{"id":518579,"date":"2022-11-04T17:21:28","date_gmt":"2022-11-04T14:21:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/im-only-thinking-about-qatar\/"},"modified":"2022-11-04T17:21:28","modified_gmt":"2022-11-04T14:21:28","slug":"im-only-thinking-about-qatar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/im-only-thinking-about-qatar\/","title":{"rendered":"#&#8217;I&#8217;m only thinking about Qatar.\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a25879feb07f\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a25879feb07f\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/im-only-thinking-about-qatar\/#%E2%80%9C%E2%80%98Im_only_thinking_about_Qatar%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;&#8216;I&#8217;m only thinking about Qatar.\u2019&#8221;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9C%E2%80%98Im_only_thinking_about_Qatar%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;&#8216;I&#8217;m only thinking about Qatar.\u2019&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n<p class=\"p1\">Every coach dreams of leading their nation to a FIFA World Cup. Few ever do. And none had led <i>both<\/i> men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams there\u2014until John Herdman came along. In a little more than a decade, the 47-year-old coach from Consett, a hardscrabble town in England\u2019s northeast, has lifted Canadian soccer to heights that once seemed unimaginable. <span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">The ever-energetic Englishman got his start as a primary-school teacher, pulling double duty as a coach at Sunderland\u2019s youth academy. Herdman pulled up roots and moved halfway around the world, taking a job with New Zealand\u2019s women\u2019s national team in 2006. He hopped continents yet again, to Canada, and took over the national women\u2019s team here when leadership came calling in 2011.<\/span> Under his direction, they secured back-to-back Olympic bronze.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\">Fortunately for Canadian soccer fans, Herdman is <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/game\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\" title=\"Game\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">game<\/a> for a challenge. In 2018, he took command of the men\u2019s team, a move that was met with a mix of criticism and shock. Ranked 94th in the world? A 36-year World Cup absence? Led by a schoolteacher who had never played pro? Well, he showed them. Before his big <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/trip-and-travel\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"10\" title=\"Trip &amp; Travel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">trip<\/a> to Qatar, Herdman discussed what it took to get Canada\u2019s players (and fans) on his side, how he gets his own head in gear and the schoolyard games that bonded this year\u2019s World Cup\u2013bound band of brothers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><b>What was the state of Canadian soccer when you arrived?<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Coming from New Zealand\u2014a country that had just qualified for the men\u2019s World Cup for the first time in 25 years\u2014I\u2019d witnessed how football fever could hit a rugby country. I saw a parallel with Canada, a hockey country. The Canadian women\u2019s team had just finished in last place at the Women\u2019s World Cup in Germany, but there was some real infrastructure around the high-performance program. Below the national level, however, the youth game was very disjointed. It\u2019s expensive for kids to play here.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><b>You coached the women\u2019s team to a bronze-medal win at the 2012 Olympics, which put soccer on the map for many Canadians. Did you realize that at the time?<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">We\u2019ve had some big moments, but that one really reflected the values of our great nation: hard work, fighting for <span class=\"s2\">the person next to you\u2014and being humble about it. It was a spe<\/span>cial moment and a big shot in the arm, given that Canada was hosting the 2015 Women\u2019s World Cup. Stadiums started selling out within two hours. Now the men are able to do that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><b>Are there differences between coaching the men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams? Has your style changed since making the move?<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">You do change as time goes by. I was much more of a \u201cteacher\u201d coach on the women\u2019s side. I\u2019m still rooted in that, but we have less time in camp with the men\u2019s team, and some players don\u2019t want to be taught as much, or they need other support. To me, elite athletes are elite athletes. People say, \u201cCome on, man. Are you naive? There are differences between men and women.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Social<\/a> conditioning makes people see them differently. I\u2019ve been able to lose the sorts of traditional lenses that other people still have on.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-sizes=\"auto\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1241525 size-full lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/John-Herdman-soccer-world-cup-canada-e1667571028901.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1274\" height=\"1218\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><b>Alphonso Davies said that every time you talk to the team, he <\/b><span class=\"s1\"><b>feels so motivated that he could run through a wall. Some play<\/b><\/span><b>ers talk about the team as a \u201cbrotherhood.\u201d Was it ever difficult to get them to buy into the way you do things?<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Arguments h<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ened regularly during my first two training camps with the men in 2018. The culture wasn\u2019t <i>completely<\/i> broken. The guys could have a punch-up on the field then go have a beer together, but it was a visibly disconnected team. I told the leadership that unless they were ready to fix it, we were going nowhere.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><b>How did that go over?<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">The initial pushback was, \u201cWell, this is <i>men\u2019s<\/i> football,\u201d implying that arguments didn\u2019t happen on the women\u2019s side. Of course they did, but my women\u2019s teams qualified for World Cups. I made it clear that that type of division did not consistently happen on high-performance teams.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><b>Have any of the classroom-management techniques you used with kids worked on your players?<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">I\u2019ve always held the philosophy that work made fun gets done, so we do icebreakers before every team meeting. Sometimes, the guys play \u201crock, paper, scissors\u201d or \u201cgrab the cup.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><b>For more than three decades, Canadians have had to cheer for other countries during the World Cup. How does it feel to be a part of the reason we can cheer for us?<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">That was part of the vision from the beginning. During our first meeting, we showed the men\u2019s players footage of the moment we qualified in 1986, when the fans ran onto the pitch in St. John\u2019s. With Canada co-hosting the 2026 World Cup, I wanted our players to know they could be the first and last group of men to represent us at home, and help to change a nation forever. <span class=\"s2\">They bought into that. It manifested in their performances dur<\/span>ing our qualifying run.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><b>How does Canada\u2019s fan culture compare to England\u2019s?<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">There were smoke and red flares when the team bus pulled into Hamilton before our qualifier against the United States\u2014that was an atmosphere as good as you\u2019d get in England. We felt like Liverpool FC pulling up for a Champions League match. But the men\u2019s team had to build trust with results before our fans could fill stadiums like they did at our freezing-cold qualifier in Edmonton last November.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><b>Who has most influenced your coaching style?<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Sir Bobby Robson. He grew up in northeast England just like me. Funnily enough, one of his first coaching jobs was with the Vancouver Royal Canadians in the late 1960s. He won the UEFA Cup with Ipswich, managed Barcelona\u2014I don\u2019t think you\u2019d find a Geordie coach who <i>wasn\u2019t<\/i> inspired by Sir Bobby.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><b>How do you coach yourself?<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">I\u2019ve made \u201clearning something new\u201d a part of my daily routine. Whether I\u2019m running or lifting weights, I\u2019ve always got some leadership or self-improvement audiobook in my ear. I was listening to podcasts before they were cool.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><b>In your 2015 TEDx Talk, you described life as \u201ca <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/watch-movies-tv-seriess\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"8\" title=\"Watch Movies &amp; TV Series\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">series<\/a> of \u2018oh shit\u2019 moments.\u201d Have you had more of those lately?<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">It\u2019s been four years of them. This whole journey to Qatar has been one. But look how it all worked out.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><b>Is there anything that scares you about taking Canada to the World Cup for the first time in 36 years?<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Oh, a lot of things. You could win every game or you could be a laughingstock. As a national team, we haven\u2019t been on this kind of stage for years, and never with a team valued at over $230 million. We\u2019re excited, but in the darkest recesses of our emotional brains, there\u2019s a fear that we won\u2019t make our country proud.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><b>Your 18-year-old son, Jay, plays for the Vancouver Whitecaps 2. He just got called up to play for New Zealand at the OFC Under-19 Championship. Have you talked about what it would be like to coach against him?<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">Believe it or not, I\u2019ve never even thought about it! We\u2019re just so bloody proud of him. To see him singing that national anthem and wearing that shirt really warmed our hearts. We really miss New Zealand. That\u2019s where Jay was born.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><b>Will your family be in Qatar to cheer you on?<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">My wife just told me the cost of getting there. So, yeah, after we remortgage the house, I\u2019d love to have her and the kids experience it!<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><b>It\u2019s rumoured that you\u2019re being courted by several English teams. Where do you think you\u2019ll be coaching when Canada co-hosts the World Cup in 2026?<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">I do want to coach club football one day, but I\u2019ve got a contract through 2026. It\u2019s nice that people are talking about me. Right now, I\u2019m only thinking about Qatar.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\"><b>Soccer\u2019s the most popular sport in the world. Could it ever be the most popular sport in Canada?<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">Canadians support all sports, but hockey is in their hearts. Qatar was a critical part of pushing soccer\u2019s flywheel here, and 2026 will push it even further. It may take 50 years to catch on, but this is a start. That\u2019s the beauty this team will be remembered for.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p><em>This article appears in print in the November 2022 issue of<\/em> Maclean\u2019s <em>magazine. Buy the issue for <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"c-link\" tabindex=\"-1\" href=\"https:\/\/canadianmags.ca\/products\/macleans-november-2022\" data-stringify-link=\"http:\/\/canadianmags.ca\/products\/copy-of-macleans-single-issue\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\" data-remove-tab-index=\"true\">$8.99<\/a>\u00a0or better yet, subscribe to the monthly print magazine for just\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/secure.macleans.ca\/loc\/MME\/head_subscribe\">$29.99<\/a><\/em>.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-sizes=\"auto\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1241161 size-full lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Cover_November_DRE-e1665665188991.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"819\"\/>\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async defer crossorigin=\"anonymous\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/general\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">General category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/sports\/world-cup-soccer-canada-herdman-interview\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;&#8216;I&#8217;m only thinking about Qatar.\u2019&#8221; Every coach dreams of leading their nation to a FIFA World Cup. Few ever do. And none had led both men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams there\u2014until John Herdman came along. In a little more than a decade, the 47-year-old coach from Consett, a hardscrabble town in England\u2019s northeast, has lifted Canadian&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":518580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/John-Herdman-soccer-world-cup-colour-e1667569951527-766x431.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[136450,134239,136451,73900],"class_list":["post-518579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-canmnt","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-qatar2022","tag-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}