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Photo by Paul Chiasson / CP

Now coach Octavio Zambrano hopes they will take their symbiotic relationship onto the field when Canada faces Curaçao on Tuesday night at Saputo Stadium in a preparation match for the Gold Cup in July. It will be Davies first senior national team match.

Curaçao, a former Dutch colony, has fewer than 160,000 people, but is ranked by 70th in the world by FIFA, 39 places higher than Canada. Most of Curacao’s squad plays for European clubs, especially in the Netherlands.

They are facing a Canadian side on which 12 of 23 players are 23 or younger.

Zambrano, hired three months ago, will coach Canada on home soil for the first time. The Ecuador native is charged with building a team to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Canada has played in the World Cup tournament only once, in 1986.

He wants to build with youth, including Davies, Orlando striker Cyle Larin, midfielders Rakeem Edwards of Toronto FC and Junior Hoilett of Cardiff City and others.

So he’s excited having Davies on the squad.

“It has nothing to do with just giving him minutes because he’s a young guy,” Zambrano said. “He is a player that makes a difference.

“You’ll see when he comes on the field, he is immediately an impact player. I see a bright future for this young man.”

Zambrano will use the match to help decide who among 40 players on the preliminary roster will play in the Gold Cup, contested between countries in the CONCACAF region.

“Hopefully, we are an attacking team but I want us to be just as committed defensively,” said Zambrano. “We feel confident that we will have a team that is at least clicking in some areas, perhaps not in all.