Road to FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010

Dale Mitchell’s reign as Canada’s men’s senior head coach begins this month with a 22 August friendly against Iceland. It continues next month with an international friendly on home soil, the 12 September match against CONCACAF rival Costa Rica at BMO Field in Toronto.



Both matches, however, are just preparatory work for the real job: FIFA World Cup qualifying that takes place next season. Canada hasn’t qualified for a men’s FIFA World Cup since Mexico 1986, so their goal is pretty straight forward: qualify for South Africa 2010.



Mitchell is the eleventh coach in charge of Canada’s World Cup qualifying efforts. Of the 10 coaches before him, only Tony Waiters managed to qualify for a FIFA World Cup. Among Waiters’ troops back in 1986 was a young player named Mitchell.



Before coming to the senior team, Mitchell coached Canada at the last three FIFA U-20 World Cups: UAE 2003, Nederland 2005 and Canada 2007.



Don Petrie (2-0-2)

Canada fails to qualify for FIFA World Cup 1958 (two wins, no draws, two losses)



Peter Dinsdale (2-1-1)

Canada fails to qualify for FIFA World Cup 1970 (two wins, one draw, one loss)



Frank Pike (1-1-4)

Canada fails to qualify for FIFA World Cup 1974 (one win, one draw and two losses)



Eckhard Krautzun (5-6-7)

Canada fails to qualify for FIFA World Cup 1978 (four wins, three draws and three losses)



Barrie Clarke (6-6-2)

Canada fails to qualify for FIFA World Cup 1982 (two wins, six draws and one loss)



Tony Waiters (11-11-21)

Canada qualifies for FIFA World Cup 1986 (five wins, three draws, no losses)

Canada loses all three games in FIFA World Cup 1986 (0-0-3)



Tony Taylor (6-2-6)

Canada fails to qualify for FIFA World Cup 1990 (one win and one loss against Guatemala)



Bob Lenarduzzi (20-15-26)

Canada fails to qualify for FIFA World Cup 1994 (six wins, four draws, four losses)



Canada fails to qualify for FIFA World Cup 1998 (six wins, five draws, five losses)



Holger Osieck (20-9-17)

Canada fails to qualify for FIFA World Cup 2002 (two wins, one draw, five losses)



Frank Yallop (8-3-9)

Canada fails to qualify for FIFA World Cup 2006 (three wins, two draws, three losses)



Dale Mitchell

Will coach Canada’s FIFA World Cup qualification efforts beginning in 2008