Canada Soccer announced on Tuesday that six Vancouver Whitecaps FC Residency players have been called up for the 2015 CONCACAF U-17 Championship in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. The tournament will serve as qualification for the 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chile this October.
Among the Residency players called up are goalkeeper
Luciano Trasolini
; defenders
Matthew Baldisimo
and
Kadin Chung
; midfielder
Munir Saleh
; and strikers
Terran Campbell
and
Daniel Sagno
. All six players took part in the most recent
camp in January
and the previous
camp in December
.
Canada will play in Group B and open the 2015 CONCACAF U-17 Championship on Saturday, February 28 against Haiti. Next will be an encounter against Costa Rica on Tuesday, March 3, followed by matches against Mexico on Friday, March 6; Saint Lucia on Monday, March 9; and Panama on Thursday, March 12. All of Canada’s group stage games take place at 4:30 p.m. PT at the Estadio Olimpico Metropolitano in San Pedro Sula.
The two-group winners advance to the finals with their spot at the World Cup assured while the second and third placed teams in each group will play off for the two remaining spots.
“We know with the qualifying procedure how difficult it will be with games every third day with the heat,” said Fleming. “And we know the quality of the opponents. It’s a very tough group compared to the other group, in my opinion, and it’s going to be five very good quality games.”
Canada’s qualified for the last two World Cup tournaments. They also qualified to back-to-back FIFA U-17 World Championships in 1993 and 1995 so the team hopes to head into uncharted territory as the team that gets Canada into the tournament for the third time in a row for the first time in history.
“It’s going to take a very disciplined, committed team effort,” said Fleming, of what it will take to get the team back to the World Cup. “I think that we are strong as a team, and that we will be difficult to play against. If we become individuals, it would be not to our advantage to do so.”
CANADA U-17
GK- Brogan Engbers | CAN / Toronto FC
GK- Luciano Trasolini | CAN / Vancouver Whitecaps FC Residency
D- Matthew Baldisimo | CAN / Vancouver Whitecaps FC Residency
D- Gabriel Boakye | CAN / Toronto FC Academy
D- Dante Campbell | CAN / Toronto FC Academy
D- Kadin Chung | CAN / Vancouver Whitecaps FC Residency
D- Andrew Dias | CAN / Toronto FC Academy
D- Kosovar Sadiki | ENG / Stoke City Academy
M- Tristan Borges | CAN / Toronto FC Academy
M- Aidan Daniels | CAN / Toronto FC Academy
M- Rich Ennin | CAN / Toronto FC Academy
M- Thomas Mickoski | CAN / North Toronto Nitros
M- Harrison Paton | CAN / Fulham FC U-18 Academy
M- Munir Saleh | CAN / Vancouver Whitecaps FC Residency
M- Jean-Yves Tabla | unattached / sans club
F- Duwayne Ewart | unattached / sans club
F- Malik Johnson | CAN / Toronto FC Academy
F- Cyrus Rollocks | CAN / Toronto FC Academy
F- Terran Campbell | CAN / Vancouver Whitecaps FC Residency
F- Daniel Sagno | CAN / Vancouver Whitecaps FC Residency
