Cracking the National Team Problem Through Evolutionary Theory:

The issue of our best Canadian players not willing to play for their national team is fascinating and sad stuff.

Players like Owen Hargreaves, Jonathan de Guzman and most recently Asmir Begovic, are pursuing their dreams (which I am a big proponent of) while the Canadian soccer establishment hasn't been able to crack the nut.

Given what I have said about how big the problem is, I suspect that the breakthrough - when it comes - will be a kind of evolution: maybe a concentration of more skilled players, more top-level coaches and more pro teams here will simply generate a new species - the Canadian who gets to play with the best possible club in the world but who doesn't even think about playing for a national team other than his own. This evolutionary theory - instead of hoping for a more powerful, better funded Canadian soccer bureaucracy - would also better address the whole issue of an absence of a soccer culture here.

I am kind of re-working my position on this issue. You see last night I had this realization that African players - many of them from impoverished countries and equally impoverished soccer federations - are deeply loyal to their national teams. In fact Africans are starting to get into the news because their big clubs are these days bemoaning the fact that they will be leaving mid-season for the Cup of Nations (Drogba of Chelsea is but one high-profile example). Most of these players don't even think twice about not representing their countries. In fact, in some cases I can recall players admitting that if they didn't play for their country their lives would be at stake!

And maybe that is to the point. As I thought through this African example I started by saying - "Wow, if an impoverished African federation can get players to come back from a club like Chelsea in the middle of the Premier League season, then the comparably affluent Canadian soccer federation should be able to do the same."

But then I realized that unbelievably we in Canada are the impoverished ones - because we are bereft of a soccer culture. We may have the price of a plane ticket for a player but we lack most of the intangibles that could entice a player back to his soccer home - including I suppose death threats! You know the more I think about the soccer culture void here, the less I am willing to blame people, even CSA people, even easy targets like former CSA head Kevin Pipe who was despised by Canadian players for years.

The anger is still there but having thought this through a bit more - the edge is off the anger. If there is no one person to blame, then there really can be no anger - just a problem to solve. A big problem mind you. But still just a problem.

Maybe it's a problem we need to forget about for a while and simply get on with becoming better players, coaches and teams and someday the nut will get cracked all by itself.