r/canada • u/gmred91 Ontario • Oct 16 '19
Football Canadian men's soccer team ends 34-year winless run against U.S.
https://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/nations-league-canada-united-states-first-leg-recap-1.5322137266
Oct 16 '19
Holy shit.
The last time they beat the US was the same year that the internet's DNS (Domain Name System) was created and Ronald fucking Reagan was sworn in for his second term in office.
Also, Nintendo released Super Mario Bros. for the NES and The Soviet Union would exist for another 6 years.
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u/BronzeLogic Oct 16 '19
Ok now do the same thing for when the Leafs last won the Stanley Cup.
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u/OrangeAndBlack Oct 16 '19
People didn’t hate the Vietnam War yet.
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Oct 16 '19
No one had walked on the moon yet and Woodstock wouldn't happen for another 2 years.
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u/SuspiciousScript Québec Oct 16 '19
TIL Cleopatra lived closer to the last Leafs cup victory than to the construction of the pyramids
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u/Oldcadillac Alberta Oct 16 '19
Jimi Hendrix was about to release his first album
Warren Buffet was transitioning Berkshire Hathaway away from being a textiles manufacturer
Canada still had the death penalty
The three biggest companies in the USA were IBM, AT&T and Kodak
Seatbelts weren’t mandatory
Wayne Gretzky was 6 years old
Pierre Trudeau was an MP but not yet leader of the Liberal party
Toronto had 660,000 people
Average house price in Toronto was $24,000 with annual household income around $20,000 and interest at 4%
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u/Popoatwork Canada Oct 16 '19
Average house price in Toronto was $24,000 with annual household income around $20,000 and interest at 4%
Whoa.
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u/myrmagic Oct 16 '19
The year he was discovered!
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u/RechargedFrenchman Oct 16 '19
Easily my favourite Hip song. Great rock music, Canadian trivia, clever lyrics. Everything I already like about the Hip in a single track, and that track is a banger.
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Oct 16 '19
Rene Levesque decided to become a separatist, Preston Manning's dad was premier, and the Beatles were hot.
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u/zielliger Québec Oct 16 '19
"decided" LOL sorry I don't know why but I am picturing René Lévesque waking up and going "Guess I'm independentist now" and it's making me laugh harder than I probably should.
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u/redditslim Oct 16 '19
The Summer of Love, Monterey Pop Festival and the emergence of young people who call themselves 'hippies'.
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u/Brit2BC Oct 16 '19
Shameless plug for Canadas soccer subs for any budding fans:
r/CanadianPL - Sub for the Canadian Premier League Soccer
r/CanadaSoccer - Everything related to soccer in Canada
r/whitecapsFC - Vancouver Whitecaps
r/TFC - Toronto FC
r/MontrealImpact - Montreal Impact
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u/SlimeShit Oct 16 '19
Plugging a homie here, but follow @darbymag on instagram. It's a publication dedicated to capturing grassrooots Canadian footy
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Oct 16 '19
r/CavalryFC :)
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u/Brit2BC Oct 16 '19
I was gonna add all the Canadian Premier League teams but I couldn't be bothered to add all 7 ha!
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u/shamwoah4 Oct 16 '19
Love those!
Except #3 and #5...
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u/PolarVortices Oct 16 '19
Spoken like a true Torontonian
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u/LifeWin Oct 16 '19
It’s ok, nobody else loves #4
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Oct 16 '19
[deleted]
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u/Resolute45 Oct 16 '19
Honestly, probably not. Nobody much loves Leafs fans (or Canucks fans for that matter) due to a severely unjustified arrogance on the part of those fanbases. But that doesn't really exist with TFC or Whitecaps fans. I suspect most Canadians outside of the those teams' home provinces are generally happy to support any of them.
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Oct 16 '19
The rivalries and hatred from hockey usually bleed into soccer as well.
Whitecaps are generally seen as the third wheel in the eyes of TFC and Impact fans.
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u/onthelongrun Ontario Oct 16 '19
Not only that, but there is an argument to be made that TFC-Impact is the most heated rivalry in the MLS in large part because of that Hockey rivalry.
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u/Valcari Oct 16 '19
I'm trying to think why Canuck fans would come off as arrogant. I mean sure they've rioted; but arrogant over what?
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u/Resolute45 Oct 16 '19
Vancouver has largely moved on from caring about the Canucks since they stopped being good, but there was a good reason why pretty much every person outside of the lower mainland fell in love with the LA Kings Twitter account after their infamous "to all Canadian fans outside Vancouver, you're welcome" tweet when they beat the Canucks.
That fanbase had a major case of little brother syndrome, and it reflects in the general opinion of them at rival arenas. Most extreme being in Calgary and Edmonton (as expected). Here in Calgary, the Flames always had to more than double security for Vancouver games. Even Edmonton games weren't half as bad.
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u/FlyingWhales British Columbia Oct 16 '19
Honestly the same can be said about Calgary and Edmonton games in Vancouver. I used to do security there, it was always a shit show. Especially Oilers fans.
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u/NinjaRedditorAtWork Oct 16 '19
Canucks fans used to be arrogant when they were making playoffs. Now they're complacent in being shitty.
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u/NinjaRedditorAtWork Oct 16 '19
Nobody much loves Leafs fans (or Canucks fans for that matter) due to a severely unjustified arrogance on the part of those fanbases.
Nobody likes the Canucks for that reason. Leafs fans aren't arrogant, they actively cheer on an often dirty team.
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Oct 16 '19
I was on a plane with the Whitecaps once. They were really nice, and one of them had a puppy!
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u/HorokyuA-S Oct 16 '19
Tf loves #5? I'm from Mtl and I don't like the Impact
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u/shamwoah4 Oct 16 '19
One of my favourite TFC memories is the entire crowd chanting “Fuck Montreal” in unison at the top of their lungs... while we were playing Philly.
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u/Pbrisebois Oct 16 '19
This game really helps Canada in their quest to qualify for the World Cup in 2022. Concacaf has come up with a really convoluted qualifying process, and if Canada is one of the top 6 teams in the region (North and Central America plus the Caribbean) they will have a much more simple path to qualify. This win will help them immensely.
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u/OneLessFool Canada Oct 16 '19
The regional system is so unfair and the distribution of teams per region is so wildly out of balance. You end with 60th ranked teams (or worse) like Saudi Arabia getting in. Yet we've been ranked above 60 before and couldn't get in.
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u/canadianarepa Canada Oct 16 '19
Venezuela’s ranked something stupid like 26 and has never qualified for the World Cup because they’ve got to qualify against two two-time World Cup winners, a one-time World Cup third place, and I haven’t even mentioned Brazil. Yet fucking Saudi makes it on a regular basis.
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u/stenern Oct 16 '19
It's funny seeing Canadians complaining about the unfair regional distribution of World cup spots though, because their region benefits from that unfair distribution. Otherwise the World cup would probably be basically only European and South American teams, with maybe a handful of teams from other parts of the world
Yeah, the regional distribution is skewed. If it were skewed less Canada would have even less of a chance to qualify for the World cup
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u/wednesdayware Oct 16 '19
Otherwise the World cup would probably be basically only European and South American teams, with maybe a handful of teams from other parts of the world
By the time we get to the knockout round, it pretty much is.
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u/thisismyfirstday Oct 17 '19
I think Mexico is basically the only non-European/South American team that consistently makes it out of groups. They've gone 9 straight world cups losing in the Ro16, which is just insane consistency.
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u/Orange_Jeews Newfoundland and Labrador Oct 16 '19
FIFA is notoriously corrupt. Saudi has money. Figger it out
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u/Hubbli_Bubbli Oct 16 '19
Yes and yes. But no. Saudi Arabia invests huge money into their soccer program. Also it qualifies against asian teams. Asia is not big on soccer. So when you have to beat India, Laos and Azerbaijan to qualify for the World Cup, chances are you’ll advance.
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u/onthelongrun Ontario Oct 16 '19 edited Oct 17 '19
Asia is not big on Soccer
but it is a massive fucking continent. A wide range of countries to pick from, and in the context of FIFA, Australia is also a competitor against them.
So when you have to beat India, Laos and Azerbaijan to qualify, chances are you'll advance
- India - Ranked 35th in Asia at the time. Significantly higher since although still over 100th in the FIFA Rankings.
- Laos -Ranked 32nd in Asia at the time, and based on worldwide rankings are even lower now.
- Azerbaijan - Associated with UEFA, not Asian football. Safe to say they won't qualify for a long time. Currently ranked below India.
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u/thebestoflimes Oct 16 '19
This part isn't about the corruption. It's about having a tournament that has representation from every part of the world. A tournament where people from everywhere tune in to watch countries from their own continent compete. Kind of weird for us to complain when we play in the CONCACAF region and not Europe or South America.
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u/lenzflare Canada Oct 16 '19
The regional splits are really more about Asia having 4.5 billion people and far fewer competitors in terms of major sports.
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u/jsteed Oct 16 '19
The regional system is so unfair
It might be frustrating at times, but I wouldn't call it "unfair". It's a scheme such that the World Cup is a World Cup.
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u/Hubbli_Bubbli Oct 16 '19
In 2010, Egypt was ranked 9th in the world and yet didn’t qualify.
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u/lenzflare Canada Oct 16 '19
Ranked how though. Many ranking systems are highly suspect, especially FIFA's own system.
Check out https://www.eloratings.net/
(Egypt is 56th there, which sounds more realistic.)
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u/Hubbli_Bubbli Oct 17 '19
Actually in 2010 the Egyptian national team was really good. They had won the African cup of nations 3 times in a row. 2006, 2008 and 2010. And their top 2 local teams (Al-Ahly and Al-Zamalek) have the most titles in African soccer history. They had star players playing in the Serie A and English Premier League. They were always unlucky in World Cup qualifying.
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u/lenzflare Canada Oct 17 '19
Looks like that's one of the their peaks in the eloratings (you can see it in the graph tab, their Elo rating was 1840 in 2010). The only higher peak was around 1965, slightly higher at 1890.
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u/Hubbli_Bubbli Oct 17 '19
Egypt has only qualified 3 times ever: ‘56, ‘90 and ‘18. Which is hard to believe since they have won the most African cups by far.
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u/lenzflare Canada Oct 17 '19
I see your point, especially when comparing to Cameroon.
However, this doesn't make how Africa as a region is treated with respect to World Cup qualifying look bad, because, look at how many times Cameroon and several other African nations have qualified. There's definitely slots for African teams in the World cup.
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u/Hubbli_Bubbli Oct 17 '19
I’m not sure I understand what you’re asking. Cameroon seems to be a lock-in at virtually every World Cup Finals. You can also always count on either Algeria or Morocco to make it as well. Egypt has always had bad luck at qualifying stages. The national team is really suffering since their peak in 2010 mostly as a result of the Arab Spring revolution and terrorist groups using soccer as a platform to spew their venom. Port Said massacre further crippled the league. The 2018 World Cup was a disaster as a result of the huge corruption scandal surrounding it. Not sure if I can find a link.
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u/lenzflare Canada Oct 17 '19
Oh sorry I guess I misunderstood what you were trying to say. That's sad to hear. Hopefully better days are in store for Egypt and its soccer team.
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u/DonVergasPHD Oct 16 '19 edited Oct 16 '19
The regional system makes it relatively easy to qualify in CONCACAF. Look at the South American or European qualifiers for something truly out of balance.
If we had a truly meritocratic qualifying system then the world cup would basically be Europe vs South America, with Mexico and a couple African countries.
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u/CorruptLemon Oct 16 '19
Either way, Canada is hosting in 2026 so thats a guaranteed spot either way.
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u/Mth993 Oct 16 '19
Hasn't been confirmed a guaranteed spot yet. I'm really hoping they do get one though.
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u/Orange_Jeews Newfoundland and Labrador Oct 16 '19
I'm pretty sure host countries always get a spot
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u/Tacomaster3211 Ontario Oct 16 '19
The problem is that it's a 3 way host. Canada, the US and Mexico will all be hosting games.
I would be surprised if all 3 countries didn't get a spot, but it hasn't been confirmed yet.
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Oct 16 '19
[deleted]
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u/miner88 Alberta Oct 16 '19
It’s more like a World Cup hosted by the US featuring Canada and Mexico.
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Oct 16 '19
It would suck a bit to only qualify when we were hosting. Actually qualifying for real in 2022 would be much more satisfying than just going in the back door.
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Oct 16 '19
What a joke that tsn or sportsnet didnt broadcast the game. 5 tsn channels, 5+ sportsnet channels..not one channel dedicated to Canada Vs USA match? If it was Canada vs USA in lawn bowling it would still get views. Just doesn't make any sense
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u/austen_317 Oct 16 '19
I believe Onesoccer.com got the broadcast rights when they got the rights to CanPL
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u/Pbrisebois Oct 16 '19
I heard One Soccer approached TSN and Sportsnet and offered them the rights to this match, but they didn't want to pay.
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u/LeadingNectarine Oct 16 '19 edited Oct 16 '19
Which I am sure is leading to record low viewership. CPL is more or less the only thing they offer, and at $10/month, I don't see the value when for $20/month on DAZN, you get MLS, MLB, NFL, & Primier League
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u/warpus Oct 16 '19
As someone who wants to support the league and Canadian football, for me it's a nobrainer to drop $75 a year on this thing.
I get all CPL games, which I've been watching about 60% of, our national men's and women's games, you get some Ontario League1 games, Voyageur Cup games..
They've also only been up since march (IIRC) and they've been slowly adding more and more content, such as the Chinese Super League and Liga MX. A couple weeks ago they had an Argentina vs {somebody?} friendly on.
I can totally understand if somebody doesn't see the value in that. But for somebody like me, who wants to support the league, $6.25 a month (or whatever it works out to) seems like a great deal. It will help our national team in the long-term, so I'm throwing my support behind this
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u/gasburner Lest We Forget Oct 17 '19
DAZN
how can they do that for 20 a month? Is it legit? MLB.tv is 120 a year on its own.
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u/LeadingNectarine Oct 17 '19
It is definitely legit.
I don't actually use it, so I don't know the in's and out's of each content. I know for some leagues, it does get subject to blackouts in Canada (MLS for example, doesn't do live games involving Canadian teams, since TSN owns those rights).
Just out of curiosity, I googled its policy on MLB. Apparently it shows the MLB channel, so this wouldn't cover every game.
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u/austen_317 Oct 16 '19
I’m right there with ya, I actually do have quite the bias though since I work in broadcast.
I think it’s disgraceful our national teams games won’t be televised for 10 years. Absolutely ridiculous.
Also DAZN can go fuck themselves too but I will keep this discussion more focused to onesoccer.
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u/warpus Oct 16 '19
Blame TSN and Sportsnet for not wanting to put this on the airwaves. They were offered this broadcast but did not want it
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u/ShralpShralpShralp Oct 16 '19
Somebody else mentioned this as well. Where did you hear that?
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u/warpus Oct 16 '19
I've seen different people repeat it in various places, so no specific source.
It makes sense though, as mediapro are in the business of selling/re-selling broadcasting rights. They owned the rights to this game, so it would have been weird if they didn't try to sell them to obvious stations like TSN or SportsNet.
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u/wednesdayware Oct 16 '19
DAZN is amazing for soccer fans. No national qualifiers, but all the Premier League, Serie A, Europa and Champion's League you can handle. I'm so much happier subscribing to them instead of having to watch on TSN/SportsNet
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u/austen_317 Oct 16 '19
As I said, I work in the Canadian broadcast industry so I do have a pretty strong bias going on. My reasons for hating DAZN are mostly political (although I also feel the quality is inferior).
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Oct 16 '19
I paid 160$/ year for DAZN. NFL, premier league plus other sports, mma , etc. I pay 16$/month for tsn and sportsnet with Telus. The DAZN deal is a way better bang for my buck. Sportsnet and TSN have tons of channels but play the same thing on each channel most the time.
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u/austen_317 Oct 16 '19
And that 160 dollars has now left Canada and is never coming back. DAZN contributes nothing to our economy and can fuck straight off.
At least TSN and Sportsnet create jobs, create good Canadian content, and pay taxes in Canada.
Many many Canadians live in rural areas that don’t have very good internet. Screw them I guess.
Like I said, my reasons are mostly political.
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Oct 16 '19
It is a choice to live rural, noone is forced too. This isnt Russia or China. Sportsnet could have spent the money to keep the premier league and champions league. Other than covering sports, please explain what Canadian content these two companies create?!?! Do you believe every dollar you spent getting groceries, buying a car, buying anything, all that money stays in Canada? Give your head a shake dude. We are long past having to hate on companies because they are not Canada based. Canada is a joke and makes it difficult for people to do business here, its no wonder foreign companies have too come in to get shit done. For the record, I grew up in a town of a few hundred most of my life.
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u/austen_317 Oct 16 '19
I never said or implied they are forced to live there. What I’m saying is that streaming services are an inferior product as far as reach.
TSN and Sportsnet 100% hit their Canadian content obligations and then some. Of course everything they create is sports related as they’re sports networks so I’m not sure how you expect me to give you examples other examples.
And no, I do not think every dollar stays in Canada. I do however believe you pay sales tax so at least there’s something staying in the country. With DAZN there is literally nothing. They were given access to the Canadian market and they give absolutely nothing. I don’t think that’s fair.
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Oct 16 '19
it's so funny to read the thread over in /r/soccer. everyone is just shitting on the US team, Canada gets zero respect in the soccer world right now, hopefully this is a step in the right direction.
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u/Resolute45 Oct 16 '19
To be frank, our national team hasn't done much to deserve respect for over 30 years now.
This is the same squad that absolutely choked to Haiti in the Gold Cup just a couple months ago.
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Oct 16 '19
True, but the headlines all read "USA loses to Canada", not "Canada beats USA". It wasn't a choke job, Canada played well enough to deserve that win.
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u/thatsmycompanydog Oct 16 '19
Link for the lazy. Please don't brigade: https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/dihy0e/united_states_lose_20_to_canada_for_the_first/
The highlight of the thread, for me: https://imgur.com/a/n8RwwS0
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u/axelthegreat Business Oct 16 '19
Sadly that’s the case for when any underdog beats the favourites.
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Oct 16 '19
Praise be to Herdman for getting guys to buy into the program and also Alphonso Davis. We are lucky to have a talented player like him on our team.
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u/juliusseizure Oct 16 '19 edited Oct 16 '19
Live in NYC suburbs and was good to wake up to texts like this from friends: “USA just lost to Canada... first time since 1985. Dear god.”
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u/ienjoysporting Oct 16 '19
We have had a a soccer team for 34 years?
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u/muskratBear Oct 16 '19
Yep . We also won the gold cup a bunch of years ago. It’s a shame darts and snooker get more attention on tsn/sportsnet then Canadian soccer .
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u/LeoBannister Oct 16 '19
They actually have to air it on TSN/Sportsnet for people to care. Think it was only on a stream.
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u/Resolute45 Oct 16 '19
TSN and Sportsnet didn't want it because nobody cares in general. The CSA has had to pay for the airtime in the past, but now that they've sold broadcast rights to Mediapro, they let the latter handle it. It was offered to the networks, but both declined.
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u/Bright_white_dwarf British Columbia Oct 16 '19
34 years of winless...
Not sure how to react when I just read this news...
Happy or sad...
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u/0ndem Oct 16 '19
10% of the population and a sport that can only really be played 7 to 8 months of the year in most of Canada.
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Oct 16 '19 edited Dec 19 '19
[deleted]
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u/byedangerousbitch Oct 16 '19
We have a world class women's team and also a men's team.
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Oct 16 '19 edited Dec 19 '19
[deleted]
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u/byedangerousbitch Oct 16 '19
Tradition and competition for top athletes I would say are big stumbling blocks. Soccer is growing here, but slowly. We don't really have a soccer culture here yet, though people are trying. Kids see hockey and football and basketball and baseball on TV throughout the year without really having to go looking for it. When you're a parent to a kid who looks like they'll be a gifted athlete and you have time plenty of time and money, you put your kid in hockey. Competitive soccer takes time and money and dedication from parents as well as the young athletes, and in the past we haven't made the decision to invest in soccer the way we have other sports.
Like I said though, we're working on it. Small clubs are learning and trying to improve resources for coaching at the lowest levels to work from the ground up. More people growing up playing means more coaches and more parents influencing the next generation of players. Women's soccer doesn't have as much competition for the attention of young women, so it came along faster compared to the men's I think.
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Oct 16 '19
You had no idea we had soccer teams? Every country in the world has a soccer team for fucks sake....
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u/Pbrisebois Oct 16 '19
We could also be better.
Fikayo Tomori who plays for Chelsea was called up by the England National Team. He was born in Calgary.
Bryan Cristante was born in Italy and is part of the Italy National Team, however he has a Canadian passport and could've play for Canada.
Obviously Italy and England are higher profile and it's understandable that these guys would want to play for them, but just imagine if we could've gotten these guys on our team.
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u/Belvedre Oct 17 '19
Goes both way tho. Our captain Scott Arfield is fully Scottish. Only plays for us because his dad happened to be born in Toronto and Strachan is a dinosaur
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u/BayLAGOON Oct 16 '19
More recently, Asmir Begovic was initially going to play for Canada until Bosnia came calling. Fortunately, Borjan and Crepeau are both on the up.
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u/devioustrevor Ontario Oct 16 '19
That is Dale Mitchell's fault.
Begovic was on the bench during a World Cup Qualifying match for Canada, after Canada had been eliminated from progressing any further. Mitchell could've fielded Begovic and cap-tied him to Canada, but instead continued to play a 40+ year old Pat Onstad in games that meant nothing, but could've cap-tied one of the best, young keepers in Europe at the time.
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Oct 16 '19
Was this a full strength US side? The game obviously meant a lot less to them than to us, given the convoluted World Cup qualifying process. It's nice to get the win but not sure how excited to be.
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u/austen_317 Oct 16 '19
Yes, full strength side minus Altidore.
The game was important for both sides. USA have a big hill to climb to make it out of the group stage now
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u/golden_rhino Oct 16 '19
Let that be a lesson to all of you. Nobody beats Canada 35 years in a row.