Canada facing many obstacles at CONCACAF Gold Cup
Last Updated: Wednesday, July 1, 2009 | 2:24 PM ET
By Vijay Setlur, Special to CBC Sports
Midfielder Julian de Guzman, middle, will be a key player for Canada at this month's CONCACAF Gold Cup. (Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)LONG BEACH, Calif. — Stephen Hart could find himself in the role of motivational speaker along with that of interim manager of the Canadian men's soccer team.
The Trinidad and Tobago native — disappointed by the absence of some key players — will look to get the most out of his squad as it looks to rebuild at this month's CONCACAF Gold Cup in the U.S.
"Am I frustrated? Not really, but there's not much I can do as people have general reasons why they don't want to be there," said Hart, who replaced Dale Mitchell in April after a disastrous 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign.
"I'm disappointed in one way, but at the end of the day it opens up opportunities for players to experience the tournament. We'll be looking at a new sort of squad going into the next three or four years, so it's a unique opportunity."
Star attacking midfielder Dwayne De Rosario and defensive stalwart Adrian Serioux opted to stay with Toronto FC to push the MLS club to its first playoff berth. But De Rosario's absence shouldn't have come as a surprise to Hart — the Toronto native told him in early June that he was "60-40" in favour of not playing.
Canada will also be missing other players for the biennial 12-nation tournament (July 3 to 26) that crowns the champion of North America, Central America and the Caribbean.
Defender Jim Brennan, striker Rob Friend and goalkeeper Lars Hirschfeld, the most valuable goalkeeper of the 2002 event, were not named to the roster.
In their absence, Hart has assembled what he believes is a balanced squad laden with veterans and youngsters. Among the 20 players named, 11 are returnees from the 2007 Gold Cup squad that reached the semifinals, while seven could make their tournament debut.
Hands-off approach
Hart is known to let his players play and that hands-off approach may already be paying dividends. Canada was dominant in a 3-0 win over Guatemala on Tuesday at Oxnard, Calif. in the team's final friendly before the tournament. Striker Ali Gerba scored twice and midfielder Patrice Bernier added the other in a game in which Canada had plenty of scoring chances, but had trouble finishing.
Young strikers Simeon Jackson and Will Johnson will get playing time to try to do just that.
Though replacing De Rosario's skills will be difficult, the two 22-year-olds will look to use their pace to impress on offence. Jackson scored the lone goal in Canada's 1-0 friendly win over Cyprus on May 30, while Johnson was impressive for the under-23 team in Olympic qualifying last May, scoring three goals in three games.
Strong performances could earn both serious consideration as Canada looks to establish the nucleus of the squad that will compete for a berth in the 2014 World Cup.
"We have young strikers and we'll see how they adjust in what we're trying to do," said Hart. "They didn't have much preparation, but all of them will get in and we'll see what they can do."
But Canada will be in tough — again — slotted into, arguably, the tournament's Group of Death.
First up will be Jamaica in Los Angeles on July 3 followed by El Salvador on July 7 in Columbus, Ohio. Canada then finishes the group stage against group favourite Costa Rica in Miami on July 10.
Heading into the match against the Reggae Boyz, Canada won't have the benefit of adequate match preparation.
Obstacle to overcome
"The lack of friendlies and buildup means we don't really get to see the players and experiment very much," said Hart. "I have some ideas that we could have tried in exhibition games — we had the one game in Cyprus, but some players from that won't be available."
It's another obstacle that Canada will have to overcome to repeat its Gold Cup triumph — and lone international title — in 2000.
In 2007, Canada surprised many, riding an entertaining attacking style of play to the semifinals before losing 2-1 to the eventual champion Americans in a controversial game that featured a disallowed Canadian goal that would have tied the match late.
Hart, who was the interim caretaker of that squad, will look to recreate that magic and restore optimism for a program looking to rebuild.
Deportivo La Coruna's Julian de Guzman, the 2007 tournament MVP, was a big part of the run and will spark the offence in the midfield along with Atiba Hutchinson and Issey Nakajima-Farran.
Without Serioux, Canada still has a veteran defence anchored by captain Paul Stalteri, Richard Hastings and Kevin McKenna. But all three, especially Stalteri, were exposed during World Cup qualifying and must be better against speedy strikers.
The big question mark lies in goal. With both Hirschfeld and veteran Pat Onstad out, Hart will choose from Greg Sutton, Kenny Stamatopoulos and Josh Wagenaar — none of whom have seen much national team action of late. Wagenaar started the Gautemala game before ceding to Sutton for the second half.
Unlike past Gold Cups, which were confined to a few cities, this edition will take place across 13 U.S. cities. Each team will have to fly to a different city for each match and often across multiple time zones.
Hart isn't happy about the setup, but acknowledges that every team faces the same situation.
"I'm looking forward to the tournament and the players are, too," said Hart. It's a new format and quite frankly nobody knows how it's going to work out, but we're looking forward to it and the challenge of winning another Gold Cup."
