Jump to content

Canada Announces U-20 Roster


Back to Basics

Recommended Posts

Canada’s men’s U-20 team announced its roster today for its upcoming camp in Switzerland. Coach Tony Fonseca has selected 18 players for the camp which will feature two preparatory matches. Canada will play an exhibition match against U21 Berner Sports Club Young Boys on 24 November in Bern and then an international friendly match against Switzerland on 26 November in Solothurn.

The Switzerland camp will be coach Tony Fonseca’s first opportunity to see and evaluate this group of players. The preparatory matches will be played with an eye toward next year’s FIFA U-20 World Cup Egypt 2009. The 2009 CONCACAF Men’s Under-20 Championship will take place first from 5-16 March in Trinidad & Tobago. This will mark the first time since 1996 that CONCACAF schedules a men’s U-20 championship, whereby in recent years the final group of teams have been split into two separate locations. Including its champion, CONCACAF will send four teams to the FIFA U-20 World Cup Egypt 2009.

Canada has participated in eight of 16 FIFA U-20 World Cups, including each of the last four. At UAE 2003, Canada reached the quarter-final stage before losing 1:2 to Spain on a golden goal. Along with a pair of CONCACAF U-20 championships (1986 and 1996), Canada also finished first in Group A of the 2001 CONCACAF Under-20 Qualification Tournament.

The FIFA U-20 World Cup Egypt 2009 runs 25 September to 16 October. Twenty-four teams will participate in the tournament, of which host Egypt and European nations Czech Republic, England, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Spain have already qualified. The most recent FIFA U-20 World Cup, of course, took place in Canada this past 30 June to 22 July 2007. The FIFA U-20 World Cup Canada 2007 set a tournament record by drawing 1,195,239 spectators for the 52-match event. It also generated $259-million in economic impact and some 469.5-million cumulative viewers from around the world.

Nana Attakora-Gyan | D | Orangville, ON | CAN / Toronto FC

Brandon Bonifacio | M | Vancouver, BC | NED / Cambuur Leeuwarden BVO

Randy Edwini-Bonsu | F | Edmonton, AB | CAN / Vancouver Whitecaps FC

Gabriel Gala | D/M | Brampton, ON | CAN / Toronto FC

Derek Gaudet | M | Bayside, NS | CAN / Toronto FC

Marcus Haber | F/D | Vancouver, BC | Unattached / Sans club

Matthew Lam | M | Edmonton, AB | ENG / Sheffield United FC

Fabrice Lassonde | D/M | Mont-Saint-Grégoire, QC | GER / FC Ingolstadt 04

Paris Nakajima-Farran | D/M | Calgary, AB | DEN / Næstved BK

Kennedy Owusu-Ansah | D | Toronto, ON | CAN / GER – Hertha Berlin BSC

Igor Pisanjuk | F | Toronto, ON | HUN / Ferencvárosi Torna Club

Shaun Saiko | M | Edmonton, AB | ENG / Middlesbrough FC

Robert Stillo | GK | Mississauga, ON | ITA / Genoa CFC

Adam Straith | D | Victoria, BC | GER / FC Energie Cottbus

Adam Street | GK | Brampton, ON | ENG / West Ham United

Alex Surprenant | D | St-Alexandre, QC | CAN / Impact de Montréal

Daniel Tannous | D | Thornhill, ON | CAN / TFC Academy

Vladimir Vukovic | M | Vancouver, BC, Canada | BIH / FC Laktasi

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It will be interesting to see how Owusu-Ansah does. He is getting 0 playing minutes so far this season at Berlin. Will have to check out how the kid at FC Ingolstadt has been doing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by loyola

Rarely seen an U-20 roster without a single NCAA or CIS player...

I guess with so many European-based players to look at it there isn't going to be much room for NCAA freshman who are in mid-season and would have to be flown out to Europe. On the other hand, Haber is there as an un-attached player.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by Back to Basics

Quite a few suprises in my opinion.. Tannous didn't even see the field for Argentina camp, and he's called back, Whiteman plays 78 and doesn't get called back. I think multiple players must have turned downt the calls

Although Whiteman is a striker whereas Tannous is listed as a defender. Likewise Melo played the second half against Argentina is on the TFC dev. roster but doesn't get called while Tannous from the TFC academy is called.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by leafdolfan

Rosa who started against Argentina also wasn't called...

I'm shaking my head at this one. Not that he wasn't called, but that if you head to the CSA site for the news item for the roster they have a photo of him with his name underneath it, even though he's not on the roster in question!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by Gian-Luca

I'm shaking my head at this one. Not that he wasn't called, but that if you head to the CSA site for the news item for the roster they have a photo of him with his name underneath it, even though he's not on the roster in question!

Where is ETHAN GAGE? Such a small roster... 18?

Igor Pisanjuk?

Still a VERY strong team, on paper at least. Attakora Gyan, Street, Suprenant, Saiko, Bonifacio, Gala I've seen play and all should be good players at this level.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by loyola

Rarely seen an U-20 roster without a single NCAA or CIS player...

Technically Tannous is an NCAA player...he's no longer with TFC Academy...he left them a couple of months before the end of the CSL season.

Regardless, i think he's deserving. I saw him play 3 times this summer and I think quite highly of him. Strong player. A good competitor.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by youllneverwalkalone

Igor played at Erin Mills according to wiki. Looks like their Hungarian gaffer has some connections at Ferencvaros. That's pretty cool, except that this Sheffield United experiment seems like quite the failure. Get promoted already. Agree about Gage though. Surprising.

you've got to hand it to Erin Mills....alot of very solid players go through that club. And yes, Erin Mills head coach Josef Komlodi does have alot of connections in his native Hungary. He helped Ornoch and a couple of others get a pro opportunity in that country. Erin Mills is an ambitious club so I fully expect that we will be seeing more and more of their players graduate to pro careers (they already do a very good job of sending players to the NCAA on scholarships)

BTW, Stillo came up through Erin Mills too

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Regarding Gage, I note that the CSA has not supplied DOB's with this list of players. Is Ethan a victim of the stellar selection philosophy embraced by previous CSA coaches? Pick BIG, STRONG OLDER players over YOUNG SKILLED players.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ed, I find it hard to believe that Fonseca would snub Gage due to lack of size, especially since Fonseca comes from the Whitecaps program and should be quite familiar with this player. Gaudet is no bigger than Gage so I don't believe that's the logic behind his omission.

Has anyone considered he (and Rosa) might be nursing an injury?

OVERALL, this is a pretty good roster, although it is shockingly small.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by Ed

Regarding Gage, I note that the CSA has not supplied DOB's with this list of players. Is Ethan a victim of the stellar selection philosophy embraced by previous CSA coaches? Pick BIG, STRONG OLDER players over YOUNG SKILLED players.

We'll see if he is on the MNT for Jamaica. That is the only thing that makes sense ..... wait a minute. Making sense & the CSA .... Oh I hope my first guess is correct.

Playing full 90 minute games against full grown, experienced pros and NOT looking out of place at all. He is eligible for all 4 (U17, U20, U23 & MNT) so maybe they gave him a choice?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by tmcmurph

We'll see if he is on the MNT for Jamaica. That is the only thing that makes sense ..... wait a minute. Making sense & the CSA .... Oh I hope my first guess is correct.

Playing full 90 minute games against full grown, experienced pros and NOT looking out of place at all. He is eligible for all 4 (U17, U20, U23 & MNT) so maybe they gave him a choice?

Gage isn't eligible for the U17 team

U17 WC 2009's bar is 92

I hope he was called to the men's team. as for olivier lacoste-lebuis... good call, where is he?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by Keegan

I hope he was called to the men's team. as for olivier lacoste-lebuis... good call, where is he?

I found a football match tracker that suggested he was still getting games in France despite no sign of him on the clubs website. That's all i know.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

quote:Originally posted by ag futbol

I found a football match tracker that suggested he was still getting games in France despite no sign of him on the clubs website. That's all i know.

Olivier Lacoste Lebuis has left his club and is now attending university. I don't know where he is going to school but I got this information from a contact at the CSA. if anyone has him as a friend on Facebook or anything like that, please look into it.

Sean Rosa is attending Brown University (NCAA - Div 1)....we should update our records. here is the link confirming his move to NCAA:

http://brownbears.cstv.com/sports/m-soccer/mtt/rosa_sean00.html

Apparently some players were left off the U20 camp roster due to injury and other players who are attending college in the US chose to stay back in the USA due to exams.

I would expect that there will be another camp in 2009 and hopefully that camp will be a bit larger and will include some of the NCAA players who will not be attending the camp in Switzerland.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...