Courtesy: futsalcanada.ca

Canada to play U.S. in CONCACAF Qualifying series

The road to Colombia for Canada starts in Costa Rica as Canada will face the United States.

May 5th and 6th are the dates for the Canada/U.S. "home and away" legs which will determine which of the two nations will advance to the CONCACAF Futsal Championships that run from May 8-15th in Costa Rica.

It will be a tough go for the Canadians as the national coach will be announced publicly sometime this week and will not have much time to identify the top talent from across the country, gather them at multiple identification camps, and put together exhibition matches to prepare for the U.S.

The Americans on the other hand are already in the midst of one of the most ambitious preparation plans of any CONCACAF nation for the competition. In early November they traveled to Costa Rica to participate in the International Futsal Challenge, a four nations tournament that featured Panama, Venezuela, along with the host nation. They will then head to Europe from January 22nd-February 2nd for a training camp and seven game series in which they will play Croatia, Slovenia, Lebanon, Montenegro, and the France U21's.

In March, they travel to South America to compete against the 5th world ranked Argentineans in a tremendously valuable five game exhibition series. In April, they return home to host a four nations tournament in Los Angeles which will act as the final tune up for the qualifiers against Canada.

Canada qualified for the last CONCACAF Futsal Championships by overcoming a 4-1 first leg deficit to win 6-2 in a thrilling second leg (7-6 aggregate) over El Salvador in 2012; courtesy of two last minute goals by Matthew Rios and goalkeeper Joshua Lemos. Canada then lost to the U.S. 3-2 during the subsequent CONCACAF Championship group stage. It has been four years since Canada has played an international futsal match.




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