LOUISVILLE City FC midfielder, Mark-Anthony Kaye, has been called into the Canadian national team’s 23-man squad to face CONCACAF rivals El Salvador in a friendly match on October 8 in Houston.
He’s the second LouCity player to be selected for international duty in consecutive days after goalkeeper Greg Rantjitsingh was called up for the Trinidad and Tobago squad yesterday. Both players will be unavailable for Louisville’s October 7 showdown at Slugger Field against Charlotte Independence.
Canada head coach, Octavio Zambrano, will assemble his squad for a training camp just north of Toronto before heading south for the friendly tie in Texas.
The Canada-El Salvador match will be broadcast live on canadasoccer.com at 5:00PM ET. The match will be played at Houston Dynamo’s home, BBVA Compass Stadium, with a portion of the net proceeds to be donated to Hurricane Harvey relief efforts.
“This is a timely match for Canada to face El Salvador (and) a perfect fit for our progress,” said Zambrano. “It is an important match as we continue to assess our program and players.”
The October match follows Canada’s recent 2:0 victory over Jamaica in Toronto on 2 September 2017. Anthony Jackson-Hamel and Jonathan Osorio were the goalscorers while Jayson Leutwiler posted the clean sheet in front of 21,724 fans at BMO Field. All three will be in Canada’s lineup for the match in Houston.
Kaye will join a slew of experienced pros in the Canadian squad including Tosaint Ricketts of Toronto FC, Adam Straith of VfL Sportfreunde Lotte in Germany, Dejan Jakovic of New York Cosmos, and Samuel Piette of Impact Montréal FC. Also in the squad are Scott Arfield of Burnley FC, Cyle Larin of Orlando City SC, and Steven Vitoria of Lechia GdaÅsk in Poland. Selected goalkeepers are Leutwiler (Blackburn Rovers in England) and Simon Thomas (FK Bodø/Glimt in Norway).
Young players in the squad include Fraser Aird of Dunfermline Athletic in Scotland, Juan Cordova of CD Huachipato in Chile, Raheem Edwards of Toronto FC, and Michael Petrasso of Queens Park Rangers in England. Keven Aleman of CD Saprissa in Costa Rica, meanwhile, has received his first call up to the Men’s National Team since 2014. In all, 15 of the 23 players called into camp are aged 25 or younger.
“We are bringing a young group including some we have not had in our Men’s National Team before, so we want to see how they act and react in the environment,” said Zambrano. “It is important for us to see how the young players embrace the challenge.”