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Looking back in anger
"If we don't make the World Cup this time, my situation should be in jeopardy and I don't mind saying it,'' he said then.
They didn't tie the can to Lenarduzzi immediately after the 2-2 tie against Mexico yesterday. It's not cool to fire a guy after his team plays its best game of the year.
But you can tell by the way he talks that, now it's official and Canada has failed to qualify for the World Cup, he knows he's gone. And you can tell from the talk around the Canadian team here that he's certain to be replaced by a foreigner.
If that's the way it works out, Lenarduzzi knows where he lost it.
"The two games in Vancouver,'' he said.
"The games against Jamaica and El Salvador. If we win those two games, and you have to win your games at home, we'd have four more points than we have now.''
Canada has six points to show for eight games in the CONCACAF standings where wins are worth three points and ties are worth one. Win those two and they'd have had 10. They'd still have a hope.
Last year Canada beat El Salvador at home and away for six points in the same qualifying pool.
That put them through to this round where three of the six teams advance to France '98. This year the tie in Vancouver was the only point they managed against El Salvador.
"If we'd won those two games, we'd be in the middle of the pack,'' said Lenarduzzi.
"Not getting those two results cost us, no question.''
IF, IF, IF, IF ...
Canadian goalkeeper Craig Forrest says he's come to the conclusion Canada lost this before they played a game.
"If we'd played all the way like we played today, we would have qualified,'' said the man who will win Canada's player of the year honors by acclamation.
"Getting a schedule which had us open in Mexico City and then play the USA at Stanford, California, really hurt us,'' he said of 4-0 and 3-0 losses.
"To give up seven goals in two games really set us back and I think the two draws in the next two games had a lot to do with what happened to us in the first two games.''
Lenarduzzi had nothing to do with the schedule. That was Kevan Pipe. The Canadian Soccer Association boss made several major mistakes in putting together and accepting this schedule, one of which wouldn't have been playing Mexico on Oct. 12 with a game time temperature of zero degrees Celsius if Canada had still been in contention.
But Lenarduzzi's team had little left to sell and Lenarduzzi admits the year has put the national team program in the toilet.
"There were 11,806 in the park today and half of them were Mexicans,'' testified the coach.
When Pipe put the game together, he'd envisioned Canada would be in position to clinch a World Cup spot with a win over Mexico and there were expectations for 40,000 fans.
TAKING SHOT AT OFFICIATING
Another factor Forrest suggests was officiating. He figures officials don't want a country like Canada to end up in the big show and said so.
Lenarduzzi said he was definitely disappointed with the work of Guatemalan Carlos Mendizabal yesterday.
"There were a lot of little things he just didn't give us,'' said Lenarduzzi.
"There were two stretchers on the field in the second half and he gives no injury time. How can that be?''
Lenarduzzi said if he wasn't a happy camper, he was happy for his campers.
A 2-2 tie against Mexico is a very good day for Canadian soccer.
"Obviously they were playing for keeps,'' said Lenarduzzi of the Mexicans.
Taking a 1-0 lead in the eighth minute on a goal by Enrique Alfaro, the Mexicans shifted into cruise control and didn't profit from the stumbling and bumbling by Canadians such as Colin Miller, who had a particularly pathetic half.
In the end the Canadian effort made it feel like Mexico had actually accomplished something by qualifying out of the sad assortment of soccer countries in CONCACAF.
When Ramon Ramirez scored with four minutes to go, it wasn't a ho-hum reaction to the goal by the Mexicans. That was real joy. And real relief.
NEXT ROUNDS: Round of 16 || Quarter-finals || Semi-finals
GROUP A: Brazil, Morocco, Norway, Scotland
GROUP B: Austria, Cameroon, Chile, Italy
GROUP C: Denmark, France, Saudi Arabia, South Africa
GROUP D: Bulgaria, Nigeria, Paraguay, Spain
GROUP E: Belgium, Holland, Mexico, South Korea
GROUP F: Germany, Iran, United States, Yugoslavia
GROUP G: Colombia, England, Romania, Tunisia
GROUP H: Argentina, Croatia, Jamaica, Japan