Bulls & Bears: John Herdman has Canada knocking on the door for the 2022 World Cup

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Bulls of the week

In what was a case of a draw that felt like a victory, it was a very good week for Canada’s men’s national soccer team in the CONCACAF regional qualifying derby for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

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Canada earned a road point in a 1-1 draw with Mexico on Thursday night. That kept Canadians among the top three nations, a surprising distance from the traditional regional favorites of the United States and Mexico.

It also proved to many that John Herdman’s troops are real as they attempt to qualify for their first World Cup berth in 36 years.

It’s just one step, but it should prove to be a great confidence builder for Canada, which, like most countries, has generally been dead meat in the Azteca of Mexico City.

However, the biggest winner in the sports business this week has been Major League Baseball.

Test # 1 was a highly anticipated rivalry showdown in the American League wild-card game on Tuesday, in which the Boston Red Sox defeated the New York Yankees. Despite the Red Sox achieving a convincing 6-2 win at Fenway, it was the largest television audience for wild cards and the most-watched baseball game on ESPN since 1998. It scored a US English audience of 7.69. million viewers and attracted more than 600,000 Canadian viewers on Sportsnet. Add in an estimated broadcast audience of over 250,000 and baseball ruled the night in both the US and Canada on TV, radio, digital, and social.

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The closest game Wednesday night was Exhibit No. 2, where the Los Angeles Dodgers used Chris Taylor’s two-run homer to defeat the tough St. Louis Cardinals at Dodger Stadium. That game was another big draw, with 6.67 million viewers on TBS. The Red Sox and Dodgers are now in the best-of-five divisional series, which featured the traditional first Friday of four consecutive playoff games.

In what is the longest day of baseball each year, MLB went wall-to-wall in what is typically 12 hours of divisional play from the eight teams left standing. The best sports showdown on television, radio and social networks is the Battle of California between the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers, with the two best records in baseball. Never before have two teams met with 213 combined victories in a division series.

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Most incredibly, it is the first postseason meeting between the former New York Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Bears of the week

Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer had a bad week, but nothing quite as bearish as the National Women’s Soccer League.

Shaken by an abuse scandal that affected multiple teams, prompted head coaching layoffs and resignations at the league’s headquarters, players staged in-game protests this week after stepping away from game action last weekend. when the revelations showed absurd levels of toxicity. in the NWSL.

As others have pointed out, the scandal is not just about abusive behavior and sexual misconduct, but about the system that allows it.

One thing is for sure, what has happened in women’s football in recent weeks is not something isolated. It shows once again how much work remains to be done to change the dysfunction and culture that has continued to prevail in team sports, if not all sports in which performance is everything.

Tom Mayenknecht, marketing communications executive and sports business commentator, is a director of Emblematica Brand Builders and host of The Sport Market on BNN Bloomberg Radio 1410 and TSN Radio nationwide. Follow Mayenknecht on: twitter.com/TheSportMarket

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