When Canadian Men’s National Team Head Coach Stephen Hart announced his roster for Canada’s first two qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup, one of the surprise call-ups was none other than arguably Canada’s best player, Atiba Hutchinson. With the 28 year old midfielder still recovering from the knee injury that prevented him from playing in the team’s final two matches at the recent Gold Cup, it had been expected that the Brampton, Ontario native would not be available for Canada’s first two qualifiers against St. Lucia and Puerto Rico. But with Canada currently training in Alliston, Ontario ahead of Friday’s fixture against St. Lucia at BMO Field, Hutchinson was quick to pronounce himself fit and ready to go.
“I'm feeling good. I have been training now for a couple of weeks and I got the chance to play in a couple of friendly games and two competitive games with the first team. I think it has been going well and it's getting better and better. I'm feeling a little bit more comfortable and confident also, so I think it is going in the right direction,” said Hutchinson after his first training session with the Canadian team since the Gold Cup.
Asked if he was trying to send a message about the dedication expected from any player that puts on the Canadian jersey, Hutchinson indicated that does want to set an example and stressed that it is vitally important for Canada to set a strong tone for their World Cup qualifying campaign right off the bat.
“For me, it is important. It doesn't matter what the game is. If I have the chance to come out, I will always do it. You always want to play for your country, so I do want to set an example. But I do think you can see that we have a lot of players who have shown up, which is really good for the team. I think it is very important, especially if right from the start we can go out there and really express ourselves in every game and, most importantly, get good results. I think you need to get good results to gain confidence for the future. So I think every game we play is important.”
According to Hutchinson, who plays professionally with storied Dutch side PSV, Canada will be aiming to dominate St. Lucia and Puerto Rico in order to get the required results first and foremost, while at the same time building confidence for when Canada is expected to take on higher ranked CONCACAF opponents later on in the World Cup qualifying process.
“I think it is very important that we really go out there and control things, especially in these first couple of games. We want to be dominant and, like I said, get good results. And with good results you gain confidence, so I think it is very important for us that we have a good start in this round.”
While Canada did not achieve their goal of getting out of the Group Stage at the most recent Gold Cup tournament, Hutchinson believes that the team showed via its performance in the opener against the United States that it can compete with any team in CONCACAF region.
“Apart from a little bit of a slow start in the first 10-20 minutes in which we didn't have the best organization, we kind of grew as the game went along and showed that, of course, we can play with the U.S. We all know that we can and we just need to work on getting better results and, in games like that, finding a point or getting a win.”
When asked to analyze the performance of the Canadian team in the two Gold Cup fixtures in which he was unable to play due to his injury, Hutchinson believes that Canada generally played well apart from an unlucky goal that cost them at the end of their decisive Group Stage match.
“For me it was kind of tough to sit back and just watch the team play. I think we played well, but we just didn't get the results we were looking for against Panama, which I think was a good performance from the team. Unfortunately, we had a late goal conceded against us. Sometimes you can be a little bit unlucky, but it was good to see the way the team was playing and everything looked good, except for the goal in the end.”
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