Canadian Soccer Archive

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Free agent Haber hopes strong national-team camp will help his job prospects

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/24/2013

Daniel Haber

Daniel Haber

Daniel Haber was one of 11 Canadian men’s national team members to step on the pitch at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Fieldhouse Thursday afternoon. He was added to the roster after defender Nana Attakora was ruled out with a concussion.

After scoring two goals in just 81 minutes of action late in the Israeli League season, Haber’s contract term with Maccabi Haifa expired. He is now exploring his options, and he knows that a national-team cap will help his prospects. The Toronto native was a scoring sensation at Cornell University, but skipped his final year of collegiate play so he could pursue his dream of wearing Haifa’s green strip.

“He was lively today, he scored a couple of good goals in the session,” said national team coach Colin Miller. “In fact, the whole group was lively. It was very good today.”

Haber spoke to The 11 about getting his first national-team callup, and his prospects for the future.
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Daniel Haber gets the call to Canada’s national team

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/24/2013

Daniel Haber

Daniel Haber

Striker Daniel Haber will get his chance for his first international cap.

Haber has been added to the Canadian roster ahead of May 28′s friendly against Costa Rica at Commonwealth Stadium. Haber has made his way from Israel to the Alberta capital and is expected to be present for most if not all of the four-day camp.

San Jose Earthquakes defender Nana Attakora had to drop out of the squad due to a concussion.

Haber had two goals for Maccabi Haifa — in just 81 minutes of total time on the pitch — after he made the decision to forego his final year of eligibility at Cornell University and go pro. He signed with Maccabi Haifa during the January transfer window.
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Miller says Gold Cup job still up in the air: FCE players may get added to Canada roster

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/23/2013

Colin Miller

Colin Miller

When it comes to the 2013 Gold Cup, no one at the Canadian Soccer Association has yet approached Colin Miller to see if he’d be interested in the job.

Miller, the interim coach of the men’s national team, will steer FC Edmonton for this Sunday’s key NASL match against the Fort Lauderdale Strikers, then lead Canada in next Tuesday’s friendly against Costa Rica at Commonwealth Stadium. On Thursday, the Canadian roster, selected by CSA technical director Tony Fonseca, was released.

But, with each week that goes by, the Gold Cup gets closer. It kicks off July 7 and wraps up on the 28th. Conveniently, the NASL takes almost all of July off — and Miller could have the time on his hands.

Miller was emphatic that no one has brought up the Gold Cup to him yet — saying “we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” But he did state that it is his ambition to one day coach the national team full-time.
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Quon’s stunning switch highlights Canada roster for June 2 BMO friendly

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/22/2013

Rachel Quon

Rachel Quon

For months, Canadian national team coach John Herdman has been lamenting the women’s national team’s lack of wing players, and how he needs to find young players who can bring width to the side.

Enter Rachel Quon. In what has to be described as a surprising, maybe even a shocking switch, the former U.S. national team prospect is changing shirts. Quon, ironically, could be set to make her Canada debut in June 2‘s friendly against the U.S. at BMO Field — pending FIFA approval. On Wednesday, she was named to the roster for that June 2 game.

Quon, a fullback, was a standout with Stanford University, a regular for the Chicago Red Stars, played for the Americans at the U-20 World Cup in 2010, and started every game for the U.S. that same year at the CONCACAF U-20 Championships. She has been part of the U.S. national-team program since she was 14. She was born in Illinois. On the surface, you’d find nothing that links her to Canada.

“I am hoping that she can give us that little something different in the fullback position,” said Herdman in a conference call.

The Canadian Soccer Association is now working with FIFA to ensure that Quon is eligible to play. Herdman said that a national coach needs to invite a player to camp before the FIFA process can begin.
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Haber scores again for Maccabi Haifa

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/19/2013

Daniel Haber

Daniel Haber

Daniel Haber’s strike rate is an amazing goal-per-40.5 minutes.

The Toronto native scored his second goal of the season for Maccabi Haifa. After coming in as a sub, he scored the 85th-minute winner in a 3-2 win over Hapoel Tel Aviv.

Haber’s appearances in Israel’s Ligat Ha’al have been infrequent since he decided to forego his final year of eligibility at Cornell University and turned pro in January. The sub appearance in this weekend’s win was just his third showing in a league match this season — all of them seeing him coming in off the subs’ bench. But, with this weekend’s tally, Haber has now scored twice in just 81 minutes of total time on the pitch.
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On last day of season, Hainault scores his first for Ross County

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/19/2013

Andrew Hainault

Andrew Hainault

On the last day of the Scottish Premier League season, Canadian defender Andrew Hainault scored his first goal for Ross County.

Just before the end of the first half, Hainault came up to join the attack on a corner, and the ex-Houston Dynamo centre back/right back rocketed a volley into the goal after the ball fell to him at the far post. The goal gave Ross County a 1-0 win over Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

After Hainault came to Ross County in January, he struggled to get into the lineup. Up to April 6, he had made just three substitute appearances for his side — a total of just 10 minutes on the pitch with the first team.
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Miller finally gets the chance to coach Canada at home

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/16/2013

8425271426_3164a1677e_zColin Miller thinks back to a time, not even two years ago, when his coaching career was at a low point.

It was late October of 2011 when the Whitecaps made the announcement that Miller, who was an assistant coach with the club, was out of a job. To make matters worse, there was awful news on the home front, as well.

“I lost my job, and then my dad passed away 18 days after he was diagnosed with cancer,” Miller said Thursday. “And I thought to myself, can I take any more kicks in the goolies?”

Fast forward to the present. Miller has his FC Edmonton squad just three points off the top of the NASL table. And he’s beaming with pride after the Canadian Soccer Association confirmed that he’ll be the interim coach of the national side once again. Miller steer the Canadian team for its May 28 friendly against Costa Rica at Commonwealth Stadium. It will mark the sixth time Miller will coach the Canadian senior side. But this will be the first time a Miller-led Canadian team will play on home soil — and, for that fact, Miller is particularly excited.

“It will be a massive game. Costa Rica is getting ready for a World Cup qualifier so I would assume they are bringing their full squad.”
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Whitecaps’ defence-first strategy pays off in Montreal; Brovsky breaks nose and “maybe” his cheekbone

By
Mike Wyman
– 05/16/2013

Jeb Brovsky: Injured after collision with Jordan Harvey

Jeb Brovsky: Injured after collision with Jordan Harvey

The first leg of the Amway Canadian Championship final finished in a scoreless draw as the Vancouver Whitecaps played the Montreal Impact in front of an announced crowd of just over 12,000 fans at Saputo Stadium.

“It was a tight game tonight. Montreal has started the season very well with some excellent results. Tonight I think we did a good job of shutting them down, had a couple half chances ourselves,” said Vancouver head coach Martin Rennie.

“It would have been nice to have stolen one but overall we’ve given ourselves a good chance going into the second game. The game’s still alive. We get 10 days off before the next leg. It’ll be nice to be playing at home at BC Place but tonight I feel as if it was close game.”

The visiting side fielded a defensive lineup and left with the result for which it had hoped, to keep the home side off the scoreboard and return to their home pitch to try to prevail in Vancouver on the 29th of this month.

“I feel like on the road we’ve been a little bit too open. At times we’ve played quite well but our results haven’t been as good as I would have liked on the road so I felt we should become more difficult to play against,” Rennie opined. “I think the players did their jobs tonight. They made the game more compact and we weren’t as open and easy to play against.”
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Kitchee wins Hong Kong FA Cup; but Canadian Matt Lam out with injury

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/12/2013

Matt Lam

Matt Lam

Canadian midfielder Matt Lam was able to savour a trophy win on Saturday, but an injury kept him off the field.

The former FC Edmonton midfielder had to remain on the sidelines as his Kitchee SC side beat Sun Pegasus 1-0 in the Hong Kong FA Cup final. Substitute Pablo Counago got the winning goal.

For Kitchee, the FA Cup salvages a season which saw it lose the league title to arch rival South China AA.

But Lam, who had been a regular starter since he signed with Kitchee earlier this year, couldn’t take part in the final. Lam told The 11 he was “disappointed” to be a game-time scratch, as Kitchee coach Josep Gombau held out as long as he could to see if his midfielder’s “tweaked” ankle would be good enough for game action. Unfortunately, the decision didn’t go Lam’s way and he had to play the role of cheerleader.
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Sinclair is NWSL’s first-ever player of the month

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/08/2013

Christine Sinclair

Christine Sinclair

The NWSL announced its first-ever player of the month on Tuesday — and the honour went to all-time Canadian goal-scoring leader Christine Sinclair.

Sinclair scored twice and added an assist as her Portland Thorns began the season on a strong note, going 2-0-1 in April.

Sinclair scored on a penalty in a 1-1 draw with Kansas City, assisted on an Alex Morgan goal in a 2-1 win over Seattle, and scored in a 2-0 win over Chicago.
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