U20 camp in Holland

[masster]

There will be a U20 camp in Holland sometime this month. According to Marc Weber of the Province, 4 Vancouver Whitecap players will be going: Ethan Gage, Russell Teibert, Julien Latendresse and Jerome Baker.

http://twitter.com/ProvinceWeber

Roberto Stillo will be there as well.

[Ivan]

Aren't the US U20s playing a tournament in Holland this month? Maybe we are too?

[Alex D]

Send the entire squad to Ajax for two years then bring them back to MLS

[masster]

More news on the camp...from May 13-24, games against Egypt, Japan and Cruz Azul.

http://communities.canada.com/theprovince/blogs/backofthenet/archive/2010/05/10/four-caps-named-to-u-20-camp.aspx

[VPjr]

Milltown FC (CSL) is very proud to have two members of its technical staff (Rafael Carbajal and Paolo Pacione) as part of the U20 NT technical staff.

Carmine Isaaco of Portugal FC is also on the staff so excellent representation from the CSL.

here is the official CSL Press Release

Canadian Soccer Association • l’Association canadienne de soccer

Media Release • Communiqué

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Canada announces roster, matches for U-20 program

Canada's men's U-20 team has announced its roster for the upcoming camp in Netherlands. The 12-day camp runs 13-24 May in and around Alkmaar, Netherlands. Amongst the camp activities, Canada will play international friendly matches against Egypt and Japan. The camp will be run by newly-appointed U-20 head coach Valerio Gazzola.

“This camp will provide the staff an opportunity to evaluate the players,” said Gazzola. “This will be the first of several camps that we have. There will be a lot of games in this camp, so there will be a chance to see and evaluate everyone.”

Coach Gazzola has selected 21 players for this camp. There is a good mix of players arriving from North American and European-based clubs. A handful of players were unavailable because of injuries. The two international friendly matches are 18 May against Egypt and 20 May against Japan.

On 16 May, Canada will play a closed-door match against Cruz Azul (they will play three 30-minute periods). Following the international matches, Canada will play five 40-minute mini games on 22 and 24 May. Canada will play three games on the first day and two more on the second day of the mini tournament featuring club and international teams.

Canada is currently preparing for next year’s 2011 CONCACAF Men’s Under-20 Championship. Next year’s confederation championship will feature 12 teams from North America. The CONCACAF championship will serve as the qualification route for the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2011.

CANADA

D- Augustin, Francesco | CAN / Académie Impact Montréal | Montréal, QC, CAN

F- Baker, Jerome | GER / Energie Cottbus (on loan from Vancouver Whitecaps FC ) | Toronto, ON, CAN

D- Chalk, James | FRA / Paris Saint-Germain | Toronto, ON, CAN

M- Connon, Liam | SCO / Ross County FC | Ajax, ON, CAN

F- Costouros, Joseph | POR / Leixões Sport Club | Edmonton, AB, CAN

D- Dinkota, Serge | CAN / Académie Impact Montréal | Ste-Foy, QC, CAN

M- Gage, Ethan | CAN / Vancouver Whitecaps FC | Cochrane, AB, CAN

D- Henry, Doneil | CAN / Toronto FC Academy | Brampton, ON, CAN

M- Hoilett, Jaineil | GER / FSV Mainz'05 | Brampton, ON, CAN

M- Jones, Darren | USA / University of Western Michigan | Victoria, BC, CAN

F- Kelly, Liam | USA / Crossfire Premier Academy

M- Kliment, Andrew | CZE / FK Bohemians Praha | Winnipeg, MB, CAN

G- Latendresse-Lévesque, Julien | GER / Energie Cottbus (on loan from Vancouver Whitecaps FC ) | Chambly, QC, CAN

F- Maheu, Justin | Unattached / sans club | Gatineau, QC, CAN

D- Mauro, Gino | ITA / Derthona F.B.C. | Ajax, ON, CAN

D- Meftouh, Amine | CAN / Académie Impact Montréal | St-Laurent, QC, CAN

F- Smith, Jelani | USA / Florida Gulf Coast University | Mississauga, ON, CAN

G- Stillo, Roberto | ITA / Genoa CFC | Mississauga, ON, CAN

M- Stinson, Matthew | CAN / Toronto FC Academy | Toronto, ON, CAN

F- Sylla, Abdoulaye | FRA / FC Metz | Pierrefonds, QC, CAN

M- Teibert, Russell | CAN / Vancouver Whitecaps FC | Niagara Falls, ON, CAN

Head Coach / Entraîneur-chef : Valerio Gazzola

Assistant Coach / Entraîneur adjoint : Michael Findlay

Assistant Coach / Entraîneur adjoint : Carmine Isacco

Goalkeeper Coach / Entraîneur des gardiens : Rafael Carbajal

Strength Coach / Entraîneur de la force et du conditionnement : Paolo Pacione

Manager / Gérant : Les Meszaros

Video Cooridnator / Coordonnateur vidéo : Adrian Honisch

Doctor / Docteur : Dr. John Philpott

Athletic Therapist / Thérapeute athlétique : David Blatz

[masster]

I love when these youth team rosters come out. There are always some names that you have never heard of that give you hope for the future. One name that I can think of that is missing is Niall Cousens, from Slavia Prague.

Does anybody have any news on Liam Kelly? He is the one kid for which they don't list a hometown. Seems like he went to highschool in Washington State and will be going to Creighton University.

http://www.crossfiresoccer.org/recruit/index_E.html

[Ivan]

The CSA release mentions injuries to a handful of players

Other possibilities besides Cousens?

G - Adam Street

D - Derek Bassi, Karl Ouimette

M - Kevin Cobby

F - Sahil Sandhu, Caolin Lavery

The biggest absentee IMHO is Reda Agourram. Not released by the Impact?

[RS]

Milltown FC (CSL) is very proud to have two members of its technical staff (Rafael Carbajal and Paolo Pacione) as part of the U20 NT technical staff.

Who is going to coach your team in their absence?

(Total aside to the topic at hand, I know.)

[Gian-Luca]

Justin Maheu was on Canada's U17 team before, IIRC and was with TFC's Academy - a bit surprised and disappointed that he's not still with TFC - anyone know why that's the case?

[Keegan]

The CSA release mentions injuries to a handful of players

Other possibilities besides Cousens?

G - Adam Street

D - Derek Bassi, Karl Ouimette

M - Kevin Cobby

F - Sahil Sandhu, Caolin Lavery

The biggest absentee IMHO is Reda Agourram. Not released by the Impact?

No he is too old for the next cycle (91s and younger)

[jpg75]

Just this past weekend i was contemplating starting a player pool thread for these next U20's...i think i'll have to get around to that soon...

Glad to see i'm not the only one who is high on Doneil Henry. In the two games i watched him play last year as a 16 year old in the CSL you could just tell this kid is going to be a beast. He'll still be eligible for the next cycle (2013) as well...

edit: Congrats to Rafa Carbajal, overlooked that part of this story this morning...

[Gian-Luca]

Btw, a couple of new Canucks to add to the Canucks abroad list I think - at least I don't recall hearing about us having someone at PSG, or the Portugese-based striker that's on this roster.

[Ivan]

No he is too old for the next cycle (91s and younger)

Damn. You are right Keegan. I thought for sure he was a 91, but he is Oct of 90.

Saw Henry play in St. Catharines last year and I was very impressed. Still surprised to see him on this roster, but great news. Maheu also looked good in the same game. Big, fast and strong like Agourram. Hope he finds a club. TFC may be restricting their academy to 18 & under (92s)?

[Free kick]

No he is too old for the next cycle (91s and younger)

Seems like we never got to see him perform as a U20 player. I had to double check the lineup that we had in the last U20 qualifying tournament and I didn't see his name in the lineup.

http://www.canadasoccer.com/documents/Match_trackers/20090307_CONCACAF20_CAN_TRI.pdf

This is quite astounding because either someone missed the boat completely by excluding him , or he was a late developing talent. Lets not forget that he was far and away leading in scoring last year in the CSL while playing against men.

http://www.canadiansoccerleague.ca/league_leaders_CSL.php?league_id=4346

Another possible theory (one that I recently heard from Craig Forrest and Gerry dobson during a voyageurs cup broadcast) is that he is also eligible to play for Morrocco. They also mentioned that the CSA was pulling out all the stops to get him on the national team but maybe at that time ( last year) he was keeping his options options open.

[jpg75]

Personally, I think Allando Matheson scoring 10 goals as a 17 year old is a more impressive achievement....

[ChrisB]

I like seeing the number of Academy players in this pool - 10 by my reckoning... Hopefully that keeps getting more and more prominent

[ag futbol]

Personally, I think Allando Matheson scoring 10 goals as a 17 year old is a more impressive achievement....

Little confused myself to see him not on the list.

Maybe somebody can shed some light on what the purpose of these are. It seems like the names called (from the whitecaps and TFC at least) are never the ones you'd expect.

[Keegan]

Seems like we never got to see him perform as a U20 player. I had to double check the lineup that we had in the last U20 qualifying tournament and I didn't see his name in the lineup.

http://www.canadasoccer.com/documents/Match_trackers/20090307_CONCACAF20_CAN_TRI.pdf

This is quite astounding because either someone missed the boat completely by excluding him , or he was a late developing talent. Lets not forget that he was far and away leading in scoring last year in the CSL while playing against men.

http://www.canadiansoccerleague.ca/league_leaders_CSL.php?league_id=4346

Another possible theory (one that I recently heard from Craig Forrest and Gerry dobson during a voyageurs cup broadcast) is that he is also eligible to play for Morrocco. They also mentioned that the CSA was pulling out all the stops to get him on the national team but maybe at that time ( last year) he was keeping his options options open.

Agourram did play for our U20s in September at the Franchophone tournament and he was called up to the U23 camp back in January so he is in the Canada pool. Remember during the last cycle he hadn't put up those numbers yet and he was behind strikers such as Haber, Edwini-Bonsu, Porter and Bunbury. Bunbury for example saw hardly any time at all and less than a year later he is going #4 overall in the draft. It just seems like we have some pretty good young strikers coming up rather than Reda being overlooked

Edit: Id also like to point out that I wouldn't really disagree with the use of Edwini Bonsu and Haber over those other guys as people are usually quick to point out the errors in selection (and rightfully so most of the time). Randy of course led the tournament in scoring and Haber less than a year later was USL rookie of the year and bought by WBA.

[Lord Bob]

Amongst the camp activities, Canada will play international friendly matches against Egypt and Japan.

http://www.canadasoccer.com/news/viewArtical.asp?Press_ID=4239

[VPjr]

Who is going to coach your team in their absence?

(Total aside to the topic at hand, I know.)

Vladimir Klinovsky will handle coaching duties in Rafael's absence.

Rafa will be back in time for our first game at home on May 28

[Ivan]

Dino, would it be possible to give us some updates and maybe a summary from Rafael when the camp is over?

[VPjr]

^ out of professional courtesy, I don't ask Rafael questions about what is happening at U20 camp.

What little information I've gathered thus far has come from parents who've spoken to their kids at the camp and, even then, I've heard very little. I know they lost 2-1 to Cruz Azul U21 in a tune-up on the weekend. Other than that, I know nothing, mostly because I've been so busy doing Milltown FC work.

[Ivan]

^ Fair enough. We just get so little information from the CSA about these camps (witness the U17 camp last month where we heard they lost their first exhibition game 5-0, then nothing) it would be nice to hear of their results, impressive players, etc.

I understand where you are coming from. Thanks for the Cruz Azul score!

[VPjr]

^ Fair enough. We just get so little information from the CSA about these camps (witness the U17 camp last month where we heard they lost their first exhibition game 5-0, then nothing) it would be nice to hear of their results, impressive players, etc.

I understand where you are coming from. Thanks for the Cruz Azul score!

it is true that the CSA still needs to improve on its communication with the public. they did a good job of using Twitter earlier in the year to keep us up to date but don't seem to be doing it this time.

[jpg75]

Canada's U-20 Men play Japan during international friendly

Canada's men's U-20 team played to a 0:0 draw against Japan today in an international friendly match in Heemskerk, Netherlands. It was a well played match with both teams sharing the play. The match was played at Odin 59 FV.

"We played a strong Japan team in our first international match," said Canadian national head coach Valerio Gazzola. "It was a good professional performance by our team, but we still have lots of work to do."

Canada's starting XI featured Julien Latendresse-Lévesque in goal, Gino Mauro, Amine Meftouh, Francesco Augustin and James Chalk at defence, Ethan Gage, Matt Stinson, Russell Teibert and Abdoulaye Sylla at midfield, and Jaineil Hoilett and Jerome Baker up front.

The play between both sides started out pretty even, although Canada suffered an injury in just the fourth minute of play. Teibert came off with a leg injury and was replaced in the midfield by Liam Connon.

Canada may have carried the better portion of the play in the first half. As the half-hour mark approached, Sylla had a good chance and then Baker had a great shot. In both attempts, the Japanese goalkeeper was up to the task. Japan countered with a couple of chances in the last 15 minutes.

In the second half, it may have been Japan that carried the better portion of the play. Canada had a couple of chances early in the second half, but then Japan countered with a couple of its own, including a good strike from 25 yards out that went high in the 55th minute.

Canada made four more changes in the second half. Chalk was replaced by Doneil Henry in the 59th minute, Meftouh was replaced by Darren Jones in the 68th minute, Baker was replaced by Liam Kelly in the 73rd minute, and Sylla was replaced by Justin Maheu in the 79th minute.

Canada's men's U-20 team features players born 1991 or later. Canada is currently preparing for the 2011 CONCACAF Men's Under-20 Championship. The Canadian team will be in Netherlands from 13-24 May.

edit: What's with the "Canada may have been better in the first half" and "Japan may have been better in the second.."? Pretty wishy-washy commentary...