In this edition of Rouges Reflection, our column on all things Canadian Soccer, we dive into a bevy of questions from the readers in our mailbag, doing our best to answer questions about both of Canada Soccer’s National Teams ahead of a busy summer of action for both teams.
A busy June of Canadian soccer awaits.
From the Men’s National Team’s quest to progress to the next rounds of World Cup qualifiers, to the Women’s National Team’s continued preparation for the Olympics in July, both National teams will have their hands full over the next month or so.
After a landmark year for several key National Team players at the club level, it’s hoped that they can continue that success into the National Team fold, where both sides are looking to make history while representing the maple leaf.
On the men’s side, there’s their ongoing quest to make the 2022 World Cup, as they look to return to the big dance for the first time since 1986. To do that, they’ll need to get to the final round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers, aka, the Octoganal, a stage they haven’t reached since the 1990s.
They’ve got a chance to do that this month, as they’ve got a direct path straight to that final round if they take care of business in rounds 1 and 2 of qualifying. They already played the first 2 games of round 1 back in March, and will play the last 2 games over the next week, before hopefully qualifying for the 2nd round, where they’ll play two-legged series with a spot in the Octo on the line.
Over on the women’s side, they’ve already taken care of their important business, having qualified for the Olympics back in February of 2020, but now the goal is to make some noise at that tournament, which gets underway in July of this year, having been postponed by a year due to the pandemic.
Having won back-to-back bronze medals at the past 2 Summer Olympics, they’ll look to make the podium once again this summer in Tokyo, with the ultimate goal being to change the colour of the medal that they’d hope to win.
A few months ago, that seemed a tall task, but with the arrival of a new coach, Bev Priestman, this team is starting to make some noise, and they’ll look to continue and try to prove their growing credentials in a pair of June friendlies against the Czech Republic and Brazil.
So all-in-all, it’s going to be a big month for both sides. The stakes might be different in both cases, but the goal for both teams is to win as much as possible with a view of doing bigger things down the road, such as making the World Cup or winning the Olympics.
Heading into these crucial games, however, there are plenty of questions to be answered, for both sides, as usually is the case heading into an international window.
Ahead of this, some of the fine folks over on Twitter posed some of those questions for us to answer ahead of then.
Here are our answers to those questions, in this edition of our Rouges Reflections mailbag.
So to start, we’ll go with this question from @Futbol_Canada, who poses us the simple question – what does a successful year look like for both teams?
Obviously, the goal is to win all of the games possible, but we’ll try to tackle this with some realistic expectations.
First, let’s look at the women’s team.
Considering what lies ahead of them, the big quest for them will be at the Olympics, where they’re looking to continue their run of medals.
Otherwise, it’s a pretty quiet year for them, as 2023 World Cup qualifiers aren’t until 2022, meaning that these Olympics will be the pinnacle of competition for them in 2021 in terms of what they’ll play for over the next 7 months.
So with that in mind, the goal at the Olympics has to at least make the semi-finals again, proving that they’re still a force heading into that 2023 World Cup.
With it still being early into Priestman’s tenure as a head coach, the long-term goal is to be competitive at that World Cup tournament, so any success before then is gravy, but at the same time, this team does have the talent to at least contend for a medal in Tokyo.
Otherwise, the goal just has to be to continue to integrate more young names into the fold, as Priestman has slowly started to do, preparing this Canadian team for that 2023 cycle. Canada has an exciting group of young players under the age of coming through the ranks, but they need to have a plan to be able to hand them the keys when some of the older faces start to retire or move on, as they’ve started to do recently.
A year ago, this Canadian team was starting to feel a bit old and were stagnating, but they now look young and exciting once again, and they have to just continue that transition process now.
As for the men’s team, their goal is simple – just make the Octo. That is the big priority, and making it there would easily be quantified as success, making everything else seem like cherries on the cake. Obviously, making the World Cup next year would be nice, but just making it to the Octo and being competitive is a good start, especially considering how long their final round drought is.
Elsewhere, making a run to the final 4 at the Gold Cup would be a nice bonus, giving some of these players a chance to compete for silverware, while also erasing the sour taste of how things ended last time out at the 2019 Gold Cup.
Next, we’ve got a pretty interesting question from @CanaDan1999, who asks about a potential squad for these games.
First, let’s look at a potential men’s lineup.
Based on what we saw in the last camp, Canada played a hybrid 4-3-3/3-4-3 that shifted when in and out of possession, so we’ll stick with a similar concept here.
Here’s what that would look like.
In goal, Milan Borjan holds down the fort, while a back 4 of Samuel Adekugbe, Scott Kennedy and Steven Vitoria sits in front of him. Laryea would be a bit more aggressive, covering that whole right flank, while Adekugbe would be a bit more conservative, becoming a sort of centre back at times, much as he did against Bermuda.
Moving through the middle of the park, Mark Anthony Kaye, Stephen Eustaquio and Samuel Piette gives Canada plenty of bite in the midfield, with Eustaquio and Kaye also being tasked with progressing the ball forward.
Up front, Alphonso Davies is allowed to roam that left flank, while Jonathan David and Cyle Larin join forces up front, running onto crosses from Laryea and Davies, while also being comfortable in dropping back and helping Kaye and Eustaquio in possession.
As mentioned at the beginning, this is inspired by what Canada did against Bermuda the last camp, so it’s not exactly reinventing the wheel, but it’s a way to maximize what Herdman started to work on then, while also introducing some new players and shifting a few details, such as playing in more of a 3-5-2 in possession.
As for the women, a 4-3-3 is also the name of the game, and much like what we just saw, flexibility is the key to making this work.
Stephanie Labbe starts in goal, with Gabrielle Carle, Sheline Zadorsky, Kadeisha Buchanan and Ashley Lawrence sitting in front of her. Carle and Lawrence have the freedom to roam, however, giving Canada numbers in attack, but if not, Allysha Chapman could fill in for Carle to add a bit more defensive solidity.
But a big reason for having confidence in allowing Lawrence and Carle to roam is due to the midfield trio of Quinn, Jessie Fleming and Desiree Scott, who are tasked with shutting things down defensively, while progressing the ball forward at every opportunity.
They showed to be capable of that the last camp, where they had some good moments as a trio against Wales and England, and they should get to continue that into this camp.
Where things get interesting is up front, where Janine Beckie, Christine Sinclair and Evelyne Viens start as a trio.
Beckie and Sinclair are the no-brainers, but that last spot in the front line is where things get interesting, as Viens is one among many potential options to start. Naturally, playing a true winger like Nichelle Prince or Deanne Rose in that spot also makes sense, but it’d be interesting to see what Viens could do in an inside forward role, one where her job is just to arrive into the box and finish chances.
You’d lose a bit of width by doing that, but with Lawrence behind her, you’d expect that the PSG full back would be able to offset some of that lost width with her desire to get forward in possession.
So for both of these squads, the common goal was to take what Canada has worked on and just add a few tweaks to it, so it’s not like these are any groundbreaking ideas, but they certainly could be ways for both teams to build off of the interesting things that they’ve shown so far.
On a similar vein, however, as asked by @Hansito20, that does unfortunately put an end to the ‘AGR thinks that the CanWNT should play a 3-5-2’ chatter for now, as it’s now too late for Canada to make a switch like this ahead of the Olympics, as was floated around a few months earlier.
That doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t consider it going forward, as their talent at centre back, full back and striker makes it a fun possibility, especially with this emergence of the Quinn-Fleming-Scott midfield trio, but they’d need time to work on something like that.
But either way, it’s not like Canada will be stuck to a 4-3-3 during the tournament, either. Tactics in this sport are becoming ever more fluid by the day, so it’s entirely possible that Priestman starts to experiment with allowing Canada to shift to a 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 in possession while also sticking with their 4-3-3 in defence.
It just makes so much sense, personnel-wise.
Just imagine Ashley Lawrence and one of Gabrielle Carle, Jayde Riviere or Allysha Chapman running free down the wings before whipping in crosses to 2 or 3 of Christine Sinclair, Evelyne Viens, Janine Beckie, Adriana Leon, Cloe Lacasse, Nichelle Prince or Deanne Rose…
But on a serious note, credit to Priestman for carving out a solid tactical identity, one that looked quite impressive the last camp, and hopefully her side can continue to build off of that heading into the Olympics, because there’s a lot to like there.
And to continue on the theme of roster and tactical decisions, we’ve then got an interesting question from @sadsince86 on potential centre back pairings heading into this camp.
Given the state of flux at the position on the men’s side, we’ll mostly focus our attention there, but first, we’ll start by quickly looking at the women’s CB depth.
As seen above, the 2 first-choice selections at the moment should be Kadeisha Buchanan and Shelina Zadorsky, no question about it, but if for any reason fatigue, injury or anything else comes up, Vanessa Gilles is an easy #3, one that borders on being a #2B option.
Shifting over to the men, though, is where things get interesting.
To answer the question, as seen above, Steven Vitoria and Scott Kennedy would be the answer for this camp, as Vitoria brings much-needed experience to the fold, while Kennedy has a good mix of technical and raw ability that would lend itself nicely to what Vitoria brings to the table.
Going forward, however, a pairing of Kennedy and one of Kamal Miller or Derek Cornelius has to be explored. Much like Kennedy, those two centre backs are pretty athletic, can pass the ball well, and are good in the air, giving Canada more flexibility at the position.
As good as guys like Vitoria or Doneil Henry are at the position, and are arguably Canada’s 2 best centre backs in terms of ability and club form, their lack of athleticism does make it hard to slot in here, especially not as a pairing, as we unfortunately saw in a 4-1 loss to the US back in November of 2019.
In CONCACAF, where there are a lot of teams that are happy to play vertical, speedy and direct soccer, footspeed is important, which is why a pair of Kennedy and say a Miller, who’s in excellent form for Montreal, would give Canada a bit more cover at the position.
Next, we’ve got an interesting question from @thordars1 on the state of the men’s biggest opponent in round 1 of their World Cup qualifiers, Suriname, who Canada will play on Tuesday, June 8th, in a potential ‘win and you’re in’ game for entry into the 2nd round.
Thanks to a wave of dual-national recruits that are referenced in the question, Suriname head into that game looking much better than a team ranked 136th in the world at the moment.
And for Canada, that’s scary. With a wave of new players that are either playing or have played in some of the top 10 leagues in Europe, Suriname now has a squad that could easily be top 6 in the region on talent, alone.
A look at some of the names in their latest squad confirms that. From Warner Hahn of Anderlecht, to Ramon Leeuwin of AZ Alkmaar, as well as names such as Galatasaray’s Ryan Donk or Union Berlin’s Sheraldo Becker, this Suriname team is loaded with talent.
It’s important to acknowledge as much.
But to address Thomas’s question, does it really change Canada being in the driver’s seat for this game?
It really shouldn’t.
A team led by the likes of Alphonso Davies, Jonathan David, Stephen Eustaquio and Cyle Larin should not fear anyone in CONCACAF, at least on paper.
Their fears in CONCACAF should lie instead in intangibles, such as the nightmare of having to play at San Pedro Sula with fans throwing stuff at you, or the daunting journey of having to trek to what feels like the other side of the world to go play a Panama or a Guyana.
Fortunately in this game, they don’t have to deal with that. Playing at a neutral venue in Chicago, at a well-manicured pitch in a popular city, Canada won’t have to deal with bonkers travel, or a hostile away crowd, but instead, just 90 minutes with Suriname’s best players.
And make no mistake, it’s not an easy game by any stretch of the imagination. This Suriname team is good and is playing with house money right now, which is an always dangerous quality to have in a team.
At the same time, they’ve got a combined 92 caps for their country across their entire roster. For reference, Canada’s two highest capped players in this camp, Milan Borjan and Samuel Piette have 101 caps between them, and had he not been injured for these games, Atiba Hutchinson has 85 on his own.
In a region where a veteran-heavy roster such as Panama’s was able to make the 2018 World Cup ahead of talented outfits such as US, Jamaica or Honduras, it shows the value of experience in these sorts of games, and for once, this young Canadian team does have the upper edge in that area.
So to answer the question, yes, Canada should remain in the driver seat heading into this game, but with Suriname’s ability, they just have to be wary of the fact that their driving is going to have to be pretty good, or else, their opponents won’t be shy in snatching the wheel away from them.
Moving on, we’ve got a pretty interesting hypothetical question from @TorontoMapleFC, who poses the question of the possibility of some of Canada’s high-profile dual-nationals on the men’s maybe joining the Canadian ranks permanently.
With a wave of dual-nationals joining the men’s program as of late, such as Theo Corbeanu, Cristian Gutierrez and Stephen Eustaquio, among many others, it’s a good question, as many are wondering who will be next to join them.
Still reeling after the recent losses of potential Canadian players Fikayo Tomori and Dominik Yankov to England and Bulgaria, respectively, it’s hoped that some of the names listed by TorontoMapleFC don’t join them and leave the program, as there is a lot to like with the players he’s named.
So to copy something that we like to do, let’s take those players and break them down by a ‘Surprise Rating’, giving a 1 to players who we think are sure bets to commit, while giving a 10 to those who are likely to ply their trades elsewhere.
Here’s what that looks like.
Marcelo Flores (7/10)
First, we’ve got 1 of 3 very intriguing 2003 born dual-nationals that are on this list, and that’s the 17-year-old forward Flores, who has continued to progress quite nicely at Arsenal.
Having played most of the year with their U18 side, he did manage make an appearance in the U23 team by the end of the season, and was even training with the first team for stints throughout the season, showing that he isn’t that far off of a potential Arsenal breakthrough.
So for Canada, they’ll obviously want to get him to commit, but he’s going to be one of the hard ones to sway. He’s already previously represented Mexico at the youth levels, so there is interest on that side, but he did accept a call-up to Canada’s ‘Camp Poutine’ earlier this year before he was denied access due to border restrictions at the time, so the door is open for Canada, as well.
Now, what’ll be interesting to see who’s able to make him blink first. We have to remember that despite this possibility of playing for either team’s senior outfit, he’s still eligible to play for either countries U18 and U20 teams – he’s that young.
Ultimately, with that in mind, Mexico does have the upper edge here, so the surprise rating is a bit higher, but one advantage that Canada does have is that they’ve got more room for them in their squad right now.
Looking big picture, though, with every day that passes, Mexico retains more and more of an edge here, meaning that Canada’s best chance at making something happen here would come sooner rather than later.
Lucas Dias (6/10)
Next, we’ve got another interesting 03-born in Dias, who has quietly burst onto the scene as of late in Canadian circles thanks to a strong 2020-2021 season.
A Canadian dual-national, he’s also eligible to represent Portugal, which is the path most expected him to take, especially considering that he’s played for them at the U16 level in the past.
As a 17-year-old, he made the step up to Sporting CP’s U23 team this year, not looking all that out of place while doing so, showing why some are quite high on the young attacking midfielder, and why Portugal was the early favourite to get his commitment.
And then, he surprisingly accepted a nod to represent Canada’s U23 team at Olympic qualifiers earlier this year, showing that he has some interest in Canada, much to the joy of Canadian fans, who were mostly quite impressed with his strong showing as Canada’s youngest player at that tournament.
So going forward, his chances of representing Canada are much better than they were a few months ago, even though Portugal does still hold the upper hand.
If all things were equal between the two countries, it’s not yet sure what he’d pick, but much like Flores, Canada does have the ability to offer him an opportunity to crack their squad than Portgual would be able to, especially considering that Portugal is going through a gold rush of players in their prime right now.
Because of that, we’ll set our rating at 6/10 for Dias, who looks like he’ll be an electric player going forward, no matter who he represents.
Daniel Jebbison (7/10)
And then we’ve got the last of those 2003-borns, Jebbison, who is the latest riser of the 3, but is someone who is fresh off of a brilliant end to the year at striker for Sheffield United.
Having started out the 2020-2021 season playing in the 5th division of English soccer, he then gradually moved up the ranks there, first playing for Sheffield’s U18s before moving up to their U23’s in January.
Then, with Sheffield already relegated from the Premier League, he was able to make history, making his debut off the bench against Crystal Palace in May. The next week, he earned his first start against Everton, and scored inside 10 minutes, marking a dream debut.
So understandably, there started to be a lot of hype about his name in Canada, as some wondered if he could possibly earn a call-up for this international window.
Who knows if that call ever came, so it’s hard to speculate what happened, but what we do know is that he accepted a call-up to England’s U18s back in March, and was also tipped to join their U19s for June, so he remains very much on England’s radar.
Considering all of that, the odds are a bit tougher on Jebbison, but much like with the other names, Canada does have the ability to offer more playing time right now.
While he’s in the Championship, where he’ll be expected to play significant minutes for Sheffield next year, he’ll likely be off of England’s first-team radar, but he’d still stay on Canada’s, possibly making him sway his allegiances at some point in next year.
It’s going to be a tough pursuit, no doubt, but much like with the other 03-borns, as long as Canada moves earlier, their odds will improve, because if not, they’ll have a tough time winning in the long run.
Ayo Akinola (3/10)
Moving on, we’ve then got another forward, Akinola, who is probably the likeliest to commit based on what we’ve recently seen from him.
It’s surprising considering that Akinola has over 50 appearances at the youth level for the US, but the tide had been turning on this one recently, and that is clear when you realize that Akinola has now accepted nods to Canada camps in January and now in their taxi squad in June.
And unlike the previous 3 names, Akinola currently plays in Canada and is in constant chatter with some Canadian players, such as teammates Richie Laryea and Jonathan Osorio, who you have to imagine are telling him to come join them with Canada.
Plus, at 21 years of age, the time is getting closer for him to make a decision, and as things stand, there is more of a clear path for him to choose Canada.
Obviously, you don’t know what his allegiances towards the US or Nigeria are, but based on what we do now, things look a lot better for him potentially joining Canada now than they did 8 months ago, where he was scoring goals for fun and getting heavy US interest.
Thanks to the emergence of Daryl Dike, however, among others, that US interest has appeared to cool, for now, so it’s important that Canada pounces before things get spicy again.
Stefan Mitrovic (5/10)
Lastly, we’ve got the 18-year-old Mitrovic, who is fresh off of a year where he’s played 13 games in the Serbian top flight, which is no small achievement at his age.
It wasn’t an easy year for them, as they finished 13th in the league, but playing at that sort of level is huge for a youngster’s development no matter how good the team is, making Mitrovic an interesting name to keep an eye on.
Eligible to play for Serbia, and having accepted a U19 nod for them in the past, Canada is going to be in tough for Mitrovic’s commitment, because unlike with the other nations, Serbia seems more capable of offering minutes to Mitrovic sooner, nullifying Canada’s advantage in that area.
So with that in mind, it looks like his chances are about 50/50. He did live a good chunk of his life in Canada, and is proud to be a Canadian playing on a big stage, but that doesn’t translate into anything unless Canada makes something of it.
As a bit of a forgotten name in the roulette of potential dual-national commits that are often talked about, however, Canada should certainly be active here, as 18-year-old attacking midfielders able to get minutes at a top division European league are usually pretty special players.
Final verdict:
So that’s probably where we’d place the chances of each player committing, but to answer the original question, what would the number be if we were to place the odds of all of them playing together?
It comes out to a cool 1%, which sounds about right, but based on what we’ve seen, if the dominoes all fall right, Canada could easily end up with at least 2 or 3 of these players in the fold going forward.
Then, to close out the men’s chatter, we’ve got this question from @Sim4n5, who drops an interesting 2 part question.
First, to dive into the first part of the question, the answer absolutely has to be yes. On paper, this Canadian team can be a top 4 team in CONCACAF, and when answering this sort of question, that’s the sort of factors that we can depend on.
With that in mind, it’s fair to suggest that Canada can honestly qualify for the 2022 World Cup. There’s no reason why they can’t make the Octo, continuing their strong record at home recently (they haven’t lost in Canada since March of 2016, a run of 7 straight games), snatching a few results on the road, doing just enough to at least either qualify directly to the World Cup team as a 3rd place team, or try their luck in the intercontinental playoff as the 4th placed team.
So what’s stopping them?
Themselves.
Too often, this Canadian team has headed into the games they needed to win, some they were even expected to win, but came up short, leaving them to lick their wounds and move on.
That has to change, starting this camp, where they have a chance to control their destiny and take care of business against Aruba and Suriname in the 1st round, and if they were to make it that far, against Haiti, Nicaragua or Belize in the 2nd round.
Because honestly, there’s no reason why Canada can’t make the Octo and fight for that spot in the World Cup, especially with the squad that they now have at their disposal.
As for the other question, concerning the centre backs, it’s more of an interesting question. Tomori looks to be permanently gone, because even if he were indeed eligible to make a switch having only gotten 1 cap for England at the age of 22 (the rule appears to state that would’ve needed to happen before,), he theoretically wouldn’t be able to switch until late in 2022, anyways.
So otherwise, who might be worth considering as a potential centre back option for Canada?
It’s a good question. Considering that someone like Ricardo Ferreira has recently just committed to the program, a potential name like Martin Amuz remains the obvious one, as he’s at a good club in a tough league in Uruguay, but he needs more minutes.
And that’s why it’s hard to identify a potential name to watch out for. Scott Kennedy was that name a few months ago, but he’s now on Canada’s radar, so he’s not exactly an unknown player anymore.
With that in mind, though, there are a few names that are quite intriguing to keep an eye on domestically.
First, there’s a pair of youngsters at the Vancouver Whitecaps, 19-year-old Gianfranco Facchineri and 16-year-old Matteo Campagna, who both looked quite good for the ‘Caps in their 2021 preseason.
Campagna is still a while away, and understandably so, but he’s already on a first-team contract, which for a 16-year-old centre back, is nearly unheard of, and it’s worth noting that Whitecaps head coach Dos Santos has compared some of his best attributes to those of someone like Franco Baresi in the past.
As for Facchineri, though, he’s closer to a breakout, as he looked really good as an 18-year-old on loan in the Canadian Premier League for Ottawa last year, and would benefit from a similar loan this year.
Secondly, speaking of the CPL, there are a few names to keep an eye on there right now, as well. There are a few obvious names, such as Thomas Meilleur-Giguere, Dominick Zator and Amer Didic, but keep an eye on a pair of CF Montreal loanees, 17-year-old Keesean Ferdinand and 20-year-old Karifa Yao, who are on loan to Atletico Ottawa and Cavalry FC, respectively.
From what we’ve seen from them at the youth levels for Canada, and reports from those around Montreal, there’s a lot to like there, so it wouldn’t be hard to imagine them potentially getting onto Canada’s senior team radar within the next few years if they continue to progress.
Otherwise, who knows who might yet be the next name to emerge, as centre backs develop at a different pace than other players. For all we know, Canada’s next star at the position is yet to breakthrough, and will be a star in a few years, but based on what we do know, some of those names that we did mention are possibilities to actually end up being that guy.
Lastly, but most definitely not least, we’ve got an interesting question from @FaderTK about this new COVID reality to end things off on.
It’s a tough question to answer without internal access into these teams, but one area that has certainly benefitted from an outsider’s perspective is chances for young players at a first-team level.
At the club level, we’re seeing more and more youngsters get chances now, as a combination of injuries, changed squad rules and the 5 subs rule have allowed more players to see the field.
That will have a positive impact down the road, as we’ll see the fruits of those youngsters breaking through when they’re ready for prime time, as they’ll have already gotten opportunities they usually would’ve had to wait longer for.
Otherwise, one interesting aspect will be monitoring the mental health of players, which unfortunately took a downturn in a lot of players. Due to the realities of having to adhere to strict protocols, some so strict that it sometimes excluded families, it’s been hard on players, especially those with partners and kids.
Adding to the point concerning the youngsters, that only has helped those younger players, who don’t mind the opportunity to isolate with their teammates for a long period of time to just play games and train, but it’s been hard on a lot of those who don’t have that luxury.
Lastly, one area worth exploring will be the effects that playing without crowds will have as teams return to playing in front of fans.
By having no crowds, it’s certainly helped teams integrate more youngsters into the fold, reducing the pressure on their shoulders, only adding to the first point, but there are also other areas to monitor.
For example, might we see more tactical breakdowns when fans come back, especially after players got used to how easy it was to communicate with their teammates and coaches with no fans?
It’s certainly something to wonder about.
So ultimately, while not a lot has really changed with the sport during the pandemic, given that it is played outside and was able to mostly maintain its competition structure intact globally at the club and international level, there are still a few changes to keep an eye on going forward, and those listed are just a few among many that will be worth exploring.
Looking Forward:
And with that, we’ve wrapped up our first Rouges Reflection mailbag of 2021, and as seen here, it was a lengthy one, but that’s because there were so many good questions, so for those who sent in a question, we’d like to extend our thanks.
We’ll look to do more of these going forward, so do let us know if you enjoyed it, and we’ll find a way to do another one pretty soon.
As a busy year for Canadian soccer continues, there remains plenty of storylines to talk about at the moment, and we’re happy to try our best to follow along and talk about them.
So stay tuned for the next mailbag, and until then, hopefully some of what we said about Canada’s prospects for this year come true.
Up next for the CanMNT: Canada vs Aruba, Saturday, June 5th, 2021, 17:00 PDT, 20:00 EDT (IMG Soccer Stadium, Bradenton)
Up next for the CanWNT: Canada vs Czech Republic, Friday, June 11th, 8:00 PDT, 11:00 EDT (Estadio Cartagonova, Cartagena)
Cover Photo via: Geraint Wyn Nicholas/Canada Soccer