TORONTO -- Friday marks Canada's first baby step towards the 2014 World Cup as Stephen Hart's team takes on Caribbean minnow St. Lucia at Toronto's BMO Field.
Canada -- ranked 102nd in the world by FIFA -- opens qualifying play in a group with No. 184 St. Lucia, No. 122 St. Kitts and Nevis, and No. 144 Puerto Rico. Only the pool winner moves on.
Should Canada advance, it faces two more qualifying stages before it can book its ticket to Brazil in 2014.
The opposition is modest this time around but Hart says his team is taking nothing for granted as it enters the second stage of qualifying in North and Central America and the Caribbean. It skipped the first round.
"Training the last three days has been all business," he said at a news conference Wednesday. "Great enthusiasm, great passion ... We have not spoken at all about being overwhelming favourites or anything. We are not trusting any sort of discussion like that at all."
St. Lucia, a teardrop-shaped island located north of Trinidad and Tobago, has averaged a world ranking of 143 since FIFA started its ranking system in 1993.
It ranks 30th out of 35 teams in CONCACAF, compared to No. 10 in Canada.
The Caribbean country survived the first round of qualifying by defeating Aruba 5-4 on penalty kicks after the two-legged playoff finished tied 6-6.
Little is known about the St. Lucia team, other than it will be made up of largely local players. The squad doesn't arrive in Toronto until midnight Thursday.
Hart expects St. Lucia, like other smaller Caribbean countries, to be up for qualifying even if they are massive underdogs.
"This is a big opportunity for then," he said. "In the opening games, there's going to be a lot of enthusiasm and this is where it's going to be the most dangerous."
Hart, a native of Trinidad and Tobago, has talked to some Caribbean contacts in a bid to secure some intel on St. Lucia. But he says his focus is on his team.
"When you play soccer if you focus too much on the opponent, what happens is it takes away from your own game," he explained. "We've been working very hard on the part of the game that we control, which is when we have the ball."
Friday's game is the first of a journey that will last three rounds, 22 games and 25 months if Canada makes it to the final stretch in CONCACAF qualifying.
Canada's next match is Tuesday in Puerto Rico.
Some 35 CONCACAF countries entered the 2014 qualifying competition. Five -- Montserrat, Turks and Caicos Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, Anguilla and Aruba -- have already fallen by the wayside.
For Hart, this stage of qualifying is a chance for his team to gel. He hopes that can happen before a sympathetic crowd at home.
Canadian home games are not that common and often the stands are filled with supporters of the visiting team. Hart expects St. Lucia will have its fans despite the fact it's a small country of some 161,000.
"I don't care where they play, they're coming," he said of the phenomenon of fans supporting the visitors when Canada plays at home.
"They're passionate about their country and they're coming. So for me, we have to get the job done. And those people who have supported us, who continue to support us, we applaud them. And if there are people out there that are waiting until something happens then we're going to have to make that something happen."
In a confederation dominated by Mexico and the U.S., Canada traditionally has found itself jousting with Costa Rica, Jamaica, Honduras, El Salvador, Panama and Trinidad and Tobago for the World Cup scraps.
Canada's bid to reach the 2010 World Cup lasted just six games in 2008 after defeating St. Vincent and the Grenadines 7-1 on aggregate in a two-match playoff. The Canadian men managed just two points from three home games and finished last in the penultimate qualifying stage with an 0-4-2 record.
Canada's lone success in World Cup qualifying came when it reached the 1986 finals.
"The players are all aware of that situation," Hart said. "Some of them weren't even born when Canada was last in the World Cup."
Canada's goal is to get into the fourth and final round of CONCACAF qualifying, a six-team pool that will see the top three book their tickets to Brazil in 2014 while the fourth-place team tries to join them via a playoff with a team from another confederation.
"Once you're there, everything takes on a different dimension," Hart said of reaching the final six.
The Canadian coach says he has a good feeling about his squad "if we're healthy."
But he worries about players like striker Simeon Jackson (England's Norwich City) not playing regularly for their club.
"We can say that about quite a few of the players can't we," he said.
Still Hart said he was pleased by Jackson's attitude in camp. "I think he's going to be OK."
NOTES@ -- Canada will be captained by veteran defender Kevin McKenna .. Hart says midfielder Atiba Hutchinson remains a concern because of lack of playing time due to a recent knee injury. ... The Canadians are lacking depth up front with injuries to Oliver Occean, Ali Gerba and Rob Friend.
No comments:
Post a Comment