by Gian-Luca
On November 18th Canada will travel up to Poland to play against the Polish National Team just four days after having played Macedonia in Macedonia. As I was fully expecting Canada not to play any games in 2009 after the Gold Cup, this is a pleasant surprise that we are getting two in November. Well done CSA - now get us some home friendlies next year!
This time there is already a CSA press release confirming the match:
http://www.canadasoccer.com/news/viewArtical.asp?Press_ID=3861
though it does contain one error - the last match between Canada and Poland was July 15 1988 (not 1998 - the only match we played that year was - ironically - against Macedonia) at Varsity Stadium in Toronto. I should know because as with the Macedonia match ten years later, I was in attendance for this one. The 1988 match was a warm-up match for World Cup Qualifying for both teams which Poland won 2-1 (both teams had made the previous World Cup, but both would fail to reach in 1990). Canada's goal was in the second half by defender Enzo Concina (who I may be alone in remembering actually existing) - my recollection of the goal is that it was a header off a clever free kick that was chipped over the Polish wall for Concina to run on to, the type of goal I have not seen Canada do before or since. It cut the lead to 2-1, but it was as close as Canada would get. This time both teams are coming off fairly disappointing failed World Cup Qualifying campaigns and starting their re-building process now.
Canada has a number of players of Polish origin within their ranks, including Chris Pozniak and Mike Klukowski, but the most famous one is the pictured Tomasz Radzinski, although despite the fact that he's still popping in the goals for his Belgian club team, I am not expecting that he'll feature in the line-up in these two friendlies. "Ra-Ra-Radzinski, Canada's Greatest Goal Machine" is nearing the age of 36 and these friendlies have to have both eyes on the future, particularly since Canada's next meaningful match is still about 18 months away (the 2011 Gold Cup).
The roster for these two Euro-friendlies is perhaps a little easier to predict with a number of Canadian players from MLS play now definitely available thanks to TFC and DC United crashing out of the MLS playoff picture. We'll take a closer look at possibilities in a future update (how fun is it to ahve something to blog about again!) Interestingly the scuttlebutt on the Voyageurs forum thanks to Ed Swain, is that Interim Coach Stephen Hart has been talking to at one potential new national team player that previously hasn't been on the CSA's radar. Might we see this new mystery player at these friendlies? Time will tell - and fairly soon with the first match little more than just a couple of weeks away
And now that the USL & MLS season is over, I hope the Canadian soccer media turns their attention to these matches and the surprisingly-forgotten issue of the head coach of the Canadian Men's National Team, which we've heard (to put it bluntly) absolutely dick-all about from the mainstream media over the past year. Stephen Hart has been interim-Head Coach longer than Dale Mitchell was non-interim head coach, so its about time we got an update from someone out there as to what the bloody hell is going on, and if nothing is, just give Hart the job already.