Dan Canter

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Dan Canter
Personal information
Full name Dan Canter
Date of birth
Place of birth    United States
Playing position Defender
Youth clubs
1978-1981 Penn State
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
1982
1983
1984
1984-1985
1985-1987
Fort Lauderdale Strikers
Team America
New York Cosmos
New York Cosmos (indoor)
Minnesota Strikers (indoor)
29 (2)
30 (5)
14 (0)   
National team
1983-1985 United States 09 (0)

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only.
* Appearances (Goals)

Dan Canter is a retired U.S. soccer defender. He played three seasons in the North American Soccer League and three in Major Indoor Soccer League. He also earned twenty-nine caps with the U.S. national team, scoring two goals, between 1983 and 1985.

Contents

[edit] College

Canter attended Penn State where he played as a sweeper on the men’s soccer team from 1978 to 1981. In 1981 he earned first team All American honors.

[edit] NASL

The Fort Lauderdale Strikers of the North American Soccer League drafted Canter in the 1982 NASL College Draft. He quickly won a starting job on the Strikers first team, playing twenty-nine games and scoring twice. In 1983, the U.S. Soccer Federation, in coordination with the NASL, entered the U.S. national team, known as Team America, into the NASL as a league franchise. The team drew on U.S. citizens playing in the NASL, Major Indoor Soccer League and American Soccer League. Canter left the Strikers and signed with Team America. When Team America finished the 1983 season with a 10-20 record, the worst in the NASL, USSF withdrew the team from the league. Canter returned to the Strikers in time for the 1983-1984 NASL indoor season. The Strikers which were in the process of relocating from Fort Lauderdale to Minnesota, did not play in that season. Therefore, the Strikers loaned Canter to the New York Cosmos. In February 1984, the Cosmos acquired Canter from the Strikers and he played the 1984 outdoor season in New York.[1] That year Canter was an NASL All Star honorable mention (third team).

[edit] MISL

The NASL collapsed after the 1984 outdoor season and several of the league’s teams moved to MISL for the 1984-1985 season. The Cosmos were one of those, but experienced severe financial difficulty and did not finish the season. Canter then returned to the Strikers for the remainder of that season as well as the next two MISL seasons.

[edit] National team

Canter earned his first cap in the national team’s only 1983 game, a 2-0 win over Haiti. Canter played the first national team game in 1984, a 0-0 tie with Italy and was an integral part of the team as it prepared for the upcoming 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Unfortunately for him, he injured himself just prior to the games and was replaced by Kazbek Tambi on the roster.[2] Canter returned for the next two full initernationals in September and October, but did not play again until May 1985. At that point, he again became a regular starter as the U.S. moved through the 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds. He was part of the debacle in Torrance, California where the U.S. needed only a tie with Costa Rica to make the finals, but lost 1-0. He earned his last cap three weeks later when England crushed the U.S. 5-0 in Los Angeles.

[edit] Post Soccer

Upon leaving the life of soccer, Canter became a salesperson for Rick Case Automotive Group before moving into management. After 19 years with Rick Case, he made the transition to Potamkin Honda in North Miami Beach. He is the store's General Sales Manager.