Canada men's soccer to play Japan in October friendly, sit out September window

Canada will play 20th-ranked Japan in Niigata in an international friendly during the October FIFA international window.

But the 43rd-ranked Canadian men will be idle during the September window.

Organizing friendlies is a delicate balance of finding a suitable partner on and off the field. And the process is more complicated than simply figuring out when and where.

The big questions are who and how much.

And Canada Soccer's cupboard is pretty bare these days.

"The challenges that we have with respect to financial constraints are, I think, well documented," Jason deVos, Canada Soccer's interim general secretary, said in an interview. "We are not sitting in a situation where we're able to spend significant amounts of money to ensure opponents.

"The reality in the international sphere now is you want play against the top teams, you have to secure their appearances and that typically comes with an appearance fee or covering some of the costs or all of the costs of their travel, their accommodations and what have you.

"We explored every opportunity for September that we possibly could."

Canada to face Japan in Fall International Friendly