As the next stage of World Cup Qualifying draws near, I for one am shocked that Dale Mitchell is still the coach of Canada. In every match that he has coached he has gotten the tactics wrong, in the first match he even got the team selection wrong. I think along with most Canadian Football fans that the CSA (Canadian Soccer Association) should have sacked Mitchell after the Honduras match when Canada were sitting on 1 point after two home matches. Then he went to Mexico and played negative tactics aimed at getting a 0-0 draw, but it wasn't until Mexico scored twice that he realized that he should maybe try to score a goal, which Canada was able to do. Our squad has the talent and we are being destroyed by poor coaching. I don't think that I am alone in thinking that Mitchell should be sacked, maybe I expect too much from a coach of a national team? Let's have a look at what has happened around the world since Canada's loss in Mexico.
We'll start in Jamaica. Jamaica are in the same group as Canada, and have exactly the same record as Canada, though Canada are ahead of them on goal difference. After Jamaica's loss to Honduras they SACKED their coach Rene Simoes because of his poor results. It is important to note a few things here: One, most observers would tell you that on paper Jamaica has the worst team in the group and Two, Jamaica has yet to play a home game. So one would assume that if Mitchell were in charge of Jamaica he would have been fired.
Moving further south to Colombia, Colombia sit in 6th place in the South American qualifying only 3 points behind an automatic place and 2 points out of a playoff place with 10 matches to go. There results to date include a 0-0 draw at home to Brasil and a 2-1 victory over Argentina also at home. But after a two defeats to Uruguay (0-1 at home) and Chile (4-0 away) they have sacked their manager Jorge Luis Pinto because they were worried that the team was heading in the wrong direction. Also adding that the goal was to qualify for the World Cup, one would assume that Dale Mitchell would have only made it through 2 or 3 matches with Colombia before he would have been sacked.
If we jump over to Asia we find two interesting examples. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE) their coach Bruno Metsu resigned after 2 defeats leaving UAE in last place in their qualifying group. Most people are surprised that the UAE made it this far, and yes Metsu is the coach that took Senegal a long way in the 2002 World Cup. Metsu has since taken over Qatar as they have fired their manager Jorge Fossati because he was going to take too long to recover from a stomach surgery. That was a bit Harsh if you ask me, which is whyQatar sacking their coach isn't one of my examples. For this you have to look at Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan are in a group with England, Croatia, Ukraine, Belarus and Andorra. The Kazakhs have played three matches so far, a 3-0 victory over Andorra (which is more than England managed), a 3-0 loss away to Croatia, and a 3-1 loss at home to Ukraine. In predicting this group I would put Kazakhstan to beat out Andorra and be near Belarus, but the Kazakhstan FA wants more! They sacked their coach after winning a game he was expected to win and lossing two games most people expected them to lose. It may be a little foolhardy but at least it shows some ambition. So Dale Mitchell you could have followed Metsu's example and stepped down recognizing your own sub par preformance led to Canada being in a place where we must win all of our matches to have a chance, just a chance to make it to the next stage of World Cup Qualifying. CSA you could show Canadians and the world that you believe our squad is good enough, you could show us that you want Canada in the World Cup, and you want us there in 2010!!
CSA you missed your window to fire Dale Mitchell when it would have helped Canada make it to 2010 now we are firmly in the it would take a miracle range. Please fire Mitchell before we end up figuring out that the World Cup in 2014 is over 2000 days away! If you are happy with his preformance then it is you that we should be looking at replacing.
