PREVIEW: CanM20's begin long journey toward World Cup with start of Concacaf Championships qualifiers
The road to Chile begins in Trinidad and Tobago for the Canadian Men’s U20 National Team this week, as they get set to kick off their journey toward the U20 World Cup on Friday.
Looking to qualify for their first U20 World Cup since 2007, which they hosted, it’s a crucial campaign for this Canadian side, too, as they look to return to FIFA’s marquee U20 men’s tournament after missing the seven previous editions of that competition.
If they’re to do that, however, a tall task awaits them, as they’ve still got a lot of work to do to make it that far once again.
That all begins this week, as they begin qualifiers for the Concacaf Championships, which will be held this summer, serving as Canada’s lone opportunity to qualify for the World Cup.
So ahead of the start of those qualifiers, which kick off on Friday when Canada plays Dominica, here’s everything you need to know about this camp and what it means for Canada.
New-look format changes Canada’s path to World Cup:
Before looking at Canada’s path through the qualifiers, however, it’s important to note that there have been some tweaks to the U20 Concacaf Championships, as the format was changed ahead of 2024.
After being a 20-team tournament in 2022, the 2024 edition will be a 12-team group, which led to an expanded qualifying format after most teams (16 to be exact) just qualified automatically for that 2022 edition, including Canada.
This time, only six teams earned their spots automatically through their performances in 2022, which were the US, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, leaving the rest of the region to battle for the remaining six spots through these qualifiers.
The rest of the final tournament is as expected - the 12 teams will be split into three groups of four, where the top two teams in each group and the top two third-place teams will go to the quarter-finals. From there, it will be a straight knockout, with the four semi-finalists booking their spot at the U20 World Cup, while the winner will take home the trophy.
As for the qualifiers, however, that’s left the 26 remaining teams who haven’t already qualified to vie for those six remaining spots at the final tournament, which is where Canada comes in, as they and the other 25 teams were recently split into six groups (three groups of five and three groups of four) via a draw last December.
There, Canada was drawn into a group with Trinidad & Tobago, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica, with each team now set to play each other once, with the winner of the group qualifying for the Concacaf Championships, while the others all will be eliminated.
So for Canada, the mission is simple this month - take care of the three games that they’ve got and top the group, allowing them to advance to the Concacaf Championships. If not, they’ll miss out on that tournament for just the second time since 1973, and considering the first was in 2007, when they had already earned a spot at the World Cup as hosts and didn’t need to qualify, this time would be a much bigger deal than that miss in the grand scheme of things, for obvious reasons.
Safe to say, that gives an idea of what’s at stake for this Canadian team down in Trinidad & Tobago, as they look to take care of business and avoid that fate. 
What to make of young Canada squad?
As they get set for these qualifiers, Canada, who are coached by their men’s Excel director, Andrew Olivieri, have called in 21 players to help them see them over the line over the next week, calling in a squad that has all sorts of interesting experience to their name.
Here’s our squad for the 2024 Concacaf Men's U-20 Championship Qualifiers🚨#CANM20 pic.twitter.com/uawbOzbcP0
— Canada Soccer (@CanadaSoccerEN) February 12, 2024
To begin, there’s just one player who was on their squad in the last U20 cycle, Jesse Costa, who currently plays for Wolfsburg’s U19 team. Born in 2005, he was the lone player born after January 1st, 2005 to play in that 2022 U20 squad, and that date just happens to be the cut-off for this cycle, with players needing to be born after that date to be eligible.
Because of that, after Costa, this squad is mostly filled with new and younger faces, although there are a few familiar names, as a good chunk of names were called in all played together with the U17 team last cycle, which some may be familiar with.
Those names are Nathaniel Abraham, Theo Rigopoulos and Lazar Stefanovic of Toronto FC, Alessandro Biello of CF Montréal, Jeevan Badwal of the Vancouver Whitecaps and Kevaughn Tavernier of Forge, who all represented Canada at the U17 World Cup in Indonesia last fall, where Canada were unable to win a game.
GOAL 🔨
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) February 14, 2024
A consolation? Sure, but for 17-year-old Kevaughn Tavernier, @ForgeFCHamilton, a HUGE goal kicks off what hopes to be a promising career in #CanPL! 🇨🇦
🔴 POST-GAME SHOW now airing on OneSoccer pic.twitter.com/TX9W51EbAU
All born after 2006, they’re a bit younger than most on this squad, but the chemistry that they built on that team, which was also coached by Olivieri, could prove to be valuable when it comes to his team selection in matches.
From there, some names to watch are those with professional experience, as that usually can be a big factor in youth tournaments, giving them an edge over their peers who haven’t had that chance to compete against adults in that advanced setting regularly, which makes a huge difference.
On this squad, those names are James Cameron of Vancouver FC, Adam Pearlman of Toronto FC and Santiago Lopez of Pumas UNAM, along with Stefanovic, Badwal and Tavernier, who have all gotten various levels of pro experience over the last year at their clubs.
GOAL 🦅🦅
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) September 10, 2023
It's a LATE go-ahead for @VanFootballClub as @AtletiOttawa is stunned on another surging counter, with James Cameron tucking home the effort in the 91st minute 💪
CAN. THEY. HOLD. ON? 🔥
🔴 Watch #CanPL on OneSoccer pic.twitter.com/pnZMPD9NZ6
You add in Christian Taylor-Greco, who is currently unattached but played for the Whitecaps MLS Next Pro team last year, and Kimani Stewart-Baynes, who hasn’t made his professional debut but was recently drafted by the Colorado Rapids and has featured heavily in their preseason, and that’s a decent core of players who have that experience playing against professionals, which is key.
Lastly, some promising dual-nationals playing in European academies are also ones to keep an eye on, as Canada was able to call in a few youngsters with high potential such as Oumar Diallo, who plays for Inter Milan’s U19 team, Tiago Codinha, who is with Twente, Tavio Ciccarelli, who is in Sheffield United’s system, Ethan Schilte-Brown of Kilmarnock, Ivan Pavleva of NK Lokomotiva Zagreb and Grégoire Świderski of Bordeaux, along with Costa.
In particular, Diallo is the most exciting name on the list, as he’s trained with Inter’s first team, and is a highly-regarded prospect in that system, while Codinha could surprise as he’s had strong reviews from his time in the Netherlands.
It’s hard to gauge what some of those youngsters might bring in a tournament setting, but they can sometimes end up being big surprises if they can capitalize on their game-breaking potential, and Canada will be banking on a few of them stepping up big for them this year.
So overall, Canada’s called in a pretty strong squad for this camp. There are some surprise omissions, such as Vancouver FC’s TJ Tahid and Forge FC’s Khadim Kane, who have professional experience and fill positions of need, but the group called in should get the job done in this camp, which could lead the pair to earn a spot in the next camp.
Wide-open group awaits Canada in qualifiers:
As for Canada’s group, however, it’s worth noting that they’re getting set to face a hungry set of teams who will also be looking to build off of disappointing cycles of their own in 2022.
Concacaf U-20 Championship Qualifiers kick off TOMORROW as we take on Dominica 🇩🇲
— Canada Soccer (@CanadaSoccerEN) February 22, 2024
Matches can be watched on OneSoccer.#CANM20 pic.twitter.com/cGJysw5RvJ
To begin, there’s Trinidad & Tobago, who are likely Canada’s biggest challenger in this group, especially given that they’ll be hosting these games.
Coming off the 2022 Concacaf Championships, where they were eliminated in the Round of 16 by Costa Rica after finishing third in their group with four points, they’ll feel that they could’ve done better in that knockout clash, which they lost 4-1. As a result, they’ll be eager to return to that tournament, allowing them to avenge that loss.
Then, there’s Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, who experienced quite the heartbreak in the last cycle, missing out on the Championships on goal difference in qualifiers, as they finished in a three-way tie with Puerto Rico and Bermuda in their group.
Because of that, they’ll also be fuelled by that heartbreak, knowing that they were that close to being able to play in the final tournament, instead being left to stay at home.
Lastly, Dominica rounds off this group, entering as the biggest underdogs, as they finished last in their qualifiers group in the last cycle, failing to pick up a point across four games, in which they were outscored 18-2 by Curaçao, Grenada, the British Virgin Islands and Sint Maarten.
While they’ll believe that they can hit the reset button this cycle, they’ll look to start small this time around, meaning that they’ll be pleased just to get some points on the board, and potentially frustrate those in this group by trying to keep their games tight.
So overall, while Canada will be the favourites among these four, as they were the pot one team in this group, they’ll have a lot to worry about, especially when it comes to Trinidad & Tobago, given that they were the top-ranked team in pot two, while Canada was the lowest-ranked side in pot one, showing how close the margins are between them.
You add in that T&T will be hosting, they’ll have every reason to believe that they can beat this Canadian side, and understandably so.
Because of that, their final-day matchup could prove to be huge, especially if they can take care of business against the other two teams in the group in the first two matches, which would set up a “win and you’re in” battle between the two.
How might Canada play? ![51051829936 B3f5804a34 K]()
In terms of this Canadian side, however, it’ll be interesting to see how they play in this tournament, especially seeing that they won’t have had as much preparation time to work together.
Recently, Canada have lined up in both a 4-4-2 and a 3-5-2 at youth tournaments, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see either of those formations used, with the 4-4-2 being the most likely option given the players they brought in.
From there, Canada has tried to hold onto the ball more in Concacaf play, trying to use the width of the pitch to attack, but can sometimes go more direct, aiming to find the strikers with longer balls.
At their best, they keep the ball on the ground and capitalize on that width, finding ways to supply service to their strikers, but sometimes the gap between the midfield and the frontline can be a concern, especially when it leads them to play more direct.
That’s where someone like Costa could be a huge asset, however, as deploying him up front in the 4-4-2 could turn it into more of a 4-2-3-1, providing that link-play to a striker, be it a Kimani-Baynes, Diallo or Lopez.
Otherwise, Canada will look to be solid defensively, which is where Cameron, Stefanovic and Pearlman could be key, as Cameron showed that he can be a strong wide defender in the CPL last year, while Stefanovic and Pearlman have experience playing together as centre backs on Toronto’s second team, which could be an asset.
Other than that, though, there could be some pretty wide-open battles across the roster, especially in midfield and in goal, making it interesting to see who ends up getting the brunt of the minutes across these qualifiers.
Either way, one thing’s for sure - expect Canada to want to be more ball-dominant, building up their confidence in that area for the final tournament, should they make it, while emphasizing keeping defensive solidity, as that could be a potential avenue of success for them given their personnel.
The big question mark will be who scores the goals, but perhaps these games could help give them a better idea of who could step up in that regard, especially if they’ll be getting all sorts of chances to score in the earlier games against Dominica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
So while the big goal is to qualify at all costs, how they do so is important, especially if they can build off it positively heading into what should be a tough Championships, one that they want to do everything in their power to reach.
