Manchester United's Owen Hargreaves celebrates scoring against Fulham during the English Premier League soccer match at the Craven Cottage Stadium, London, Saturday March 1, 2008. Hargreaves grew up in Canada idolizing basketball great Michael Jordan. Soccer's Champions League was an alien concept to the kid from Calgary. Then, as a 16-year-old, Hargreaves joined Bayern Munich's youth setup in 1997 and was introduced to European soccer's most lucrative club competition.TOM HEVEZI/The Canadian Press
Getting the Canadian national soccer team back onto the magic roundabout that is the World Cup will require vision, commitment, smarts and determination from all sectors of our soccer industry.
One could write a lengthy document to outline why Canada will not get to Brazil in 2014, but nevertheless, if soccer stakeholders in our country can wake up to some of the true realities of what it will take to be a winner, then at least some building blocks will be in place for future success in World Cup qualifying campaigns, even if Stephen Hart's current team fails.
Let's start with three simple areas that require no more than an attitude shift.
Firstly, our Canadian soccer identity. Soccer identity? Do we even have one?
Well, we will continue to lack an identity if we keep losing our top players to other countries. Let's call it the Hargreaves Effect after Calgary's Owen Hargreaves (Manchester United), who decided to forgo playing for the country in which he was born and where he lived for the first 15 years of his life.
If it was not bad enough that we lost our first potential superstar to England, we then got double whammied when he inadvertently became a role model for other Canadian prospects who followed suit - Jonathan DeGuzman (Feyenoord) and Asmir Begovic (Stoke City) being the most renowned.
But it is not just the players themselves. There is also a prevailing attitude that, in many areas, justifies these player decisions. Even Pat Onstad (Houston Dynamo), our veteran national goalkeeper, appeared supportive in a recent interview of Hargreaves's decision to play for England. This simply has to stop. There has to be an attitude change.
This is why the declaration by Paul Beirne, director of business operations at Toronto FC, that any academy player they sign who is Canadian will have to agree to play for the national team, if deemed good enough, was so powerful. The result of this contribution is already bearing fruit.
One of Sergio Camargo's parents, quoted in The Globe, stated that his son would play for Canada and not Columbia, should the opportunity present itself. Similar sentiments from other players should kick-start a change in outlook for many Canadians.
And as for players who do play for Canada?
Once and for all, the Canadian Soccer Association needs to stop appeasing players so much. Having them as a part of the selection or de facto firing committees is counterproductive on many fronts, beginning with the self-serving aspect.
Our national players need to be on hot coals when they play for Canada for them to continue to fight for starting spots on the team and not just expect to be there. The end result of this will be a more competitive team on the field.
Then there is the fitness aspect of Canadian soccer players. It has taken an outsider in the form of Preki at Toronto FC to whip our attitude into place on this particular front. From Sir Clive Woodward (England World Cup rugby coach) to a Miracle on Ice (U.S. hockey team) to a narrative from Morgan Freeman playing the role of Nelson Mandela in the film Invictus to Japan being clocked at outrunning all its opponents in a successful four-game World Cup campaign, what else needs to be provided to motivate our coaches and players that soccer fitness is a significant component to any team's success. Just as importantly, it is something we can control.
Qualifying for a World Cup will take many years of preparation, investment and even the continued import of off-field leadership talent such as Joe Guest (referee co-ordinator at the CSA) and Paul Barber (chief executive officer of the Vancouver Whitecaps), but nothing can be more important than a shift in our attitude, which costs nothing.