{"id":758248,"date":"2026-06-25T00:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T00:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/758248\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T00:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T00:40:11","slug":"canada-lose-home-advantage-for-last-32-after-switzerland-win-to-take-top-spot-world-cup-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/758248\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada lose home advantage for last 32 after Switzerland win to take top spot | World Cup 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

With Canada\u2019s home World Cup on the line, Jesse Marsch used his captain, Alphonso Davies, as a \u201cdecoy\u201d. A shrewd Switzerland<\/a> side, alas, never took the bait and so the switch is now Marsch\u2019s lot as his team are forced to become road warriors.<\/p>\n

A pulsating second half in the sauna of BC Place followed a dogfight of a first. At the end of it all, despite a gatecrashing intervention by the Canada<\/a> supersub Promise David, Switzerland had won Group B and with it the rights to call Vancouver home through the first week of the knockout stages.<\/p>\n

Yet there would be a peculiar footnote when, after a 2-1 defeat that consigned his side to a last-32 trip to Los Angeles on a four-day turnaround, Marsch admitted Davies was never going to play a part in this finale. On Tuesday he had guaranteed the Bayern Munich star would make his first appearance of this World Cup<\/a>. Chasing the draw which would have kept Canada here, Davies was unused. \u201cAlphonso wasn\u2019t ready yet so I was using him a little bit as a decoy,\u201d said Marsch. \u201cI wanted Switzerland to have to think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murat Yakin\u2019s impressive Nati, with Ruben Vargas and Johan Manzambi rewarding his faith when scoring both goals in a 12-minute burst at the start of the second half, hadn\u2019t been fooled. \u201cRight now we only react on what is happening on the pitch,\u201d responded Yakin, who will return here on 2 July when ending a run of seven-straight defeats in World Cup knockout games will be the aim. \u201cWe delivered as a team and deserve to be where we are right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marsch said Davies will be ready for LA but can we trust that? Either way the shorter turnaround surely hurts an injury-hit Canada. Isma\u00ebl Kon\u00e9\u2019s absence was rammed home in Canadian minds by his prominent presence. Six days after having his leg shattered here the midfield dynamo was wheeled back in off the Canada team bus. On crutches he hobbled along the side of the pitch to a huge ovation.<\/p>\n

Marsch weighed up Nathan Saliba and Mathieu Choini\u00e8re as replacements but in the end had to deploy both, the vice-captain, Stephen Eust\u00e1quio, not fit enough to start. Not ideal in most circumstances. Against Granit Xhaka and a richly experienced Swiss midfield it had the potential to be a gamechanging blow. Yakin made four changes of his own, Manzambi and Vargas handed starts.<\/p>\n

Rub\u00e9n Vargas profile<\/a><\/p>\n

If Eust\u00e1quio\u2019s absence was to have dampened home expectations, Vancouver never got the midday memo. The intricate curtains of this place were drawn, the closed roof giving the humidity and electricity nowhere to go. For a Wednesday matinee, the crackling atmosphere was impressive. But this is what Marsch and Canada were desperate to create: a football nation ravenous for more.<\/p>\n

After a turgid start, Ricardo Rodriguez said enough was enough and, soon after, fizzed a ball through the left side of Canada\u2019s defence. Breel Embolo controlled and bore down but Maxime Cr\u00e9peau looked every inch an NHL goalie as he raced out and made himself big.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s Promise David gives Canada hope with his goal in the 76th minute. Photograph: Darryl Dyck\/The Canadian Press\/AP<\/p>\n

Neither Saliba nor Choini\u00e8re got a foothold but, again, a hydration break swung momentum. Canada looked much sharper finishing the half, Cyle Larin\u2019s pantomime toe-poke at Xhaka earning both cheap yellows but weirdly giving the hosts a lift. On 37 minutes, the screen hanging from the roof updated that Bosnia were 2-0 up on Qatar down in Seattle, the huge nine-goal swing needed to drop Canada into third just looming a little. But the tension lifted with a Qatar goal and Canada finishing the half with a flourish, Ali Ahmed\u2019s scuffed low shot palmed away by Gregor Kobel. It was as close as they got.<\/p>\n

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In truth it wasn\u2019t very close at all yet a first half of toil would pay off near instantly \u2013 for the visitors. The sense that Canada\u2019s defence had yet to be truly tested in this tournament was brought into sharp light just 40 seconds after the restart. It all came from those key Yakin changes, Manzambi firing across a ball from the left which made it all the way to Vargas at the back post, Alistair Johnston dragged too far in. He took it so well it felt out of kilter with the contest.<\/p>\n

Marsch looked for a lift and called Eust\u00e1quio and two others to strip off for duty. With the trio lined up to come on, the Swiss took off. Manzambi was the beneficiary of the worst series of mistakes we had seen from Canada in some time, Derek Cornelius and Luc de Fougerolles unable to clear and Embolo teeing up Manzambi to bundle past Cr\u00e9peau who had to do better. Canada\u2019s changes were made but in the space of just 12 minutes it already felt time to change itineraries. Los Angeles was calling Les Rouges. When Nico Elvedi pulled off a heroic block to deny Jonathan David on 67 minutes, hope faded further.<\/p>\n

The other David had made a promise last month, telling local media that he would score a World Cup goal in Vancouver. One minute after coming on he fulfilled that, stretching at the back post to volley Saliba\u2019s wonderful touch and cross. The prime minister, Mark Carney, roared his approval.<\/p>\n

Fifteen minutes to go and everything back on. Hope rose and fell and Canada now head south. \u201cWe wanted to be here in Vancouver, but we still have a massive opportunity ahead of us, to still electrify the nation,\u201d said Marsch. \u201cEven though it\u2019ll be from Los Angeles.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With Canada\u2019s home World Cup on the line, Jesse Marsch used his captain, Alphonso Davies, as a \u201cdecoy\u201d.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":758249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-758248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=758248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/758249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}