Benitez moves from Santos Laguna to Premier League

Ecuador international and now former Santos Laguna striker Christian Benitez is moving to Premier League new-boys Birmingham City.

Benitez was a key player for Santos Laguna in their Concacaf Champions League run, scoring against the Montreal Impact in the second leg in Torreon (and also missing a boatload of chances in the first leg in Montreal).

Birmingham broke a club record, paying Santos nearly £10 million.

Big Clubs to Visit Edmonton

While we've heard of the likes of Real Madrid and Bordeaux visiting Toronto and Montreal, it appears some more big-time clubs will be coming to Canada.

After failing to nail down Inter Milan for their 100th anniversary, it looks like the Alberta Soccer Association has an agreement with three clubs to play in Edmonton's Commonwealth stadium.

Everton of the Barclays Premier League will play an Argentinian club (believed to be River Plate) on July 25th.

That game is scheduled just days before the Toffees meet the MLS All-Stars in Utah.

But bigger news has Juventus potentially meeting River on August 8th at Commonwealth.

See also here and here.

According to juworld.net, Juve will also play River Plate in Toronto on August 5th.

PAT ONSTAD SAYS GOODBYE TO CANADA

For a new segment on "Full-Time" called "MLS Corners", I had the chance to catch up with Houston Dynamo goalkeeper Pat Onstad. Onstad is also a former Canadian goalkeeper. Now when I say former, I'm not trying to push Pat into national retirement, he's done that himself. When asked whether he would take a call to represent Canada at the Gold Cup this summer, Onstad responded by saying, "I can't see that happening anymore, if the coach did that he might get into a little bit of trouble". Which means he's not expecting a call from the Stephen Hart. Pat went on to say, "I think I'm done with the National team, but it's been a fantastic ride and I've enjoyed every minute of it". So there you have it, the Canada number 1 job is up for grabs, although it would seem that Lars Hirschfeld has that spot wrapped up right now. I've written about the potential replacements before, and now it would appear that those replacement can now fight it out in the years to come.

In other news, despite the fact that he would be 43 in 2011, Onstad said he would love the opportunity to play in Vancouver, "At this stage it would be pretty surprising, but it would be great to finish up in Vancouver, but a little unrealistic."

To listen to the interview, tune in to Full-Time: Vancouver's Soccer Show this Sunday, June 7th at 10pm PT on TEAM 1040am.

MLS Corners is a new feature on Full-Time that will dive into the world of the MLS. With Vancouver entertaining the MLS in 2011, we decided that we should get the fans of the game up to date with some of the players around the league. You will hear from the likes of veteran players like Pat Onstad and Kansas City Wizards defender Jimmy Conrad and young players like Columbus' Eddie Gaven. Plus those currently building an MLS team, like Peter Nowak in Philadelphia.

CANADIAN ADRIAN CANN ON FULL-TIME

Canadian defender Adrian Cann will join Tyler Green and Mike Martignago on Sunday night at 10pm PT to discuss being called up to the Canadian National team for their match against Cyprus on May 30th. Tune in via the radio at 1040 on the A.M. dial or listen online here.

Cann, a former Whitecaps defender, currently plays for Esbjerg fB in the Danish Superliga.

ONE CHANGE FOR CANADA - de JONG OUT - IMHOF IN

One change to Canada's roster for the friendly against Cyprus. Marcel de Jong is off the roster. de Jong will be replaced by Daniel Imhof. Imhof plays for Vfl Bochum in the German Bundesliga.

Meanwhile, Paul Stalteri made it through the full 90 minutes of action in Borussia Monchengladbach final match this season. With that, it appears that Stalteri will be healthy for the May 30th match vs. Cyprus. There was worry that his injury wouldn't allow him to participate. Monchengladbach, with the help of Stalteri and fellow Canadian Rob Friend, have done enough this season to stay in the Bundesliga, finishing just above the bottom three.

HIRSCHFELD MAKES CANADIAN SQUAD AND IS SET TO MOVE

Lars Hirschfeld has made Canada's squad against Cyprus om May 30th. He is also on the move.

Translation would include:

hirschfeld leaves in summer about' hirschfeld, arrived with trumpets and bells in Cluj directly from Champions League, the grouping Norwegian rosenborg, will leave Romania this summer, extremely disappointed. It was used to have coaches who prepared the team this season and is decided to transfer.

According to people close tryouts, was contacted by representatives of elfsborg's back for a transfer and he has answered, knowing it would no longer count on him in Cluj. And stancioiu has great chances to go for a championship at the end good contract in Saudi Arabia. Ioan but he wants his former student from Cluj in al ettifaq, and porter is willing to go because it had no guaranteed place holder.

What you can kind of figure out in the broken Romanian translation would be that Hirschfeld is heading to Elfsborg in Sweden.

Canada announces preliminary roster for Cyprus match

Here's the release from the CSA re: Canada's squad (all Euro based players)

Canada's men's national team has announced its roster for the international friendly match against Cyprus. The two sides meet this 30 May 2009 in Larnaca, Cyprus.

"... says men's national head coach Stephen Hart.

Mr. Hart's initial list includes 17 players, two of which are subject to their club competition this coming weekend (Marcel de Jong with Roda JC in Netherlands and Paul Stalteri with Borussia Mönchengladbach in Germany). If available, Stalteri would be the most experienced player in camp (73 international appearances). Richard Hastings (53) and Kevin McKenna (38) are the next two in terms of experience.

Tosaint Ricketts is a first-time call-up to the national team. Ricketts was a scoring star at the U-20 level during the 2007 campaign. Along with Ricketts, Simeon Jackson has also yet to make his first appearance with the national team.

All 17 players invited to this particular camp play professionally in Europe. As the match does not fall on a FIFA calendar date, some players were unavailable because of club commitments.

Canada is currently preparing for this summer's CONCACAF Gold Cup competition. Canada opens the 2009 competition against Jamaica on 3 July before flying to Columbus to face El Salvador on 7 July and then to Miami to face Costa Rica on 10 July.

--
1- G- Lars Hirschfeld |ROM / CFR Cluj
18- G- Kenny Stamatopoulos | NOR / FC Lyn Oslo
(on loan from / emprunt de Tromsø I.L.)
2- D/M- Nik Ledgerwood |GER / TSV 1860 München
3- D/M- Chris Pozniak |SCO / Dundee FC
4- D- Adrian Cann |DEN / Esbjerg fB
5- D- Kevin McKenna |GER / 1. FC Köln
6- M- Julian de Guzman | ESP / Deportivo La Coruna
7- D/M- Paul Stalteri |GER / Borussia Mönchengladbach
8- M- Tyler Hemming | USA / Charleston Battery
10- F- Tosaint Ricketts |FIN?/ Myllykosken Pallo –47
11- D- Richard Hastings |SCO / Inverness CT
12- M- Issey Nakajima-Farran |DEN / FC Nordsjælland
13- M- Jaime Peters |ENG / Ipswich Town FC
14- M- Marcel de Jong | NED / Roda JC
15- M- Josh Simpson |GER / FC Kaiserslautern
16- F- Andrzej Ornoch |DEN / Esbjerg fB
17- F- Simeon Jackson |ENG / Gillingham FC

Head Coach / Entraîneur-chef : Stephen Hart
Assistant Coach / Entraîneur-adjoint : Tony Fonseca
Goalkeeper Coach / Entraîneur des gardiens : Paul Dolan
Video Coordinator / Coordinateur de vidéo : Vic Mendes
Manager / Gérant : Morgan Quarry
Equipment Manager / Gérant des équipements :Mike Moretto
Doctor / Docteur : Dr. Michael Campbell
Massage Therapist / Massothérapeute : Garret Kusch
Physiotherapist / Physiothérapeute : Dave Foley
Head of Delegation / Chef de la délégation : Victor Montagliani


************

disappointing that Asmir Begovic doesn't get a shot. Considering he's played the same amount of games, and at a higher level, than Stamapoulos. He really should have been there. Stephen Hart told me and a few other reporters on the conference call that Begovic did get some consideration, but he wanted to speak with him personally first, but he is on the radar. I was hoping that David Edgar would get a chance. It looks as though he might get into the Newcastle game on Sunday against Aston Villa. All-in-All, Canada is playing Cyprus, so it's not like they are going to be in tough to actually win the game, so Canada might as well take some chances and play some of the younger members in the program.

Otherwise, I like the mix. Paul Stalteri is working on getting healthy in order to play the match. Which would add to his "cap" total, bringing him ever closer to the all-time lead. Marcel de Jong is nice in the backline and should be there for the Gold Cup. Simeon Jackson will hopefully get a shot to play following up his game this weekend at Wembley, a game Stephen Hart will be at, as Gillingham look to get promoted.

Former Whitecap defender Adrian Cann has also been named to the squad. Something I know Adrian was hoping for when I spoke with him a few months ago. I'm hoping to connect with him this weekend for our show on Sunday night. Hopefully he can impress and play well.

** Dave Foley is the Physiotherapist, which is odd, considering I enjoyed him more as an actor and one of the stars of Kids in the Hall