Men’s Soccer Team Reeling After Fiasco in Honduras

There’s a lot of soul-searching going on with the Canadian men’s soccer team in the wake of its humbling 8-1 loss to Honduras at the Estadio Olimpico in San Pedro Sula on Tuesday. What’s really painful is that the Canadian players never gave themselves a chance to get in the game.

Anyone who saw the same team which handily defeated Cuba 3-0 in Toronto the previous Friday had to wonder who this team was and what happened to the squad which appeared at BMO Field filled with confidence and poise.

Canada had two reasonable-quality chances in the opening minutes, but they couldn’t finish either time. In particular, Tosaint Ricketts was not able handle a crossed pass into the box that might have given Canada a 1-0 lead early. Even if Ricketts had scored on that chance, the Canadian defence was not up to the task of handling the aggressive Honduran forwards.

Down 4-0 at halftime, captain Kevin McKenna admitted in a live TV interview that the team was in a “state of shock.” Certainly the lack of capable support for goalkeeper Lars Hirschfeld could be described as shocking. The Honduran forwards seemed to score every time they touched the ball in the Canadians’ box.

Jerry Bengston and Carlos Costly each recorded a hat trick for the Honduran side, while Mario Martinez accounted for the other two goals. The lone tally for Canada happened in the 76th minute on a free kick by Iain Hume, a striker for Doncaster Rovers in League One of the English Football Conference, the third tier of British soccer. “We just let ourselves down and let a lot of people at home down … it’s heart-breaking,” Hume said after the game.

The die is cast: Canada has to start all over again. It’s a bigger issue than merely calling for the resignation of the team’s head coach, Stephen Hart, who has been running the program since 2009. The embarrassing loss points to a deeper, more systemic problem.

This is a wake-up call for a country which does a poor job of developing his own homegrown talent, according to someone who should know. Retired international defender Jason DeVos wrote in a column posted on TSN.ca that Canada needs to rebuild and refocus on player development. Until that happens, the country can expect to find itself rated alongside the likes of Haiti and Guinea in the FIFA world ranking. Canada may be a nice place to visit and even live, but not if you want to play top-quality footy.