You have to feel somewhat sorry for Mauro Biello.
The interim coach of the Canadian men’s team was put into a very difficult position ahead of Friday’s friendly against Japan at Niigata’s Denka Big Swan Stadium. Biello has been tasked with overseeing the team in the aftermath of John Herdman’s blindsiding resignation in August after five years at the helm in favour of taking over as head coach of MLS club Toronto FC.
While Canada Soccer looks to appoint a new general secretary and hire Herdman’s permanent replacement, it’s also dealing with serious financial constraints that forced the men’s side to skip last month’s international window. Such is the extent of the cash crunch that Biello had less time than normal to work with his players in a compressed training camp following a long plane ride to Japan.
Considering this was the Canadians’ first game since July 9, maybe it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that they came out on the wrong end of a 4-1 loss to the Japanese in Niigata in Biello’s head coaching debut.
Sloppy defending and untimely errors were the order of the day for Canada, as Japan took full advantage with some ruthless finishing, scoring twice late in the first half to take a 3-0 lead going into the break. Jonathan David had a chance to tie things up after Japan scored inside the opening 90 seconds but failed to convert from the penalty spot. A fourth Japanese goal early in the second half killed off the Canadians, who salvaged a consolation goal in the 89th minute courtesy of substitute Junior Hoilett.
Biello did his best to put a positive spin on what can charitably be described as a dismal showing by the Canadians.
“For us, there’s a lot of learnings from this game, there’s things that we need to improve. There are some positives. There were moments in the game where we had some good action. Obviously, we missed a penalty [which] didn’t help. And you can’t make mistakes, individual errors versus a very good opponent,” Biello told reporters after the game.
He later added: “The score didn’t reflect the performance.”
In fact, the score reflected things quite accurately.
Japan is No. 19 in the current FIFA rankings, 25 spots above Canada, and the gap was glaringly obvious on Friday. The Japanese outworked and completely overran the Canadians in midfield, forcing the visitors onto their heels with their up-tempo game and quick ball movement. Alphonso Davies had a quiet night for Canada, forwards David and Cyle Larin didn’t offer much from open play, and the three-man defence anchored by Alistair Johnston, who had his pocket picked in the buildup to Japan’s third goal, looked suspect throughout the 90 minutes.
Canada simply had no answers to combat Japan’s speed and technical proficiency. It chased the ball and Japanese players’ shadows for large spells of the match, and ended up being outshot 19-6 (8-3 in shots on target) despite enjoying 59 per cent possession.
How badly Canada could have used Stephen Eustáquio for this one. The influential midfielder flew to Japan to join the squad despite picking up an injury in his last club match for FC Porto. But he quickly returned to Portugal to rehab the injury once it was deemed he was unfit to play.
Eustáquio’s calming presence, exquisite distribution and solidity in possession was sorely lacking in the centre of the park, as the midfield trio of Ismaël Koné, Samuel Piette and Jonathan Osorio all looked far from their best and struggled to deal with the swarming play of a Japan side who is positively stacked with talent at every position.
“That’s why they’re beating a lot of teams,” Biello said of Japan, who reached the round of 16 at last year’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
“But this is what we wanted. For the players to feel that type of competition is important. Now they’ll learn from it. They’ll understand how spaces close super-quick at this level. And we’ll be better for it. And we’ll grow from here and be a better team going into the Nations League.”
What will be interesting to see is how Biello responds to this loss ahead of a hugely important series of matches. Canada has been drawn directly into the quarter-final stage of the 2023-24 Concacaf Nations League which will be played in a home-and-away format during November’s international window. The four quarter-final winners advance to the 2024 Nations League finals and also qualify for next year’s Copa America.
Canada’s opponent for the quarter-finals will be determined this week with the conclusion of the group stage – the top four teams across both groups move on to the next round. The home leg of Canada’s two-game series will go on Nov. 21 in Toronto.
Under the circumstances, you can understand why Biello fielded a very familiar starting 11 against Japan. But given the lack of speed of some of the veterans and how badly Canada was overwhelmed in midfield, Biello will have to make wholesale changes for next month’s two-legged playoff.
“That was the goal, to learn from this game… I wanted to see certain players and see how they could deal with this type of opponent. When I get back and review the game there will be things for sure that I’ll have to adjust to improve this team,” Biello conceded.
“But at the same time, I wanted to give that continuity, that consistency to this team because we haven’t played. We haven’t played since [July], and when you don’t play since [July] there’s a lack of cohesion, and it’s not one session and a half of [training] that’s going to bring back cohesion.”
John Molinaro is one of the leading soccer journalists in Canada, having covered the game for over 20 years for several media outlets, including Sportsnet, CBC Sports and Sun Media. He is currently the editor-in-chief of TFC Republic, a website dedicated to in-depth coverage of Toronto FC and Canadian soccer. TFC Republic can be found here.
