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With the Canadian Men’s National Team having recently learned the specifics surrounding their draw for their 2014 World Cup Qualification cycle, Stephen Hart and the Canadian Soccer Association held a conference call with the media to discuss Hart’s thoughts on the draw and his preparations for first round of World Cup qualifying. With many CMNT supporters quite positive about the fact that Canada will initially face off against world soccer minnows in the form of Saint Kitts and Nevis, Puerto Rico and Saint Lucia, the Canadian Men’s National Team Head Coach indicated that while he is confident of Canada’s chances heading into the opening round of qualification, Canada won’t be taking any team lightly.
“The goal is take maximum points from the first round of qualifying. But, as I have been explaining to the players, we can't look beyond any game and you just need to keep your focus on what needs to be done. If we look at some of the results in the past, especially when you go away from home, not just for Canada, but for a lot of teams, the games have been tighter than people expected. I remember the time we played at 2pm in St. Vincent and the climatic conditions at that time were very difficult and the game proved more difficult than it should have been. In our preparations and discussions with the players there is no such thing as an underdog team. It's more along the lines of let's get the business done and how to make it as difficult as possible for the opposition,” said Hart.
When asked which of the three teams in the first round he thought would give Canada the most trouble, Hart indicated that Puerto Rico was a team that the Canadians could not afford to take lightly.
“I think if you look at Puerto Rico, they are a team that has spent a lot of time together. And, at home, as we saw in the Champions League, they can be difficult. Albeit, the club has some different players. But I think the main thing with playing these teams is that when you travel into their environment, with the quality of the pitches, etc., it sometimes becomes an equalizer. I think all of the teams are in that sort of category, but Puerto Rico will probably be the team that has had the most time playing together.”
With travel always being an issue, especially for the Canadian players who play club soccer in Europe, Hart indicated that BMO Field in Toronto was selected as the home site for the first round of qualifying in order to give the team a base they are comfortable in and to make things as easy as possible from a travel standpoint.
“I think if you look at the whole CONCACAF situation with the announcement of the opponents and the schedule, we ended up with one month to start preparations. With that in mind, as well as with the difficulties around the travel for the players, I think it is better to do it the way that is has been set up (than to spread the matches over different Canadian locations). Mainly, the travel is the issue. As I said, things were left so late that already we are having difficulty just getting the entire squad on one plane to travel. The whole travel issue has made everything a little bit complex, so that was one of the main reasons behind (playing all three home games at BMO Field). And we are familiar with the surroundings in Toronto, so for now it was the most logical thing to do. ”
Interestingly, Hart did state that BMO Field was not necessarily a slam dunk to host matches against the likes of Honduras and Panama in the second round of qualifying.
“As you know, there are some complexities in that there are certain specifications that the stadiums need to meet now. And then you don't want to jeopardize your own squad when taking into the account how the travel will be. I think I will need to sit with my staff and discuss the situation. In the meantime, I will be looking at certain venues and whether or not they will give us an advantage and then make those decisions.”
With the first round of qualifying kicking off around the same time that many MLS teams will be in their final playoff pushes and when European club campaigns have just started, Hart will have the usual juggling act to make in terms of making squad selections and dealing with clubs that don’t want to release players for International duty with Canada.
“I have been monitoring some of the players. Some of the leagues have started, but there is some difficulty because players are in preseason and are travelling all over the place. In some instances they are training maybe 2-3 times per day, so there is fatigue factor as they are now starting to get their match legs. So I have to take all of that into consideration, as well as, of course, health. It is always a fight when the players have to cross the pond. And, of course, with the other club teams fighting to get into the playoffs, it's always a fight. But it is one we are accustomed to and we've been very flexible in the past trying to accommodate the clubs. So hopefully now that it is World Cup qualification, there won't be too many issues.”
One player who won’t be available, at least for Canada’s first World Cup qualifier against St. Kitts and Nevis, is Atiba Hutchinson, who is arguably Canada’s best player.
“It's more than likely that he won't be available. He had to have some minor surgery. He has been back training, but very slowly on an individual basis. That is sort of a touch and go issue and I will be keeping an eye on it. But for right now, I don't think he will be available, at least on a game by game scenario. It's a matter of him getting back to fitness and also that it won't be a situation where he isn't mentally ready to go into something like this. It will be on a sort of match by match basis and I'll keep in touch with him on that.”
Hart was also asked about Canada’s preparations for World Cup qualifying given that Canada does not have any exhibition matches scheduled in advance of the St. Kitts and Nevis game.
“We'll have a couple of days together and we'll go into the games as best we can. As far as the Gold Cup, that gave us three games together. Yes, it was disappointing that we didn't get into the knockout stage, but after looking at the games on a number of occasions, there is a lot for us to build upon and the players know that. But this is a completely different scenario, a qualifying tournament, home and away, a new competition. I'm sure that mentally and physically we will be ready for it. You have more scouting to do (against teams like Saint Kitts and Nevis, Puerto Rico and Saint Lucia) and there are the logistics of travel and different environments in which you will be playing on. I think one of the difficulties is not knowing the actual venue in which we will be playing and we won't actually know that until August 11th, which is another sort of complexity. So you have to make your preparations in terms of each month in which you are going to play and take it on sort of a game by game approach.”
Hart ended off the conference call by expanding on what he learned from Canada’s disappointing performance at the 2011 Gold Cup.
“With Canada it is not about one or two individuals, it's about a team performance, a team attitude, a team spirit. If we had capitalized on one or two of our chances (at the Gold Cup) the whole confidence, whole imagination and dynamics of the team might have changed. It's a matter that it's a new competition and we are going to go into it with the best squad available with the intention of getting to the next round. I think that at times in the Gold Cup we started slower than we would have liked. In most of the games we didn't start the way we should have. But most of all it was more or less a matter of not converting chances. Our match analysis showed that we created quite an amount of chances, but the number of goals scored speaks for itself. And at the end of the day, that is what it comes down to. It comes down to taking the chances created and with the players responsible for the end product to step up and make a difference.”
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