Gerry Dobson

Canada coach Stephen Hart.

Canadian coach Stephan Hart faces a tough task of selecting players without upsetting their clubs.

Pity poor Stephen Hart.

The Canadian national team coach faces that age-old problem once again this week. He's due to announce his roster for two upcoming friendlies in the next few days.

His challenge is to scrape together a squad for back-to-back games against Peru in Toronto Sept. 4, and three days later in Montreal against Honduras.

All things being perfect he would no doubt grab as many MLS players as he can. But can you imagine those clubs wanting to depart with key players during the stretch run to the playoffs?

Take Toronto FC for example. They play away at Dallas on the same day Canada plays Peru in Toronto. Then they play away at Chicago in a critical MLS Eastern Conference battle the day after the Canada-Honduras match in Montreal.

Now, since these friendlies fall on an international date, Hart has every right to select as many MLS Canadians as he wants. But will he? TFC coach Preki would go ballistic and who could blame him? Can you imagine TFC without Julian de Guzman, Dwayne De Rosario, Nana Attakora and Adrian Cann for those two critical games?

Might he select the little used and uncapped O'Brian White? Perhaps. Keep in mind that under a fairly new FIFA rule, players can only be capped in official competitions. Friendlies don't count anymore. For Canada that means the next opportunity to lock up players like White would be next summmer's Concacaf Gold Cup.

Despite that, Hart is anxious to get players in that situation into camp in circumstances like this to get them feeling comfortable in the Canadian setup and try to convince them who they should be playing for him when it counts.

That philosophy would also include the likes of Teal Bunbury of Kansas City. The Wizards play on Sept. 4 and the 11th so the game on the 7th in Montreal is a possibility; but don't count on it. I got the feeling from talking to him in Kansas City recently that his international future is not even on the radar.

Hart would also love to see the likes of Junior Hoilett from Blackburn Rovers and Jonathan De Guzman of Mallorca in camp. Whether that will happen is anyone's guess; it’s probably unlikely.

People criticize Hart constantly for the player selections he makes, but if you look at it closely, what are his options? If you throw Dejan Jakovic of D.C. United (currently injured) and Houston's Andrew Hainault into the mix, you're starting to get close to a team made of MLS players. That's always been the goal hasn't it?

A core of players seeing regular first-team action is what every coach wants. Now the problem is, how do you get those players during the season? Anybody got any ideas?

Whoever shows up, a training camp gets underway at the Nottawasaga Inn near Alliston, Ont., sometime around Sept. 1.