TFC’s own Julian de Guzman and DC United’s Dejan Jakovic are the only two North American-based players to be called to the squad, with the rest of the 17-man roster comprised of European-based internationals.

Interim coach and CSA Technical Director Stephen Hart called in a mixture of veterans and youngsters with an eye to the future.

Here is the roster in full:

GK- Lars Hirschfeld | GER / Energie Cottbus
GK- Josh Wagenaar | SCO / Falkirk
D/M- Mike Klukowski | BEL / Club Brugge KV
D- Kevin McKenna | GER / FC Köln
D/M- Paul Stalteri | GER / Borussia Mönchengladbach
D- Richard Hastings | SCO / Hamilton
D- Dejan Jakovic | USA / DC United
M- Julian de Guzman | CAN / Toronto FC
M- Atiba Hutchinson | DEN / F.C. København
M- Patrice Bernier | DEN / FC Nordsjælland
M- Iain Hume | ENG / Barnsley
M- Marcel de Jong | NED / Roda JC
M- Jaime Peters | ENG / Ipswich Town FC
M/F- Josh Simpson | TUR / Manisaspor
F- Simeon Jackson | ENG / Gillingham FC
F- Tomasz Radzinski | BEL / Lierse
F- Rob Friend | GER / Borussia Mönchengladbach

One pleasing inclusion is Brampton native Iain Hume, who suffered a nearly career-ending head injury while playing for his club team a year ago. Hume has proven that his tenacity is not limited to the pitch, and has fought his way back into not only the Barnsley starting lineup, but also his national side.

The roster was, as of two days ago, actually comprised of 18 players. Missing is the seeming opposite of Hume, 20-year-old BC native Jacob Lensky, who had initially accepted the call-up and was “looking forward to it”, only to send Hart an e-mail few days later stating that he would instead be playing for the Czech national U-21 side at that time. A freakin’ e-mail!

The FC Utrecht left-back has quite the history as a flake, having “retired” from the game altogether at age 19 after he couldn’t handle the pressures of European club football as a teenager (he was on the books of no less than five big clubs as a youth, and at Feyenoord as a full pro). He resurfaced the next year at the inaugural Seattle Sounders FC training camp, where coach Sigi Schmid offered him a contract that Lensky seemingly accepted. The story goes that he turned it down to be even closer to home, heading to the Vancouver Whitecaps’ camp only to once again disappear for months, somehow emerging at Utrecht months later and performing wonderfully for the Eredivisie side.

Lensky has even played for Canada, having appeared briefly in last year’s Olympic Qualifying campaign as well as in friendlies leading up to the 2007 U-20 World Cup that was hosted here.

He qualifies for the Czech Republic due to parental ties to that country, and has openly spoken about playing for the European side in international competition. New FIFA rules disregard anything but the World Cup and its qualifying games, as well as continental championships (Gold Cup) and its qualifying, and Confederations Cup as matches that can fully cap tie a player (along with any other FIFA ‘A’ games that were played as long as the player doesn’t switch allegiances by age 23). So Lensky has the freedom to switch allegiances under the new regulations, but even appearing for the Czechs will not solidify his FIFA nationality until he plays in an an official tournament. In other words, this is likely not the last we’ve heard from young Jacob Lensky.

For all of his talent, he’s not worth the hassle, as Canada does not lack left-sided players and throwing a me-first head case like Lensky into the mix will do nothing to further the massive rebuilding job that Hart (and any potential successor) has in front of him.

Posted by Rudi Schuller

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