Canucks to visit adidas store in Toronto

In anticipation of Canada’s big Wednesday match in Toronto, adidas Canada has invited several members of Canada’s national team to its downtown store off Yonge Street this Monday 18 August. The players will be visiting the store from 14.30 to 15.30 (10 Dundas Street East at the corner of Dundas/Yonge).

This Wednesday 20 August, of course, is the start of CONCACAF Stage III of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ Qualifiers. Canada will host Jamaica at BMO Field in its first of six Stage III matches. Tickets are available via ticketmaster.ca (416.872.5000). The match will also be broadcast live on Sportsnet Pacific and Sportsnet West (19.30 ET / 17.30 MT / 16.30 PT).

Canada is part of CONCACAF Group 2 with Jamaica, Honduras and Mexico. All four teams will play a home-and-away round-robin series to determine which teams advance to the CONCACAF final in 2009. Only two teams from Group 2 will advance to the six-team final (along with two teams from Group 1 and two teams from Group 3). The top three teams in the CONCACAF final automatically qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ while the fourth-place team faces one more hurdle in the form of a playoff against the fifth-place team from CONMEBOL (South America’s region).

Canada’s three home matches in CONCACAF Stage III are 20 August in Toronto against Jamaica, 6 September in Montréal against Honduras, and 15 October in Edmonton against Mexico. Canada’s three road matches are 10 September in Mexico, 11 October in Honduras, and 19 November in Jamaica.

More information on Canada’s adidas store visit will be posted to CanadaSoccer.com shortly.