Octavio Zambrano is still fairly new to his post as head coach of Canada's national team, but he likes what he has seen so far from his player pool.
Zambrano was appointed head coach of Canada back in March, and his task is to help the CONCACAF nation prepare for and compete in the World Cup Qualifying campaign for the 2022 edition in Qatar. The Canadians were eliminated from qualifying for the 2018 edition last year, which led to more questions being raised about Canada's quality and whether it is enough to reach a World Cup in the near future.
As far as Zambrano is concerned, there is indeed enough skill and savvy for Canada to reach the prestigious tournament in the near future.
"We have a lot of talented players," Zambrano told CBC. "Perhaps we have been a little bit laissez-faire in how we approached certain key matches. I have extensively seen videos of the team in moments where it needed to come through and it didn't. Those are the kinds of things we need to work on. I think it's more mental than it is based on talent, or lack of it."
Zambrano is currently preparing Canada for this summer's CONCACAF Gold Cup, and will make his debut for the team on Tuesday when he leads a 27-man squad that includes star striker Cyle Larin and veteran midfielder Patrice Bernier into a friendly against Curacao at Stade Saputo in Montreal (7:30 pm ET | TSN, RDS).
