Tonight is the year's first fixture for the Canadian Men's national soccer (hereafter known as football) team. The Canadian team, comprised primarily of European-based players, face Estonia at the rather humourously named, A.Le Coq Arena in Tallinn.
According to http://www.canadasoccer.com/eng/bootroom/viewArtical_csa.asp?Press_ID=3104 a web cast will be available on CBC.ca. I've yet to find a link.
The two teams met March 29, 2003, also a friendly, with Canada losing 2:1.
Facing the small Baltic land of Estonia in a friendly should be an accurate test for the Canadian side. A convincing win, with a spice of strategy and a side dish of team building would go a long way to justifying their 4th place ranking within CONCACAF and 56th in FIFA. Plus, disposing of the 124th ranked Estonians would lend well to upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Caribbean minnows like Saint Vincent & the Grenadines (ranked 130).
After the under-23 team came within a game of the Olympics, hope for Canadian football has become a bit rejuvinated. A loss tonight would be just plain annoying.
PREDICTION: Canada 3: Estonia 1. Goals by Julian de Guzman, Dwayne De Rosario, Paul Stalteri
In other matches:
- Jonathan de Guzman (brother to Julian) most likely will not play his first match for Netherlands in Vienna versus Austria. Jonathan gave the proverbial finger to Canadian football à la Owen Hargreaves-style. If you can read or understand Dutch, read more here.
- Sweden relives the 50th anniversary of their only World Cup final appearance by facing Brasil in a friendly at Emirites Stadium in London.
------
UPDATE: Canada loses 2-0 (one was an own goal) on a snowy pitch. Ugh! Meh!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment