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Posted by
Steve Bottjer,
October 11, 2012 |
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Email Steve Bottjer
Twitter @BottjerRNO |
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Always one of the most personable players on the Canadian soccer scene, Terry Dunfield is not all that interested in talking about the Canadian Men’s National Team’s crucial upcoming World Cup qualifying matches against Cuba and Honduras. Instead, he believes that the Canadian team must now let their play do their talking for them.
“Everyone in the back of their minds knows there is a huge job on hand on Friday night. It’s now time for the talking to stop and for us to go out there and produce,” Dunfield told Rednationonline.ca following training session ahead of Canada’s match against Cuba at BMO Field in Toronto on Friday.
While Dunfield, like all of his teammates on the Canadian National Team, understands the gravity of Canada’s current situation and has his game face on well in advance of Friday’s fixture, he is also looking at the big match against Cuba with a genuine sense of excitement rather any feeling of worry that could be keeping him up at night.
“I’m sleeping great, probably because we are training so hard. Everything is great and Friday can’t come soon enough,” Dunfield said.
It’s been a long and hectic year for the Vancouver born midfielder who, in addition to his matches with Canada, has endured a long MLS season with Toronto FC, played a lot of matches in the CONCACAF Champions League and won a Canadian Championship trophy with TFC. However, Dunfield was quick state how much a call up to the national team refreshes and re-energizes him, as well as point out the important job that national team head coach Stephen Hart has done in fostering a positive atmosphere around the Canadian team.
“Of course being back with Canada refreshes you. You are playing with some great players on this team and I feel fantastic. And if I am called upon for Friday, I will be ready,” Dunfield said. “Stephen does a fantastic job. It’s all about the environment that he creates. Every player wants to be here and you see in training that there is a lot of quality as well. It’s important that translates onto the field on Friday night.”
While much has already been written about the fact that Canada will have to earn results in their next two matches without the services of all-time leading scorer Dwayne De Rosario, Dunfield does see a positive in the fact that the Canadian players who play their club soccer in Europe should be in even sharper form this time out than they were for Canada’s September fixtures, which happened just after the new European season had kicked off.
“I think that training today was as sharp as I have seen it in a long time. That’s always a good thing. Everyone here is playing regular games with their club teams,” Dunfield stated.
According to Dunfield, it’s all up to the Canadian team to now build on excellent showings in training, an overall strong performance in World Cup qualifying to date and the confidence gained from strong individual performances at the club level.
“It’s all about Cuba now. They won’t be pushovers. They have been close in a lot of their games. We need goals and there is no hiding from that. This has been a lot of talk through this cycle. Now we have to go out there and do it.”
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