members could be turned off by a Trump victory.I think for

Canadas mens national team lost its opening game of the 2013 Concacaf Gold Cup on Sunday, after they were blanked 1-0 by Martinique. Thats right. Martinique. You can add this result to the growing list of international embarrassments for Canadian soccer. Weve had our fair share of suffering in Canadian soccer over the years. An 8-1 loss to Honduras that eliminated us from World Cup contention back in October; failure to reach the World Cup finals since 1986, our one and only appearance; a 2-0 loss to Cuba in the 2003 Gold Cup that saw us crash out at the group stage. If you think our embarrassments are unique to the mens program, think again. Twelve months before coming home with a bronze medal from the 2012 Olympic Games, Canadas womens team finished dead last in the 2011 womens World Cup, losing all three group games. Critics can blame the players, the coaches, the weather, the field conditions or any combination of other factors. They are nothing more than excuses. The brutally honest truth is this: we are simply not good enough. That criticism is not leveled at the players, the coaches or staff, who represent our country. They do their very best when wearing the red jersey, and on some occasions - like during last years Olympic Games - they pull off the impossible. The criticism applies to us - you, me and anyone else who is involved in Canadian soccer at any level. We are not good enough. We have stood idly by and allowed soccer to become nothing more than a recreational sport in our country. We have allowed the game to sink to the lowest common denominator, and we have done nothing - absolutely nothing - to put in place an effective development system for players, coaches and referees in Canada. While there are over 850,000 registered soccer players across the country, the vast majority of them are recreational players. Very, very few of them go through what can even loosely be described as an effective development program. Our youth soccer system emphasizes winning over development. The result is a pool of players who fail to master the fundamental skills required to compete at the elite levels of the game. The players - both male and female - who do manage to go on to represent Canada do so by chance, rather than by design. They reach the national team through their own will and determination, not because they have followed a well-researched, well-designed development pathway. It is time for that to change. It is time for the Canadian Soccer Association to put its money where its mouth is and to mandate change in soccer across the country. Thats right. Mandate. Asking for clubs to implement the principles of LTPD is not good enough. Asking for coaches to educate themselves is not good enough. Asking for leagues to implement minimum standards for coaching qualifications, training-to-game ratios and competition formats (including the removal of promotion and relegation) is not good enough. All of these things must be mandated. Because if the CSA leaves it up to the clubs, districts or leagues - if they make compliance with these things "opt-in" or optional - they simply wont happen. Because there is nothing stopping these things from being done voluntarily right now - other than the fact that we, as a nation, sink to the lowest common denominator. How can these changes be mandated? Easy. Create two streams of soccer in Canada - recreational and high-performance. Most clubs across the country do an excellent job of offering recreational soccer programs. The evidence is right there in the numbers - over 850,000 players from coast to coast. Leave the recreational programs as they are, and offer those clubs access to coach and referee education, as well as to a national development curriculum for recreational players. Then create a high-performance stream and mandate that organizations must meet the technical standards required to be involved in that stream. Both non-profit clubs and for-profit academies should be allowed to enter the high-performance stream - provided that they all meet the required standards. This isnt difficult to do, but it requires the CSA to flex its muscles a little bit. Given that there are high-performance leagues either already in existence (BC, Quebec) or about to get underway (Ontario), the CSA might be surprised just how little resistance there would be to such a plan. And heres another important component of pulling this off - the CSA needs to sing it from the rooftops. The CSA needs to go on national television and lay it all out on the table. Tell anyone and everyone what the plan is and why it is being implemented. Go across the country and hold open-mike town hall meetings where Tony Fonseca, the CSAs Technical Director, answers questions about the CSAs plan until all the questions have been answered. That is Fonsecas job; he needs to be able to sell the game from coast to coast. He needs to be able to win over skeptics, to convince the many likeminded people who truly care about the game in our country to start pulling in the same direction and start working to fix the broken mess that weve tolerated for decades in Canada. If he cant do that, then he is wrong man for the job. How many embarrassments must we suffer before we say enough is enough? How many more failed qualifying campaigns must we endure before we realize that the time to change is now? The time for change is now. Julian Edelman Womens Jersey . Walcott is available for Saturdays home match against Southampton as Arsenal looks to extend its two-point lead at the top of the Premier League. The Gunners are currently the second highest scorers in the league but Wenger insists Walcott will add something extra to his team. Tedy Bruschi Jersey . The showiest items on Calgarys lot were forwards Mike Cammalleri and Lee Stempniak. 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For better or worse.Some International Olympic Committee members -- who will choose among Los Angeles, Paris and Budapest, Hungary, in a vote next September -- cited possible pros and cons on Wednesday of Trumps role in the American bid.As a polarizing presidential candidate, Trumps words on Muslims, Mexicans and other issues could have offended some of the 98 IOC members from around the world who will select the host city.It may have, the IOCs longest-serving member, Dick Pound of Canada, told The Associated Press.At the same time, Pound did not rule out the possibility that Trump could help win votes if he travels to Lima, Peru, in September to pitch the Los Angeles bid in person to the IOC ahead of the secret ballot.If he is there, and evidently he is someone who feeds off his audience, there is no reason to think he cant work this audience as well, Pound said.South African IOC member Sam Ramsamy, whose country has been described by Trump as a very dangerous mess, dismissed any lingering effect with 10 months left before the 2024 Olympic vote.He has been rude to everybody, Ramsamy told the AP. I dont believe it will affect bidding in any way.In a statement Wednesday congratulating Trump, the Los Angeles 2024 bid committee said the Olympics can transcend politics and can help unify our diverse communities and our world.Citing 88 percent support for its bid, the committee pointed to strong bipartisan support at all levels of government.We look forward to working closely with President-elect Trump and his administration across the federal government to deliver a successful Olympics, the statement said.IOC President Thomas Bach offered a brief statement to the AP on Trumps election.Let me congratulate President-elect Trump on his victory and wish him all the best for his term in office for all the people of the United States and of the world, he said.Swiss IOC member Rene Fasel suggested that if Trump spoke offensively during the presidential race, it was a tactic to woo voters that worked.You saw his speech today and its already a different man, Fasel said, citing Trumps first public address as president-elect which sought to be more inclusive.ddddddddddddWhile Trump has little track record with the Olympic movement, his opponent, Hillary Clinton, was a supporter of New Yorks failed bid for the 2012 Games and has attended several Olympics. She was First Lady when the U.S. last hosted the Summer Games -- in Atlanta in 1996.President Barack Obama went to the IOC vote in Copenhagen in 2009 to support Chicagos bid for the 2016 Olympics. Chicago was still eliminated in the first round, with the games awarded to Rio de Janeiro.Clintons presidential campaign has some close ties to Los Angeles bid leaders. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is a Democrat who spoke at the Democratic Party convention in July which formally nominated Clinton. Bid chairman Casey Wasserman was also a prominent Clinton backer.Garcetti acknowledged in an AP interview in August during the Rio de Janeiro Olympics that some IOC members could be turned off by a Trump victory.I think for some of the IOC members they would say, `Wait a second, can we go to a country like that, where weve heard things that we take offense to? Garcetti said then.Garcetti remains more important to the bid than Trump, according to American IOC executive board member Anita DeFrantz.Its the city that hosts the games, and its the mayor that signs the documents. It is not the president, DeFrantz told The AP in Lausanne on Wednesday.Pound believes Los Angeles leaders will urgently want to meet with Trump to see if he is an enthusiastic supporter of this venture or not.Your most important campaign is at home, Pound said, suggesting that IOC voters and Olympic sports leaders can be swayed closer to election day. The roadshow only happens in the last few months.Before that final stretch of campaigning, the citys biggest rival -- Paris -- could have its own domestic politics to explain.In May, France elects a president in a contest many predict will include far-right candidate Marine Le Pen among the two candidates in a second round of voting. ' ' '