After all that chatter, Dwayne De Rosario will be representing Canada this summer.
The New York Red Bulls midfielder highlights manager Stephen Hart's roster for the CONCACAF Gold Cup, along with five other MLS players. Attacking talent Simeon Jackson, who spearheaded Norwich City's promotion to the English Premier League also made the cut for Canada, which will open the Gold Cup against the United States on June 7 in Detroit.
De Rosario was at the center of a club-vs.-country debate after Red Bulls manager Hans Backe told reporters that his player was going to skip the Gold Cup and stay with the club through the tournament. Hart dispelled those notions, and De Rosario had since reiterated his wish to represent his country.
Here is Canada's 23-man roster for the Gold Cup:
CANADA GOLD CUP ROSTER
GOALKEEPERS – Lars Hischfeld (Valerenga), Milan Borjan (FK Rad), Haidar Al-Shaibani (Nimes Olympique).
DEFENDERS – Kevin McKenna (FC Cologne), Dejan Jakovic (D.C. United), Andre Hainault (Houston Dynamo), Jaime Peters (Ipswich Town), Nik Ledgerwood (SV Wehen Wiesbaden), Mike Klukowski (Unattached).
MIDFIELDERS – Dwayne De Rosario (New York Red Bulls), Julian de Guzman (Toronto FC), Terry Dunfield (Vancouver Whitecaps), Will Johnson (Real Salt Lake), Atiba Hutchinson (PSV Eindhoven), Pedro Pacheco (CD Santa Clara), Josh Simpson (Vestel Manisaspor), Tosaint Ricketts (FC Politehnica Timipoara), Marcel de Jong (FC Augsburg), Jonathan Bealieu-Bourgault (SC Preuben Munster), Issey Nakajima-Farran (AC Horsens).
FORWARDS – Simeon Jackson (Norwich City), Rob Friend (Hertha BSC), Ali Gerba (Montreal Impact).
The Canadians face Ecuador at BMO Field on June 1 in a pre-Gold Cup friendly prior to facing the U.S. national team.
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What do you think about Canada's roster? How far do you see the Canadians advancing in the competition?
Share your thoughts below.
Rochat was born in Canada but moved to Europe as a young child so it’s not really the same thing. The Whitecaps were clever to recruit him–he’s a European player who counts as a domestic player in MLS.
I beg to differ
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*I’ll admit ‘ignorance’ was a bad choice of words in my original post.
I should have said ‘typical dumb comment instead.’
Stephen Hart has said in the past that he wouldn’t take too many players from TFC at one time, so as to leave them short-handed.
Mariner/Winter don’t want to lose too many players either so they negotiate with Hart as to how many players will be selected.
June/July is a pretty important time for TFC…they typically start crumbling apart at that time anyways. The points from games in June/July are just as precious as the ones they need towards the end of the season.