Canadian coach John Herdman has named the young team with nearly a dozen new invitations for the men’s national team’s January camp in Bradenton, Fla.
Joel Waterman (Montreal Impact), Cristian Gutierrez (Vancouver Whitecaps), Dayne St. Clair (Minnesota United), Alistair Johnston (Nashville SC), Tajon Buchanan (New England Revolution), Theo Corbeanu (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Marcelo Flores (Arsenal), Belal Halbouni (Werder Bremen) and Frank Sturing (FC Den Bosch), Ayo Akinola and Ralph Priso (Toronto FC) are 11 debutants at this camp. Aquinola, who has the right to play for Canada, the USA and Nigeria, was invited to the United States team earlier this month and scored a goal in a friendly victory over El Salvador.
There are a total of 28 players on the list with 18 born in 1997 or later.
This will be the first camp of the men’s national team in the last 12 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The sessions will serve as preparation for the upcoming Canadian qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup against Bermuda and the Cayman Islands on March 25 and 28.
“As a step towards qualifying for the FIFA World Cup, the January camp provides our men’s national team with the opportunity to tactically and culturally immerse the group again in competitive matches in March,” Herdman said. “Since we are on the field for the first time with some players after more than a year, it will be important to focus on performance as we build towards the FIFA World Cup in Qatar 2022.”