LOLCanada's Road to the 2018 World Cup...
...starts now. Well, not now now, but soon. Tomorrow night actually.
Canada has announced a 19-man roster for its first two CONCACAF Round 2 matches of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ Qualifiers. The Canadian team will begin its qualifying campaign against St. Lucia at BMO Field in Toronto on 2 September before heading south to take on Puerto Rico in Bayamón on 6 September. Canada will need to finish in first place in Group D of this CONCACAF Round 2 to advance to the next stage of 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ Qualifiers. The group also includes St. Lucia, Puerto Rico and St. Kitts and Nevis.
Head Coach Stephen Hart has elected to recall sixteen players involved from Canada’s 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup squad. He also opted to include strikers Iain Hume and Olivier Occean, as well as defender Ante Jazic in the team.
Veteran attacker Dwayne De Rosario will enter the campaign only two goals away from equaling Dale Mitchell’s record tally of 19 goals for Canada. With 59 appearances under his belt, De Rosario is also the most experienced player in the squad.
Current Canadian Roster:
1- GK- Lars Hirschfeld | NOR / Vålerenga Fotball
2- D- Ante Jazic | USA / Chivas USA
3- M- Mike Klukowski | TUR / Manisaspor
4- CB- Kevin McKenna | GER / FC Köln
5- D- André Hainault | USA / Houston Dynamo
6- M- Julian de Guzman | CAN / Toronto FC
7- M- Terry Dunfield | CAN / Toronto FC
8- M- Will Johnson | USA / Real Salt Lake
9- M/F- Tosaint Ricketts | ROM / FC Politehnica Timişoara
10- M- Simeon Jackson | ENG / Norwich City FC
11- M- Josh Simpson | TUR / Manisaspor
12- M- Jonathan Beaulieu-Bourgault | GER / SC Preußen Münster
13- M- Atiba Hutchinson | NED / PSV Eindhoven
14- F- Dwayne De Rosario | USA / DC United
15- D/M- David Edgar | ENG / Burnley FC
16- F- Marcus Haber | SCO / St. Johnstone FC
17- M/F- Iain Hume | ENG / Preston North End FC
20- D- Jaime Peters | ENG / Ipswich Town FC
22- GK- Milan Borjan | TUR / Sivasspor
http://www.canadasoccer.com/news/viewArt...
Still no David "Junior" Hoilett? Argh! Hmm, article linked below makes it sound like he wants to get his next contract sorted out before playing for the national team. Rob Friend apparently dropped (maybe carrying an injury), and no Ali Gerba this time around, wtf? Well at least Simeon Jackson is on the roster, and will theorhetically help create some goals for us. Patrice Bernier is hurt as well, and Hutchinson might be too banged up to play (so why are some of these guys named to the team then?). Also no Marcel de Jong who is at FC Augsburg now? Well apparently he has a knee injury, so that must be why. Occean had a goal and assist in a recent match, but also got injured as well, and probably won't feature.
More news on Canadians playing abroad: http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/20...
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports/Beau...
And Hart, please try to find a lineup that doesn't include Terry Dunfield, dude is awful.
And Toronto, since all these games are there for some reason, and considering that single-match tickets are as low as $20, can you please try to show up and actually provide some kind of home field advantage? It beats watching TFC, ffs!
All three home matches that Canada will play in CONCACAF Round 2 of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ Qualifiers will be broadcast live on Rogers Sportsnet One. Canada’s three home dates are Friday 2 September against St. Lucia (official kickoff time is 20.00 ET / 17.00 PT), Tuesday 11 October against Puerto Rico (19.00 ET / 16.00 PT) and Tuesday 15 November against St. Kitts and Nevis (19.00 ET / 16.00 PT). In addition, the first away match that Canada will play in Puerto Rico will also be televised live on Sportsnet One on Tuesday 6 September (20.00 ET / 17.00 PT).
Canadian fans will also be able to follow the away matches scheduled on Tuesday 6 September (Puerto Rico), Friday 7 October (St. Lucia), and Friday 11 November (St. Kitts and Nevis) through live Twitter updates (@CanadaSoccerEN) and video coverage on CanadaSoccerTV (youtube.com/CanadaSoccerTV). Detailed match reports and ongoing news stories will also be posted on canadasoccer.com.
So yeah, hopefully we can make it through St. Lucia, Puerto Rico and St. Kitts and Nevis, and then get Hoilett capped for the next round vs Honduras, Cuba, and Nicaragua/Panama.
3 Replies
looking ahead to 2030 almost all of the team should be returning to fight another day, which i suppose says that this squad is still relatively young. should they qualify for the next world cup they'll probably be a kind of old but experienced group, with some of the key guys playing in their 3rd straight tournament
(2030 ages in parentheses)
gk: Dayne St. Clair (33), Maxime Crépeau (36), Owen Goodman (26), Jayden Hibbert (age 25), Tom McGill (30), James Pantemis (33), Luka Gavran (30)
never say never, but i would guess that crepeau won't be the main man between the sticks in 2030. as of right now i'd say it might finally be dsc's turn, and probably the last shot for him. didn't realize he was that old. otherwise there's a few interesting options; owen goodman at crystal palace, tom mcgill at brighton and jayden hibbert at atlanta leading the way. though we also have mls starters in pantemis (portland) and gavran (toronto) to consider. should be interesting watching this picture shake out over the next 4 years, hopefully it ends with us having a +ev #1 keeper to rely on.
def: Alphonso Davies (29), Moïse Bombito (30), Alistair Johnston (31), Luc de Fougerolles (24), Derek Cornelius (32), Alfie Jones (32), Jamie Knight-Lebel (25), Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty (age 26), Richie Laryea (35), Kamal Miller (33), Joel Waterman (34), Zorhan Bassong (31), Sam Adekugbe (35)
looks fine for the starters, but the depth certainly needs to be built up. the older guys should be useful during the arduous qualifying cycle, and could sneak into the 2030 squad if they keep their levels up. we could really use knight-lebel and/or marshall-rutty turning into a quality fullback, as laryea could be fully washed at 35.
mid: Stephen Eustáquio (33), Ismaël Koné (28), Nathan Saliba (26), Niko Sigur (26), Mathieu Choinière (31), Ralph Priso (27), Jeevan Badwal (24), Liam Fraser (32)
if eustáquio isn't still balling out at 33 we could be in trouble, though i like how saliba and sigur are looking. depth needs to be built up here as well, hope that priso and badwal can help there through the next cycle; both have looked good for vwfc the last couple years.
wing: Tajon Buchanan (31), Ali Ahmed (29), Liam Millar (30), Marcelo Flores (26), Jacob Shaffelburg (30), Jayden Nelson (age 27)
like with eustáquio, we probably need tajon to still be good at 31. we have some options, but i'm not sure if any of them have real high ceilings, other than maybe flores. but i haven't seen nearly enough of him to say one way or another.
forward: Jonathan David (30), Tani Oluwaseyi (30), Promise David (29), Cyle Larin (35), Jacen Russell-Rowe (27), Daniel Jebbison (26), Aribim Pepple (27), Theo Bair (30), Ike Ugbo (31)
we got lots of forwards, this really shouldn't be a problem, for qualifying anyway. we should have more than enough goals for concacaf.
"youth" pipeline ???: DF Matteo de Brienne (28), MF Malik Henry (27), FW Tiago Coimbra (26), DF Noah Abatneh (25), FW Rayan Elloumi* (22), MF Shola Jimoh (22), FW Marius Aiyenero (22)
our recent call-ups otherwise are a mix of guys who might not be any good or are forwards that we don't really need. haven't been following the youth teams the last few years so idk if we have anyone good coming, i haven't heard anything. i'm sure some guys will emerge over the next 4 years and/or we'll get more intl switches, we kind of need it. we were better in 2026 than 2022, and i think we'll be even better in 2030, but i want us to take a big leap forward.
was looking around to see who else we got kicking around in mls and the pickings are slim:
(2030 ages in parentheses)
imfc: MF Victor Loturi (29), DF Luca Petrasso (30), MF Samuel Piette (35)
tfc: DF Kobe Franklin (27), DF Raheem Edwards (34), FW Deandre Kerr (27), DF Lazar Stefanovic (23), MF Markus Cimermancic (25)
vwfc: MF Liam MacKenzie (23)
dcu: DF Nikola Marković (25)
lafc: WG Ryan Raposo (31), GK Thomas Hasal (30)
rapids: DF Kosi Thompson (27)
some fodder for the pool which could be useful for qualifying etc, but not much. tfc looks to have a lot of guys, no clue which of them are supposed to be good, possibly none.
there are probably other useful guys in europe that i'm forgetting.
e.g. i forgot about liam fraser who is in league one, and ike ugbo in the championship. both were on the last wc squad, and still seem to be performing at a reasonable level.
we were better in 2026 than 2022, and i think we'll be even better in 2030, but i want us to take a big leap forward.
on this point, players used sorted by minutes played:
(basically didn't feature in parentheses)
wc2022: alphonso davies, alistair johnston, milan borjan, kamal miller, steven vitoria, tajon buchanen, jonathan david, junior hoilett, richie laryea, atiba hutchinson, cyle larin, stephen eustaquio, jonathan osorio, ismael kone, sam adekugbe, mark-anthony kaye
(lucas cavallini, david wotherspoon, liam miller)
wc2026: alistair johnston, max crepeau, richie laryea, jonathan david, stephen eustaquio, tajon buchanen, luc de fougerolles, derek cornelius, tani oluwaseyi, ali ahmed, moise bombito, cyle larin, nathan saliba, liam miller, ismael kone, niko sigur, jacob shaffelburg, promise david, mathieu choiniere
(alphonso davies, jonathan osorio, jayden nelson)
both teams had to deal with injuries. eustaquio was injured in the 2nd game vs croatia in wc2022 which ****ed us bigly as he was our best cm by a mile. forget what else was going on with that team injury-wise. and in 2026 obviously injuries to davies, bombito and kone really hampered us.
i guess the clearest example of the progress is a guy like kamal miller going from nailed-on starter to barely in the nt picture, even though cb isn't a huge position of strength. now we need to keep building up the depth, and pray that more stars like bombito emerge.
