{"id":572087,"date":"2026-03-31T03:35:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/572087\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:35:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:35:14","slug":"striker-goalkeeper-battles-continue-for-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/572087\/","title":{"rendered":"Striker, goalkeeper battles continue for Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kevin Kilbane and Steven Caldwell discuss the biggest talking points from Canada\u2019s friendly versus Iceland in the latest FanDuel Race for the Roster.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Kevin Kilbane: Welcome to FanDuel Race for the Roster where Steven Caldwell has the weekly task of trying to predict Canada\u2019s 26-man roster for this summer, including the starting XI for the opener in Toronto.<\/p>\n

\"\"Race for the Roster 3\/30 Projected XI Race for the Roster 3\/30 Projected XI <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start by looking at the current projection the 26 for \u201926 that Steven has representing Canada. <\/p>\n

There are eight locks in the starting XI, but because of injury, only three of them played in Canada\u2019s match against Iceland over the weekend.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

That brings us to our Form Tracker. <\/p>\n

\"\"Race for the Roster 3\/30 Form Tracker Race for the Roster 3\/30 Form Tracker <\/p>\n

Of the Canadian players active in this March window, Ralph Priso is the most in-form centre-half right now. You have Priso, at the moment, on the outside of the bubble. Did you feel a little bit disappointed that he wasn\u2019t starting the match?<\/p>\n

Steven Caldwell: I did, I thought he would\u2019ve got that chance to start. I thought he sort of deserved that with his club form, it would\u2019ve been a good opportunity to see him at that level. I know he did get minutes, he came on in the game, but at that point Canada were pushing for the goal and then almost pretty quickly Tajon Buchanan was red carded.<\/p>\n

It was a different kind of game for Ralph Priso and for any centre-back in that match, he did okay, I don\u2019t know if he excelled in the few minutes that he played off the bench. From the start it would\u2019ve been a better indication of how he might look if he\u2019s asked upon in a World Cup game in the summer.<\/p>\n

\"\"Race for the Roster 3\/30 On The Bubble Race for the Roster 3\/30 On The Bubble <\/p>\n

Kilbane: What about two other key positions? We spoke about the goalkeeping battle, Dayne St. Clair starting the game, and up front whether it be Tani Oluwaseyi or Cyle Larin, Cyle Larin started.<\/p>\n

So out of Larin and St. Clair, do you think they did enough to suggest that they\u2019re going to be starters in that opener in Toronto?<\/p>\n

Caldwell: Did they do enough? No, did they? Cyle Larin didn\u2019t get enough of the ball, he didn\u2019t impact the game enough, he didn\u2019t solidify his place in that starting XI, so, still a doubt there for me.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s still a battle between Larin and Oluwaseyi in terms of what profile Jesse Marsch really wants for that first game.<\/p>\n

Then in the goalkeeper position, I thought Dayne St. Clair, it would\u2019ve been hypercritical to be criticizing him for the goals, but he didn\u2019t make a save again. He didn\u2019t have that commanding performance that we\u2019re just longing for him to have to solidify himself and I still think there\u2019s doubt there. Who is the better goalkeeper? Who is the more calming presence behind the back four? Is it Max Cr\u00e9peau or Dayne St. Clair?<\/p>\n

This seesaw battle between these two swings back and forth again and I\u2019m pretty sure Cr\u00e9peau is going to start on Tuesday (vs. Tunisia) and he\u2019s going to get a chance to prove to Jesse Marsch and the country, why he\u2019s the man that should start on June 12th.<\/p>\n

Kilbane: I think Oluwaseyi will start the game as well as Cr\u00e9peau, as you\u2019re saying there. <\/p>\n

Two shots on target on the weekend and two goals, so it\u2019s going to be an interesting one to see how this one goes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kevin Kilbane and Steven Caldwell discuss the biggest talking points from Canada\u2019s friendly versus Iceland in the latest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[712,49,48,44],"class_list":["post-572087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572087","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=572087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}