Straith miscue causes Canada Greek pain.

Though it goes in the record books as another defeat, Canada's performance had plenty of positives to it, given the circumstances it could have been a lot worse.  Injury withdrawls meant that Canada put out an experimental line-up and only dressed 6 subs, one of which was a "kind of injured, only to be used in an emergency" goalkeeper Lars Hirschfeld.

The starting goalkeeper was debutant Milan Borjan, a rare example of someone with choices actually choosing Canada, and he had a decent game.  He provided a couple of interesting moments, with a giveaway in the second half when trying to pass the ball out to his defence that almost led to a goal and a dubious decision to go up for a corner late in the game, but when it came to the more conventional requirements of shot stopping, he provided a safe pair of hands, as well as a safe pair of, erm, nuts to just stop one shot that went through his legs.

The defence was made up of Jaime Peters and 20 year old Adam Straith as full backs, with Toronto FC's Adrian Cann joined by Dejan Jakovic, both early in pre-season with their respective MLS clubs.  Cann in particular looked a bit slow and out of his depth, but it was an error from Straith that proved fatal, an attempted clearance of a harmless cross falling to an unmarked Giannis Fetfatzidis who scored in the 63rd minute.

The midfield was a very attacking one, with Atiba Huitchinson, Will Johnson, Josh Simpson, Simeon Jackson and Dwayne De Rosario backing up striker Olivier Occean in the first half and Rob Friend in the second.  It worked well in the first half, as Canada more than held their own, and De Ro was playing well in the hole behind Occean.

The second half introduction of Kostantinos Mitroglou by Greece really made a difference as he attacked from midfield and exposed the lack of a defensive midfielder, creating a few chances and making it seem like a matter of time until they scored.  Unfortunately Greece did score before Canada adjusted by introducing David Edgar for his first cap.  Whether it was his introduction or Greece relaxing after going ahead, the game entered a bit of a lull, before Canada got a few chances late on.  De Ro had a shot from a free kick tipped over, and the unconvincing Rob Friend sent a free header from a corner wide, and that was that. 

Given that Greece is ranked 10th in the world, it's not a terrible result or a surprising one, and hopefully the experience gained will help when the Gold Cup and World Cup Qualifying games come around later this year.  Though, as this was only a  friendly, Borjan wasn't cap-tied, he certainly seems committed to Canada and looked like he could be a good long term bet in goal.

On a less important note, my initial reaction to the new shirt has changed.  After seeing it in action, I like it, so will probably be buying one of the red ones when they finally go on sale.  Also thanks to Sportsnet for televising the game, you can go here to check out highlights.