Some of the more pessimistic men's national team supporters (and that's saying something) already believe Canada's next realistic shot at World Cup qualification will be for the 2022 tournament.
Well, if that's indeed the case, at least a few of the players will have had experience playing under the hot Qatari sun! (Though you'll have to tack on another decade's worth of global warming by the time the World Cup rolls around.)
Yes, the Canadian men's team has painfully (why couldn't we have had friendlies with such regularity when it actually mattered?!?! arrrrrghg) scheduled its third friendly of 2013, a showdown with #22-ranked Japan on March 22 in Doha, Qatar, in a stadium that may or may not have open-air air conditioning, be made entirely of light bulbs or have some other preposterous, magical quality.*
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
Given that the FIFA international friendly window runs from March 22 to March 26, it's not inconceivable that Canada could do another "double-dip" and schedule a second friendly a few days later, though there is no suggestion at this point that that will happen. It's just, y'know, surely there are other national teams who might feel like dropping by Qatar to, oh, I don't know... shamelessly kiss the asses of local oil barons? Err, I mean, experience the country's long-standing and deeply entrenched love of the beautiful game. Sure, why not.
Seeing as interim head coach Colin Miller is expected to name a young, experimental lineup for Canada's two friendlies this month (Jan. 26 vs. Denmark, Jan. 29 vs. U.S.A.), we can also expect that he -- or whoever takes over as full-time head coach between then and now (don't hold your breath) -- will name a similarly young and experimental lineup of European-based players for the Japan friendly.
So, what does this all mean? I dunno, an active buildup to this year's Gold Cup, which is the biggest thing the CanMNT has to worry about at the moment? Whoooo, yeah! Road trip for a group-stage game! Those are always fun!
Ah, who am I kidding... all of our Gold Cup games will end up being scheduled as far south as possible, just to screw with us, since the soccer gods** hate us.
*note: it doesn't
**CONCACAF