It’s a tale that is unique to Canadian soccer—and that’s not a good thing.
Senior men’s coach Benito Floro on Friday unveiled his roster for Canada’s pair of friendlies versus Iceland on Jan. 16 and Jan. 19 in Florida.
Which team boasts the most representatives on Canada’s 24-man roster? That would be “Unattached FC.”
No less than five players who are currently without a pro club (who are unattached) were named to Floro’s squad for the Iceland friendlies: defenders Nana Attakora and Adam Straith, midfielder Julian de Guzman, and forwards Dwayne De Rosario and Kyle Porter.
Only in Canada! And in the odd minnow nation, if we’re being honest. But the Reds should be better than Faroe Islands, San Marino and Papua New Guinea—in theory, anyway.
Can you imagine such a thing happening anywhere else? Would Roy Hodgson name five players out of contract to his England team? Would Spain? Would Germany? Would Brazil?
The answer is no, they wouldn’t. None of those top soccer nations, even if they faced a depth crisis similar to Canada’s, would ever call up an unattached player—they’d sooner bring in someone from one their domestic lower leagues.
If only Canadian soccer had similar pride.
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Only in this country would the national team coach pick players not currently employed. Lord, help us. And we wonder why Canada hasn’t qualified for a World Cup since 1986.
Look, we all know Canada has depth problems, as this latest roster clearly demonstrates.
And it doesn’t help matters that these Iceland games don’t fall on official FIFA dates, thus making the majority of Canada’s European-based players unavailable. And the fact that the Iceland matches coincide with the CONCACAF U-20 Championship in Jamaica (a tournament Canada is competing in) further tied Floro’s hands.
But lets have some standards here. Let’s have a modicum of pride. At the very least, Canadian soccer must mandate that players be tied to professional clubs if they’re going to play for the national team.
Canadian soccer can’t use the excuse that “this is only a friendly,” and that calling up unattached players for a meaningless game doesn’t matter.
It does matter. It matters a great deal, actually. Every game matters when you consider the state of the Canadian team.
For a side currently ranked 112th in the world (13th among CONCACAF nations) and trying to rebuild in the aftermath of the massacre in Honduras, Canada’s can’t afford to take ANY game lightly.
Building a winning mentality comes, in part, from putting out your best squad—and that shouldn’t include unattached players.
If Floro is genuinely committed to changing the culture and revamping the national team (and from speaking to him, there’s every indication that is the case) he needs to take a stand by omitting players currently without a pro club.
If Floro is having trouble rounding out his roster, he should call up players from the NASL and USL Pro Leagues. Bring in players from MLS youth academies (he’s shown he’s not afraid to do that in the past, and again with this latest roster—just not enough).
But the minimum requirement has to be that in order to play for Canada, you have to be tied to a professional club.
CANADA’S ROSTER
Goalkeepers: Sean Melvin (Vancouver Whitecaps FC Residency, Quillan Roberts (Toronto FC) and Kenny Stamatopoulos, AIK (Sweden).
Defenders: Nana Attakora (unattached), Kevon Black (Toronto FC Academy), Jonathan Grant (Sigma FC), Dejan Jakovic (Shimizu S-Pulse/Japan) Manjrekar James (PMFC/Hungary), Ashtone Morgan (Toronto FC), Karl W. Ouimette Montreal Impact), Adam Straith (unattached) and Maxim Tissot (Montreal Impact).
Midfielders: Patrice Bernier (Montreal Impact), Christoper Mannella (Toronto FC), Julian de Guzman (unattached),
Jonathan Osorio (Toronto FC), Issey Nakajima-Farran (Montreal Impact), Samuel Piette (Deportivo la Coruña), Daniel Stanese (FC Augsburg II/Germany) and Russell Teibert (Vancouver Whitecaps).
Forwards: Caleb Clarke (Vancouver Whitecaps), Dwayne De Rosario (unattached), Iain Hume (Kerala Blasters/India) and Kyle Porter (unattached).