Carleton on Tuesday.
  
  Billy Burke has also popped in six goals in the past three games after scoring just three in the first 21 games. It's a wicked burn, since it's not surprising that Queen's has a player whose parents could buy the Kingston Frontenacs, but wouldn't you know it, they already own a team. They're not selling.
• Guelph coach Shawn Camp summed up the educational mission of the university game pretty well in a recent interview with Hockey Now:

  "We have some great kids at the school that are very committed to becoming better players, they’re all excellent students. When new guys come to the program, they quickly understand that there's a certain level of expectation and culture that we’re trying to establish in terms of being a good student/athlete. It's a commitment. They have to be prepared to make some sacrifices in order to become better players and maintain a high average at school." — Shawn Camp

  That is about the size of it; Canadian university hockey has much to offer players who want to take advantage of their CHL scholarship money and play a decent calibre of hockey. The big hurdle to cross over is realizing how tough a calibre of hockey it is; a lot of coaches could fill a book with stories of players who expected the CIS to be a cakewalk.

Related:
U. of Guelph Head Coach Energized To Be Back in OUA (Mike Beasley, Hockey Now; via Big Man on Campus)

Pellerud winds up in T and T

Former Canadian women's soccer coach Even Pellerud has landed on his feet [The Canadian Press via the Edmonton Sun] after leaving the Canadian program last year [Jim Morris, The Canadian Press via ctv.ca]. He's taken a job as the director of women's soccer for Trinidad and Tobago [Mark Pichet, The Trinidad and Tobago Express].

This is an interesting move, to say the least. Leaving Canada certainly seemed like Pellerud's idea rather than something forced on him, which raised the suggestion that he might have something better lined up. I'm not sure that the Trinidad and Tobago job is that, though. Yes, he'll be overseeing all of their women's programs, but Trinidad and Tobago is well behind Canada in women's soccer (their senior side is 41st in the FIFA world rankings, while the Canucks are 11th). Moreover, there isn't a large talent base to work with; the CIA World Factbook estimates the country's population as 1,047,366, or about half the size of Metro Vancouver.

However, Trinidad and Tobago has always punched above its weight on the world soccer stage. Their budget for everything except the men's 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign is around $3.2 million Canadian [The Canadian Press], $800,000 more than Canada spent on their men's team last year. Thus, funding for the women's program is probably at a similar level in Canada and Trinidad and Tobago, and Pellerud might even have more money to work with. That's despite Canada having 33 times the people [CIA World Factbook] and considerably more wealth.

One good reason for that disparity is that CONCACAF President and FIFA Vice-President Jack Warner hails from the country [Wikipedia]. Despite his exalted position at FIFA, Warner remains heavily involved in island politics and is a "special adviser" to the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF). His strong endorsement of Pellerud makes it clear that he was at least partially behind the hiring. From the Express:

"TTFF special adviser and FIFA vice-president Jack Warner said his organisation 'hired the number one and best female coach in the world' and that his four-year tenure was part of the local federation's strategic plan for football nationwide.
'It's part of the whole thrust of development of football of the TTFF,' stated the CFU and CONCACAF president."

There's no question that Warner will have thrown a substantial sum of cash at Pellerud for this job, but I'd still be leery of working with him and the TTFF. After all, this is the man who reportedly made 500,000 pounds selling tickets for Trinidad matches at the 2006 World Cup [Andrew Jennings, The Daily Mail] while deliberately understating revenues from that tournament to give less money to the players [Michael Herborn, Play the Game and Lasana Liburd, The Trinidad and Tobago Express]. Despite a judgement in favour of the players by an international arbitration, Warner and the TTFF still apparently haven't paid them any money [Andrew Jennings, Transparency In Sport]. Combine that with the numerous other scandals Warner and the TTFF have been connected to over the years (many of which are detailed in Jennings' excellent book Foul!), and this isn't a job I'd want to take. Hopefully it will work out for Pellerud, but if it doesn't, he might want to be more careful who he deals with in the near future.

(Cross-posted to The 24th Minute).

Winning when it counts

The Canadian women's soccer community has to be shaking its collective head this morning with the news that the U.S. u-20 girls team are world champions.

Us Canucks aren't all that confused by the America victory. The Yanks are pretty good at the women's footy, you know. But, it has to burn just a little bit to realize that Canada defeated the U.S. at the CONCACAF championships earlier this year. How can we beat the world champions in the summer, and crap out of the group stage of the World Cup later that same year?

It's a question that has no easy answer. But, maybe one solution could be an improvement in coaching. As we've been over a million times already, Canada looks internally far too often when it comes to coaching our national teams. The result is usually middling at best.

Which makes the news that Carolina Morace is apparently the front runner to take over the senior national program so exciting (to say nothing of the fact that I was the first person to write about it. Not that I expect credit. I'm just sayin').

We need a Morace at this point of our development as an on the cusp of greatness women's soccer power. If not for the tactical changes she would being to the program, than at least for the symbolism of her appointment. Canada has a reputation of settling. Morace would signal that the CSA was finally ready to think big.

In the CSA's latest blueprint it suggests that it has a goal of winning the women's World Cup. It's time to back up those big words with actual action.

CIS Corner: Gee-Gees kickin' it in fine style

Notes on our teams of interest from The 613...

Gee-Gees: These are pretty heady times for a couple Garnet-and-Grey folk with a soccer pedigree.

Defender Amanda Robinson could make her international debut for Canada when the U20 women's team plays a friendly in Chile today. Meantime, Delroy Clarke, who was a soccer standout before becoming a cornerback, will suit up in his first CFL regular-season game for the Toronto Argonauts this evening.

Robinson (near right) Robinson and Laurier Golden Hawks midfielder Alyssa Lagonia (far right) and Ottawa defender Amanda playing on the Canadian U20 women's team for a four nations tournament in Chile.

Canada plays the Chileans today, followed by Mexico on Tuesday, New Zealand on Sept. 18 and Chile again on Sept. 20. Needless to say, it's nice a coup for the programs that coaches Barry MacLean and Steve Johnson respectively run at Laurier and Ottawa, both of which have been regular visitors to nationals over the years.

Our intrepid footy writer, Mr. Bucholtz (Ottawa used to have a CSL team named the Intrepid; behold, the wordplay) can likely add something a little less extemporaneous.

Meantime, Clarke is set to realize the rare dream of playing in the CFL for his hometown team -- and that's about only half the story.

Clarke is apparently going to suit up for the first time in the regular season on Friday for the Toronto Argonauts, listed as the backup to cornerback Byron Parker. The Argos, whom as you know are 4-6, and just made a coaching change, are looking to get younger on defence.

There's a bit of the only-in-Canada to how Clarke got there. He spent his early years in Jamaica playing the rest of the world's football. His introduction to the North American version came entirely through watching the NFL on TV before he and his father, also named Delroy Clarke, moved from Jamaica to Whitby, east of Toronto, during his teens. He was pretty fair soccer player, bound for the NCAA until a knee injury prevented him from going south on a soccer scholarship. He ended up taking up football at the behest of some of his friends. Now he's in the CFL -- and the journey's only begun for him, as a Canadian playing a position that for many years, was the domain of U.S. imports.

(A huge glove tap to a media friend who sent along word ... cross-posted to The CIS Blog.

Women's soccer: A tough loss for Canada

Four hours after the Canada-U.S. women's soccer Olympic semi-final began, it came to an end in the way most had predicted. The top-ranked American women [cue the Guess Who] scraped through with a victory over the ninth-ranked Canadians, but it took a lengthy rain delay, two periods of extra time and a crucial winning goal by substitute Natasha Kai to send them through.

What went wrong for the Canadians? Well, part of the problem came from their decision to play a defensive strategy throughout, which resulted in them only creating a few chances. They fell behind early on a Angela Hucles strike in the 12th minute, but captain Christine Sinclair made no mistake on one of the only attacking chances the Canadians picked up, though, smashing a long drive past U.S. goalkeeper Hope Solo in the 30th minute to equalize. The Americans held the majority of the possession and created most of the game's scoring chances, but tenacious defending from Martina Franko, Emily Zurrer and Candace Chapman, stellar goalkeeping from substitute Karina LeBlanc (who came in after starting goalkeeper Erin McLeod went down with an injury on the first U.S. goal) and some inept finishing from the Americans meant that no one scored again for the remainder of regulation time.

In the first overtime period, the U.S. struck quickly as Kai made an immediate impact after coming on as a substitute. Kai used her tremendous speed to gain a half-step on Zurrer and rise to head a cross in from only six yards out. After the goal, Canada turned their own pressure up and even created a goal-line scramble that could have easily led to an equalizer, but some heads-up defending from Carli Lloyd saw the ball cleared without incident. The Canadians threatened once or twice more, but seemed to run out of gas.

Part of the problem was surely due to the heat and humidity: a thunderstorm postponed the game for over an hour, and undoubtably left its atmospheric effects behind. Injuries and forced substitutions also likely played a role: manager Even Pellerud was forced to use one of his substitutions early on to bring in LeBlanc for McLeod, then had to bring on Brittany Timko for Melissa Tancredi after she seemed to aggravate the injury she picked up in the group stage, and finally was forced to replace Timko with Jonelle Filigno in the 92nd minute after she crashed into Solo and went down hard. Meanwhile, the Americans made all three of their substitutions late in the match, and the fresh legs certainly seemed to help.

Another issue came from Pellerud's tactical decisions. The 3-4-3 formation he favoured had a lot of promise for attacking football, but it wasn't utilized to its utmost potential. The Canadians kept trying to crash through the brick wall of the U.S. central defence with long balls, but the Americans proved aerially superior and the Canadian attacks came to naught. A 3-4-3 tends to work best when the three strikers are laterally supporting each other in close proximity and are in turn receiving close vertical support from their attacking midfielders. That allows for plenty of passing options on the ground, and gives you the chance to pick apart a formidable defence. Instead, Canada stuck with the long ball even when it clearly wasn't working, and it may have cost them in the end.

The real wasted opportunities were early in the tournament, though. The U.S. was always going to be a massive challenge: after all, according to the CBC commentators, Canada's women's senior team hasn't beat the Americans since 2001. If the Canadians had buried one more of the numerous chances they had against China, or put in a better effort against Sweden, they wouldn't have finished third and wouldn't have drawn the U.S. this early. If they had won a quarterfinal and lost to the U.S. in the semis, they still would have had a shot at the bronze medal. As it is, their Beijing Olympic dreams end here.

The Canadians have nothing to be ashamed of from their play in this match, though. They gave it their all, and they came exceptionally close to knocking off the world's best women's soccer team, from a country that offers tremendous advantages over Canada in terms of women's soccer infrastructure, funding and eligible pools of athletes to draw from. Moreover, making the quarterfinals in your first Olympic appearance isn't a bad showing either. Most of their squad is extremely young: McLeod, Sinclair and Chapman are a few of the older players, and they're only 25. They're continuing to make great progress, and they'll be back. The world had better watch out.

Related: My live blog of the game over at Sporting Madness.

Olympics: Canada - U.S. women's soccer preview

A new philosophical debate: if Canada and the U.S. square off in the quarterfinals of one of the most popular team events at the Olympics, but Canadians can't watch it on TV, does it really matter? According to the Olympic broadcast schedules of CBC and TSN, both networks have decided to carry the Canada-South Korea baseball match live tomorrow morning and ignore the Canada-U.S. women's soccer quarterfinal, which takes place at the same time.

Now, I could perhaps see one of the networks passing on women's soccer for baseball, even though the soccer is a grudge match against our biggest rival in the knockout stages and the baseball game is merely a preliminary-round match against a not particularly hated opponent: at the end of the day. It seems a bit ridiculous for both networks to announce that they're carrying the same event live though, especially given the great alternative option of one of them showing what's going to be a crucial soccer match.

There is the chance that this could be just a schedule bungling, especially given that Lindsey Craig's preview of the match on CBCsports.ca mentions that the game will be shown on both CBC Television and the CBC website. For the CBC's sake and the sake of soccer fans in Canada, let's hope that she's right and the CBC's official schedule is wrong: no one wants to see a mob of angry soccer hooligans marching on the Mother Corp.'s headquarters. The CBC's automated broadcast highlight phone line also says that tomorrow's Olympic Morning show will carry live coverage of the soccer quarterfinal, so that suggests that there's a good chance the game will indeed be televised and the Internet schedule is out-of-date. If so, that's another call for the CBC to work on improving its Internet schedule, as it's quite clunky and difficult to use: at one point, clicking on the schedule's "Next Day" button brought up a page claiming to display the schedule for September 4, 1916! For some strange reason, there were no events scheduled for that day.

In any case, I'll again be live-blogging the match over at Sporting Madness, so you can tune in there regardless of if the game's on TV. Kick-off is at 5:49 a.m. ET (2:49 a.m. PT).

On to the match itself. The U.S. squad has to be the heavy favorite heading in: they're ranked first in the world to Canada's ninth, plus they have a lifetime won-lost-drawn record of 36-3-4 against the red-and-white women's squad. Moreover, the Canadians are coming off a disappointing 2-1 loss to Sweden in their final group game and a third-place finish, while the Americans won their group, recovering to beat Japan and New Zealand after a 2-0 opening loss to Norway. The Americans have also beaten Canada in the last nine matches between the sides.

There is some reason for optimism, though. The two most recent in-competition battles of the border have been very close. At the Olympic warm-up Peace Queen Cup tournament, held in South Korea in June, Canada lost 1-0 to the U.S. in the final on an injury-time free kick. In the CONCACAF Olympic qualifiers back in April, the U.S. needed penalty kicks to knock off the Canadians. Moreover, as the excellent Jeff Blair of the Globe and Mail points out (he's proving he can write about soccer as well as baseball), the U.S. side is without their top striker, Abby Wambach, who broke her leg just before the Olympics. They have other strong striking options, including captain Kristine Lilly and Natasha Kai of Deadspin fame (even if they spelled her name wrong), but Wambach is one of the world's best, so losing her is certainly a blow. The depth up front isn't all that great, either:

It will be interesting to see how the Canadians approach this game: do they go for the goals off a more possession-oriented style, as they did to great success against Argentina, or do they play the kick-and-run game they displayed against Sweden, which earned sharp criticism from CBC commentatorJason de Vos, Out of Left Field compatriot Duane and myself, among others? We'll have to wait and see.

There's a lot riding on this game. If Canada crashes out, it's the expected result, and one that still isn't bad: losing to the foremost women's soccer power isn't anything to be ashamed of, in my books at least. If they can pull off the upset, though, what a moment that would be for Canadian soccer and for women's sports in this country. It would be a huge blow for the U.S., too: they're the pioneers in this sport, some of their best-known female athletes have been soccer players, and they're certainly the top of the heap at the moment. Losing to their toque-wearing, hockey-playing cousins from north of the 49th parallel in a sport they've long dominated would be a pretty major national embarrassment for them, and it would be a pretty big accomplishment for those of us north of the border. So, if you're up for an early-morning North American border clash footy-style, bring the toques, beer and bacon along, and come join me in the ancient Canadian war cry of "Take off, hosers!"

Olympic soccer: Canadian women off to good start

The Canadian women's soccer team may be making their first appearance in the Olympics, but they displayed plenty of poise in their opening match. Manager Even Pellerud made the bold decision to go with a 3-4-3 lineup, an offensive-minded formation featuring the deadly striking talents of Christine Sinclair, Melissa Tancredi and Kara Lang, and his strategy paid off as Canada defeated Argentina 2-1 on the strength of goals from Lang and defender Candace Chapman. However, don't start counting them in for gold medals yet.

The Canadians completely dominated the match's possession and offensive chances, recording nine shots to Argentina's three. They were strong defensively as well, limiting Argentina's build-up play and holding them to mostly long shots that posed little to no trouble for keeper Erin McLeod. There were weaknesses, though, most notably in the finishing department. Chapman scored a great goal with a long, low drive from 35 yards out off a corner kick, aided considerably by a perfect screen from Tancredi that wouldn't have looked out of place in the NHL. Lang's goal was also a thing of beauty, as she headed in a well-taken free kick from Ottawa Fury midfielder Rhian Wilkinson. It was perfect revenge for Lang, as she'd just been viciously hacked down by Argentina's Maria Quinones, who earned a yellow card for her trouble and conceded the crucial free kick.

There was no issue with the finishing on either goal, but the Canadians had countless other chances that they could have converted and didn't. 19-year-old forward Jodi-Ann Robinson broke in alone on goal late in the match and chipped keeper Correa brilliantly, but her chip didn't have enough force on it and Quiones rushed back to clear it off the line. Defender Martina Franko had two terrific chances, but couldn't convert either: her close-range header early on hit Tancredi's back and deflected over the net, while her strong close-in volley late in the game range off the crossbar. Lang had another goal called back due to an offside, Wilkinson put an easy shot over the net from 12 yards out and Sinclair was robbed several times by strong saves from Correa. When Argentina pulled a goal back in the 85th minute off a defensive mistake by Wilkinson, it looked like those missed opportunities might come back to haunt the Canadians. The lack of finishing didn't hurt this time against 27th-ranked Argentina, but it might against the other, better teams in the group: third-ranked Sweden and 14th-ranked China.

The other issue for Canada is injuries up front. Forward Amber Allen was ruled out of the tournament earlier this week [CBCsports.ca] with a leg injury, and Robinson was called in to replace her. During the match against Argentina, another key striker went down. Tancredi rolled her ankle 19 minutes in and was stretchered off. She returned and toughed it out for most of the rest of the half, but was replaced by Robinson in the 42nd minute. Fortunately, Canada probably has more depth at striker than anywhere else, and Robinson is certainly a capable replacement: she already has six goals and 30 caps for the full national team, despite being only 19. Beyond her, the options are weaker, though: the only other players listed as forwards are 17-year-old Jonelle Filigno and 25-year-old Amy Vermeulen. Both have played for the Vancouver Whitecaps, and Vermeulen's also played with the Ottawa Fury, but neither has extensive experience at the national level.

In any case, it was a strong debut on the Olympic stage for the women's national team. They'll need to improve against the tougher teams to get out of the group, but based on their play today, a result against China on Saturday is quite possible and taking points from Sweden next Tuesday may not even be out of the question. This is a great team, featuring both veterans and young stars that have gelled into a cohesive unit. They'll be fun to watch in any case, and they could go far if everything falls into place.

Related:
- Canadian women open Olympics with win [Jim Morris, The Canadian Press via The Globe and
Mail].
- My liveblog of the proceedings for those who want more detail [Sporting Madness].
- My GBU breakdown of the game [Sporting Madness].