Bunbury Set to Snub Canada for the US?

Wizards forward, Teal Bunbury has represented his country of birth, Canada at the U-17 and the U-20 level, but lately the question has become what team he would represent as a full international as he's a dual Canadian and US citizen. Earlier this year he had spoken with Canadian coach, Stephen Hart, saying that he wasn't ready to make a decision on his international career and was wanting to focus on his club career.

Last night, Bunbury was on the Canadian show, It's Called Football. One of the things that brought up was Bunbury's international career. In previous interviews, Bunbury had said he was excited to represent Canada, but on the show he said that he had to sit down with family his dad and agent to see what's best for his career. He wants to look at what is going to be best for his career. During the interview, Bunbury certainly seems to waiver a bit and certainly tries to pull back from the comments he'd made earlier in the year about definitely wanting to play for Canada. Based off the interview, co-host, Duane Rollins, certainly seems to believe that Bunbury has made up his mind and will turn down call ups for the Canadian national team in the hopes of getting a call up to the US national team.

It's hard to argue with Rollins point, listening to the interview, Bunbury does seem to try to back pedal a bit from comments he made earlier in the year regarding his international status. Instead of being excited or proud to represent the country his dad represented, he's now talking about making the best decision for his career. With the current state of the Canadian Soccer Association, one wouldn't totally blame him. While Canada has plenty of talent to make a run at making the World Cup, the CSA seems to be in enough disarray that they'll continue to struggle in qualifying for the foreseeable future.

But to hop on another of Rollins' points, I also agree that at the current time Bunbury isn't ready to be a factor for either national team at this time. Bunbury is still raw and developing his game, his first touch and his shot selection needs to improve, but he certainly has a high ceiling that he could reach. If he can continue to develop he could become a big contributor to either national team but at this time, he's smart to continue focusing on his club career.