Players looking forward to Saturday’s home crowd

Canada had another day of training under the Montréal sun as the team continues its preparations for Saturday’s FIFA World Cup Qualifiers match against Honduras. The 6 September match kicks off at 20.00 ET at Stade Saputo.



“It will be a real tough game come Saturday,” said captain Paul Stalteri. “Honduras is playing as good as anyone in the region right now. Saturday is a big one for us.”



Canada is playing six matches against three teams in Stage III of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ Qualifiers. Three of those matches are in Canada: 20 August against Jamaica in Toronto (a 1:1 draw), 6 September against Honduras in Montréal (admission.com or 514.790.1245) and 15 October against Mexico in Edmonton (Ticketmaster.ca / 780.451.8000).



“I think Honduras will be one of our toughest opponents, if not tougher than Mexico,” said Stalteri. “They are peaking at the right time, coming on really strong in the last year. They have some really quick players, so it will not be an easy game for us.”



Ticket sales to the 6 September match have been fantastic, so a full red crowd is expected for the Stade Saputo match. As was the case with the first two FIFA World Cup™ Qualifiers in Canada earlier this year, Saturday’s partisan crowd will be red and loud in support of the national team.



“In Toronto, it was a fantastic crowd,” said Stalteri. “We are anticipating something similar on Saturday here in Montréal. We enjoyed our game against St. Vincent & the Grenadines (at Stade Saputo) in the summer. Hopefully we can build on that atmosphere. With the crowd behind us, it is definitely going to help.”



The 6 September match will also be televised live on Sportsnet. For those viewers with all four Sportsnet channels, the match will be found live on Sportsnet Ontario and Sportsnet East (20.00 ET / 18.00 MT / 17.00 PT) and delayed on Sportsnet West (21.00 MT) and Sportsnet Pacific (23.00 PT).