Canadian Attitude Needs To Change To Take The Next Step

[sting]

Happy that Canada won, great comeback, should be all positive, right?
Yes except if they want to get to the next level, they must change their attitude.
The game is tied 2-2 and we did take some chances but the last 3-4 mins. we tried to
play for the tie by running out the clock. Had we scored, we would have won the group.

To get to the next level, you need to play for it all and not just be happy with a quarter-final berth.
Now we will have to play a much tougher quarter-final game.

I'm not saying we would have scored the third goal but we needed to play for it.

[ray]

+1

New attitude needed on the field to match the reform that has happened within CSA governance.

[Jcm144]

I also did notice that Canada was trying to waste time at the end of the game, even though they had opportunities to move up forward

[Lord Bob]

It's difficult to draw systemic conclusions from the emotional ending of a brilliantly-fought 2-2 draw against superior opposition. We, sitting at home, can logically say they should have pushed more. The fact that they did not do so doesn't necessarily reflect an attitude problem, particularly given that they got burned so recently by getting that stoppage-time equalizer against Brazil then giving up the winner a heartbeat later.

[sting]

It's difficult to draw systemic conclusions from the emotional ending of a brilliantly-fought 2-2 draw against superior opposition. We, sitting at home, can logically say they should have pushed more. The fact that they did not do so doesn't necessarily reflect an attitude problem, particularly given that they got burned so recently by getting that stoppage-time equalizer against Brazil then giving up the winner a heartbeat later.

I think it does. The play not to lose attitude is not good enough. If you want to get achieve success you have to start beating these
teams that are ranked higher. Sweden was not superior on the field today but if you treat them that way, you simply won't win.

The team did well but we need to take the next step and I just wanted to seem them try to win at the end.
Just think how much confidence they would have picked up if they would have won the group.

[Sport Shaman]

If we had been able to score one more goal to win we would have won this group instead of Sweden, so yes it is a lost oportunity. I think what was completely unexpected was that Japan did not get the result against South Africa and therefore lost their oportunity to secure top spot in this group. Had that occured, we would have finished second in the group with the win and got the quarter final berth that Japan is currently in which plays E2 (Brazil or Great Britain). Sweden's reward for winning the group is to match up against France, which at this stage I would rather have us avoid. Assuming that New Zealand wins their match later today, we get matched up against E1 (Brazil or Great Britain) so in that respect not much different than finishing second.

On the main topic of this post, the player's attitude, I agree that they are a frustrating group to watch sometimes but what I have seen so far in this tournament looks much better than last summer in Germany. Having been there in person to watch all three games of that train wreck, this summer feels like maybe the glass is half full.

[villus]

Agree 100%, posted in the game thread and just saw this one now. Its a Canadian soccer virus, we don't play with enough confidence in big games and always feel like we are about to and often do lose the tight games. I don't care what Sweden is ranked, we outplayed them the whole game, the 2 goals they scored were keeper mistakes as was one of the Japan goals who is also ranked much superior to us and defending WC champions. Bottom line is Sweden had the mentality of locking up the tie, becasue they were going to be 2nd at worst and had a good shot at first in the group we had all the momentum other than the 2 goals, we had more of the ball and created many more chances we should have been confident and believed that we can win at least made the most of the opportunity when we tied the game 2-2 vs a more tired and defensive Sweden team.

[loyola]

Lot's of clichés IMO.

After chasing the equalizer all second half it's possible the players left a lot of energy and were happy with going through. Let's not forget that combination of freak results could've seen us finishing last third if we had lost against Sweden. So what if we try to score and Sweden scores? That could see us eliminated.

This doesn't have anything to do with Canadian soccer. It's a decision taken by the coach, maybe with the players, at a time when they felt it was in their best interest to play it safe.

Actually, not playing it safe is what have cost us many MNT important games in the past.

[Mapleblood]

Lot's of clichés IMO.

After chasing the equalizer all second half it's possible the players left a lot of energy and were happy with going through. Let's not forget that combination of freak results could've seen us finishing last third if we had lost against Sweden. So what if we try to score and Sweden scores? That could see us eliminated.

This doesn't have anything to do with Canadian soccer. It's a decision taken by the coach, maybe with the players, at a time when they felt it was in their best interest to play it safe.

Actually, not playing it safe is what have cost us many MNT important games in the past.

Agreed. Making it through the group stage is job one. If you have a choice to affect whom you play next, without risking advancing, then you play for position, like Japan did against South Africa.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/france-...9974--oly.html

[The Ref]

In this game I found nothing wrong with running the clock in the last few minutes. Let us not blame the players, they are following their coach instructions. Blame him.