So, after Nichelle Prince’s brace gave Canada a 2-0 win over Jamaica in their group-stage opener at the CONCACAF Women’s Championship, all is sweetness and light. Right? Right? A Friday night match in a Texas USL stadium in front of, well, hundreds didn’t provide a lot of fireworks, but three points is three points, uh huh?
Well, you have to thank coach Octavio Zambrano for going with Anthony Jackson-Hamel as Canada’s striker in the first half of Saturday’s friendly against Jamaica, and then going with Cyle Larin in the second half.
There’s one game scheduled in September in Jamaica and with no World Cup qualifiers or Gold Cup games of any sort for years, the program will have to try and continue developing on friendlies.
With the likes of Cyle Larin and Junior Hoilett in the ranks, the Canadian men’s national team has received an injection of new blood. But, really, this team will likely only go as far as Atiba Hutchinson, Julian de Guzman and Will Johnson can take it...
“I have to say I am fairly disappointed in the Jamaican federation. Here is a player [Laing] who they take all the way to Korea for a friendly, but they know he’s suspended for the next four [World Cup qualifying] matches. And they know this will have a huge impact on his club. They have not shown any respect to the club at all. The Canadian association asked if Mallan would be available for the most recent camp [Tuesday friendly with Ghana] and they were very understanding when I said we needed him because it’s an important time for the club. Of course, that was before Mallan got injured. But it shows the difference in class between the two federations. I’m not saying Lance Laing is such a great player that we can’t play without him; no player is that good. But, the Jamaican federation needs to respect the spirit of the game.”
In the previous five matches Laing has missed, the Eddies have earned just five out of a possible 15 points (1-2-2).
“But we’ve created a monster here, in terms of players getting call-ups to their national teams. It’s a situation we’ve never had to deal with before this season, but it’s also an honour for the club.”
But, as more and more North American Soccer League players get the calls to play for their countries, that league should also be subject to the same scheduling scrutiny. In fact, you could argue that NASL teams are less equipped than the MLS teams are when it comes to dealing with games on international dates.
With 10 minutes left Saturday’s match between Atlanta and FC Edmonton, Silverback Junior Burgos came up with that moment of magic. He hammered a free kick from distance just inside the post to give Atlanta the 1-0 win.
Then, the replay; it showed Haber was a step ahead of those three defenders when the ball was struck. The linesman had got the offside call correct. We couldn’t even have the cold solace of a conspiracy theory.
