Dobson on Canada: Three goals in mind
Posted September 29, 2011 6:39 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Make no mistake about it. It’s fantastic that the likes of Ashtone Morgan and Joseph Di Chiara have been called in for Canada’s next two World Cup Qualifiers.
In fact, it’s great news for the likes of Kenny Stamatopoulos and Adam Straith as well. But the bottom line is, head coach Stephen Hart would have stayed with regulars Milan Borjan, Marcel DeJong, Mike Klukowski, Andre Hainault and Atiba Hutchinson if they all had been available. But for a variety of reasons, they’re not.
Hart says he has three goals in mind for these upcoming matches. Win them, win them, and win them. It’s his intention to pick the best roster possible each and every time.
Having said that, when opportunity knocks as they say, open the door and welcome it with open arms. It’s likely that Stamatopoulos is simply covering in goal for number one Lars Hirschfeld. Recovering from a minor knock, Milan Borjan might have been good to go but Hart didn’t want to take the chance. Borjan understood. Stamatopoulos has been getting quite a bit of playing time with his club in Sweden and will be ready.
As for the two youngsters, Hart knows plenty about Ashtone Morgan. He’s watched him play on a number of occasions, and of course has seen him regularly as he came up through the youth system. Di Chiara is another story. He’s only seen his performances on DVD. In Hart’s opinion he a good holding midfielder with a big engine, strong work rate, and he’s technically sound.
Whether either of them will play is another matter entirely. Again, winning the games is the only thing on Hart’s mind. I hope both Morgan and Di Chiara see some action in St. Lucia for two reasons:
Number one: lock them up. We’re all tired of seeing players opt out of the Canadian program.
Number two: I want to see what they’ve got to offer with the national team.
On another note, in case you’re not aware, there is no TV of the match from St. Lucia. They simply don’t have the facilities to mount a broadcast. We will be there with our own camera crew however to produce features, highlights and more. I’ll have more specifics in a few days.
