Alphonso Davies expresses his frustration after missing a shot against Trinidad and Tobago. (Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports)
This could mean continued personnel changes are needed and new forwards given longer looks in June’s friendlies. It could mean, again, better tactical plans are necessary. Because at the Copa America, Canada certainly won’t have the lion’s share of possession the way they often do in CONCACAF.
Understanding the gap between themselves and the Copa America field isn’t a bad thing. Canada can’t go into another major tournament hoping to surprise teams. The sooner they come to some honest self-understanding about who they are and how much better their best players need to be, the better chance they’ll have of proving they belong on these kinds of stages.
“It’s about being true to one another. Being open to remarks, being open to get better as us, players and personalities, and as a group,” Crepeau said.
But: this week there were inklings that change was possible. Moving on from some of the team’s veterans was a brave and necessary first step from Biello.
It was followed by a noticeable shift in the mood in camp.
There appears to be an acceptance from the entire outfit that their job is not to come together as a team in a spiritual way, a “brotherhood,” as they did throughout 2021 and 2022. Then, it was about learning that if they fought for each other, the results would follow.
“You need to change things because other teams are adapting to you,” midfielder Samuel Piette said of the team ditching the “brotherhood” philosophy fashioned by former head coach John Herdman. “Mentally, you’ve been hearing the same thing over and over again for three or four years. And that works, to a point. Because at some point, you will get tired of it.”
The Canada that gathered in Texas was more business-like and results-oriented than ever before.
That they didn’t bend against Trinidad in a way they did against Jamaica in a second-half capitulation in November suggests a new mentality may be taking hold.
“We realized we’re a good football team, we can play ball, as we say. But we have to remember that our true DNA is we’re true, hard-working players and hard-working people,” Piette said. “You can be the best player in the world with the ball, but if you don’t do the dirty work and you don’t put your boots and your helmet on, then another team will take whatever you left on the table and take advantage.”
Now, the understanding is clear: results need to come not from the team’s spirit, but from talent and a hardened mentality. Gone are the rousing speeches from Herdman, who paved the way for this team’s success. In their place is the onus falling on the players to hold up their end of the bargain. In this camp, players have projected a far more serious demeanour. They are not just happy to be in the conversation among the world’s better teams.
“If we’re always going to be the small guys, blah blah blah, if we lose, it’s OK — no, we have to change our mentality. Our mentality now is that we have to be in these big tournaments,” new captain Stephen Eustaquio said.
Canada was a fun team to root for ahead of the World Cup because, well, they were fun! Nothing could get in the way of their good vibes!
Now, with Eustaquio as the team’s uber-determined new leader, the happy-go-lucky vibes appear to be a thing of the past for the men’s national team.
If that means results come against the world’s best in its place, Canada might be taking the right steps as a program.
“Now we can push on and really take that next step, which is going to be competing,” Johnston said. “And that’s what we want to do. I think (Canada’s Copa America group of Argentina, Chile and Peru) is actually potentially harder than our World Cup group (Belgium, Croatia and Morocco) on paper with their world ranking. So we know it’s not going to be easy. But at the same time, it’s a great opportunity for us to go and show that we’re taking another step further from where we were at the World Cup. It’s great preparation for 2026.”
(Top photo: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports)
Source link : https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5364468/2024/03/24/canada-copa-america/
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Publish date : 2024-03-24 03:00:00
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