Reply With QuoteRegards to Radz. I kind of feel he was trying to make up for the past in the last WCQ round he played. If that were the case, perhaps a little too late but I respect him for the effort.
@bearcat - actually The Duz started over here on loan from Reading....
aka, Bettermirror.
Regards to Radz. I kind of feel he was trying to make up for the past in the last WCQ round he played. If that were the case, perhaps a little too late but I respect him for the effort.
Yes we got close to qualifying under him. However, those of us old enough to have lived through the campaign also remember what a terrible coach he was during his time with the national team. Besides his lack of tactical understanding his years as Canada coach were also notable for his selecting his teams and starters based on his personal relationships with many of the players, ie. he played his friends. I don't think the near qualification was a result of his coaching abilities and had we had a better more ethical coach we probably would have actually qualified.Originally Posted by 1996
I don't deny that overall Lenarduzzi has done a lot for Canadian soccer but it is a pretty mixed bag in that he has done a lot of questionable things as well. Radz also deserves some criticism for his actions but so does Bobby and the Radz criticism coming from him is a bit like the pot calling the kettle black.
Absolutely agreed. That last WCQ campaign under Bobby was atrocious. We have been behind the rest of the pack ever since. At a time when the rest of CONCACAF was gearing up, national teams improving, quality of players and play going higher, Canada went the other way. Lenarduzzi's leadership of the Nats isn't the whole reason for our decline, but is a significant part of it. A massive missed opportunity.
Also, I'm sure the Radz criticism has a kernel of truth but you have to take Bobby's take on it with a grain of salt. There's definitely another side to that story.
Last edited by Marc; 01-09-2012 at 07:26 AM.
I guess we were "one win away from the WC" in the sense that if we had beat Mexico we would have taken the group. However, iirc, we ended up one win away from a near certain loss to Argentina in the playoff? I was debating this recently with an Aussie, who pointed out there were actually two playoff rounds in that cycle. I assume he was correct that Australia didn't make the WC in '94.
since 1974
I believe they followed beating Canada up with a loss to the 5th or 6th place SA team.
aka, Bettermirror.
Regardless of his coaching abilities, in your opinion which game changing player omissions were there from the squads he selected throughout qualification for WC 94?
Other than a reluctance to pick Mobilio for a period during the '98 WC qualifying campaign, can you point out any cases where he left out deserving players in favour of playing his mates? You've just blamed a Canadian soccer legend for costing us a place in the '94 World Cup. Are you suggesting that we had a squad that should have beaten out Mexico for CONCACAF's lone available spot in qualifying and that we were undone by coaching alone? If you are, in fact, suggesting that, you may be the daftest person on this board.
“Football is a simple game based on the giving and taking of passes, of controlling the ball and of making yourself available to receive a pass. It is terribly simple.” -Bill Shankly, the greatest football manager to ever grace the earth
I forgot about that one.
To be honest I forget all the exact details from Lenarduzzi's reign, who it was he played favourites with, how we lost each exact game. And on the one hand you may be right, without Bob we may still have lost to Mexico/Argentina. On the other hand as strong as those teams usually are neither had really good qualifying campaigns when we were playing under Lenarduzzi.
I grew up in Vancouver at the time that the Caps were as big if not bigger than the Canucks and I idolized the Lenarduzzi brothers. I had a Whitecaps poster on my wall when I was 6 or 7 years old. I was initially happy when he took over the national team but I was also overjoyed when he left the position. I may not have been the greatest football expert in my younger days but I remember the professionalism and tactically intelligent way we were coached by Waiters even if we were not the most talented team in the world. And I remember the Lenarduzzi days were the exact opposite from Waiters, it was like having you local beer league coach take over the national team. And I remember a lot of favouritism, a lot of poor tactics and a lot of unprofessionalism from the team. I remember being constantly frustrated about who he selected, where they were playing and the tactics he was using. I remember constantly thinking that we could be a better performing team if we had a better coach.
I agree he is a Canadian soccer legend as a player and as someone who managed and stuck with the Caps in good times and in bad and possibly saved them from disappearing. On the other hand I think he is also a mixed bag, an awful lot of what he did was not positive for Canadian soccer and bordered on incompetent at times. And his managing of our national team was in my opinion a low point of our national team history even if we came close to qualifying in those days when outside of Mexico there was not much quality in CONCACAF and we were actually a CONCACAF power. We might still not have qualified with a better coach than Bobby but there were much better coaches available and we would have had a better chance. You can agree with me or not but I do not have the time or desire to go back all those years and remember the individual cases where he made bad decisions.
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