Gold Cup 2015 Profile: Canada

That's right, it's time to look at our Canadian mates.

Manager: Benito Floro

Spaniard Benito Floro hails from Asturia, and has managed n.n.n.n.n.nineteen clubs since becoming a coach in 1978. We're talking names such as Ontinyent, Villarreal (twice), Albacete (twice), Real Madrid, Vissel Kobe, Monterrey, Mallorca, Barcelona of Ecuador and Wyadad Casablanca, before taking the Canadian national job in 2014.

His career honours include a Copa del Rey triumph with Real Madrid in 1993, followed by a Supercopa de España later that year. He also won the Intertoto Cup with Villarreal in 2004.

He replaced Stephen Hart in the hot-seat - who himself now manages the Trinidad & Tobago national side.

Key Man: Cyle Larin (Orlando City FC)

I've chosen 20 year old striker Cyle Larin as the key man. The lad has made 7 appearances for the side, scoring three goals along the way - he has only made 11 professional appearances for Orlando, but has impressed with a return of five goals in MLS.

The absence of former PSV and Besiktas midfielder Atiba Hutchinson will be a blow. The experienced Hutchinson is nursing a groin injury which will render him incapable of adding to his 68 caps earned thus far.

Squad Members:

The rest of the squad is as follows:

Goalkeepers: Lars Hirschfeld (Valerenga/Norway), Kenny Stamatopoulos (AIK/Sweden), Quillan Roberts (Toronto FC)

Defenders: Andre Hainault, (unattached), Dejan Jakovic (Shimizu S-Pulse/Japan), Nik Ledgerwood (Energie Cottbus/Germany), Ashtone Morgan (Toronto FC), Karl Ouimette (NY Red Bulls), Adam Straith (Fredrikstad/Norway), Marcel de Jong (Sporting KC)

Midfielders: David Edgar (Birmingham City/England), Tesho Akindele (FC Dallas), Kyle Bekker (FC Dallas), Julian de Guzman (Ottawa Fury), Jonathan Osorio (Toronto FC), Pedro Pacheco (Santa Clara/Portugal), Samuel Piette (Deportivo La Coruña/Spain), Tosaint Ricketts (Hapoel Haifa/Israel), Russell Teibert (Vancouver Whitecaps), Maxim Tissot (Montreal Impact)

Forwards: Simeon Jackson (Coventry City/England), Marcus Haber (Crewe Alexandra/England), Cyle Larin (Orlando City)

Chances of Winning:

Well. That's a touchy subject.

Canada has only won the competition once, and that was back in 2000. Manager Floro recently told MLSSoccer.com:

"The main aim in this Gold Cup for us is to get as far as possible. We want to get to the final and every game that we get in the tournament will increase our level of play,"

Which is nice.

They will arrive at the competition on the back of a four-game winning streak and a five-game unbeaten run, having comfortably dispatched minnows Dominica in the early rounds of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying.

With a strong MLS presence, with the league providing 10 of the 23 men named in the squad, they assemble in California for training and preparation, a week in advance of their opener vs. El Salvador. Canada then head to Houston to take on Jamaica before returning to Toronto to face Costa Rice in the first ever Gold Cup game to be played in the country.

Also, to finish, they have the best national anthem of all time: