The Canadian men went undefeated this week. Winless too, but after a year like we saw in 2013, we're going to go with the former.
As it has been for sometime, Benito Floro went young. He's put results to the side this past year to look for new talent. How successful that search has been will not be known for some time yet, but he certainly cannot be criticized for not looking at every possible young player.
However, he was clear last week that results will be more important moving forward. He wants to have a competitive team on the pitch for the Gold Cup. In fact, he said they want to qualify to the 2016 Copa Americas, which would require a top four finish.
Crazy, eh? Or, is it?
As an exercise in hopefulness, we've decided to call up Canada's fictional World Cup roster right now. Below the jump, we have the 23 best players as we see them along with our seven player taxi squad.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
Forwards:
1. Simeon Jackson
2. Tosant Ricketts
3. Rob Friend
4. Iain Hume
Jackson and Ricketts have been getting lots of love in the transition. The two vets below them, not so much.
I've included Hume because of his leadership abilities and because you can always trust his energy. There is very little depth up top. Oliver Occean is likely the only "snub" here and Hume just seems more inspired.
As for Friend...this is where Canada is at. The truth is he's been somewhat effective for LA this year as a big body that can draw fouls. It's been a while, but it's hard to argue against idea that it's time to bring Friend back into the mix.
Who else is there that's actually playing at a relatively top level?
Midfielders:
5. Junior Hoilett
6. Russell Teibert
7. Jonathan Osorio
8. Issey
9. Marcel de Jong
10. Atiba Hutchinson
11. Julian de Guzman
12. Will Johnson
13. Dwayne DeRosario
14. Patrice Bernier
Again this is a right now line-up. DeRo is hanging by a thread based on past history and the fact he, if he can find a TARDIS, might have a certain flare that no one else can possibly provide.
Oh, and Junior. Until he says "No. Never." we will consider him part of Canada's best XI.
There has been a lot of talk about moving on from JDG or Atiba right now. We can't. Truth is Canada's best strength midfield is actually decent.
Defenders:
15. Doneil Henry
16. Andre Hainault
17. Dejan Jakovic
18. Ashton Morgan
19. David Edgar
20. Nick Ledgerwood
This isn't pretty. It just isn't. We need to produce more defenders and we especially need to produce modern fullbacks.
Goalkeepers
21. Lars Hirchfeld
22. Milos Borjan
23. Kenny Stamatopoulos
The only position we're fairly comfortable with, especially with a couple young MLS academy players (Quillan Roberts to use one example) doing so well right now.
Taxi squad
24. Kevan Aleman
25. Bryce Alderson
26. Kyle Bekker
27. Fraser Aird
28. Samuel Piette
29. Oliver Occean
30. Quillan Roberts
The depth is what the depth is. Only Piette, Aleman and Aird would cause discussion. Aird is the one where I might bump a midfielder unlikely to play off.
As for players not in the 30...Haber? Simpson? Ouimette?
What do you think?
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