Canada Manager Hart Resigns

The Canadian national team leaves the pitch after falling to Honduras

Soccer is a results oriented business, and it's even getting to be that way in countries where soccer isn't even the main sport.  Expectations are rising in places like the USA and Canada, and when those expectations aren't met, somebody pays the price.

In the end the result that Canada wanted, at least the next step, was so close yet so far away.  Coming into Tuesday's World Cup Qualifier in Honduras, all team Canada needed was a draw to advance to the Hexagonal stage next year.  They didn't get close, as the Hondurans blew them off the pitch by an 8-1 scoreline.

The process of paying the price for the disappointment began today as manager Stephan Hart resigned. In a conference call earlier today, the Canadian Soccer Association said that Hart's resignation had indeed been offered and accepted.

CSA president Victor Montagliani had this to say about the newly departed manager: “Stephen’s always been an exemplary model for the game at both the national and international levels. He’s been asked to do a lot of things and he’s done it with the ultimate class and the gentleman that he is. He has earned the respect of the entire soccer community.”

Of course that was tempered by this quote about the result: "I’m not sure if words can describe the feelings when I was down there or words that I can’t even say on this call.  I think at the end of the day, whether we’re working in the game [or not], we’re obviously all fans of our national team. We’re all proud to be Canadians and I had a feeling I never want to experience again.”

Canada now has a long time to wait.  Qualifying for the 2018 World Cup doesn't begin for three years.  Certainly some of the guys that are around now aren't going to be around then, and the program now faces a massive rebuilding project.

Canada has qualified for the FIFA World Cup just once, in 1986.  That year they were grouped with France, Hungary, and the USSR.  They lost all three group stage matches with a -5 goal difference.  They also won the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 2000 and the Olympic Championship in 1904.