Rosenborg won't have to let too many international players leave for their nations' teams during January: Lars Hirschfeld isn't chosen to fight for his flag either.

From Rosenborg, Åge Hareide only brings Espen Johnsen on his USA tour at the end of the month, so that the RBK players are given the best possible chances of preparing themselves for the UEFA cup games against Zenit. On Monday, Karim Essediri was let out of the Tunisian squad for the African championship.

Now, Canada has picked their squad for the battle against USA on 22 January, and Hirschfeld was not among the chosen ones. The main reason is supposedly that the new Tromsø keeper Kenny Stamatopoulos played well against Luxembourg when Lars was injured in November, in addition to Canada coach Frank Yallop's wish to try out Greg Sutton.

However, there are several other "Norwegian" faces in the Canadian squad: Patrice Bernier, Stephan Ademolu (both Tromsø), Rob Friend (Molde), Chris Pozniak (Haugesund), Sandro Grande (Viking) and Marco Reda (clubless) are all in.