{"id":777551,"date":"2026-07-03T11:48:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T11:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/777551\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T11:48:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T11:48:14","slug":"world-cup-2026-canada-to-play-morocco-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/777551\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: Canada to play Morocco Saturday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Andrew Johnson reports on how the Canadian soccer team is feeling ahead of Saturday\u2019s match as they aim for another historic victory. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">HOUSTON \u2014 Canada will face its toughest test yet at this summer\u2019s FIFA World Cup when it meets Morocco in the round of 16 in Houston on Saturday. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Morocco entered the tournament sitting seventh in FIFA\u2019s rankings while Canada was No. 30. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The Atlas Lions have already come up against some global soccer giants, starting the group stage with a 1-1 draw against Brazil before besting the Netherlands on penalties in the round of 32. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The Canadians advanced with a 1-0 victory over South Africa on Sunday, marking their first-ever win in a knockout game at a men\u2019s World Cup. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/336EIXLZU7PZVQDIVUHDFVLH6Q.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>Canada&#8217;s Stephen Eust\u00e1quio (7) scores a goal against South Africa as Teboho Mokoena (4) chases during second half World Cup Round of 32 soccer, in Los Angeles, on Sunday, June 28, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Frank Gunn Canada&#8217;s Stephen Eust\u00e1quio (7) scores a goal against South Africa as Teboho Mokoena (4) chases during second half World Cup Round of 32 soccer, in Los Angeles, on Sunday, June 28, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Frank Gunn <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The two nations faced off at the tournament back in 2022 when Morocco took a 2-1 decision in Qatar in a group-stage bout.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The winner of Saturday\u2019s game will meet either Paraguay or France in a quarterfinal matchup in Boston on July 9. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 3, 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n<p>Related Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andrew Johnson reports on how the Canadian soccer team is feeling ahead of Saturday\u2019s match as they aim&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44,82],"class_list":["post-777551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777551","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=777551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}