It was Spain vs. the Netherlands on Sunday, while Canada hasn't even been to the World Cup for 24 years. Now the NDP has offered a starter plan for getting Canadian soccer to the big event: spend more money on coaching, on facilities and on organizing competitions.
Soccer is Canada's most widely played sport, with almost one million players and 800,000 kids in leagues. But this country is invisible at the elite levels of men's soccer, and has been left in the dust by countries such as the United States and Australia, which also are not traditional powers in the sport.
Now the NDP's sport critic, Glenn Thibeault, says the country's sports funding should match the changing nature of its playing fields: soccer pitches crowded by Canadian kids, including high proportions of girls and the children of immigrants.
Australia's government spends about $4-million a year on soccer, about twice as much as the $2.2-million Canada spent in 2009-10. Mr. Thibeault said Ottawa should catch up.
"I don't think it's enough," he said, arguing that Canada should strive to be host of a World Cup one day, and have a team fit to play in it. "And if we can engage kids to start playing soccer and getting involved in soccer, down the road we might not be spending as much money on health care."
In Canada, the multimillion-dollar programs for Olympic sports, such as Own the Podium, get most of the attention, and hockey is knit into national institutions. But some other opposition politicians also say it's time to boost soccer with more funds.
"Soccer is the sport of the future in Canada," said Liberal MP Pablo Rodriguez, who noted that kids are being turned away from some crowded leagues in his north Montreal riding.
Mr. Thibeault said the quality of youth soccer coaching doesn't match that of Canada's hockey tradition; there's not yet enough infrastructure in facilities and organization, and investment in regional and national competitions is needed to develop top youth players.
It won't be simple to catch up to countries where kids' ambitions, and big money, are directed toward making future soccer stars. Andres Iniesta, who scored Spain's winning goal in Sunday's World Cup final, was recruited into the youth system of one of the world's biggest clubs, Barcelona, at age 12. Canada doesn't have a clear path to the top.
"Ask a hockey parent what's the route to the NHL, and they know exactly what that is," said Bob Lenarduzzi, the president of the Vancouver Whitecaps professional soccer club and a former player and coach of Canada's national team. "We need to have a flow that allows players to go from youth soccer and know exactly what the route is."
Canada doesn't do a good job of streaming talent into competitive leagues and training, Mr. Lenarduzzi said. The United States and Australia improved their systems in recent decades, while Canadian soccer moaned about its problems.
"Let's just take a bomb to it," he said. "Blow the existing infrastructure up and start all over again."
But Peter Montopoli, the general-secretary of Soccer Canada, says there is progress: pro soccer clubs in Vancouver and Montreal are moving to a bigger league, Major League Soccer, in 2011 and 2012 respectively. There's now a national soccer stadium.
A provincial system to identify talent and stream it to top teams varies from place to place. National training centres have worked well for the women's team, Mr. Montopoli said, but he admitted they haven't developed male players past the under-17 stage. But Canada can't pull together national weekend training camps for its far-flung youth like Germany can, he said: "It's a big country."