{"id":911315,"date":"2026-09-27T06:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T06:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/911315\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T06:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T06:56:10","slug":"canadian-men-defeat-nine-man-chile-in-first-outing-since-fifa-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/911315\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian men defeat nine-man Chile in first outing since FIFA World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Tajon Buchanan, left, battles for the ball with Ivan Roman during an international soccer friendly in Toronto on Saturday. Canada coach Jesse Marsch says he liked his team\u2019s first 20-25 minutes but not the rest.Chris Young\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s first outing since the World Cup was anything but pretty but came with a win, which in the end was all that mattered.<\/p>\n

Jonathan David scored his 43rd international goal as the Canadians defeated nine-man Chile 1-0 in a chippy international friendly Saturday. David put Canada ahead in the 12th minute, then headed to the sideline to hold up a Derek Cornelius jersey in a tribute to the defender, a close friend who dislocated his hip in training Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Nathan Saliba did the same for fellow midfielder Isma\u00ebl Kon\u00e9 in Canada\u2019s 6-0 World Cup win over Qatar after Kon\u00e9 suffered a broken leg.<\/p>\n

Kon\u00e9 and Cornelius were both spectators Saturday.<\/p>\n

David, who had accompanied Cornelius by ambulance to hospital, had asked that the jersey be ready on the sideline.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always expecting to score every game,\u201d said the Atl\u00e9tico Madrid forward. \u201cSo I just asked them for it to be prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n

The game got ugly after that.<\/p>\n

\u2018Gruesome\u2019 injury brings back stomach-churning World Cup memory for Canadian men<\/a><\/p>\n

Chilean midfielder Lucas Cepeda, upended as he tangled with Richie Laryea in a tackle, was sent off in the 35th minute after his flailing high boot carved open the Canadian fullback\u2019s face.<\/p>\n

No. 49 Chile was reduced to nine men in the 50th minute when captain Gabriel Suazo was shown a second yellow card for elbowing Niko Sigur in the head during an aerial challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s games like that that we want to play,\u201d said Canadian midfielder Mathieu Choini\u00e8re. \u201cIt\u2019s men\u2019s football. We like it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was one-way traffic the rest of the way, albeit with 30th-ranked Canada unable to convert a bushel of chances. Laryea hit the post with a rocket of the shot in the final minutes.<\/p>\n

It made for a nervy ending, with Chile unable to knock home a dangerous free kick that went through the penalty box in the 87th minute.<\/p>\n

Chilean players went down with regularity, sometimes legitimately but often theatrically, as the game wore on. The mood grew uglier late in the second half with Canadians Cyle Larin, Jamie Knight-Lebel and Promise David shown three yellow cards.<\/p>\n

Canada coach Jesse Marsch liked his team\u2019s first 20-25 minutes but not the rest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think (the) second half was very good,\u201d he said. \u201cChile remained aggressive, even down two men. And the way to make them pay was to be cleaner with the ball and cleaner with ideas and actions around the goal. And we were too wild, not enough shots on frame, not enough final actions with good connections.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut a good win,\u201d he added, somewhat optimistically. \u201cAnd we\u2019ll move on and get ready for the next two in this window.\u201d <\/p>\n

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

The Canadian team pressures the Chilean goal during their international soccer friendly at BMO Field.Chris Young\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The Canadian men now head to Montreal where they host No. 50 Peru next Saturday. Then it\u2019s on to St. Paul, Minn., for a date with the 16th-ranked U.S. <\/p>\n

The contest was the first for Canada since exiting the World Cup<\/a> in a 3-0 loss to No. 6 Morocco round-of-16 play July 4 in Houston.<\/p>\n

And it was the first at BMO Field for the Canadian men since a 1-1 draw in their June 12 World Cup opener against No. 61 Bosnia-Herzegovina.<\/p>\n

The 15 veterans of Canada\u2019s World Cup squad on the current roster were honoured prior to kickoff by a loud crowd announced at 23,310.<\/p>\n

In addition to Cornelius, Canada was missing defenders Mo\u00efse Bombito, Alistair Johnston, Joel Waterman and Alfie Jones. Midfielders Ali Ahmed and Jeevan Badwal are also sidelined.<\/p>\n

Veteran goalkeeper Maxime Cr\u00e9peau wasn\u2019t called up due to an unspecified personal matter. Honeymooning captain Alphonso Davies also got a pass.<\/p>\n

Vice-captain Stephen Eust\u00e1quio, who got married Tuesday in Portugal, started on the bench after arriving in camp Thursday. He entered the game in the 61st minute.<\/p>\n

The Canadian starting 11 came into the game with a combined 459 caps with Larin (94), Laryea (90), David (82) and Tajon Buchanan (65) accounting for 331 of those appearances.<\/p>\n

David served as captain with 20-year-old Luc de Fougerolles and 24-year-old Ralph Priso paired in the heart of the defence. <\/p>\n

World Cup breakthrough prompts Canadian men to target new heights<\/a><\/p>\n

Canada controlled most of the play in a frenetic first half with Jacob Shaffelburg and Laryea causing Chile problems down the left flank. <\/p>\n

David\u2019s opening goal came on a rapid-fire attack that saw Chile goalkeeper Lawrence Vigouroux, a teammate of Eustaquio\u2019s at Swansea City in England\u2019s second-tier Championship, stop Larin\u2019s initial shot only to see David knock home the rebound and add to his Canadian men\u2019s scoring record.<\/p>\n

A Chilean goal, an elegant flicked header by C\u00e9sar P\u00e9rez, was waved off for offside in the 34th minute.<\/p>\n

Junior Hoilett came on in the 76th minute for his 70th cap in his international swan song. The 36-year-old midfielder from nearby Brampton made his senior debut in October, 2015.<\/p>\n

Jovan Ivanisevic, a 21-year-old defender who plays for FK Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and 18-year-old Toronto FC defender Richard Chukwu earned their first caps off the bench.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Tajon Buchanan, left, battles for the ball with Ivan Roman during an international…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":911316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[264632,49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-911315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-2026worldcupglobe","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911315","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=911315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/911316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=911315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=911315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=911315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}