Greece 1-0 Canada: Reaction

Based on my past two entries, it seems I'll only be blogging when soccer teams I like lose 1-0.

Canada's first competitive match of 2011 was indeed a loss, but not a disappointing one. The Canucks certainly didn't play like they were 70 places below Greece in the FIFA rankings. I might add it's ridiculous that Greece are ranked 10th in the world, and I don't think Canada should be buried down at 80th. I could go on, but I think everyone agrees that the FIFA rankings are, for lack of a better word, just dumb to begin with.

Before I get to the positives, lets get the negatives out of the way. Adam Straith is to blame for the goal against, his horrible attempted clearance gifted a guy with a great Greek name in Ioannis Fetfatzidis all the space in the world to fire home.

My man of the match was Josh Simpson, the Turkish-based midfielder who played with flair and passion that I rarely see when watching Canada play.

Atiba Hutchinson was a worthy choice for the captain's armband and he played a solid role, often coming back to help out defensively. He's Canada's best player at the moment.

For our MLS boys, Will Johnson played a fierce game and though that resulted in a bunch of fouls, I must give him credit for his tenacity. Dwayne De Rosario wasn't prolific but he had Canada's best chance off a free-kick that came close to leveling the match. Now hopefully he doesn't hold out on TFC as the MLS season approaches. I have a feeling I may be blogging about some 1-0 TFC losses a little later this year. Dejan Jakovic and Adrian Cann were generally solid on the back line too.

With the Gold Cup coming up later this year I'm looking forward to seeing Canada's more youthful squad get some more matches in together. I'm happy to be optimistic about the team again! I just hope Junior Hoilett decides to get involved at some point.

Finally, the new Umbro kits have taken some flack but I think they looked pretty good out there. It didn't seem all that Manchester United-ish as some have feared. The white shirt might be like that, but I'll reserve judgement until I see it in action.