Canadian defender Kennedy 'devastated' as injury forces him to miss World Cup
Head coach John Herdman feels 25-year-old's pain over roster decision
Weeks before three of the most important games of his life, John Herdman opened a press call on Wednesday sounding alarmingly subdued, almost stricken. He soon revealed that he'd just spoken with defender Scott Kennedy and together they came to a brutal conclusion: Kennedy will not be going to the World Cup.
In Kennedy's case, a freak injury will see him miss the first World Cup for the Canadian men in 36 years. The 25-year-old defender fell awkwardly on his shoulder while playing with German club SSV Jahn Regensburg on Saturday. He won't play again until the new year.
"He's sitting in Germany in a lot of pain at the moment," Herdman said. "He was devastated this morning."
Herdman was clearly wounded, too. He's elevated his team, willed them to play above their relative stations, in part through a remarkable spirit of togetherness. He's narrowed gaps in skill and technique that might otherwise have taken years to close with emotional investment.
His terrible exchange with Kennedy laid bare the risks of underwriting something with your heart.
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"It's really raw," Herdman said. "We've just had a really difficult conversation and got to see what it means to someone when it's taken away."
Much of Herdman's time before the World Cup has been spent watching his players' club performances while he continually builds and rebuilds his 26-man roster. The European season has been compressed because of the strange winter timing of this year's tournament in Qatar, leaving the obsessive coach in a constant state of couch-bound anxiety.
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"Every game we're monitoring you have that pit in your stomach that you're going to lose a critical player," he said. "Every weekend, you're dreading it. One part is, you're going to miss some quality from your team, but the next part is just knowing the pain that those players are going to go through."
There have been close calls with marquee members of his side. Herdman could only watch in horror when Alphonso Davies staggered off the field for Bayern Munich last month after getting kicked in the face.
Fortunately, Davies has recovered, part of a string of mostly positive news out of Europe.
Stephen Eustaquio continued his wonder season with a Champions League goal for Porto on Tuesday. ("I'm really proud of his progression," Herdman said, finding his smile.) Jonathan David, third among Ligue 1 goal scorers with Lille, has been the subject of torrid transfer speculation, including rumoured interest from English giants Chelsea and Manchester United.
But the loss of Kennedy — less a pillar of the Canadian defensive corps than the sort of quality dressing-room character Herdman hugely values — is a reminder of the stakes of these coming days and weeks.
Agonize over roster
While the European club season continues apace, Canada's North American-based players will soon arrive in Bahrain for a pre-tournament camp and friendly on Nov. 11. Canada Soccer announced the Bahrain roster on Wednesday. It includes eight players from CF Montreal and seven from Toronto FC, including first-time call-up Lukas MacNaughton.
Obviously, several of them will be replaced when the likes of Davies, Eustaquio, and David become available. Herdman said that absent calamity, he knows which of his players will receive the bulk of the minutes in Qatar, a group of 17 starters and certain substitutes.
He will still agonize over the rest. He used 39 different men during Canada's remarkable qualifying run. He can take 26 of them on the adventure of a lifetime. Someone he cares about will be 27th.
"I know it's easy for people to pick a squad on the internet and post it, and say this guy, this guy, this guy," he said. "But when you've lived for four years with men who've been contributing, and you know their journeys inside out, and you know the sacrifices they had to make."
"There's deeper things that go into these decisions. It's a tough time."
World Cup rosters must be submitted to FIFA by Nov. 14. To Herdman, Canada's final side will be so much more than a list of names. It will be a collection of dreams fulfilled, of hopes unbridled. It will be the culmination of a colossal effort to make the impossible come true.
Now, Scott Kennedy will not be on it. Nor will a dozen other men who were part of this journey but will miss its end.
In the empty-seeming margins, in invisible ink, John Herdman will see their names, too.
Canada's preliminary roster:
Goalkeepers: Maxime Crepeau, Los Angeles FC (MLS); James Pantemis, CF Montreal (MLS); Dayne St. Clair, Minnesota United (MLS).
Defenders: Zachary Brault-Guillard, CF Montreal (MLS); Raheem Edwards, Los Angeles Galaxy (MLS); Doneil Henry, Toronto FC (MLS); Alistair Johnston, CF Montreal; Richie Laryea, Toronto FC (MLS); Lukas MacNaughton, Toronto FC (MLS); Kamal Miller, CF Montreal (MLS); Joel Waterman, CF Montreal (MLS).
Midfielders: Mathieu Choinière, CF Montreal (MLS); Liam Fraser, KMSK Deinze (Belgium); Mark-Anthony Kaye, Toronto FC (MLS); Ismaël Konè, CF Montreal (MLS); Jonathan Osorio, Toronto FC (MLS); Samuel Piette, CF Montreal (MLS).
Forwards: Ayo Akinola, Toronto FC (MLS); Lucas Cavallini, Vancouver Whitecaps (MLS); Jayden Nelson, Toronto FC (MLS); Jacob Shaffelburg, Nashville SC (MLS).
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