New Canada kit revealed. And other assorted Canadian bits and bobs.
We already knew this.
It’s been a busy week for the CSA’s press people, with all sorts of National Teams related announcements. There was the latest squad release for the men’s upcoming friendlies against Guatemala and Puerto Rico, as well as the announcement of the Women’s team playing their final World Cup warm up game against England, for some reason in Hamilton. More on those down towards the bottom of the article, as instead we start with today’s news, the release by Umbro of the newest Canada jersey. Didn’t they just have a new one last year, I hear you say? Well, yes, but special occasion, the World Cup and all that, so here we go again.
Find the tweet, load up the youtube page with it’s countdown, then come back at 3:00 to find ‘Please stand by’. Go back to twitter and eventually find this.
Sorry folks. We had to abort the live stream of the #CanadaRED event. We’ll have a full video tomorrow.
— Canada Soccer (@CanadaSoccerEN) March 20, 2015
Bravo to all concerned. Ah well, it wasn’t really going to be that much of a surprise anywayas the latest Women’s World Cup preview ads, debuted at the superbowl, showed various players in what was clearly a new kit. Two shades of red, separated by a white stripe across the chest. Which is what was sheepishly released without live fanfare, as pictured above.
Here it is modelled by Julian de Guzman, and Desiree Scott.
One thing you couldn’t really tell from the previous videos we saw, the darker red bit has a few different shades of it’s own, as you can see here.
Another interesting detail, the font on the name and numbers is certainly different. Can’t say I’m immediately a fan, but it could grow on me, and good to see them try something different.
Anyway, as the picture says, first 25 to buy one receive a $20.15 discount so get going, but not before filling out our poll below to give the internet a definitive yay or nay. I do quite like it, nothing outrageous, simple but different enough to make it worthwhile and I definitely like the collar. Not sure why they couldn’t have waited for this rather than put out the hoopy one last year, but oh well, I’ll buy it, I’m a sucker for a simple, sponsorless shirt.
Anyway, back to earlier in the week and Canada will be displaying those shirts in a warm up game against England on May 29th. A good level of opponent, who did of course beat Canada 1-0 in the recent Cyprus Cup, the type of team Canada really needs to be able to beat if they’re going to punch above their weight and contend for a podium finish. The curious part of the announcement is where the game will take place. Not in one of the World Cup venues, but instead at Tim Horton’s field in Hamilton. Great news for us GTA types who can make it out there on a Friday evening, but a bit of a curious decision as you’d think they’d be looking to boost interest in the cities actually hosting World Cup games. Ah well, I’ll take it. Tickets go on sale March 31st.
Talking of tickets, the Voyageurs are now selling tickets for the usual sections in the south east corner of BMO Field for the Gold Cup games on July 14th. There could possibly be 3 different countries fans there cheering against Canada in that game, so if you’re on the fence, jump off it, on the supporting Canada side of it, they’ll need all the help they can get. And it’s the fricking Gold Cup, this means something.
Finally, Canada has a couple of friendlies coming up, against Guatemala and Puerto Rico and Benito Floro announced his squad. No great surprises in there really, though good to see that apparently #UnattachedFCHatesCanada is becoming a thing, as they’re down to just one representative, Julian de Guzman, and even he’s currently on trial with Columbus. Good to see some names that I feel have been missing form some of the more recent squads, such as Simeon Jackson or Samuel Piette back in there. As for TFC, well there’s 2 players, both of them loaned today to TFC II, captain Chris Manella and goalie Quillan Roberts. The absence of Jonathan Osorio sticks out a bit. Whether this is die to TFC asking to keep him around, or Floro knowing what he’s got to wanting to try some other players, or Floro not liking him, who knows really. Here’s the full squad
GK- Milan Borjan | SRB / FK Radnički Niš
GK- Quillan Roberts | CAN / Toronto FC
GK- Kenny Stamatopoulos | SWE / AIK
D- Samuel Adekugbe | CAN / Vancouver Whitecaps FC
D- Andre Hainault | GER / VfR Aalen
D- Luca Gasparotto | SCO / Rangers FC (on loan at Airdrionians)
D- Dejan Jakovic | JPN / Shimizu S-Pulse
D- Manjrekar James | HUN / Pécsi MFC
D- Karl W. Ouimette | USA / New York Red Bulls
D/M- Marcel de Jong | USA / Sporting Kansas City
D/M- David Edgar | ENG / Birmingham City FC (on loan at Huddersfield Town AFC)
D/M- Nik Ledgerwood | GER / Energie Cottbus
D/M- Maxim Tissot | CAN / Impact de Montréal
M- Kyle Bekker | USA / FC Dallas
M- Julian de Guzman | unattached / sans club
M- Randy Edwini-Bonsu | GER / Stuttgarter Kickers
M- Simeon Jackson | ENG / Coventry City
M- Christopher Mannella | CAN / Toronto FC
M- Samuel Piette | ESP / Deportivo la Coruna
M- Russell Teibert | CAN / Vancouver Whitecaps FC
M/F- Tosaint Ricketts | ISR / Hapoel Haifa
F- Marcus Haber | ENG / Crewe Alexandra
F- Cyle Larin | USA / Orlando City SC
[yop_poll id=”6″]
March 20, 2015
The white stripe/band/whatever is not exactly optimally placed…I’ll stick with the last incarnation; or is it the one before that – I get confused they release so many. Of course I’m still waiting for them to do a red version of the centenary kit.