Sporting KC defender Marcel de Jong and Canada resume their World Cup qualifying campaign Friday against Honduras. To preview the match, we caught up with Duane Rollins, managing editor of Canadian Soccer News.
Jonathon Feyerherm: How do you see Canada matching up against Honduras in their opening fourth round match?
Duane Rollins: Honduras has been a team that has really caused Canada some problems in the last couple cycles, but this is a different Honduras team. It's a younger team and a lot of the veteran players who've been successful against Canada have retired or aren't on the squad. I think this Canadian team, if you look at it on paper, should be able to compete with them. If you look back at the last cycle, Canada really should have gotten a win at home against Honduras and if they had, they would have advanced to the next round. There should be some hope, but this team has been snakebitten and has been for 20 years now. If Canada can get the three points in this match and build off that with some confidence, maybe they can advance to the hex.
JF: What are the expectations for Canada heading into this round of qualifying?
DR: The expectations are very low and that has to do with how they ended the last cycle's qualifying campaign. Everyone forgets that they had 10 points and nine times out of 10 would have advanced to the next round. The way that they exited with the famous 8-1 loss (at Honduras) has really soured people's perception of the team. This is an entirely different group of players and a much younger group of players. It's a group of players that has had success on the youth level. A lot of people here are looking at this cycle as play well, be competitive, don't embarass yourself, and build on the young core group of players.
JF: How do you see Marcel de Jong's role for Canada in these upcoming matches?
DR: He's always played well for Canada and probably better than he has at the club level, where he has struggled at times. This is a guy that's absolutely one of the starting 11 and that can play an important role for a team that doesn't always create a lot of chances. He's an important piece that (head coach) Benito Floro relies on a great deal.
JF: How has the development of MLS (including three expansion teams in Canada) helped improve the Canadian Men's National Team?
DR: It's night and day compared to where it was before Toronto FC came into MLS in 2007. There was really no place domestically for Canadians to develop and I think that we're seeing now. Althought we'd like to see more spots for Canadian players, I think the more important development is at the Academy side. We're starting to see guys come up from that lower level and if you look at the Olympic team, unfortunately they fell out but did play well. More than 50 percent of the team came from MLS Academy teams. That's the most important aspect of MLS, as it provides a place for young players to develop.
