Canada MNT ends 2016 with loss in Korea, coaching questions

CHEONAN, South Korea – After another World Cup qualifying failure earlier this year, Canada’s men’s national team has quietly slipped back into its relative obscurity in the Canadian sporting landscape.

And that may not be such a bad thing.

Rebuilding projects are never easy, especially if it’s a Canadian team that has been in a near constant rebuild for years.

Canada concluded yet another frustrating 2016 campaign Friday with a friendly against South Korea in a time zone where only the most diehard or insomniac fans back home would watch. You don’t fault anyone who didn’t want to get up at six in the morning in Toronto to watch a less-than-full strength Canadian side start another long journey back to respectability with a 2-0 defeat.

Canada was outclassed over the opening 25 minutes and yielded both Korea goals, and while there were glimpses of optimism, especially from young Marco Bustos in the attacking midfield role, it wasn’t enough to get a result. Or even a goal, Marcel de Jong’s free kick nearly half an hour in forcing a fine save and proving to be as close as they could come to finding the net.

“I think there was a little bit of nerves there and Korea’s a very good side. They played well and caused a lot of problems,” said interim head coach Michael Findlay. “At the end of the day, we’ve got to get ourselves a front-foot positive feeling. I thought we rebounded quite well (after going down two goals).”

The elephant in the room is obviously what kind of coach can guide Canada into next year’s Gold Cup and beyond. Plenty of people have tried with varying levels of little to no success.

While the women’s program is on stable ground under John Herdman and coaches of the youth teams share his vision for what constitutes a successful program, the biggest issue for the CSA is the vacant men’s head coach position.

“I’ve made it very clear that I would love to carry this group through and I will do what they ask of me to do,” said Findlay, who has been in the national program for years but has limited first-team coaching credentials. “Until they tell me I’m not involved I guess I’m involved. But that’s their issue. I’ve been very clear that my objective is to affect the program positively.”

Obviously, finding the right candidate is the priority. Next year’s Gold Cup is an important chance to build some kind of optimism, and the sooner relationships can form and a vision implemented the better.

Canada’s last win at a Gold Cup was in 2011 against Guadeloupe, which is not a FIFA nation. Its last win against a FIFA team in a Gold Cup was in 2009. There have been three Gold Cup tournaments since then. That’s a big reason why Canada may slip close to No. 120 in the next FIFA rankings due in about two weeks.

The rankings elicit snarky comments from the peanut gallery every time they see what depths Canada sit at, but where they tangibly matter is for World Cup qualification seeding.

“I’ve been to two Gold Cups and it’s been disappointing in both of them,” said defender David Edgar. “We’ll take our best squad to the Gold Cup, whoever the coach is. Canada deserves to get some results there because we can do a job in the Gold Cup. We can go far and we all know it. We know that we’re competitive. I’m looking forward to that.”