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<\/p>\nMONTREAL \u2014 Jesse Marsch\u2019s Canada side dominated possession, created by far the most chances and won duels all over the field, but were ultimately pinned back to a 1-1 draw with the Republic of Ireland in their final friendly before the World Cup begins.<\/p>\n
In front of a packed and boisterous Saputo Stadium, Canada started brightly and, after considerable early pressure, opened the scoring after 23 minutes. Stephen Eustaquio, captain in the injured absence of Alphonso Davies, whipped in a corner that Irish defender Jake O\u2019Brien could only turn into his own net.<\/p>\n
Canada had dominated the game and missed several good chances by the time they gifted Ireland an equaliser. Cyle Larin\u2019s reckless high-footed challenge resulted in a penalty, which Troy Parrott stepped up to take. Maxime Crepeau made an impressive initial save, but Chiedozie Ogbene slammed in the rebound.<\/p>\n
While this was not Ireland\u2019s strongest side \u2014 some key players were absent \u2014 it was nonetheless an encouraging overall performance for Canada to sign off their tournament preparation, following a 2-0 win over Uzbekistan in Edmonton on Monday.<\/p>\n
Here Joshua Kloke analyses the key talking points of Canada\u2019s final warm-up game before the World Cup.<\/p>\n
Could wasteful attack bring problems at the World Cup?<\/p>\n
This was, and was not, a typical Canadian performance all at once.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t typical in that Canada maintained the lion\u2019s share of the ball. They\u2019re not the type of team that enjoys two-thirds of the possession and out-shoots the opposition by a ratio of three-to-one. If they can earn those kinds of numbers against Bosnia and Herzegovina and Qatar, they\u2019ll give themselves a chance at advancing out of the group stage.<\/p>\n
However, it was a typical Canadian performance in that they struggled once again to score. Canada cannot afford to be this wasteful with their chances at the World Cup.<\/p>\n
Liam Millar burst into the box on multiple occasions and sent his shot off the mark. He led all Canadians with five shots but had no goals to show for it. The winger\u2019s energy was a bright spot, but the final product needs to be there.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Liam Millar needs to add ruthless finishing to his game. (Minas Panagiotakis \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Ismael Kone, Jonathan David and Larin all had multiple shots. But again, the person credited with the goal for Canada was not wearing a Canadian jersey. Watching David lay off a second-half pass close to Ireland\u2019s goal instead of taking a shot and then seeing Larin\u2019s shot go wide? Emblematic of much of the evening.<\/p>\n
This team\u2019s attack cannot expect to have the results they want if they continue to miss the mark, literally and figuratively.<\/p>\n
Crepeau repaying Marsch\u2019s faith<\/p>\n
Marsch will feel completely justified in picking Crepeau as his World Cup starting goalkeeper.<\/p>\n
First, the tear rolling down Crepeau\u2019s cheek during the Canadian national anthem in his hometown was a reminder of how emotionally invested Crepeau is in this World Cup. Teammates will see that.<\/p>\n
Teammates will also see how Crepeau did everything possible to maintain the draw for Canada.<\/p>\n
Crepeau dove to stop Parrot\u2019s original penalty before Ogbene banged in the rebound. Yet in the seconds afterwards, Crepeau rallied his team around him, motivating them to turn the page and keep going. That\u2019s the attitude Marsch wanted, and it worked: Canada dominated afterward.<\/p>\n
Late in the match, Crepeau made another aggressive save, this time on Spurs forward Mason Melia, after a Canada defensive breakdown. That save maintained the draw. That save also brought the night\u2019s loudest roar of approval from the Montreal crowd.<\/p>\n
Crepeau left zero doubt about what he\u2019s capable of as a pure tournament goalkeeper.<\/p>\n
No Bombito? No problem<\/p>\n
So much of the talk around Canada\u2019s time in Montreal has been about the health of one of the city\u2019s soccer heroes, Moise Bombito. The powerful centre-back exited Canada\u2019s friendly against Uzbekistan earlier in the week after just 30 minutes. That was Bombito\u2019s first match back since breaking his leg with Nice in October. Bombito then did not train the day before the friendly against Ireland, only exacerbating concern that he would not be fit for Canada\u2019s World Cup opener.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Bombito) had a bit of a reaction after the game against Uzbekistan, so it\u2019s taking a bit more time,\u201d Marsch said of Bombito.<\/p>\n
Look, Bombito is one of Canada\u2019s most important players. And it would have been special for him to dominate in front of friends and family.<\/p>\n
However, in his absence, Canada should breathe a little easier watching Luc de Fougerolles step up in Bombito\u2019s absence. That change was the only one Marsch made from his two starting lineups this week. De Fougerolles might be just 20, but he stepped confidently into challenges, moved the ball out of the back with smarts and precision and never looked out of position.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\n Luc de Fougerolles battles Corrie Ndaba of Ireland. (Minas Panagiotakis \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
We are trending towards a starting centre-back duo of De Fougerolles and Derek Cornelius (who also played well against Ireland) on June 12 against Bosnia and Herzegovina.\u00a0 Ireland\u2019s goal was not the result of either of them.<\/p>\n
It might not be how Marsch drew things up months ago. But both of their performances without Bombito proved it might work well.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s next for Canada?<\/p>\n
June 12: Canada v. Bosnia and Herzegovina, World Cup Group B, Toronto, 3 p.m. ET (8 p.m. GMT)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL \u2014 Jesse Marsch\u2019s Canada side dominated possession, created by far the most chances and won duels all…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[289,208827,61,60,43,3405],"class_list":["post-485618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-canada","tag-fifa-mens-world-cup","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}