Time Hart’s record is scrutinized

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/06/2011 (5510 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In the wake of Canada’s premature exit from the CONCACAF Gold Cup, something surprised me.

Complacency might be too strong a word, but in the four days since Panama’s last-minute equalizer put this country’s men’s national team out of the tournament at the group stage, I’ve been hard-pressed to locate the fury I figured would have been unleashed immediately after the result.

I mean, there have been the inevitable excuses.

“We lacked a cutting edge in the attacking third.” “We missed Atiba Hutchinson in midfield.” “Dwayne De Rosario was a passenger when he should have been driving the bus.” And all those are fine and, to some extent, true. But the displeasure with another unsuccessful international campaign has landed everywhere but where I thought it would land: at the feet of the coach.

The 2011 Gold Cup was Stephen Hart’s third regional championship in charge of Canada. At the 2007 event, he took his side on a surprising run to the semifinals, but bowed out at the quarter-final stage in 2009. This time around he didn’t even make it to the knockout stages.

In 2007 his team scored nine goals in five matches; in 2009 they notched four in four. This year they tallied two in three games — none from open play — and lacked anything resembling intensity and tactical aptitude. Players were utilized questionably; teamsheets and substitutions left observers scratching their heads.

It doesn’t take a mathematician to notice the direction of the arc, the downward trajectory. And that Hart has so far escaped criticism is something I find astonishing.

Nevertheless, the 51-year-old Trinidad and Tobago-born coach will almost certainly be at the helm when the 2014 World Cup qualification cycle begins in a few months time. On its own, that fact doesn’t upset me. But I’m troubled when no one from within the Canadian soccer community so much as poses the questions, “Should he be there? Can we do better?”

It’s almost as if questioning the appointment of the head coach has become taboo. It shouldn’t be. God did not appoint Stephen Hart; he was hired by a national organization that has long lacked direction, imagination and resources.

Look back to when Hart came into the job. Initially an interim replacement for Frank Yallop, he had served as the under-17 coach and senior squad assistant before taking Canada to the final four of the 2007 Gold Cup. When Dale Mitchell was hired as Yallop’s official replacement, Hart took over the under-20 squad and served as the Canadian Soccer Association’s technical director before permanently replacing Mitchell in 2009.

Never mind that he hadn’t coached a top-level club game in his life or worked at all with fully professional players outside his two temporary stints with the national team, he was hired because he already worked for the CSA; he was a company man. None of that was his fault, but his appointment was hardly inspired.

Of course, the CSA lacked — and lacks — the money to hire anyone with something approaching an impressive CV. At least that’s the primary justification bandied about by people close to Canadian soccer. But it’s a rubbish argument. There are always ways to fill the coffers. Playing more home friendlies is one; transferring fundraising strategies from the provinces to the CSA is another. And there are countless more.

For what it’s worth, Hart might actually prove to be a very good, long-term coach with Canada. I merely wish the CSA — and the opinion-makers close to the national setup — would embrace a more open, creative, freethinking way of doing things. Questions should be encouraged, and no possibilities should be left off the table.

At the end of the day, the Canadian men’s national team should not be held hostage to a line of thinking that reads, “This is the best we can do.”

jerradpeters@gmail.com