One of the few soccer players to have played for Canada in a World Cup believes Canadians should think positive when it comes to the prospect of seeing their own players competing in the global tournament.

“Most people assume we’re a long way away,” Bob Lenarduzzi, who played in the Mexico 1986 World Cup tournament, told the Straight from Toronto, where he is commenting on the 2010 FIFA World Cup for CBC. “We can qualify for the next World Cup. There are three spots [in the CONCACAF qualifying rounds], and there’s a fourth spot through a back-door opportunity. Ironically enough, that back-door opportunity was [between] Costa Rica and Uruguay.”

Uruguay, which is now in the quarter-finals facing Ghana this Friday (July 2), won the CONCACAF two-leg series 2-1 on aggregate, Lenarduzzi said.

“So you can see that even the fourth-placed finisher in the CONCACAF is of a good quality,” Lenarduzzi said. “You know, Mexico and United States, if you concede that they are the best two in the group and grant them automatic qualification, there is still another spot and there is still the back-door opportunity. We should easily be vying for one of those two spots.”

Canada was eliminated at the round-robin stage, finishing last in its group with a meagre two points from two draws and four losses in its Group B six-game round-robin against Honduras, Mexico, and Jamaica. Honduras topped the group, while Mexico edged Jamaica on goal difference to get to the final stage of qualifying.

Canada can be there next time, Lenarduzzi said, “if we have a solid core of players that can take us through”.

Carl Valentine, Lenarduzzi’s teammate in Mexico 1986, told the Straight initially, “I think you always have a shot. You certainly need a few bounces and things to go your way.”

However, he quickly added it will be a “tough” ask these next four years.

“It’s going to be tough, yeah,” Valentine said. “You see the Hondurans and the Costa Ricans, and their players are playing in the [English] Premier[ship] and the German league, and our top players are playing in lower divisions, right? That makes it hard. Obviously, Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal by 2012 are all going to have an MLS team. Hopefully that will make a big impact on our Canadian players and they will get a lot more playing opportunities at a good level.”

Lenarduzzi could not point to major depth in the Canadian ranks, but said Toronto FC midfielders Dwayne De Rosario and Julian de Guzman (both born in Scarborough, Ontario) impress him. But there will be other help required off the pitch, Lenarduzzi added.

“My feeling is that we need to bring all the stakeholders together—the pro clubs, the CSA [Canadian Soccer Association], the provincial association—and devise a plan,” he said. “And everyone should set aside their territorial initiatives and put those all on the table to figure out what we can all do collectively to give ourselves a chance of qualifying by design as opposed to by accident.”

Lenarduzzi said that, ultimately, the players themselves will dictate whether or not Canada is at the next World Cup.

“It won’t be anything the CSA can take credit for, because they really haven’t done anything to try to bring people together to establish a plan to allow us to start working at the grassroots level and youth development to develop players that will give us a broader base of talent in soccer.”