The Greek Friendly.

Canada announced the full squad today for it's friendly game next Wednesday against Greece (10am EST Sportsnet one or http://www.sportsnet.ca/). 

1- GK- Lars Hirschfeld
2- D- Jaime Peters
3- M- Marcel de Jong
4- D- Dejan Jakovic
6- M- Nik Ledgerwood
7- M- Pedro Pacheco
8- M- Will Johnson
9- F- Rob Friend
10- F- Simeon Jackson
11- D- David Edgar
12- D- Adam Straith
13- M- Atiba Hutchinson
14- M- Dwayne De Rosario
15- M- Josh Simpson
16- M- Tosaint Ricketts
17- F- Olivier Occean
22- GK- Milan Borjan

There's not that many surprises really, with the game being in Europe and MLS and whatever USL/NASL level leagues actually exist being in pre-season mode at best, the squad was always going to be more European based.  One of the three North American based players is Dwayne De Rosario and it should be interesting to see what role he plays. 

Canada is coming off two impressive games against Honduras and Ukraine with Simeon Jackson, Josh Simpson and Atiba Hutchinson playing off the main striker, either Rob Friend or Olivier Occean.  It will be interesting to see if Coach Stephen Hart disrupts that to accomodate De Rosario's undoubted talents, personally I'd rather see him start with Jackson, Simpson and Friend with De Rosario on the bench to come on later if we need to try something different.  I think that will probably happen, mainly because TFC and De Ro are just starting their pre-season as opposed to the European based players who are in mid season form and fitness, but I'd like to see that set of forwards given a long term run with the 2011 Gold Cup coming up and 2014 World Cup qualification not starting until 2012.  If De Ro can check his ego, and his Canadian shoulder has historically been just as chippy as his TFC one, then he should play a valuable role off the bench, but whereas TFC has no option right now other than to have De Ro as the focal point of their offence, Canada does have options, and I'd like to see them given a prolonged chance. 

A player who could increase the competition further up front, Blackburn's David "Junior" Hoilett declined an invitation to play.  He's been saying for a while he wants to concentrate on his club career, and after a recent change of manager, he's now getting an extended first team run at Blackburn so it's not surprising he turned Canada down again at this time.  Hopefully this summer he'll want to play in the Gold Cup, and even more hopefully he'll finally ease the worries of many times rejected Canadian suporters and choose us over Jamaica.

Another veteran who should be phased out is Paul Stalteri, whose absence from this squad was explained by Hart as being due to the fact he hasn't been playing for his club side recently.  His likely replacement as captain, Kevin McKenna had to pull out of the squad with an injury, so the question of who will wear the armband on Wednesday is up for grabs, personally I'd go for newly crowned player of the year Atiba Hutchinson.  It's more than likely that Adrian Cann or Nana Attakora will be pulled away from TFC pre-season in Turkey to fill in for McKenna in defence.

Greece are ranked 10th in the world, whereas Canada are now ranked 80th, so getting a result will be difficult, but this should be a great test, as should a game against Belarus, which though unconfirmed so far, is set to be played in Turkey this March.  It feels strange to say it, but kudos to the CSA for organising some quality friendly opposition, experience that should be very helpful when World Cup qualifying starts next year.