Is Canada the Soccer Rival the U.S. Needs?

Growing up, Martin Nash, a former national team player and the brother of Brooklyn Nets Coach Steve Nash, said the path for a Canadian was less clear, and often required leaving home and taking the risk of trying to land a job in Europe. Now, because there are about a dozen professional teams in Canada — from M.L.S. to Canadian Premier League and more — there are more ways to develop and get noticed.

“There’s just more routes to the professional game now than there ever was before, which I think is a big thing because, if it’s not visual, you lose a lot of the better athletes to bigger sports,” said Nash, 46, who is now the head coach of York United F.C. in the C.P.L. “You know, hockey and baseball and basketball or American football. The better athletes, like my brother, went to a sport that you saw more on TV.”

To de Guzman, the proof of Canada’s growth is in its depth, a trait he said was lacking in the past. Even without Davies, Canada had little trouble beating Honduras, 2-0, on Thursday.

“When you talk to people in Europe about soccer, whether it’s in Germany or Holland, there’s a different type of feeling now and respect you get when you talk about coming from Canada,” de Guzman said. “That’s kind of been the duty and objective for myself as a player: putting Canada on the map. And we’re finally there.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/28/sports/soccer/canada-usmnt.html