Look I get it. This is another piece by Forge FC fan disguised as legitimate media. The writer is biased and out of his depth. He is just riding the high of yet another championship. Probably all true to an extent.
But let’s face it Canadian soccer fans, you don’t have anything better to do until March, so give it a read anyway. Plus, this may convince you, and even if it doesn’t, I’ve hidden some shoutouts and easter eggs within. Win-win.
Bobby who?
I know you all have Wikipedia too but allow me this little divergence from the main thesis.
Bobby Smyrniotis has done a few things for the Canadian soccer landscape. He, along with his brother Costa, started their own soccer academy. You may have heard of it. It is called Sigma and it has had some pretty decent success. It has turned out a bunch of players that have gone on to university and college on scholarships. Some former players are coaching, in management at professional teams and working in soccer media in Canada, professionally, as a direct result of their days at Sigma.
A few of those players have gone on to prominent roles abroad and here in Canada as players. In fact, a few may be familiar from your CanMNT game day programmes (I don’t think they make programmes anymore, but it works for effect). Names such as Richie Laryea, Cyle Larin and Tajon Buchanon have all spent time under Bobby’s tutelage. Not bad Bobby, not bad.
But how did Bobby and his brother end up starting an academy? Well, it was a natural progression from coaching at a respected European academy. Bobby coached in the academy program at Olympiacos for two years. Yes, the most successful team in Greek football history. The team with a record 47 league titles* and 28 Cups. That Olympiacos. Not bad for a local boy.
*They do it weird over there. Apparently, the league means more than the playoffs. Crazy!
And currently Bobby is Head Coach of the undisputedly most successful team in the Canadian topflight, Forge FC. (Yes, I can hear you Cavalry FC and co. with your all-time most regular season wins, 2023 Regular Season title and that Spring and Fall. But we’re talking about those pressure-packed all or nothing games*, not the perfect attendance award. More on that another day).
*Ok you were the first to beat MLS competition in knockout play, but it was the Whitecaps, so really…
Bobby has led the Mighty Forge to four Championships in five years. This man gets the big occasion. For those of you that weren’t in the crowd of 14,000+ lucky souls at the Coffee Grounds in Hamilton on October 28th, first of all, my condolences. You missed a hell of a party. But at least you were at home glued to your universally respected and very popular OneSoccer subscription. No? FuboTV? Pirated feed? What, you heard it from that weird neighbour who won’t quit trying to hand you free tickets? Well. Whatever. At least you saw the YouTube highlights or have me. I’ll break it down. Bobby outcoached Tommy…again. Bobby even made subs after going behind and adjusted tactics! Imagine the possibilities CanMNT fans.
Well, now you are all caught up on who Bobby is. Now I’ll make the case for him as the national team manager.
Never! Never! Never! The Smartest Soccer Fans Motto
The smartest and most important Canadian soccer fans will let you know immediately that Bobby should never under any circumstances be anywhere near the role Canada manager. (Sarcasm comes through in this, correct?)
And this is for good reason. The arguments go thusly:
- He has only ever managed in the lower divisions.
- He has no international experience.
- We need someone expensive, experienced, and famous.
- The World Cup ’26 means we must strike now, no time for error.
- Canada needs someone with the appropriate gravitas to overhaul the entire system.
So, let’s try to answer these critics.
The Minors
The Canadian Premier League is topflight footy in Canada. (Pauses to allow select MLS fans to pick up the mobile devices they’ve just flung across their living rooms in fury). Now, no one is arguing that the level of play, or pay, are equivalent across these two very different leagues. And obviously the Canadian MLS teams have far better managers than anything CPL has to offer. Please ignore the ignominious firings of two of the three MLS Canada managers after minimal time at their respective helms thanks to dumpster fire seasons that saw them miss a new improved playoff where requirement for entry was basically to remember to RSVP on time. In other words ol’ Bill Bradley is back off to Scandinavia and Hernan is probably managing a Foot Locker if the universe is balanced.
The point is that Bobby is coaching in a Canadian league that boasts some of the top young players in Canada. Players from this league and its junior, L1C, are in some cases one or two moves from an opportunity on the National Team (see Zator, MacNaughton, Johnston, etc). And he is succeeding there. Not just succeeding but dominating. And this is where a look to the past, and abroad, may be helpful.
Ange Postecoglou was toiling away in the Australian A-League to great acclaim, leading his Brisbane Roar teams to titles. But not many cared outside of the nation. Good thing they did within the nation though. Ange coached the Socceroos to a competitive, but winless World Cup. Then he won Australia’s first Asian Cup. He then qualified them for the next World Cup before stepping down. Of course, in retrospect, Australia should have waited until he had succeeded in Japan, Scotland, and England before hiring him because he didn’t have any senior level international experience prior. (Unlike his Socceroos predecessor, Holger Osieck, who did. Easter Egg #1!)
International Men of Mystery Only – Yeah Baby!
Next up, the no international experience model. I mean we touched on it with the Big Ange example, but let’s really drive it home. What is international experience? Is it working with young players that have been called up for their country partly because of that work with them? Or is it leading a team of professionals to foreign lands to play (and succeed) against teams with storied traditions in some Concacaf hotbeds, like Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, and the always dread-inducing Honduras? Maybe it is working day in and day out with former Canadian Internationals both on and off the pitch like David Edgar, Kyle Bekker, and Manjrekar James. Well, if any of this feels like it lends itself to basic introduction to the international game that’s because it does. So there!
Bobby has worked with current, future (potentially, I see you Kevaugn), and past CanMNT players. He is not entirely naïve. He has taken a team across borders into hostile climates and created the “us against them” narrative, while finding success. We need to at least consider the checks Bobby has in his column. Sure, you can dismiss them as too “minor league” but acknowledge them first.
Do You Know Who I Am?
I haven’t forgotten the very real and valid argument for a big name in the role. It would be dismissive of me to just say “No, never!” But there are reasons I am less optimistic about this pathway than one that includes Bobby. Many more serious voices than mine have pointed out that Canada Soccer has a cash problem. That cash problem is, of course, the lack of it. A big-name coach would be a big-time expenditure. And typically, big-money managers come with a big-money staff. Now it could, and has, been argued that a big get could mean increased sponsorship dollars. But realistically, what coach is out there on the horizon, and in our price range, that would turn the heads of the ever popular “casual sports fan?” I know Beckham came to the USA and drew non-soccer fans to the TV, like Messi is now. But there is no David Messi or Lionel Beckham equivalent at manager. (Editor don’t touch those names, I am being hilariously impudent for effect).
Maybe Man City gets their FFP judgement handed down, and Pep decides Canada looks more palatable than weekend trips to Portsmouth (barf!) or Shrewsbury Town (better than Portsmouth). But even then is the world’s most famous football manager enough to make the average Joe care in Canada? Maybe. But, believe it or not I was just kidding, Pep is never setting sail for our shores. And neither is anyone of a calibre to win over the everyday sports industrial complex fan here.
So, it will have to be a modest success we role the dice on: Similar to Jamaica’s or Panama’s current managers. And if that is the case, why not skip the extended “getting to know you phase” and just hire the guy who already knows the set up intimately, understands the roadblocks and barriers yet still wants the job?
The World’s Biggest Stage
Okay I get the trepidation here. We will never get an opportunity as big as this in Canada in our lifetime. (Well at least mine, I am old. You kids may be around for the inevitable switch to annual World Cups to drive the money needed to keep Fifa’s bribes – sorry, revenue – up to snuff.) But maybe even here we need to take a breath.
Hitting the panic button and going all in on the biggest name we can find to salvage our only home World Cup makes sense on the surface. But what’s the worst that can happen? Canada has been to two World Cups. We’ve never won a game. We’ve barely scored. WC ’26 is already such a low bar. It is basically a reminder of Montreal Olympics ’76. You know that one? The first and only time a host nation failed to win a Gold Medal. It’s what we do. Might as well keep it that way. When Carlos Ancelotti was the rumoured guy, suddenly everything here was going to change. But was it? We would still have our weird pay-to-play system, bickering federations – regionally and provincially, and that pesky lack of funding.
When you bring in the little guy everyone assumes we are going to suck. So, a lot of pressure dissipates on the system. But the coach will still be able to drive the players because, no one believes in them but those guys in that room. And that’s all that matters. Well, them and the Voyaguers of course.
No matter what happens in 2026 there will be naysayers. Even if we reached the knockouts, we’d complain about the tactics when we eventually bowed out. Or about a missed sitter that would have turned it all around. Or of course how a better coach would have gotten us further. There will also be sold out stadiums and dancing in the streets. Because it is a World Cup. So really, this is less of worry than it needs to be. It is going to be a blast for non-diehards just to be invited to the dance. And for diehards, it’s a freakin’ World Cup!
Mould It in Your Image
The problem in Canada is the entire system. Anyone will tell you that (And has if you’ve been listening). We don’t have enough youth camps. We don’t scout our youth well-enough. The talent is siloed in too few places (see MLS Academies). The list goes on. But there are relative success stories along the line. Sigma is one of them. We’ve talked about the talent that has come from that academy already, so we don’t need to rehash it. Just celebrate it.
And Bobby has learned how to develop youth all the way up tp senior teams. Let him oversee it in a larger way.
Now, I am not totally naïve. Bobby has succeeded as part of the very system I think is backward compared to those of successful footballing nations. So, can he be trusted to overhaul it? I say yes. Because succeeding within the limits of where you play is a necessity. But it doesn’t mean you are limited to its ideas once you have the chance to change them. I think we all have a list of how we’d do things differently at our jobs if we were the boss. I am sure Bobby is no different.
Let one of Canada’s best ever homegrown coaches have a shot. I think it may offer many things we never even expected.
Outside Barriers
Now no one said this would be easy. And one of the biggest obstacles Coach Smyrniotis faces is relative obscurity. I don’t want to re-open the OneSoccer vs Sportsnet/TSN duopoly battle, but they all suck. Generally speaking OneSoccer is just not big enough here to matter as much as we all hoped it would by this point. And the duopoly are too big to be made to care about something we love if they don’t stand to benefit from it big time.
As a result, Bobby’s journey is relatively unknown. And even for those who know it in the wider Canadian sport landscape it is known through (rare) media clips. It would have been so much better had casual soccer/sports fans accidentally come across a Concacaf League game while searching for a poker match. Or had watched one of Bobby’s five straight finals appearances (maybe not 2021’s, but I digress) on cable from their couch, or out at the pub with some friends.
Our sports media landscape has conspired, knowingly or otherwise, to stunt the game here. And that’s a shame. Because it has the potential to be amazing, and it already is in so many ways. Bobby’s success could do so much to blow up the domestic game here as it sits on the precipice. That is not the reason to hire Bobby. But it is an awesome byproduct.
The Final Countdown
In the end, Biello probably isn’t the man going forward. Not because he isn’t talented and knowledgeable, but because he is part of the regime that failed. And I don’t mean to be flippant, because we had some obvious success under Herdman. (We were the Kings of Concacaf, sigh). But in the end it failed. That was evidenced in Herdman jumping from CanMNT’s sinking ship to the S.S. TFC which is currently sitting on the ocean floor. That speaks volumes for the task at hand.
I have no doubt that there are some excellent and capable candidates around Concacaf and the world. But there are very few with as much of a connection to this generation’s players. And even fewer with as strong a bond to the game in Canada. Bobby has a deep connection with the game here. I think we’d be foolish not to consider exploiting it.
Bobby for CanMNT Head Coach. And quick. We’ve got Trinidad to prepare for.
(I fear there will be no move before March, because decision -makers don’t want to unsettle the team further before a big match. And they are notoriously risk-averse. I think that’s a mistake. A move needs to be made soon to get the new coach ready to run January’s Camp Poutine for North American-based players. A group Bobby knows pretty well).