Pacific FC’s Marcos Bustos named to CanMNT camp presented by Allstate

2020-12-23

CanPL.ca Staff

Add Pacific FC’s Marcos Bustos to the growing list of CPL players to be called up by Canada.

On Wednesday, Bustos was named to the latest Canadian men’s national team camp presented by Allstate, becoming the fifth CPLer to earn a nod from coach John Herdman.

This latest Canadian training camp features 28 players and will be held from Jan. 9-24 in a closed setting in Bradenton, Florida, and it will serve as preparation for the team’s 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign which is scheduled to begin in March, 2021. The camp falls outside the FIFA international calendar, which means this Canadian team mostly features out-of-season MLS players. The camp will feature two training scrimmages as well as an intra-squad scrimmage.

Bustos, a 24-year-old native of Winnipeg, is coming off a fantastic 2020 CPL season in which he finished second in the Golden Boot race with five goals, and led the league in assists with three. Bustos played in all 10 of Pacific’s matches at The Island Games in PEI, as he logged 850 minutes of playing time and helped his team reach the second round.

A nominee for this year’s CPL Player of the Year Award, Bustos already has six caps to his credit (two as a starter), having made his debut for Canada in 2015 vs. Ghana while he was still playing for the Vancouver Whitecaps in 2015. His last appearance for Canada came in 2017 in a friendly vs. Scotland.

Cavalry FC goalkeeper Marco Carducci and defender Dominick Zator, FC Edmonton’s Amir Didic and former Forge FC star Tristan Borges have previously been selected by the Canadian men’s team. While Carducci and Zator didn’t play when they were called up, both Didic and Borges did feature for Herdman’s side – Didic made history when he started and scored in his debut in a 4-1 win against Barbados back in January, as he became the first CPL player to score for Canada.

Trust the process ⚽️ https://t.co/5ANU74tTJu

— Marco Bustos (@marcobustos10) December 23, 2020

Canada sits 72nd in the current FIFA world rankings, sandwiched between South Africa and Guinea, and is ranked seventh among Concacaf nations.

Herdman’s team played a trio of friendlies in January held in California, winning a pair of games against Barbados and losing to Iceland. Canada was scheduled to play Trinidad & Tobago in two exhibition matches in March at Pacific FC’s Westhills Stadium, but they were eventually called off due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also called up to this Canadian camp are former Cavalry FC defender Joel Waterman, who moved to the Montreal Impact in January, and Montreal goalkeeper James Pantemis, who spent the 2020 CPL season on loan with Valour FC.

Waterman is one of 11 debutants for Canada at this camp. The others are: Cristián Gutiérrez (Vancouver Whitecaps), Dayne St. Clair (Minnesota United), Alistair Johnston (Nashville SC), Tajon Buchanan (New England Revolution), Ayo Akinola and Ralph Priso (Toronto FC), Theo Corbeanu (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Marcelo Flores (Arsenal FC), Belal Halbouni (SV Werder Bremen), and Frank Sturing (FC Den Bosch).