Canadian national team head coach Dale Mitchell has named his first squad since taking charge at the beginning of August.
The former Vancouver Whitecaps head coach has named 17 players for the August 22 friendly in Iceland, with Mitchell’s squad set to travel to Reykjavik this week to prepare for their first-ever international meeting with the Nordic island nation and their first game since the controversial semifinal defeat to USA at the CONCACAF Gold Cup in Chicago this past June.
The 17-man squad is comprised entirely of European-based players, with Mitchell opting not to call up players that are currently in the latter stages of their seasons in Major League Soccer and United Soccer Leagues.
Ten members of the squad represented Canada at the CONCACAF Gold Cup in the US. Tottenham Hotspur defender Paul Stalteri (59 caps) and Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s Richard Hastings (43 caps) are the most experienced players on the squad, while former Canadian Under-20 team members Asmir Begovic and Nik Ledgerwood are the least experienced players, as each have yet to win their first senior cap.
Heading into the Iceland friendly, Canada are currently ranked fourth amongst CONCACAF countries in the FIFA World Rankings with 562 points, just five back of third-place Costa Rica. Canada will face Costa Rica next in Mitchell’s first home match as senior head coach on September 12 at BMO Field in Toronto.
Canada squad to face Iceland - BC players & staff in bold
1 Lars Hirschfeld
2 Nik Ledgerwood
3 Mike Klukowski
5 Andre Hainault
6 Julian de Guzman
7 Paul Stalteri
8 Patrice Bernier
9 Tomasz Radzinski
10 Rob Friend
11 Richard Hastings
12 Issey Nakajima-Farran
13 Atiba Hutchinson
14 Daniel Imhof
15 Olivier Occean
16 Ali Gerba
17 Iain Hume
22 Asmir Begovic
Head of delegation: Colin Linford
Head Coach: Dale Mitchell
Assistant Coach: Stephen Hart
Assistant Coach: Nick Dasovic
Team Manager: Morgan Quarry
Physiotherapist: Ted Tilbury
Physiotherapist: Dave Foley
Equipment manager: Mike Moretto
Video coach: Victor Mendes
