Freshly returned from the 2015 Cerebral Palsy Football World Championships in England, the Canadian Para Soccer team will have a challenge ahead if it wants to have a shot at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Brazil.
After making it to the final round at the championships, the now 10th-ranked team narrowly missed the cut-off point for paralympic qualification. According to the team’s head coach, homegrown Powell Riverite, Drew Ferguson, to qualify Canada’s team needed to finish eighth.
Ferguson has coached the team since 2004 and its first game under his leadership was in 2005. The loss at worlds, he believes, can be traced back to the final first round game against the Netherlands, a team now ranked fourth in the world.
“The [Netherlands] game was really close…If we hadn’t [received] a red card we would have done it,” said Ferguson, of the foul sustained by experienced defender Matt Brown. It left the seven-a-side team a man down and open to a series of powerful goals by the Netherlands, two in the final minutes of stoppage time.
“Still, I’m happy with the results,” said Ferguson. “It’s hard to beat a top-four team.”
Ferguson’s team opened the worlds with a win against Northern Ireland, and following that first loss against the Netherlands, it won against Venezuela and Portugal in the second and third rounds, then lost against Scotland in the finals after a 5-3 nail-biter.
The Cerebral Palsy Football World Championships were held in London from June 16 to 28 at St. George’s Park.
Despite Canada’s result in the championships, Ferguson is still hopeful his team can turn its luck around this August at the 2015 Toronto Parapan Am Games.
“We can still qualify by coming in first in the Parapan Am Games,” said Ferguson. “It will be hard because we play there against the Americas, and Brazil, who is ranked number three in the world, will be there.”
Canada’s Para Soccer team will meet for its next training camp in London, Ontario July 21, ahead of the Toronto Games.
“We will have our hands full there but we will see what happens,” said Ferguson of the team’s Paralympic goal.
Canada has never had a soccer team make it as far as the Paralympic Games.
