They Didn’t Deliver

By Duncan Fletcher Waking The Red

Canada 0:4 USA. Reality bites.
With everyone’s passports already stamped for London, tonight’s game didn’t really mean much, beyond bragging rights and a particularly crappy looking trophy. Let’s hope at least Canada can convince themselves of that after coming off distinctly second best against the US.

A lot of the talk and media hype before the tournament started focused on the theme of redemption for the 2011 World Cup fiasco. Beating up on Haiti, Cuba, and Costa Rica was never going to prove anything, and though the qualification clinching game against Mexico saw a very good performance complimented by a welcome display of guts to put the game away when Mexico was threatening, it was merely doing what was expected of them. The real shot at redemption will come when there’s big games against tough teams with medals on the line in London, but if there was any to be had in this tournament, it would come by way of a good performance and result against the only other team in the tournament at or above Canada’s level.

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