MONTREAL -- The Canadian national men's soccer team wants to make Montreal's Saputo Stadium home for all future FIFA World Cup qualifying matches, but the players aren't sure if those calling the shots are listening to them.
"Everyone has agreed this is the best pitch there is in Canada, but the CSA (Canadian Soccer Association) and whoever works for the CSA want us to play in (Toronto's) BMO Field and Edmonton as well," midfielder Julian de Guzman said Thursday. "Stuff like that will affect us immensely going toward the World Cup. We feel very comfortable right here."
Canada takes to the lush grass surface for its first game ever at Saputo Stadium tonight when it faces St. Vincent & the Grenadines in the return leg of a two-game, total-goals series in CONCACAF qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
Canada has a virtual lock on the series after a 3-0 victory in the first leg played in St. Vincent last Sunday. A win tonight and Canada moves to Stage 3 of qualifying - a round-robin tournament against Jamaica and Honduras plus the winner of the two-game series between Mexico and Belize, beginning in August.
Saputo Stadium, a $15-million, 13,000-plus seat soccer-specific facility at Olympic Park, is the new home of the Montreal Impact of the United Soccer Leagues First Division. But after only a couple of days of practice, it's become clear the senior men's team wants to call it home in an effort to make the most of its bid to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1986.
BMO Field, the home to Toronto FC of Major League Soccer, has the label as Canada's national soccer stadium, home to all of the country's national teams through a deal between the City of Toronto, which owns the facility, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd., which manages it, and the CSA, which is contractually obligated to play at least six national team-related games there every year. Those games, however, are not limited to the national senior men's squad.
The major drawback for the players at BMO is its synthetic surface. The vast majority of the national senior men's team play on natural grass with teams in Europe.
"The pitch is absolutely fantastic. Probably the best I've played on in Canada in my life," said team captain Paul Stalteri, a 30-year-old defender/midfielder from Etobicoke, Ont., who is playing with Fulham of the English Premier League while on loan from Totenham United.
"It's right up there with any European pitch I've played on, so all compliments to the stadium and Mr. Joey Saputo (Impact president). He's done a fantastic job putting this stadium together with the priority of having a fantastic pitch to play on."
De Guzman, 27, a defender/midfielder from Toronto, is in his fourth season with Deportivo de La Coruna in Spain's La Liga. He's the first Canadian to play in that country's first division and said being forced to play at BMO is one of the things hampering development of the national program.
"Canada still takes too many steps backwards and leaves itself short," De Guzman said.
"They haven't really done much yet," he added when asked what the CSA has done to change things. "There are guys who have opened up their time for us to hear what we need to better the program. But in the end, it comes down to whether they live up to their promises.
"There have been a lot of empty promises made. For us, it's not just about who we have facing us on the pitch, it's also about having to play against the people we work for."
CSA chairman Dominic Maestracci told a news conference in April that the decision to stage a qualifying game here represented "a new step in the relationship between the association and professional clubs in Canada."
At the same time, it was made clear by national team head coach Dale Mitchell that playing on grass was his and the players' preference.
"It's what the players are used to," Mitchell said. "Ninety per cent of the guys on the team are based in Europe and grass is what they're used to, not turf. It's an issue of them feeling more comfortable playing on what they're used to."
Goalkeeper Greg Sutton, in his second season with Toronto FC after five years with the Impact, said players on the national team were prepared to continue to press the issue with the CSA, but wouldn't say how far they were prepared to go.
"Playing on grass and being on the East Coast, we feel it's the best chance for us to do what we're trying to do," Sutton said. "We're making a stand to a degree and we're hoping they can understand that and that we're adamant about it.
"Unfortunately, we can't do too much, but we can do something that maybe could cause a lot of problems if we do what we say we might do. But we are hoping the CSA will come around and help us achieve what we want to achieve in terms of qualifying.
"If we can do that on this field, that's what we'll do."
Montreal Gazette
Canadian players fall in love with Montreal pitch
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Canadian players fall in love with Montreal pitch !!
Great love does not exist without joy and without great suffering ,that's why One club is worth only as much as its fans !
and all those morons that where involved in making decision to go with God damn Turf.
Originally Posted by Dunkers
from CMNT fan
