Things getting real for Canada

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This article was published 16/09/2022 (1444 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This is when it starts to get real.

Over the next few days, call-ups to Canada’s national men’s soccer team will converge on Vienna — gathering from metro Los Angeles in the west to a Turkish river valley in the east.

Head coach John Herdman, who announced his latest squad from Bratislava on Friday, will have the better part of a week to train his players in the pleasantly crisp Austrian weather. Then, on Sept. 23, Canada will face Qatar at Franz Horr Stadium in the first of three tuneup games ahead of this autumn’s World Cup (noon, all matches on OneSoccer and fuboTV).

It’ll be the first ever meeting of the two sides, and given Qatar’s packed schedule of friendlies, the reigning Asian champions should be somewhat more match-ready at kick-off.

The Maroons, who will host the World Cup beginning Nov. 20, will also be accustomed to the environs. They’ve made Austria their home away from home in recent months, having played 10 times in the country since early July. Notably, they drew Canada’s final Group Stage opponent Morocco 2-2 in August and followed up the result with a 2-1 win over Ghana.

Whatever else one might think about Qatar as World Cup hosts, the team they’ll put on the field will be more than competitive and could well emerge from a section that also includes Ecuador, Senegal and the Netherlands.

They were semi-finalists as invitees at the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup, and Almoez Ali led the tournament in scoring. Against Canada, winger Akram Afif should get some joy down a flank that likely won’t include the convalescing Tajon Buchanan.

Integral to his country’s qualification campaign, Buchanan has yet to feature for Club Brugge this term after suffering a thigh injury in pre-season. His callup by Herdman was perhaps a surprise, what with Brugge boss Carl Hoefkens taking a cautious approach to the 23-year-old’s recovery, although it’s possible he may have been included to simply be among his international teammates.

Toronto FC’s Jonathan Osorio, who has recently been experiencing concussion-like symptoms, will also travel to Europe, but captain and all-time appearances leader Atiba Hutchinson will remain in Istanbul with an undisclosed injury.

Hutchinson has yet to feature for Besiktas this season, and there are murmurs of discontent at the club over his occupation of an international roster spot despite his inaction. At this point he’s probably centring his fitness around the World Cup before retiring in the spring, or even December.

Following the Qatar friendly, Canada will make the picturesque one-hour drive along the Danube to the Slovakian capital, where they’ll face Uruguay on Sept. 27 (11:00 a.m.). In his squad announcement, Herdman referred to the two-time world champions as a “next-level opponent,” and he’ll be using this FIFA window to build towards giving La Celeste a proper challenge.

That means the likes of Blackpool forward Theo Corbeanu and CF Montreal pair Ismail Kone and Joel Waterman could well get run-outs against Qatar while the approach to the South Americans will more resemble that of a competitive campaign.

Which makes sense. Canada simply haven’t gone up against defenders like Jose Gimenez and Ronald Araujo, and they certainly haven’t had to defend a Luis Suarez or Darwin Nunez.

It’ll be a good, stiff test — and a necessary one.

The men’s national team hasn’t gathered outside North America since Herdman’s first match in charge in 2018, when they took on New Zealand in southeast Spain. A lot has happened in the four years since, although their opponents haven’t much changed.

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By and large, their rivals have been regional ones, contested in familiar cities and venues — the sort of limited variety for teams that don’t qualify for World Cups.

That’s all different now. Canada are an attractive adversary, a popular team of known players with growing or established records for club and country. Theirs is a world that has quickly and deservedly become a whole lot bigger.

And it’s time to go out and see it.

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Twitter @JerradPeters