The countdown is on! Only slightly-less-than-two-months to go until Canada kicks off the 2013 Gold Cup against mighty Martinique! I'm feeling more excited than "Macho Man" Randy Savage hopped up on a combination of equine steroids and Slim Jims! Ooooh yeah!
Alright, there's no actual reason to be especially jazzed up about the Gold Cup today (or, in the minds of most North Americans, ever), but the breakthrough two-goal performance of the Whitecaps' Russell Teibert over the weekend has gotten me thinking about which Canadian MLSers will feature at the CONCACAF showcase tournament.
Of course, such things are impossible to know at this point -- players could get hurt, or their fortunes could change... and hell, we don't even know who'll be coaching Canada in the tournament! -- but hey, with a little less than two months to go, let's lay down some odds on which Canadians currently in MLS will be cruelly ripped away from their club sides for the Gold Cup this July.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
Now, of course, these percentages are all completely subjective, based on my personal opinion. And, in the interest of full disclosure, I'm of the mind set that Canada should use this Gold Cup tournament to try out (and, ahem, cap-tie) as many promising young players as possible. Feel free to let me know how wrong I am in the comments section below.
Anyway, onto the odds...
100%: Dwayne DeRosario (DC United): Say what you will about DeRo (try to limit the profanity, though), he can still get the job done at 35 years of age -- and he is one of the few instantly recognizable, marketable players the CSA has on the men's side. That marketability factor will probably be even more important if the team still has no full-time head coach, and the personnel decisions are being made by CSA brass (i.e. technical director Tony Fonseca). The reality is, as long as he's healthy and willing to be called, DeRo is going to keep getting the call for Canada.
100%: Will Johnson (Portland Timbers): Despite his contentious sending-off against Atticus and the Green Machine a few weeks ago, Johnson has excelled as captain of the Timbers, in the same way he'll hopefully excel as the future captain of Canada. Much like DeRo, if he's healthy, he's an absolute lock.
98%: Dejan Jakovic (DC United): Jakovic is as close to a lock as you can get, but he loses two percentage points simply because DCU will presumably kick and scream about having to release two of their regular starters for the Gold Cup (given that DeRo got hurt on international duty last year, they'll be especially leery). But, if the squad is still trawling the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings in a month's time, hopefully they'll have already written the season off and have no problem releasing both DeRo and Jakovic.
75%: Russell Teibert (Vancouver Whitecaps): Teibert definitely earns extra points in the "what have you done for me lately?" category, but the slow-and-steady approach to the 20-year-old's integration into the first-team line-up appears to be paying off. He's already made several appearances with the CanMNT, and if he keeps up his current form, he should be one of the youngsters to get a close look at the Gold Cup.
65%: Nana Attakora (San Jose Earthquakes): No-longer-young Nana is clearly a favourite of the CSA brass -- he suited up multiple times for Canada even while in MLS purgatory last year -- and now that he's back as a semi-regular starter for the Quakes, he's probably worth a look for a Canadian side that needs to consider its post-Kevin McKenna options at centreback.
40%: Kyle Porter (DC United): Probably a bit high for the former FC Edmonton man, but he has scored a goal in MLS (sure, it was ruled offside, but that was a pretty contentious decision) and established himself since joining DCU this season. Also, our pal Jono over at Out of Touch made the point to me on Twitter yesterday that Porter could help fill a need for the Canadian team as an attacking wide player.
35%: Jonathan Osorio (Toronto FC): Some will say this is a wildly out-of-whack figure to attach to a young player who was largely unknown prior to this year, and hasn't yet come close to even proving himself as a regular MLS starter, never mind a national-team player. Others will say it's a just reward for a promising youngster that shows the kind of creative spark Canada so desperately needs. Which camp you fall into probably has a lot to do with what your area code is. For what it's worth, mine's 416.
33%: Patrice Bernier (Montreal Impact): Bernier is a long-time, loyal servant of Canadian soccer -- and by all accounts a classy guy -- but he turns 34 this year, and if the national team is looking ahead to the future (as they should be), he'll likely be one of the veterans that's on the outside looking in. (Then again, if the decisions are being made by CSA brass, Bernier's probability probably gets a bit of a bump.)
15%: Maxim Tissot (Montreal Impact): The 21-year-old could possibly see himself thrown into the Canadian defender soup at some point, after a few solid performances this season. But read that sentence again. Twenty-one years old. A few solid professional performances. Enough for a call-up to a friendly? Maybe. Enough for a call-up to the Gold Cup? Probably not yet.
15%: Karl Ouimette (Montreal Impact): See Tissot, Maxim. And replace "21-year-old" with "20-year-old".
10%: Terry Dunfield (Toronto FC): Considering he's missed essentially all of TFC's action this year due to injury, and is another central midfielder on the wrong side of 30, his chances of seeing the field at the Gold Cup this year are minimal. If healthy, he'd have a much higher percentage, given his status as one of those truculent "character guys" from whom youngsters could ostensibly learn.
7%: Doneil Henry (Toronto FC): Has he done enough to earn a spot on a Gold Cup squad? Not really. But insofar as he has plenty of experience with Canadian youth teams, and Canada's got that post-McKenna CB conundrum to wrestle with, there's always a chance.
3%: Kyle Bekker (Toronto FC): Hey, remember him? Yeah, the #3 pick in this year's draft, who earned his first CanMNT cap before playing a single professional game, has certainly fallen off the radar (and TFC's team sheet) in recent months.
2%: Caleb Clarke (Vancouver Whitecaps): He showed some spark for the Canadian U20s in World Cup qualifying, but that hasn't yet translated into playing time for Vancouver this year (and has been the subject of rumours about a loan to NASL or USL-PRO). Why? Well, because the Whitecaps hate Canada. Obviously.
2%: Ashtone Morgan (Toronto FC): Speaking of TFC youngsters who've fallen off the map this year, the #NastyLeftBack has had a campaign to forget so far in 2013. He could still have a future with Canada, but to get a call-up based on his current form would be preposterous. (Even so, Canada's situation at fullback is such that Morgan's actual chances are likely much, much higher than I'm admitting here.)
1%: Simon Thomas (Vancouver Whitecaps): Yeah, he's already seen the field for the Canadian men's national team, but so has Massih Wassey. This percentage isn't meant to reflect a player's talent level, by the way, just the reality of the situation. Thomas simply just isn't far enough up the goalkeeper depth chart to figure for Canada... yet.
1%: Wandrille Lefevre (Montreal Impact): I will freely admit to not knowing much about this player or his eligibility for Canada -- but he apparently could play for us if he wanted to (and if we wanted him to), so hey, welcome to the list!
0.5%: Emery Welshman (Toronto FC): His probability is greater than zero by virtue of the fact that he is a) eligible to play for Canada and 
currently signed with a professional soccer team.
0.1%: Quillan Roberts (Toronto FC): See Welshman, Emery.
0.1%: Maxime Crepeau (Montreal Impact): See Roberts, Quillan.
0%: Gershon Koffie (Vancouver Whitecaps): Not now, not ever. Sorry everybody. However much he may love this country, he's never going to play for us, unless FIFA changes its eligibility rules or decides to give him a special exemption. Neither of those is going to happen in time for the 2013 Gold Cup, though.
Special bonus reader participation section:
Sure, this article is supposedly about "MLSers who could make the cut", but I've heard time and again how Shaun Saiko's ongoing exclusion from the men's national team setup is a grave injustice. What do you folks think? Does the FC Edmonton man deserve a look? How about any other Canadians plying their trade for the Eddies, or elsewhere in NASL?
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