Maxime Cr\u00e9peau is welcoming the fight as Canada coach Jesse Marsch weighs his decision on the country\u2019s No. 1 goalkeeper.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s also relishing the chance to make his mark where it all began.<\/p>\n
The No. 26 Canadian men host No. 25 Australia in a friendly Friday at Montreal’s Stade Saputo before facing Colombia on Tuesday in Harrison, N.J., to wrap up the October FIFA international window.<\/p>\n
“It’s special for me personally to come back here, where I was born and raised and formed by this club,” the 31-year-old from nearby Candiac, Que., said at CF Montreal’s training facility this week. “I was with the goalkeepers, I was like, ‘Guys, this is all my youth, all I’ve known when I was growing up.'”<\/p>\n
A longtime national team player and former Montreal academy product, Cr\u00e9peau spent years waiting in the wings while Milan Borjan filled Canada\u2019s starting role.<\/p>\n
Now the Portland Timbers ‘keeper is battling Dayne St. Clair for the top job with the 2026 World Cup eight months away.<\/p>\n
Marsch didn\u2019t confirm Cr\u00e9peau would start in front of his friends and family but said both he and St. Clair would each get a game.<\/p>\n
Canada’s head coach has also said he hopes to choose his No. 1 soon and give that \u2018keeper a run of games before the World Cup, meaning this window could be Cr\u00e9peau and St. Clair’s last chance to stake their claim.<\/p>\n
“We know exactly what’s at stake, and it’s all about performing at the end of the day,” Cr\u00e9peau said. “For both of us, it has been great challenging one another.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shows that in our team at the moment, we have a lot of qualities in several positions. And nothing in life is given, frankly. Something major awaits us next summer and the competition is good \u2026 we have to work for it.”<\/p>\n
Cr\u00e9peau is on track for his first trip to the World Cup after missing out on the 2022 tournament with a broken leg while playing for LAFC in the MLS Cup final 18 days before Canada’s opening match against Belgium.<\/p>\n
Fellow Portland ‘keeper James Pantemis is also in the squad this window, but Marsch has made it clear it’s a two-horse race.<\/p>\n
“Dayne and Max, for me, have established themselves at a very high level with our national team,” Marsch said last week after Canada announced its October roster. “We will be continuing to evaluate those two and where everything stands, but we know that those two have really established themselves in our group as the main two goalkeepers.”<\/p>\n
St. Clair was the starting goalie in this year’s MLS all-star game and leads the league in save percentage (78.80).<\/p>\n
Cr\u00e9peau, meanwhile, has been battling Pantemis for the starting job in Portland. Pantemis has played 18 regular-season games this season, while Cr\u00e9peau has made 15 starts.<\/p>\n
The Canadian men\u2019s return to Montreal is a long time coming. The squad held a training camp in Montreal last year, but hasn\u2019t played a match in the city since 2017.<\/p>\n
Cr\u00e9peau joined the then-called Montreal Impact\u2019s academy in 2010 and became the MLS club\u2019s fourth homegrown signing in 2013, but only appeared in three games between then and 2018 when he was traded to the Vancouver Whitecaps and took on the starting job.<\/p>\n
He played for the Whitecaps from 2019 through 2021 before moving to LAFC for two seasons and joining Portland last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels good to be back at home. Just speaking French feels weird sometimes, I’m so used to speaking English,\u201d he said in his native language to a group of mostly French-Canadian reporters. \u201cWe are proud. The stadium will be full. It’s something special to have the opportunity to play, where we grew up, where we were trained.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cr\u00e9peau is one of several players from Quebec who were named to the roster, including midfielders Mathieu Choini\u00e8re, Isma\u00ebl Kone and Nathan Saliba. Marsch also selected defender Mo\u00efse Bombito, but the OGC Nice centre back suffered a fractured tibia before the window.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt says a lot about some of the developments that have happened in terms of the grassroots of the game in Quebec and Montreal,\u201d Marsch said.<\/p>\n
Local fans won\u2019t have to wait another eight years to see the Canadian men\u2019s team. Canada will hold its final camp and exhibition match before the World Cup in early June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maxime Cr\u00e9peau is welcoming the fight as Canada coach Jesse Marsch weighs his decision on the country\u2019s No.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-198177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}