While the Canadian men's national team's focus is on their upcoming World Cup qualifying series against Dominica, which starts with an away match on Thursday, the team's 35-player provisional roster for the upcoming CONCACAF Gold Cup was announced Wednesday afternoon. The final, 23-player roster will be submitted to CONCACAF no later than June 23.
Head coach Benito Floro's provisional squad includes 14 MLS players, including dual-national and 2014 MLS Rookie of the Year Tesho Akindele, who is expected to make his Canadian debut on Thursday. Portland Timbers captain Will Johnson, recently returned from injury, was also named to the squad. Other MLS selections include Toronto FC youngsters Jordan Hamilton, Ashtone Morgan, Jonathan Osorio and Quillan Roberts, Montreal Impact Homegrown Player Maxim Tissot and the Vancouver Whitecaps' Sam Adekugbe, Kianz Froese and Russell Teibert.
Several players from US-based MLS clubs also made the squad, including Kansas City left back Marcel de Jong, New York Red Bulls center back Karl Ouimette, FC Dallas midfielder Kyle Bekker and Orlando City forward Cyle Larin.
Former MLS players like Nana Attakora, Julian de Guzman, Andre Hainault, Dejan Jakovic and Issey Nakajima-Farran also made the initial list.
Canada will play in a difficult Group B against Costa Rica, Jamaica and El Salvador, with Canada hosting the final day of group play at Toronto's BMO Field.
The full roster:
GOALKEEPERS (4): Milan Borjan (Ludogorets Razgrad/Bulgaria), Lars Hirschfeld (Valerenga/Norway), Quillan Roberts (Toronto FC), Kenny Stamatopoulos (AIK/Sweden)
DEFENDERS (10):Sam Adekugbe (Vancouver Whitecaps), Nana Attakora (San Antonio Scorpions), Luca Gasparotto (Rangers/Scotland), Andre Hainault (unattached), Dejan Jakovic (Shimizu S-Pulse/Japan), Nik Ledgerwood (Energie Cottbus/Germany), Ashtone Morgan (Toronto FC), Karl Ouimette (New York Red Bulls), Mallan Roberts (FC Edmonton), Adam Straith (Fredrikstad/Norway)
MIDFIELDERS (16):Tesho Akindele (FC Dallas), Kyle Bekker (FC Dallas), Julian de Guzman (Ottawa Fury), Marcel de Jong (Sporting Kansas City), David Edgar (Birmingham City/England), Atiba Hutchinson (Besiktas/Turkey), Will Johnson (Portland Timbers), Kianz Froese (Vancouver Whitecaps), Issey Nakajima-Farran (Terengganu/Malaysia), Jonathan Osorio (Toronto FC), Pedro Pacheco (Santa Clara/Portugal), Michael Petrasso (Queens Park Rangers/England), Samuel Piette (Deportivo La Coruña/Spain), Tosaint Ricketts (Hapoel Haifa/Israel), Russell Teibert (Vancouver Whitecaps), Maxim Tissot (Montreal Impact)
FORWARDS (5): Randy Edwini-Bonsu (Stuttgart Kickers/Germany), Marcus Haber (Crewe Alexandra/England), Jordan Hamilton (Toronto FC), Simeon Jackson (unattached), Cyle Larin (Orlando City)
