|
|
With injuries and other commitments to a number of senior players on the Canadian squad, the upcoming two games could feature something of a youth movement on the back line.
With Kevin McKenna out with a foot injury and Andre Hainault opting to remain with the Houston Dynamo as they look to secure a playoff spot, the central defensive pairing that has been in place effectively since the Gold Cup is gone.
Back in camp for the first time since the 1-0 loss to Greece is defender Adam Straith and it’s possible that he’ll be thrown right into the starting line-up against St. Lucia on Friday.
Check out another episode of The Royal Westminster. Gavin Day is in St. Lucia and gives his first hand account of the CMNT training session prior to their match against St. Lucia.
Joseph Di Chiara
“If that’s what’s going to happen, of course I’m excited,” said Straith after Canada trained at Beausejour Stadium Thursday. “It’s been a while since I’ve had my last full game with Canada so I’m obviously excited to get back in and get back in the mix.”
Also back in the picture for the Canadian squad is Olivier Occean. Since moving to Greuther Furth of the German Bundesliga 2, the Brossard, Quebec native has shown up regularly on the scoreboard and is looking to bring that presence in front of goal to the Canadian team.
“I’m looking forward to playing the game tomorrow and in Toronto,” said Occean, who’s registered five goals in six games with the club so far this season since joining from Kickers Offenbach. “I want to show the boss that I can play regularly for the Canadian team so these games are pretty important to me.”
Julian de Guzman
Expect the weather conditions to be much better than a month ago in Puerto Rico. While it still will likely be hot and humid, the temperature has been dropping much more quickly than in San Juan and the steady breeze has been making in much more pleasant than the muggy affair it was last month.
While there has been some criticism about the club’s inability to convert more of the glut of scoring chances they’ve created over the first two games in qualifying, Canadian head coach Stephen Hart doesn’t think it’s time to panic quite yet.
“The players know when they’ve made mistakes and I don’t need to re-enforce that,” said Hart. “I mean if it was a team issues and things we’re not doing well off the ball, that’s more my responsibility but individually they know when they haven’t had their best game.”
Adam Straith
One thing the players and coaching staff are talking about is concentrating more in that final third. The team is in a phase of the competition where they know they’ll get plenty of chances but they hope not succumbing to mental slips will pay dividends around the goal. That more killer instinct would help later on in the competition when chances are hard to come by.
“They want to make sure that these chances, we’ll have them. It’s just a matter of us putting them in,” explained Julian de Guzman. “Having that concentration in the last third and if we could do that in this game, knowing that we’ll get our chances, I think you’ll see a lot more confident Canadian National team.”
Olivier Occean
After the game, the team heads back to Toronto for a home match against Puerto Rico at BMO Field. While it was a good sign that the majority of the fans in attendance at the last game were supporting Canada, one can expect a larger Puerto Rican supporters’ contingent than St. Lucian from last month.
Stephen Hart
|