Ryan Johnston-Draw your own conclusion

[denime]

Draw your own conclusion

After sitting through the 1-1 draw at BMO Field and the subsequent press conferences with coach Dale Mitchell and his Jamaican counterpart Rene Simoes, I realized what Canada needs to do in its five remaining qualifiers:

Lighten up.

Expectations are important; but not to the point where they become claustrophobic.

Qualifying for the 2010 World Cup is serious business, I understand that, but it is crucial that the entire Canadian men's national team remembers to exhale every once in a while.

Take for example the aforementioned press conferences. First up was Simoes, who was accompanied by Jamaican captain Ricardo Gardner. The 1-1 result on Wednesday night means that both teams took exactly the same thing away from the game, which is one point and two weeks to prepare for the next match. While the assembled media tried to get Simoes to say he was disappointed, the quirky Brazilian would have none of it.

read more (http://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/blogs/2008/08/21/johnston_draw_your_own_conclusion/)

[sweetlemon69]

weak article to me. Didn't even talk about what was asked. Ryan usually does better articles... seems like he wanted to create an article around all the URL's he wanted to link.

[manitou22]

Interesting and concerning. Coming out of the World U-20's there were plenty of questions about Mitchell's ability to mentally prepare his team. I hope this isn't more of the same.

[ag futbol]

He's basically saying Dale Mitchell is a poor coach, without actually stating it.

Now exit Simoes and Gardner and enter Canadian coach Mitchell, by himself. Mitchell is light years from the Type B personality seen in Simoes, but on Wednesday his expression was that of a man ready to face the firing squad.

I'd call that an understatement since Dale Mitchell is light years away from having any personality. The seeming acceptance of this 1-1 draw at home, that's unacceptable.