Music: {allcanada} Canada seeks win vs. Puerto Rico

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

{allcanada} Canada seeks win vs. Puerto Rico

The path to qualifying for the 2014 World Cup continues for Canada on Tuesday.

Fresh off a 4-1 win Friday over St. Lucia in their opener, the 102-ranked Canadian men's national team plays Puerto Rico at 8 p.m. ET on Sportsnet ONE.

Canada had little trouble with the lower-ranked Caribbean team last week while playing in front of a home crowd of 11,500 at BMO Field in Toronto. But the Canadians travel south to the San Juan suburb of Bayamon for Tuesday's game and face No. 144 Puerto Rico, who played to a scoreless draw against St. Kitts and Nevis in the other opening match of Group D.

Despite holding the edge in ranking, Canadian head coach Stephen Hart says the Puerto Rico could pose the biggest threat to his team.

"I think if you look at the team, they have about six or seven players that play at one club," said Hart at the team's hotel prior to Monday's training session. "That means the working relationships are very good."

Hart also points to the appointment of Costa Rican Jeaustin Campos Madriz as the national team coach as a sign of growth. He led Costa Rican club side Deportivo Saprissa to a third place finish at the FIFA World Club Championship in 2005.

"They have a new coach from Costa Rica. He's going to bring a sort of different dimension to the way they play so I anticipate it would be one of the tougher opponents in the group," Hart added.

Elsewhere in the group Tuesday, St. Lucia hosts St. Kitts and Nevis. Canada leads the group with three points from their one game, followed by St. Kitts and Puerto Rico with one point a piece.

The group winner advances to the third qualifying round, which gets underway next year.