With their 2-0 win over Trinidad and Tobago on August 15th now in the past, Stephen Hart is now solely focused on looking forward to Canada’s two key World Cup qualifying matches against Panama in September. The Canadian Men’s National Team head coach spoke with the media via conference call on Thursday and reinforced several times that there likely won’t be any major surprises in terms of lining up against a CONCACAF squad that he and his players are very familiar with.

“It is no secret. Panama are arguably the best team in the group and they have been very consistent over the last 2-3 years in CONCACAF. We know what to expect and the task we have ahead of us. Obviously, we are focused on that.”

Canada will play home and away against Panama on September 7th and 11th and Hart admitted that the two dates are a little bit of a challenge for his team in that a number of his key players have only just kicked off their new club campaigns in Europe.

“The next set of games are coming at sort of a difficult time. You have players that are almost at the end of their seasons and a group of players consisting of some who have not even started playing yet.”

In terms of his roster for the Panama matches, Hart stated that he did not anticipate any issues in terms of the availability of his players, but he did reinforce that the timing of the matches will force him to make some difficult choices in his player selection just based on the fact that some of the players who are just starting off with their clubs now might not be in form for the two September World Cup qualifying fixtures.

“I would like to release the roster early next week. So far it looks like I will have everybody that I want. It is a matter of making a decision based on who is playing. Some of the players have one game under their belt at the moment and a lot of them have none. So I have some tough decisions to make. I will have to make a decision based on how players look in camp and how well they match up in terms of facing off against Panama.”

Hart specifically highlighted the fact that some of his key attacking players (Olivier Occean, Simeon Jackson for example) who play in Europe could find themselves in a bit of a glass half full, glass half empty situation in that they should be fresh and free of any lingering injuries, but that they also might not be especially sharp due to their recent inactivity.

“They might be fresher, but they haven’t been playing, have they? They have played a couple of exhibition games and the season has started for some of them. And they either haven’t played or they just have one game under their belt. It will take a little while for them to sort of settle down. The good thing is that physically they should be well prepared and it is just a matter of getting their rhythm and game fitness back on track.”

The Canadian skipper was also asked about the status of forward Tosaint Ricketts, who is currently in a form of limbo at the club level with FIFA investigating a salary dispute and a rights issue with his former club in Romania.

“We’ll see how (Tosaint) sort of progresses along. He is in training. He is with a club at the moment and has been training with them. But he still has to have this whole contract issue rectified. But you know what, against Trinidad he looked quite good. He took a little while to settle down of course, but he looked quite fit and good. As I said, he is training with a club and I hope he can get his club situation rectified as soon as possible.”

With one of Canada’s key players, Atiba Hutchinson, struggling with his fitness and injuries over the last several months, Hart admitted that recent reports on the status of his star attacking midfielder have been positive.

“I have seen his games and he looks fine. He says that he feels great. He has playing in some games in a different position, but overall he says that he is feeling well. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed that he is healthy come camp time.”

In terms of reigning Major League Soccer Most Valuable Player Dwayne De Rosario, Hart was asked if he was at all concerned about the recent lack of goals scored by Canada’s All-time leading scorer at the club level.

“Dwayne always sort of runs into his form in the second half of the season and starts to score his goals. Maybe that is what is happening. D.C. did a fair amount of experimenting with playing him in the midfield and not as far forward as he has been accustomed to. Dwayne can play a number of positions and, if he hits goal scoring form at the right time, I for one would be very happy.”

Overall, Hart sounded confident that he, his staff and his players have a good handle on things in terms of the challenge they are facing in playing back to back matches against a very good opponent. And he stated that nothing new about Panama jumped out at him or his staff in terms of their performance in a friendly against Portugal on August 15th.

“My assistant Tony Fonseca was at the game and we also have a DVD of the game, which we are using to do all of the match analysis. Panama has been a consistent squad in terms of the players selected and how they play. And they have not deviated much from that. We know the team quite well and, basically, they are very disciplined team that has grown up together. They have two very interesting strikers, arguably two of the better strikers in CONCACAF. They haven’t strayed much from that, so we know what to expect from them.”

While Hart spoke highly of the quality of Panama, he once again stated that the most important thing for Canada will be for his team to focus on their game plan and to continue to do the things that have made them successful in recent matches.

“I think that when you play against a team that is extremely organized and that plays off the counter attack, one of the important things is not to get caught up in playing their game and sort of being in position to counter the counter, if that makes any sense. The thing about Panama that everyone who has seen them is quite aware of is that they play the game for an entire ninety minutes and that is a very good quality.”

In one piece of good news not related to the Panama fixtures, Hart revealed that injured left winger Josh Simpson is in good spirits and that his recovery from a serious injury at the tail end of the last European season is on track.

“He is very optimistic and he has just had his cast removed. I haven’t had a follow up report on what they have seen, but his whole discussion is that ‘I’ll be back’. And I think the timeline that he has set for himself might be a little bit unrealistic, but really and truly for me, the good thing is that he is upbeat and enthusiastic.”