The Canadian Soccer Association will hand the reins of the men's national team to a familiar veteran presence as it considers the permanent successor to Benito Floro.
Floro's assistant and longtime Canada youth national teams coach Michael Findlay has been tabbed to lead the CanMNT on an interim basis, reported Yahoo! Sports' Gavin Day on Monday and confirmed in a subsequent release by the CSA.
A CSA National Staff Coach, Findlay has logged substantial service as an assistant coach with a range of youth national teams and grassroots programs dating back to 2004. He previously served as senior staff coach and director of football development with BC Soccer.
The federation parted company with Floro on Wednesday in the wake of another unsuccessful World Cup qualifying campaign, and has yet to officially announce an interim or permanent replacement.
“From a long-term perspective, there’s no timetable. There’s no rush, obviously,” CSA head Victor Montagliani told reporters on a media conference call last week. “But we also want to be exhaustive and cast a net rather than a fishing rod and see how we want to move forward after that.”
Canada will play two friendlies in October, against Mauritania (Oct. 7) and Morocco (Oct. 11), both in Marrakech, Morocco, the CSA confirmed in a release on Monday.
Canada finished third in Group A of the semifinal round of CONCACAF qualifying behind group winners Mexico and runners-up Honduras. They finished the round with a 2-3-1 record, one point behind Honduras for the group’s second spot in the Hexagonal.
Floro took over as Canada manager in July 2013, and posted a 9-10-11 record in 30 matches. The Spaniard also served as Canada’s head coach at the CONCACAF men’s Olympic qualifying tournament last October, where Les Rouges finished fourth and missed out on a place at Rio 2016.
