The Canadian men’s national team will play its first-ever knockout round match against South Africa on Sunday afternoon at Los Angeles Stadium.
Canada finished in second place in Group B earlier on Wednesday after a 2-1 defeat to Switzerland, meaning they line up to play the second-place finisher from Group A.
That spot was locked up thanks to South Africa’s 1-0 upset victory over South Korea in Wednesday night’s match.
Canada will play its historic elimination match at 3pm ET / Noon PT, a game you can across the TSN Network, on TSN.ca and the TSN App.
South Africa won their lone international competition against Canada, a 2-0 final in an international friendly back on Nov. 20, 2007.
Some major lineup questions that Canada’s head coach Jesse Marsch will have to grapple with revolve around injured stars - star defender Alphonso Davies would provide a massive boost if he were able to get into game shape by Sunday, while Stephen Eustaquio was not in the starting XI on Wednesday due to muscle tightness.
Canada will already be without Ismael Kone, who suffered a broken leg in their historic 6-0 victory over Qatar last week.
Canada played Switzerland to a 0-0 draw through the game’s opening half, but the Swiss side broke through immediately in the second half, when Ruben Vargas scored at the 46th minute before Johan Manzambi added another just 10 minutes later.
Canada rallied for a goal from Promise David in the 74th minute and peppered chances down the stretch but could not find their equalizer. “The response was good from the team, we fought back we got a goal back and pushed to the very end,” David said after the game. “It’s a shame we didn’t get the tie, but we’re ready for whatever’s next.”
Next is the nation’s first-ever elimination match at a FIFA World Cup. Canada has achieved many firsts in this tournament - first match played on home soil, first point secured (in a tournament-opening 1-1 tie against Bosnia & Herzegovina) and first victory (6-0 against Qatar).
The team is seeking to become more established on this stage with all of these landmarks under their belt. “That’s a good sign, that fact that we are sad and mad about this result,” Eustaquio said of Canada’s loss to Switzerland.
“We got past our group, that’s something that we really wanted,” Eustaquio said. “Obviously wanted to stay in Vancouver for one or two more games ... but we still have a World Cup to play so we’re going with everything [we have] to Los Angeles.”
