MoJo thinks Canadians suck

Listen up all you Molson swillin', ice skatin', fur tradin', hard 'O' pronouncin', free health care havin', bilingual speakin', constitutional monarchy practicin', funny comedian producin' Canadians. Mo Johnston thinks you suck!

When Toronto FC was announced as the newest franchise in Major League Soccer, the executive committee made clear to the owner-investors that they would have to abide by the same rules for internationals as the rest of the league. That is, they are allowed to have as many domestic players as they want, but only four international players.

By "domestic players," MLS meant Canadians, of course, but because Canada isn’t exactly teeming with football stars, MLS made an exception to the four internationals rule to allow TFC to add three Americans as well. Seems like a fair deal, doesn’t it? Well, TFC coach Mo Johnston doesn’t think so.

"It's ridiculous that we have to give up one of our senior internationals in order to sign an American 'keeper," Johnston told Slam! columnist Dean McNulty. "It's a handicap that we have had to deal with right from the start of the year."

Playing in Canada is a handicap? Isn’t that a bit strong? McNulty seems to agree with MoJo’s assessment of the bleak landscape of Canadian football:

Excuse us for having a pool of less than 100 world-class soccer players, compared to the thousands that American teams can cull from.

One could debate McNulty’s numbers (Is Canada really numbering close to 100 in world-class players?), but his implication is clear, Toronto FC would be better if they had fewer Canadians and more Americans.

But this also assumes that MoJo and the TFC management have done all they could to secure the best available Canadians out of the “100 world-class soccer players.” And if we are to believe his numbers, how can TFC not manage to find more.

A brief glance at the Canadian national team pool shows that the majority of players on the men’s national team play in minor European leagues or in lower divisions of major leagues. MoJo is trying to convince the fans that he did all he could to seek out the best available talent and that his inability to sign Americans is hurting the team. If I was Canadian, I would be offended. Has he really done all he could to secure top Canadian talent?

What about Paul Stalteri, who although he is listed on Tottenham’s roster, gets little actual playing time, or Tomasz Radzinski who is still unsigned? Hell, there was even a moment earlier in the year when they might have pried away an unhappy Dwayne De Rosario from Houston. But maybe these players were too pricey for the MLS start-up. Then, why not call-up some USL-1 stars from Vancouver and Montreal, like Patrick Leduc, Antonio Riberio, Martin Nash or Gabriel Gervais? How is it that a second-tier Canadian team is able to secure more Canadian national teamers than Toronto. Can Vancouver and Montreal really compete in terms of salary? What about exposure?

Granted none of the players mentioned are goalkeepers, the source of MoJo’s discontent with the MLS rule. So, hard-pressed was he, that TFC was forced to field 18-year-old David Monsalve (Canada’s U-20 keeper), who was shellacked for seven goals in two matches.

"If I were in America, I could trade a No. 1 draft pick for a top 'keeper," Johnston said. "But I can't do it. The rules say if I sign an American, he can only be a development player (under 25) or I lose one of my internationals."

Imagine the furor among TFC fans if Johnston were forced to release say, Danny Dichio, in order to get a top goalkeeper (McNulty adds).

Now that’s just stupid. First of all, he wouldn’t release Dichio; he would release douchebag Jeff Cunningham or maybe Tyrone Marshall. Second, no MLS coach/GM in their right mind should trade a top keeper for a No. 1 SuperDraft pick.

So, with the incomparable Greg Sutton injured, how can MoJo deal with this incredible Canadian “handicap”?

Why not try to lure away Lars Hirschfeld or Kenny Stamatopoulos from Norway? Can’t do it? Why not Roberto Giacomi from the Belgian second division? Or Joshua Wagenaar from the second division in The Netherlands?

So, maybe TFC and MoJo exhausted all of these avenues, but even so, McNulty gets it wrong when he writes,

It's time for MLS commissioner Don Garber to let TFC play under the same rules as everybody else or risk hurting the must successful start-up franchise his league has seen.

According to that stagnant, disease-infested pool of knowledge wikipedia, there are currently 15 teams that play outside of their home country in Europe, two in Asia/Oceania and, finally, six non-American-based squads playing in the U.S. Not counting TFC, there are three other Canadian teams that play in America’s USL (United Soccer League): the Vancouver Whitecaps, the Toronto Lynx, and the Montreal Impact.

And the USL-1, like MLS, has a cap on foreign players. Each team is permitted a maximum of five foreign players on its active game-day roster and a maximum of seven foreign players on its master roster. Somehow, Montreal is able to abide by these rules and they have been USL-1 regular season champs for the past two years.

So, these are “the same rules as everybody else.” Changing the rules might help TFC this season, but it would hurt Canadian soccer in the long run because a team of Americans playing in Canada isn’t going to develop Canadian soccer, any more than a team of Mexicans in Houston would develop young American players.

Toronto (and Canada) shouldn’t mortgage their future for a better today. And if MoJo isn’t able to acquire the Canadian talent necessary, then they should dump him and his “blame Canada” nonsense.

UPDATE: What do you know? Maybe MoJo reads TYH. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Soccer/TorontoFC/2007/07/31/4382366-sun.html