It was a privilege and an absolute thrill to host a recent online Webinar for the National Soccer Coaches Association of Canada (NSCAC) featuring special guests like former Canadian National Men’s Soccer Team players David Edgar and Issey Nakajima-Farran, along with former assistant coach Antonio Floro. During the 70-minute webinar, we reminisced about the three-year period (2013-2016) when the #CANMNT was under the direction of Spanish manager Benito Floro.
The players shared some of their personal highlights during that era, including Edgar’s stunning volley against Jamaica in a friendly in Toronto, and low points as Canada eventually failed to reach the Hexagonal in their path towards the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Nakajima-Farran’s tale about the team’s harrowing journey to reach a game on a remote Caribbean island on a fishing boat (!) is absolutely priceless.
Antonio Floro spoke about the emergence of some of Canada’s younger players, under his tutelage with the U23 program, who now form part of the core of the current, World Cup-bound CANMNT.
It was a wide-ranging discussion that once again brought to the forefront the commitment and resiliency demonstrated by Canadian players who would come from all corners of the world several times a year to represent the maple leaf at regional tournaments, in friendlies or simply for training camps.
It’s not every day as sports journalists we have an opportunity to interact with former athletes in a lively, free flowing conversation where they take us behind the scenes and reveal some of their personal and collective aspirations and trepidations.
Here is a brief excerpt from the Webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUMng19cTWQ
The full Webinar will be available soon for NSCAC members at nscac.ca.
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