Brennan Turns Down Gold Cup Invite

Jim Brennan is a veteran with the Canadian national team, having earned 43 caps with them. So why did he turn down an invite to play for his country in the upcoming Gold Cup? "With Toronto FC, I wanted to stay, I wanted to help out and be a part of this," Brennan said.
While Brennan will stay with the club, three other players have left to play for Canada - goalkeeper Greg Sutton and defenders Adam Braz and Marco Reda. The trio will at least be unavailable for the next two games and maybe more, depending on how far Canada advances in the tournament. Canada will play Costa Rica on Wednesday, Guadeloupe next Saturday and finish off the group stage with a game against Haiti on June 11th.

Brennan was part of the Canadian squad that won the Gold Cup in 2000, joining the U.S. and Mexico as the only countries to ever win the North American tournament. While he will miss the Gold Cup, Brennan stressed that he would go if called up for World Cup qualifying. "If selected, I'll join the national team for that. It's not that I don't want to play for my country, because I do and I've got a number of caps."

Brennan captured MLS honors for Goal of the Week recently for his beautiful free kick against Columbus that found the upper corner to tie the game. Toronto will be happy to have Brennan in the roster as they will play at home against Colorado on Saturday and the New York Red Bulls on Wednesday, also at BMO Field.

"The buzz around the city for this club is fantastic," Brennan declared. "How could you not want to be a part of it? It's just amazing."