Onetime Toronto FC coach Nick Dasovic is the new man in charge of Canada’s Under-20 program, the Canadian Soccer Association announced on Friday.
A former Canadian international himself, the 42-year-old was last seen as the interim head coach of Toronto FC. He served in that role after the club parted ways with Preki in September 2010, up until the hiring of current TFC boss Aron Winter in January of this year.
Dasovic also has previous experience with the Canadian youth set-up, coaching the U-23 side to within a win of qualifying for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He now takes over the U-20 side looking to qualify for the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Turkey.
The new coach will be put into action quickly, as he’ll see his players up close for the first time at a 10-day camp in Florida later this month. Dasovic has called a total of 19 players to his first camp, including MLSers Doneil Henry and Oscar Cordon of TFC, and newest Vancouver Whitecaps FC Home Grown signing Bryce Alderson.
CANADA U-20 SQUAD
Goalkeepers (2): Chad Bush (Toronto FC Academy), Quillan Roberts (Toronto FC Academy)
Defenders (7): Ben McKendry (Vancouver Whitecaps FC Residency), Daniel Stanese (Vancouver Whitecaps FC Residency), Skylar Thomas (Syracuse University), Dino Gardner (Unattached), Doneil Henry (Toronto FC), Manjrekar James (Sigma FC, Canada), Jordan Murrell (Syracuse University)
Midfielders (7): Bryce Alderson (Vancouver Whitecaps FC), Keven Aleman (Real Valladolid, Spain), Oscar Cordon (Toronto FC), Ben Fisk (Vancouver Whitecaps FC Residency), Jonathan Lao (FC Rot-Weiss Erfurt, Germany), Shadrack Mmunga (FC Metz, France), Samuel Piette (FC Metz, France)
Forwards (3): Caleb Clarke, (Vancouver Whitecaps FC Residency), Abu Kamara (Concord, Canada), Stefan Vukovic (Toronto FC Academy)
