Canadian men look to down El Salvador and win their group at CONCACAF Gold Cup

Canada head coach Jesse Marsch instructs his team in the first half of an international friendly soccer match against Mexico, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

HOUSTON — In the wake of the disappointing 1-1 draw with Curaçao, Canada has left itself some work to do in the final Group B game against El Salvador on Tuesday at the Gold Cup.

A win over No. 90 Curaçao on Saturday would have guaranteed the 30th-ranked Canadians a berth in the quarterfinals. But conceding a 94th-minute goal raised the stakes somewhat for the game against No. 81 El Salvador at Shell Energy Stadium.

Canada (1-0-1, four points) is still in the Group B driver’s seat, leading the standings ahead of Honduras (1-1-0, three points), Curaçao (0-0-2, two points) and El Salvador (0-1-1, one point).

The top two from each of the four pools move on to the knockout round.

Canada could still advance with a loss, given that only the Honduras-Curaçao winner will have more than four points. And while El Salvador, with a win, would have the same number of points as Canada, the Canadians go into the game with a sizable goal difference advantage (plus-six compared to minus-two for El Salvador and minus-four for Honduras), which is the first tiebreaker after points total.

“The fact that we’ve left it to this stage isn’t ideal for us to win the group,” Canada coach Jesse Marsch acknowledged.

“We’re looking at it now as it’s four elimination matches left,” he added. “So we can’t have anything but the best mentality and understanding of how difficult this match will be. And the matter of inches and sometimes centimetres on the pitch that will make the difference.”

Winning the group means avoiding the Group C winner — likely No. 33 Panama — in the quarterfinal. The Group B winner will face the Group C runner-up, likely No. 105 Guatemala or No. 63 Jamaica.

The Curaçao game was the final game of Marsch’s two-game ban.

Marsch was handed the suspension after being sent off in the CONCACAF Nations League third-place game in March, protesting the lack of a penalty call. He said later he was doing so at the behest of his players, who felt disrespected and had asked him to stand up for them.

He became the subject of a second disciplinary hearing after the Gold Cup opener in Vancouver, with CONCACAF questioning where he watched the game — in a suite with other Canadian team officials at B.C. Place Stadium — and whether offensive language was used in an interaction with a match official.

“The dialogue has been positive,” Marsch said of CONCACAF. “And I think that more than anything, this has been a misunderstanding in some ways. I think we’re all ready to move forward in a positive way.”

He said he expected to hear from CONCACAF later in the day.

Canada opened the tournament with a 6-0 thumping of No. 75 Honduras before stumbling against Curaçao.

“We let ourselves down in the second half,” said Marsch. “We’ve talked about it. We’re going to learn from it. We’re going to be better for it and we’re going to make sure that we don’t have any more of those kinds of performances and experiences. And that we understand that in all moments exactly what games are and that we’re up for it and we’re ready to meet the challenges and set the tone for how we want to play.”

El Salvador played Curaçao to a scoreless draw and lost 2-0 to Honduras.

El Salvador’s squad is almost entirely comprised of players with domestic clubs other than midfielders Brayan Gil (FC Baltika, Russia), Enrico Duenas (Top Oss, the Netherlands) and Harold Osorio (Chicago Fire, MLS).

Marsch made a point of talking up El Salvador, saying “this is a team that I really love to watch.”

“The passion they have. They fight for every inch on the pitch,” he said. “They make their country proud with the kind of mentality they play with and the commitment they have as a group.”

“This will be a difficult game for us and we’ll have to be at our best to find a way to get a win,” he added.

Marsch said defender Derek Cornelius, who had been sidelined with a lower-body injury, is good to go.

The Canadian men are 10-5-4 against El Salvador, winning 3-0 and 2-0 when they met in September 2021 and February 2022.

Canada’s last loss to El Salvador came at the same Houston stadium in October 2017, a 1-0 defeat in an international friendly benefiting victims of Hurricane Harvey. Of the starters that day, only Cyle Larin and the injured Jonathan Osorio are part of the current Gold Cup squad.

Mexico is the current Gold Cup champion, having defeated Panama 1-0 in the 2023 final for its record ninth Gold Cup title. The U.S. has lifted the trophy seven times and Canada once, in 2000.

The Canadian men lost to the U.S. in a quarterfinal penalty shootout last time out, at the 2023 tournament.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 23, 2035

The Canadian Press