{"id":748867,"date":"2026-06-20T05:53:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T05:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/748867\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T05:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T05:53:11","slug":"five-things-canada-must-focus-on-ahead-of-its-world-cup-match-against-switzerland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/748867\/","title":{"rendered":"Five things Canada must focus on ahead of its World Cup match against Switzerland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Jonathan David scores Canada’s second goal against Qatar during their World Cup match in Vancouver on Thursday.Fran Santiago\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Now comes the hard part.<\/p>\n

After Canada finally won its first-ever World Cup<\/a> match, a 6-0 drubbing of Qatar<\/a> on Thursday, the team and Canadians across the country celebrated the victory. But as everyone knows, Canada lost linchpin<\/a> midfielder Isma\u00ebl Kon\u00e9 to a broken leg. And next Wednesday, June 24 against Group B favourite Switzerland, Canada is, to put it mildly, unlikely to score a half-dozen goals.<\/p>\n

But all those goals against Qatar means Canada needs only a draw against the higher-ranked Swiss to win the group and play the round-of-32 at home in Vancouver on July 2. Yet \u201conly a draw\u201d is easy to type and more difficult to pull off on the pitch against a Swiss team equally motivated to win the group.<\/p>\n

Alphonso Davies<\/p>\n

The star will not start against Switzerland, head coach Jesse Marsch told reporters on Friday before training. Davies\u2019s situation, recovering from his third hamstring injury this year, is complicated<\/a>. He had technically been available to deploy if it had been necessary against Qatar but Thursday night, after the win, Marsch conceded that Davies is not yet at 100 per cent.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Alphonso Davies during the warm up before the Qatar match.Albert Gea\/Reuters<\/p>\n

On Friday, Marsch said he was glad the Qatar game was well in hand and \u201cdidn\u2019t have to force Alphonso onto the pitch.\u201d Davies will train with the team in the days ahead, better than the netherworld of \u201creturn to play\u201d he was still exiled to early this past week. <\/p>\n

Davies\u2019s convalescence is overseen by Matthias Blankenburg from Munich, an expert approved by Davies\u2019s employer Bayern. The sports scientist bills himself<\/a> as one who \u201cworks at the highest level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marsch provided two outlooks for Davies, one fairly positive and one less so. Hamstrings are delicate muscles in recovery from injury. On the less positive side, of Davies\u2019s possibly coming on as a substitute against the Swiss, Marsch said: \u201cHopefully he can be available.\u201d But Marsch also said: \u201cHe\u2019s getting closer and closer to 100 per cent, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scoring against Switzerland<\/p>\n

The six-goal deluge was amazing. But, let\u2019s temper things, it came against Qatar. Before Thursday, Canada had managed 12 goals in 11 previous international matches. You don\u2019t need to be savvy with advanced stats to see that is not good. And, worse, most of those goals came in matches against lesser opponents.<\/p>\n

Goal-scoring remains an issue, even if Thursday was jubilant and promising. Jonathan David\u2019s hat trick must buoy his confidence, as well as his blast at the 16th minute that led to Cyle Larin\u2019s opening tally, his second of the World Cup. Marsch continually says Canada has firepower. It will need it against the Swiss.<\/p>\n

The midfield\u2019s missing Kon\u00e9-factor<\/p>\n

Kon\u00e9 is the latest in a litany of injuries. He helps drive Canada\u2019s attack. He\u2019s a centrifugal force.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a talent and tactical perspective, it weakens us in the tournament,\u201d Marsch said Friday. Defender Alistair Johnston, who powered quite a bit of the attack against Qatar, said this of Kon\u00e9 after the game: \u201cHe\u2019s one of those talents that you can\u2019t really replace.\u201d<\/p>\n

But as one big player is hurt, another returns. On Thursday, defender Mo\u00efse Bombito was back, playing the full second half. Last fall, he broke his left tibia. In recent weeks, his health had been one-step-forward-one-step-back.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Nathan Saliba holds up injured teammate Ismael Kone’s jersey after scoring against Qatar.DARRYL DYCK\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

And while there\u2019s no apples-to-apples replacement for Kon\u00e9, being a special X-factor in Marsch\u2019s words, one clear potential name is Nathan Saliba. He looked good on Thursday, coming in for Kon\u00e9 and, wonderfully, soon after scoring on a beautiful free kick.<\/p>\n

Marsch also mentioned midfielders Mathieu Choini\u00e8re and Jonathan Osorio and saluted the play of veteran midfielder Stephen Eust\u00e1quio, captain in Davies\u2019s absence, at this World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe built the squad over the last two years to be ready for these moments,\u201d Marsch said. <\/p>\n

The road ahead<\/p>\n

On Friday, the United States defeated Australia 2-0<\/a> in Seattle, its second victory, to position itself to win Group D. The U.S. of course is playing all its games at home.<\/p>\n

Mexico on Thursday beat South Korea<\/a> 1-0 in Guadalajara, which means it will win its Group A and play its round-of-32 game at the country\u2019s long-standing fortress of Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. If it wins, Mexico plays at Azteca again in the round-of-16, before a potential quarter-final in Miami.<\/p>\n

Canada can keep pace with its tournament co-hosts with a draw against the Swiss. <\/p>\n

Cathal Kelly: Give Canada a mulligan for going overboard with World Cup win celebration<\/a><\/p>\n

A round-of-32 game in Vancouver on July 2 would be against a third-place team from another group \u2013 in theory an easier showdown than against the Swiss. If Canada loses to Switzerland, it\u2019ll probably play in Los Angeles on June 28. That\u2019s less rest, no home crowd, against a tougher team.<\/p>\n

But if Canada\u2019s round-of-32 is in Vancouver, a win there leads to the round-of-16 in Vancouver on July 7.<\/p>\n

This, for Canada, would be the soccer stratosphere. Then, let\u2019s dream, onwards to the quarter-finals in Kansas City.<\/p>\n

\u2018Allow ourselves to imagine\u2019<\/p>\n

Against Switzerland, scoring goals is essential but so is stopping them. Goalkeeper Max Cr\u00e9peau wasn\u2019t tested even once against Qatar but don\u2019t forget he made a crucial save against Bosnia-Herzegovina last Friday, when Canada was down 1-0. It kept his team in the match and helped lead to the 1-1 draw.<\/p>\n

Cr\u00e9peau on Friday acknowledged, like Marsch had<\/a> on Wednesday before the Qatar game, that the World Cup bright lights rattled Canada\u2019s nerves ahead of the opener in Toronto. It showed on the field against Bosnia in the early going. \u201cIt was a little hectic and chaotic around the team in Toronto,\u201d Marsch said of the days before the Bosnia match. Cr\u00e9peau said: \u201cIt was tense.\u201d<\/p>\n

But when Cr\u00e9peau was asked about the motivation to win the group, the rounds of 32 and 16 in Vancouver within grasp, he encapsulated the possibility of something special unfurling.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an amazing opportunity,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can allow ourselves to imagine what it can be.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Jonathan David scores Canada’s second goal against Qatar during their World Cup match…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":748868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[263469,9335,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-748867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-2026worldcupcanada","tag-aud-url","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748867","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=748867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/748868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}