[LINK] Two notes about Canadian soccer

[rfmcdonald]

Briefly? Things aren't good.

CBC carried the Canadian Press story reporting on the national team's loss 8-1 to Honduras. Coach Stephen Hart did lose his job, but the long-term prospects for the national team, as Richard Starnes noted in the Ottawa Citizen, are newly grim.

[I]the wake of a humiliating 8-1 defeat in Honduras, [Canadian soccer officials]find themselves forced to do yet another post-mortem on the men's soccer program.

In the past, Canadian soccer has been used to one step forward, two steps back. This time, it may take a while to get out of reverse.

Coach Stephen Hart is likely gone. A decent man who holds the affection and respect of his players, Hart will no doubt pay the price for what happened at Estadio Olimpico Metropolitano in Honduras.

The embarrassing qualifying exit will also no doubt trigger the retirement of some key players on the Canadian squad. With the next World Cup qualifying cycle years away, players based in Europe or nearing the end of their club career are unlikely to go through the rigours of international football for a team that has nothing to play for.

Players like Junior Hoilett and Jonathan de Guzman, who have other international options, will no doubt continue to turn their back on Canada.

[. . .]

After a 15-year absence from the final round of qualifying in the region, Canada seemed poised to return to CONCACAF's elite level.

A small but well-balanced pool of talent offered experience and youth. One of the teams in their group, Cuba, was a weak sister. Hart correctly pointed to Panama as the strongest side in the group but Honduras seemed a possible target.

More locally, the Toronto Star reports that, to compensate for a series of losses, Toronto FC has dropped its prices sharply.

Season ticket holders for the soccer team will be paying prices the team offered them six years ago in 2013.

Prices will be dropping an average of 20 per cent, with cheap seats dropping as much as 40 per cent.

Seats in the south end zone will go from $19 a game to $10. Prime red zone seats will go from $68 to $53.

Despite initial great fan support, Toronto FC has struggled since it started in 2007 and has never made the MLS playoffs. They are 5-20-7 this year in league play and in last place overall.

“The fans have done their job, we haven’t done ours,” said Tom Anselmi, president of MLSE. “We’ve got to get this thing right.”