The final countdown to the FIFA World Cup begins Monday night in Edmonton, but for Canada supporters, excitement will be mixed with anxiety.<\/p>\n
Canada hosts Uzbekistan at Commonwealth Stadium in the first of two pre-tournament friendlies before opening the World Cup against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Toronto on June 12. The result matters far less than fitness and sharpness. Every challenge, sprint and tackle will be watched through the lens of player health after the devastating news that midfielder Marcelo Flores suffered a ruptured ACL in the CONCACAF Champions Cup final<\/a> and will miss the tournament. \u00a0<\/p>\n That reality places extra focus on Jonathan Osorio and Richie Laryea, two of the most experienced players in Jesse Marsch\u2019s squad. <\/p>\n Related Read: Marsch insists Laryea, Osorio \u2018will be a big part\u2019 of Canada\u2019s World Cup success<\/a><\/p>\n The veteran Toronto FC duo are two of the 13 returning players from the 2022 World Cup squad and were named to Canada\u2019s 26-man roster earlier this week. Monday\u2019s match offers an opportunity to build minutes and rhythm ahead of their second appearance on football\u2019s biggest stage. \u00a0<\/p>\n Osorio is Canada\u2019s most-capped outfield player and a trusted leader in the dressing room. The priority will be helping establish control in midfield while guiding a squad that includes numerous World Cup debutants, from Dayne St. Clair to Mo\u00efse Bombito<\/a>, Niko Sigur, Tani Oluwaseyi and Promise David<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cRichie will play 30 minutes,\u201d Marsch told reporters, including Canadian Soccer Daily, on a Sunday afternoon Zoom call. \u201cMost players are going to play 45 minutes tomorrow, so we\u2019re going to (treat it as a) split squad. Mo\u00efse (Bombito) should be ready to go. Most of our guys should be ready to go. (For) Ali Ahmed, we think it\u2019s a little bit too early, so he\u2019ll need a little bit more time. Jacob Shaffelburg will also need a little bit more time.\u201d<\/p>\n Laryea\u2019s versatility could be equally important, especially with several Canadian players managing injuries heading into the tournament and against a largely unknown opponent in Uzbekistan.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had this mapped out because we thought it was a team that played at a good level and that would challenge us,\u201d Marsch said. \u201cThey defend really well, and they\u2019re a big, athletic team. From that sense, I think there\u2019s some Bosnia and Herzegovina in there, and some Qatar in there a little bit because of the (same confederation), but I think (Fabio) Cannavaro has done a good job with (Uzbekistan).\u201d<\/p>\n Uzbekistan will make their World Cup debut later this summer and provide Marsch\u2019s team a useful test. The Central Asian side, managed by the 2006 World Cup winner, are organized, disciplined and unlikely to make life easy for Canada. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ll be defensively oriented and hard to break down,\u201d Marsch said. \u201cIt\u2019ll be a game where we have to be aggressive, eliminate their ability to put crosses in the box and be good on set pieces. It\u2019s a well-rounded team.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, Monday\u2019s biggest objective is simply to stay healthy. After Flores\u2019 heartbreaking injury, every Canadian supporter will be hoping the final whistle arrives with the roster intact and Canada one step closer to a fully fit squad for a historic home World Cup. \u00a0<\/p>\n More to come.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The final countdown to the FIFA World Cup begins Monday night in Edmonton, but for Canada supporters, excitement…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":707213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,184210,23752,2457,13009],"class_list":["post-707212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canmnt","tag-edmonton","tag-uzbekistan","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707212","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=707212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/707213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}