History is on British Columbia’s side as the men have traditionally performed well at the Games winning gold five times, more than twice as many as Ontario, Quebec and Alberta (twice each) – but not since 1993.
That task falls to coach Martin Nash, who played for both l’Impact de Montréal and Vancouver Whitecaps among others over a long career, and was recently a coach in the Whitecaps’ developmental system.
For Nash, the Canada Games will be his first major coaching test since obtaining his license in 2011. But the member of Canada's 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup winning team is looking forward to the challenge of returning the Western Canadians to the top of the medal podium.
“I’m trying to get the team as organized as I can and we’ve only had 2.5 weeks of preparation before the tournament,” said Nash, brother of NBA player Steve Nash. So I’m trying to make a group of players gel quick, but they’re coming along and we have a lot of talent in the group. If they can work together as a team they have a good chance of being successful.”
Unlike the women's competition, the men's, which begins Monday, will be missing a number of players to Canada's National Team program.
Only players aged 18 and younger are eligible for the Games and three of the youth national teams – U-18, U-17 and U-15 – are currently holding camps or participating in tournaments around the world.
Even with this, the tournament still has close to 20 players that have had stints with national team camps or represented Canada on the international stage, spread mostly across the rosters of Quebec and Ontario.
Also absent are academy players from Canada’s three Major League Soccer clubs and those away at United States colleges on soccer scholarships. To showcase other talent, the provincial associations of Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec agreed not to select academy players as these players have already been scouted and are in a professional club environment.
However, this sets the stage for other players eager to give standout performances that draw attention from national team coaches and interest from American college scouts.
“(It gives the players here) the chance to be scouted by Canada Soccer for the U-18 and U-20 National Teams and also the opportunity to possibly get a scholarship,” said Ontario coach David Peak. “There could be USA scouts still up here looking at players who are coming up for eligibility to go to school so there is opportunity for the players here to progress through the university ranks and even to Canada Soccer to play for their own national team.”
Like the women’s competition, the men's will feature four groups with three teams each playing in a round robin format. Each group will send its top two finishers to the medal round, while the four third-place teams will play in a Consolation Round. The tournament culminates in the bronze and gold medal matches Saturday.
Aside from BC, Ontario and Quebec are the medal favourites by virtue of drawing from larger player bases. But Peak believes the competition is much closer.
“It’s a little bit of an unknown, but it’s usually Quebec, BC, Alberta, they’re usually the big guns that usually come through,” said Peak, who lists Raheem Rose and Abdallah Elchanti as possible breakthrough players for Ontario . “As far as the other provinces and territories, they really show actually in the men’s game more than in the girl’s game. From a provincial standpoint, it’s definitely Nova Scotia and Manitoba. Coaching across the board is a lot better now and the talent pool is a lot better.”
Host broadcaster TSN will air three matches of the men's competition, beginning with a group stage match between defending champion Quebec and BC followed by the two semifinals tilts on Friday. Besides Nash, the Quebec-BC match will feature another coach of renown in Canadian soccer – Quebec's John Limniatis.
Limniatis played 44 games for the men’s national team during the 1980s and 90s, and spent much of his career with the Impact, first as a player then as coach before the franchise joined Major League Soccer.
He was the bench boss of the team that made the surprising run to the quarterfinals of the inaugural CONCACAF Champions League (2008-2009). Mere minutes from reaching the semifinals, the Impact conceded two second-half injury-time goals away at Mexico’s Santos Laguna to lose the two-leg total goal series in a shocking result that still lingers with the franchise today.
Limniatis will look to bring the highs and lows of that experience in leading his squad as they attempt to repeat as champion on home soil.
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