Canada ready for Jamaica

For more information on this match, please visit the following fixture link.
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​Canada will play Jamaica tonight on match-day six of CONCACAF Stage III in the the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ Qualifiers. It will Canada’s last game of the campaign after which it will be eliminated. Regardless of tonight’s outcome, Canada will finish fourth in the so-called “Group of Death” and will not proceed to the CONCACAF final group in 2009.
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​The match will kickoff at 20.00 ET at the National Soccer Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica. Jamaica still has an outside chance to catch second place in the group, although it will also need some good luck from the Mexico-Honduras match (which is being played simultaneously).
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​“They are in the competition and it looks like they are going to need goals, so I think that we can expect that they will have an offensive approach,” said Canadian coach Dale Mitchell of the Jamaicans. “They will have a couple of players that weren’t involved the last time, a couple of which are playing in Premier League in Ricardo Fuller and Marlon King up front. So I think we can expect a team that is going to look to go forward and create chances.”
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​Canada is a younger team, although it does have nine returning players from its last game on 15 October in Edmonton. Of note, captain Paul Stalteri has already won 73 appearances for the national team, third most all time on the Canadian list.
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​“We have less experience, but it will be a great game for our younger players and maybe our less experienced players,” said Mitchell. “It is a FIFA World Cup™ Qualifier, but it’s not a game at the end of the day that is going to determine whether we move on in the competition. So in some ways, it is a good game for the younger guys to play in and get experience. The atmosphere will be terrific and I think they will all benefit from that.”
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​Jamaica is expecting 25,000-30,000 fans for the Wednesday night match. Canada’s youngest players are Asmir Begovic, David Edgar, Simeon Jackson and Will Johnson. Begovic (2007) and Edgar (2006) are recent Canadian U-20 Players of the Year.