Let’s start with the positives this week: Richie Laryea was dynamic in Toronto FC’s victory over FC Cincinnati and Brampton, Ont. winger Tajon Buchanan scored his first goal in three months as Villarreal beat Elche. That’s good! Now it’s time to move onto the negatives and there were a few this weekend.
As Steven Caldwell put together his weekly Race for the Roster, the two things that jumped out were more injuries and poor form. With only 94 days to go ahead of the World Cup, Canada can ill-afford either of them. So how does Jesse Marsch go about moving forward?
We begin with yet another defensive injury. On Saturday, Dender played to a 2-2 with Charleroi in Belgian Pro League action. In the 33rd minute, Canada centre-back Luc de Fougerolles, currently on loan from Fulham, was forced off with an ankle issue. Bo De Kerf came on in his place. The 20-year-old de Fougerolles’ injury adds to an almost comical list of the walking wounded for Canada’s defensive corps.
The injury to the London-born de Fougerolles makes it seven Canada defenders out of action right now. He joins long-term absentee Sam Adekugbe of the Vancouver Whitecaps (Achilles), Nice centre-back Moïse Bombito (broken leg), central defender Derek Cornelius (hamstring), who is on loan from Marseille at Rangers, Celtic right-back Alistair Johnston (hamstring), centre-back Alfie Jones (foot) of Middlesbrough and captain Alphonso Davies (hamstring) of Bayern Munich. If there’s a silver lining here it’s that most - if not all - of these players should be healed up by World Cup selection. Still, this is a vast swath of Canada’s defensive corps missing out on key minutes ahead of this summer.
In goal, where Marsch has yet to lean one way or the other between Orlando City’s Maxime Crepeau and Dayne St. Clair of Inter Miami, it wasn’t the finest showing for one of Canada’s two leading contenders this weekend. The Lions were hammered 5-0 by New York City FC on Saturday, largely because of an awful gaffe by Crepeau in the 16th minute.
A deep ball was played into the Orlando half with the hope that Nicolas Fernandez could latch on to it. But before he could, Crepeau raced off of his line and right out of the area to gather it. He was immediately shown a straight red for handling outside of the box. He will now miss next week’s match with his former club CF Montreal.
Obviously one match won’t make or break either goalkeeper’s case to earn the No. 1 shirt, but things accumulate. It was a terrible mistake by Crepeau and it’s the kind you simply expect a No. 1 goalkeeper would avoid. With the margins thin when it comes to who Marsch will trust for that first game in Toronto in June, neither Crepeau nor St. Clair can afford to make unforced errors.
As mentioned previously, Buchanan found the scoresheet for the first time since Dec. 6 on the weekend, but there wasn’t much else to cheer for when it comes to Canada’s attacking options.
Tani Oluwaseyi was an unused substitute in the Villarreal win. Jonathan David started Juventus’s 4-0 win over Pisa, but he was substituted after a scoreless first half. Daniel Jebbison cut an anonymous figure in Preston North End’s 3-1 loss to Oxford United and Cyle Larin wasn’t able to generate anything as Southampton crashed out of the FA Cup with a 1-0 loss to Fulham.
Since February 1, the quartet of David, Larin, Oluwaseyi and Jebbison has combined for four goals in 24 appearances. As European leagues head into the stretch drives, Marsch is going to need to see more for much of his attacking complement.
Race for the Roster: Week 36 (4-4-2)
Forwards
STARTERS: Jonathan David (Juventus) and Tani Oluwaseyi (Villarreal)
BENCH: Promise David (Union SG), Daniel Jebbison (Preston North End, on loan from Bournemouth), Cyle Larin (Southampton, on loan from Mallorca) and Marcelo Flores (Tigres)
Midfield and Defenders
STARTING MIDFIELDERS: Alphonso Davies (Bayern Munich) INJ, Ismaël Koné (Sassuolo), Stephen Eustaquio (Los Angeles FC, on loan from Porto) and Tajon Buchanan (Villarreal)
BENCH: Jacob Shaffelburg (Los Angeles) INJ, Liam Millar (Hull City), Nathan Saliba (Anderlecht), Mathieu Choiniere (Los Angeles FC) and Ali Ahmed (Norwich City)
STARTING DEFENDERS: Richie Laryea (Toronto FC), Derek Cornelius (Rangers, on loan from Marseille) INJ, Moise Bombito (Nice) INJ and Alistair Johnston (Celtic) INJ
BENCH: Niko Sigur (Hajduk Split), Alfie Jones (Middlesbrough) INJ, Joel Waterman (Chicago Fire) and Luc de Fougerolles (Dender, on loan from Fulham) INJ
Goalkeeper
STARTER: Dayne St. Clair (Inter Miami)
BENCH: Maxime Crepeau (Orlando City) and Owen Goodman (Huddersfield Town, on loan from Crystal Palace)
IN THE HUNT: James Pantemis (Portland Timbers) and Jonathan Sirois (FC Dallas)
