![\"canada](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/canada-soccer-team.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWhen Canada kicks off the FIFA World Cup June 12 in Toronto, Italy won’t be the opponent.<\/p>\n
The Italians will miss the men’s World Cup for an astonishing third time in a row, after Bosnia & Herzegovina pulled off a shocking upset on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The Eastern European side beat Italy in penalties at home to qualify for its first FIFA World Cup since 2014, joining Canada, Switzerland, and Qatar in Group B.<\/p>\n
Bosnia & Herzegovina will be Canada’s first opponent as the men’s national team opens up its FIFA World Cup campaign in Toronto on June 12.<\/p>\n
Canada (world No. 30) and Bosnia & Herzegovina (No. 65) have never played against each other in a men’s international fixture. But if Canada has an advantage, it is in age and speed.<\/p>\n
According to Transfermarkt, the average age of Canada’s starting XI is slighter younger than Bosnia & Herzegovina (26.4 to 28). Statistically, Canada will also look to its speed from Tajon Buchanan, Alphonso Davies, and Marcelo Flores to tactically break down Bosnia’s veteran back four.<\/p>\n
Canada’s manager Jesse Marsch has a lot of faith in the three young stars.<\/p>\n
“Marcelo is a creative midfielder, and I think he can be a real weapon for us,” said Marsch after Saturday’s 2-2 draw against Iceland. “And Tajon, I love to watch defenders struggle to figure him out–he’s a huge threat.”<\/p>\n
Lucas Medeiros\/Offside<\/p>\n
Bosnia & Herzegovina were one of four European countries to punch their ticket to the FIFA World Cup in do-or-die matches on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Czechia upset No. 20-ranked Denmark, and will join Mexico, South Africa, and South Korea in Group A.<\/p>\n
T\u00fcrkiye held off Kosovo, and will join USA, Paraguay and Australia in Group D. That group will feature a match at BC Place in Vancouver on June 13 between Australia and T\u00fcrkiye.<\/p>\n
Sweden, meanwhile, beat Poland, and will play in Group F, along with the Netherlands, Japan, and Tunisia.<\/p>\n
Lead photo by <\/p>\n
Nazionale Italiana di Calcio\/Facebook<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Canada kicks off the FIFA World Cup June 12 in Toronto, Italy won’t be the opponent. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,2342,3274,4996,3302,3275],"class_list":{"0":"post-573976","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-cup","11":"tag-fifa","12":"tag-italy","13":"tag-toronto","14":"tag-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}