By Scott Ferguson

Canada's men's national side will take on the world’s second-ranked team Brazil in a friendly on Saturday in Seattle, Washington. Just one week after Brazil’s under-23 side took on Polish club Wisla Kraków at BMO Field in Toronto, a senior team containing the likes of Adriano, Diego and Robinho will face off against a nearly full-strength Canadian roster at Qwest Field. With a natural grass pitch being prepared, the Seleção are expected to provide their usual blend of free-flowing and exciting football. Canadian head coach Dale Mitchell talked to the media in a conference call on Thursday to discuss the upcoming friendlies against Brazil and Panama while looking ahead to World Cup qualifying in June.

One issue at the top of Canucks-Abroad’s agenda during the conference call was the eligibility of Tam Nsaliwa, whose passport issues were a subject of a wide-ranging interview on C-A last month.

“Unfortunately, Tam is not eligible for us at the moment,” Mitchell told reporters. “We've been working with Tam during the last six to eight months trying to resolve his passport issue... he could see some playing time in the friendly matches against Brazil and Panama, but at the moment his passport situation is not resolved, so therefore he will be ineligible for us [in WCQ] right now. If it changes in the near future, then obviously we'd certainly like to have him in with our group again. Right now we're trying to integrate him back in with the guys; [as] he hasn't been involved in a while.”

While Nsaliwa is back in the squad, notable omissions from the camp due to injury include Kevin McKenna (hernia), Lars Hirschfeld (back), Iain Hume (ankle), Daniel Imhof and David Edgar. Mitchell pointed to the long European season with players carrying knocks down the run-in as reasons that five potential starters were set to miss out on the Brazil and Panama friendlies.

While a number of young players are included in Mitchell’s camp, the only players present that were a part of Nick Dasovic’s Olympic qualifying squad in February are goalkeeper Josh Wagenaar and centreback André Hainault.

“We do have some younger players,” Mitchell clarified to Canucks-Abroad. “Some of them didn't play in Olympic qualifying but certainly were age-eligible, [but] their clubs wouldn't allow it. Any player that is playing professionally at a good level has a chance to be called in and assessed. [Andrew Ornoch and Will Johnson] haven't, but we've looked at some of the guys in the group that we have here, and you look at some of the injured players, you know it’s a good squad and you've got to be performing at a pretty good level to get involved here.”

The Canada boss is wary of the threats that Brazil can pose, even without the likes of Ronaldinho, who may be on the move this summer after a below-par season with FC Barcelona, and Kaká and Ronaldo, both injured and on AC Milan’s books.

“They have so many ways that they can hurt you that I don't think you can necessarily key in on one player,” Mitchell stressed. “Although Kaká won't be here and Ronaldinho won't be here, they've still got players like Robinho and Diego and Pato (that we saw at the under-20 World Cup last year [in Canada]), that can certainly hurt you... [There’s] really too much talent out there to concentrate on any individual... It’s really a matter of keeping your group tight, together, well-organized, keeping shape; because if you present any openings to them they have the ability to hurt you.”

On how Brazil will help prepare the squad for CONCACAF qualifying:

“We've got players that are finishing up a long European season; we needed a period of time with the players to get them ready for the St. Vincent & the Grenadines series – but to have your first game against Brazil, I think it just means that the guys’ eyes were wide open when they saw who they would be playing... Our goal is to give a good performance against Brazil. We're ultimately going to be judged on what happens in CONCACAF. We know that the games outside of CONCACAF for Canada are always difficult, and certainly you can’t get many more difficult matches than against a team like Brazil. I think the focus is the main thing that it’s brought to our team.”

Jim Brennan has stayed behind with Toronto FC to play host to Los Angeles Galaxy on Saturday afternoon, and scheduling conflicts with Major League Soccer have proved a thorn in the side of more than one national team in recent years. As the league attracts more and more international players, the issue of call-ups promises to be a bone of contention again in the future.

“In general, we have a good relationship with the MLS clubs,” Mitchell told reporters. “In this case, the rules that are set down by FIFA are quite clear. If it is an international date, the player must be released, if it's not an international date, the player doesn't have to be released. Most of the European clubs that we deal with, they understand that, and we virtually have no chance of playing competitive games on non-international dates because of that.”

While the 35 000+ crowd at Qwest Field is likely to provide a carnival atmosphere thanks to the Brazilian support, so far it appears that there will be no Canadian TV coverage of the match.

“I'm a little surprised that a game of this magnitude would not be on television back in Canada, I have to be honest about that,” Mitchell complained. Despite that, he looked forward to the potentially hostile atmosphere:

“I think it'll be a great atmosphere at the game... I have the tape of the recent game that Mexico played here [against China]... We understand that Brazil have fans wherever they go in the world, the majority of the people will be there to watch them. We do expect to get some good support from Canadian fans [travelling] from British Columbia, but we have to play in hostile environments in qualifying... As a player, it makes you want to play well in that type of environment. I don't think it’s any kind of a hindrance at all and probably good practice for a player.”

Looking to next month’s home-and-away World Cup qualifying series, Mitchell pointed to St. Vincent & the Grenadines’ performance four years as reason why his side won’t take the Caribbean nation lightly.

“It's very difficult to get information,” he admitted. “They passed this stage [last time] and were in the semifinal round where the results were pretty respectable... I have one or two videos and I plan to see them play on June 3rd against Jamaica in Kingston... They're pretty strong, pretty athletic, they've got some big boys; they're certainly a team that we won't be taking lightly. I don't think they're a team that’s going to be similar [to Belize] that we had the last time and had a pretty easy passage at this stage. I expect a little bit of a tougher test this time around.”

Mitchell insisted that despite SVG’s 145th spot in the FIFA World Rankings, the nature of the competition would ensure that his players would stay motivated.

“I think when you get to that stage, it’s a home-and-away series, and if you don't win it, you're out of the World Cup,” he stressed. “A lot of these guys have been coming in [from Europe] over the last couple of years and it’s a big commitment for them, they understand that if they don't prepare themselves properly, then you could get a surprise and 2010 is over. I think that's the motivation in itself.”

As of press time, only Portuguese digital channel TV Globo (649 on Rogers) were a possibility to air the game in Canada. However, the Canadian Soccer Association has stressed that late efforts are being made to air the match on terrestrial TV. CBC may yet include the match as part of their Soccer Day in Canada festivities on Saturday, although the Stanley Cup finals are likely to override any such plans.

A match against Brazil, wherever it may be played, always represents a chance to test yourself against some of the best. The Canarinho were without Kaká and Ronaldinho at last year’s Copa America, just as they will be on Saturday, but that didn’t prevent Brazil from steamrolling past their opposition on that occasion – including an Argentine side boasting Lionel Messi and Juan Román Riquelme.

Rarely do we get a chance to see Canada take on the world’s most entertaining national side. Let’s hope that the majority of us without the means of travelling to Seattle aren’t forced to miss that opportunity.

Canada’s roster in full:

Goalkeepers: Pat Onstad, Greg Sutton, Joshua Wagenaar

Defence: Adrian Cann André Hainault, Richard Hastings, Ante Jazic, Mike Klukowski, Adrian Serioux, Paul Stalteri

Midfield: Patrice Bernier, Julian de Guzman, Marcel de Jong, Atiba Hutchinson, Issey Nakajima-Farran, Tam Nsaliwa, Jaime Peters

Forwards: Dwayne DeRosario, Rob Friend, Ali Gerba, Tomasz Radzinski