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Canada 0–0 Mauritania
OLIVA, Spain -- For much of the game, Benito Floro silently watched as his new team took on a little-known foe.
And while what he watched was Canada mustering a scoreless tie against Mauritania, it was his first step towards getting the team ready for the far off illusion that is 2018 World Cup qualifying.
Floro fielded a young side in the first of two games against the West African nation and while Canada couldn’t muster much in the way of chances, they didn’t concede many either as the flow of the game was largely stalled in neutral as physicality dominated the day.
“It was a friendly but definitely very physical,” said Atiba Hutchinson, who was captain on Sunday. “I think we expected that a little bit but maybe at times it was a little out of hand but no excuses. I think we need to look at the video after the game and we have to play them in another game and it’s important that we can come back and get a result in the next game.”
Atiba Hutchinson
Canada took some time to find their feet as Mauritania pressed a very high line. That high pressure combined with crunching tackles put Canada off their game in the early going.
Kyle Bekker and Kyle Porter went down under heavy challenges just minutes apart. On both occasions, the tackles were very late and it led to the fear that serious injuries could happen. Fortunately that didn’t occur and Canada instead faced the challenge of breaking down a team that never stopped pressuring.
“For us, the best (part of our game) was our good intention to combine the play even if the opponent pressed very hard. So we need some good behavior to start to understand perfectly to combine the attack,” said Floro.
“At the moment we are teaching how to play collectively.”
With 18 players dressed, many veteran faces watched from the stands and they’ll be involved on Tuesday when these teams play again in the rematch.
Ashtone Morgan
In all, four teenagers saw the field for Canada and two players got their first senior caps. Given the massive squad in camp, the relative newness of a lot of players, and the fact that many players are still in the “what’s your name again?” phase of this team, a scoreless draw certainly isn’t the end of the world.
It was noticeable how much better Canada got in possession as the game progressed.
“I think we just needed to be a little bit more calm and maybe read the game at times,” said Hutchinson. “I think at halftime the coaches said we needed to play in behind them and find the pockets and create space. In the second half I thought we did that a bit better. We were just missing the chances. We needed to create more chances and get some shots on target.”
Had this game been televised back in Canada, there wouldn’t be many noteworthy moments since the second half was more stop-than-start as foul after foul had to be called, never mind the other stoppages and substitutions killed any flow to the encounter.
Benito Floro
It may be a good thing that a number of players involved tonight are heading home. On numerous occasions, unfriendly words were exchanged between the two teams after the numerous late fouls.
Much of the second half was contained to the midfield and though Canada had much of the possession deep in the Mauritania half as the full-time whistle approached, a low, long-range effort from Dwayne De Rosario was probably their best chance of the second half.
“It’s going to be important to get matches against teams like this and we just need to get some wins out of these,” said Hutchinson. “That’s the only thing that’s going to help the program is getting that mentality of winning.”
Canada line-up:
Lars Hirschfeld in goal, Stefan Cebara at right back, Doneil Henry and Dejan Jakovic at centre back, Ashtone Morgan at left back, and Jonathan Osorio, Atiba Hutchinson, Kyle Bekker, Kyle Porter, Russell Teibert and Dwayne De Rosario from the midfield up through to the attack.
In the second half, coach Benito Floro made six substitutions: Osorio, Porter and De Rosario were replaced by Samuel Piette, Keven Aleman and Daniel Haber (65'), Morgan and Bekker were replaced by Terry Dunfield and debutant Jérémy Gagnon-Laparé (71'), while Henry was replaced by debutant Jackson Farmer (86').
Follow RedNation Online and Gavin Day through the weekend for more videos and post game analysis.
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