Gerry Dobson - Club vs. Country

Club vs. Country

This is where I start to hammer away about the lack of respect for our national team; and I will keep it up right through the World Cup Qualifying process.

Canadian midfielder Julian De Guzman spent this week in Toronto for treatment on a couple of knocks before heading to Florida to hook up with the national team in advance of their two game set with St. Vincent and The Grenadines. Nothing serious, and he was in the hands of the TFC staff. I spoke with Julian Friday morning and he told me he will be good to go for the two-game set.

Consider for a moment that the world-class midfielder is coming off a world-class performance against Brazil where he scored a cracker of a goal. Consider also that the Scarborough, ON-native was the most valuable player for his club team in Spain. Only hardcore fans could tell you that he plays for Deportivo La Coruna. He walked out of BMO Field anonymously and disappeared. Julian is a huge star in Spain. Just like Rob Friend is at his team in Germany, and just like Atiba Hutchinson is with his club in Denmark. But here, nobody knows them.

Here's a question for the CSA: With Julian in town all week, and TFC's Jim Brennan, Greg Sutton and Kevin Harmse here as well, why not get them together in a news conference, invite all the media, and pump up these guys as Canada gets set to try and qualify for South Africa? They deserve the recogniton. That recognition in turn will help put a face to this team and will help to sell tickets for the upcoming matches. Which brings us to the next point: Julian expects only one of the three home matches in the semi-final round will be played in Toronto. That's what I'm hearing as well. Here's hoping the CSA will turn that match over to MLSE so they can sell it to TFC season ticket holders and guarantee a home crowd.

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In the Club vs. Country debate, I'll always pick country. I think it's kind of sad that our players worry about whether or not their home games will actually be home games or full of away supporters.

Seems to me that Dobson is complaining that the Canadian National Team players don't get enough recognition. Wouldn't they get more recognition if cable channels such as sportsnet were to make a bigger deal about a game against brazil than they did?

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Originally Posted by Nazzer

Seems to me that Dobson is complaining that the Canadian National Team players don't get enough recognition. Wouldn't they get more recognition if cable channels such as sportsnet were to make a bigger deal about a game against brazil than they did?

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I blame both the CSA and Sportsnet for the low profile of Canada's national teams. Sportsnet, in particular, has really bugged me lately, as it has been absolutely abysmal at showing NT games. Not only did Sportsnet screw up what was possible the highest profile CMNT match in years, it will not show our away qualifier against St. V&G. I'm really getting tired of Sportsnet's excuses. If the network really wanted to broadcast a football game, it could make it happen.

As for the CSA, it just plain doesn't care about our national teams. The CSA has done a piss-poor job of marketing Canada's qualifier on the 20th. Between problems the V's are having with the Canadian supporters' section at Saputo Stadium (section 114) and the lack of people who have paid to get on SweetOwnGoal's day bus to Montreal, it is plain to see how highly the CSA regards building a NT profile. If MLSE offered to take over the marketing of Canada's national teams, I would be completely in favour of the takeover.

Sportsnet = Shiite