The Canadian U20 team followed up a 3-1 victory with a 2-0 loss to Mexico on Monday in the 2015 CONCACAF U20 Championship. Considering that the Mexicans were coming off a 9-1 demolition of Cuba, the Canadians were looking on the bright side following the defeat.
Luca Gasparotto, the team’s captain, did his best to divert attention to the bigger picture of qualifying for the 2015 U20 World Cup. Via Canada Soccer, the Rangers defender pointed out – “We’re disappointed with the result but all the boys heads are up and we’re focused on the next game and it’s still early days and anything can happen. The main thing now is that we get three points in these last three games.”
Canada currently sits third in their group with three points – behind Mexico (six points) & Honduras (4 points). The top team, likely Mexico, automatically qualifies for the U20 World Cup, while the second & third place teams are reseeded in to a four team knock-out tournament with the reciprocal teams in the other group.
Mexico is clearly the best team in the group & while Gasparotto struggled early with the quickness of the Mexican forwards – he did settle down & play a relatively solid game.
“Once we created some chances and got the ball moving we realized we can play with them and we’re a good team as well.”
He added, via MLS Soccer – “On another day it would have been another scoreline.”
Canada plays El Salvador on Thursday, Cuba next Monday & then what may be a huge game – Honduras on January 22.
Watched the game – Gasparotto caught on wrong side of striker a couple of times early on, but was a dominant figure in Canada’s defence against top class players for the rest of the game. How he cannot get a game for Rangers defies all logic having watched less able, but enthusiastic, forwards rip our central defence apart all season.
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