CPSL SELECTS PLAY
MOROCCO
Pro league vs. Moroccan U23s in Ottawa
It's not by chance that Morocco reached the World
Cup Finals for the third and fourth time in 1994 and 1998 when that North
African nation proved to the world it was a force to be reckoned with in
years to come. Its presence at USA '94 and France '98 was highly
predictable, given the time and resources spent some years earlier to
identify and develop the best young soccer talent in a country with a
climate unfriendly to soccer, a population about half of that of Canada,
in a land largely desert and less than half the size of
Ontario.
The Moroccan under-23 team is the cream of the crop, some of the best players presently and some destined for the full national team and they are in Canada to take part in the 12-country Francophone Games on Ottawa-Hull July 14 – 24. The soccer tournament in the games is for under-23 national teams and Canada has entered its under 20 squad from the recent FIFA World Youth Finals in Argentina.
Morocco expressed a desire to play a strong Canadian team before the Francophone games begin and this has led to an arrangement by the Canadian Soccer Association to bring together the Moroccan team with a select team from the Canadian Professional Soccer League (CPSL).
The CPSL Selects will meet the Moroccan under 23 team at the OZ Stadium at Carp, Ontario on Friday, July 6, a 7.30 p.m. kickoff. Tony La Ferrara of the North York Astros is the team's head coach and the team manager is Jim Lianos of Ottawa Wizards.
Ferrara announced his CPSL Selects roster this
morning:
Goalkeepers: Dino Perri (St. Catharines Roma Wolves),
Richard Goddard (Ottawa Wizards); Defenders: Bayette Smith and Danny Sanna
(Toronto Olympians), Kurt Ramsey (North York Astros), Kwame Telamaque,
Russell Shaw, Andrew Waring (Ottawa Wizards); Gary Hughes (St. Catharines
Roma Wolves).
Midfielders: Lucio Ianiero (St. Catharines Roma) – Captain, Dejan Gluscevic (North York Astros), Goran Zankovic (Ottawa Wizards), Leo Incollingo (Montreal Dynamites), Orlando Rizzo (York Region Shooters), Dave McDonald (Glen Shields Sun Devils).
Forwards: Jerry Pean (Montreal Dynamites), John
Matas and Willy Giummarra (Toronto Olympians), Jim Kuzmanoski (Durham
Flames), Mario Andrijanic and Marc Enguene (Ottawa
Wizards). . .