Canada 2- 3 Brazil

Absolute horror-show pass aside, I thought Canada would have been full measure for a draw. All-in-all I thought it was a very encouraging performance.

- The pitch was unforgivable. I know volumes have been written about the reasons that this match wasn’t played in Canada; but there are at least four venues where Canada could have hosted this match, sold as many tickets, and had a pitch no worse than the one at Qwest Field.

- Apparently, Coach Dale Mitchell listens. As suggested on these pages, against Brazil, Dwayne De Rosario played in a more central position. The squad clearly needs a little more time to make this work, but there were definitely plenty of hopeful signs.

- De Rosario and Atiba Hutchinson weren’t quite up to their normal standard. DeRo seemed more troubled than most with the quality of the pitch, and Atiba seemed to struggle a bit in trying to find his place with DeRo playing in the middle of the pitch.

- I was pretty unconvinced by Issey Nakajima-Farran. He has a role for the squad, but I’m not sure he is the answer for the starting eleven. I think one wing is covered well by Tomas Radzinski and Iain Hume, but – between the recent performances of Josh Simpson and Issey – I think the other wing is an open question if De Rosario remains in the middle.

- Pat Onstad was fine – though I would have liked to see a better effort on the second goal – but, I will be happy to see Greg Sutton get the next start given his recent run of form.

- The back was a bit of a disaster – Mike Klukowski and Paul Stalteri were fine – in fact, at times, Stalteri was playing almost in a central position. I thought Hasting was terrible, looking too small, too slow, and too unsure. I am a Serioux fan, I think he has the quality to play in the Canada set-up – but Hastings and Serioux is nowhere near an ideal pairing. My own preference would be for a Brennan-McKenna partnership – two confident, experienced players, and a good combination of size and pace.

- Rob Friend played his best match in a Canadian jersey. He looked confident on the ball, strong in his challenges, and even surprisingly pacey in chasing down passes.

- Tam Nsaliwa’s chance in the 84th minute was tantalizing. It is not hard to imagine him as the ideal fifth man in the midfield; it is hard to imagine the CSA pushing the paperwork through to get him back onside.