Key events
38 min: Off the line by Afif!
Laryea gets to the byline in the area and slides the ball across the six-yard box. It reaches Buchanan, whose off-balance shot is blocked on the line by Afif.
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37 min Canada have been excellent and itâs hard to see any scenario in which they donât win this game. Then again, we said the same at White Hart Lane on 4 February 2004.
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33 min: No penalty, Homam Ahmed sent off!
Replays show the contact was fractionally outside the area, so the penalty is chalked off â but Homam Ahmed is dogsoed as a result.
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Updated at 00.37 CEST
31 min: Penalty to Canada!
Buchanan gets behind the defence and is bundled over by Homam Ahmed. He is booked. It might have been a red card because he wasnât trying to play the ball, but thereâs also an argument that it wasnât a foul.
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Updated at 00.39 CEST
Canada are on course for their first World Cup win â and with it, almost certainly, a place in the knockout stage. Tajon Buchananâs low shot from distance was blocked, with the ball spinning towards Jonathan David 12 yarsd from goal. He reacted beautifully to judge the flight of the ball and then snap a volley past Abumada at the near post. Ordinarily youâd criticise a keeper for being beaten at the near post but that was so well struck by David.
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GOAL! Canada 2-0 Qatar (David 29)
Canada are in the process of making history!
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Updated at 00.34 CEST
24 min Time for a hydration break. And did you know that water is a healthy and cheap choice to keep you hydrated, but other drinks can also count towards your fluid intake. We also get some fluids from the foods we eat.
Not getting enough fluids can lead to dehydration. Dehydration means your body loses more fluids than you take in. If itâs not treated, it can get worse and become a serious problem.
Also, a 30-second advert during these breaks is reportedly worth hundreds of thousands to Fox.
Share
23 min âWales didnât just âmake it to the knockoutsâ in 1958,â says Matt Dony, who should know because he was there. âThey were probably one John Charles injury away from eliminating Brazil. After being kicked around the park by Hungary in the previous game, Charles was unfit to face Brazil. Even Pele has since said that, had Charles played, Wales would likely have won. Still, there was always 2022. And at this rate, weâll have another crack at World Cup glory in 2086âŠâ
John Charles was a giant of a player, but I still think Brazil would have won 1-0 in the counterfactual quarter-final.
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21 min Ali Ahmedâs free-kick from the right is headed wide by Cornelius. It was no sort of chance, with loads of players jumping for the ball at the same time. One of them, Qatar centre-half Boualem Khoukhi, has stayed down holding his face. I think Cornelius accidentally headed him on the side of the face after making contact with the ball.
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19 min Most of Canadaâs best attacks have come down the right through Johnston and Buchanan. They win another corner on that side, but nothing comes of it this time.
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Edmilson Jr. tried to dribble out of trouble but was pressed by David and conceded a corner. When Ali Ahmedâs corner was half cleared, Johnston scurried to the byline on the right and clipped a good cross towards the unmarked David 12 yards out. His stinging shot was spilled by Abunada and Larin gobbled up the rebound. Itâs second goal of the tournament, and heâs only played about half an hour.
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GOAL! Canada 1-0 Qatar (Larin 16)
Check the decibel levels: Cyle Larin has put Canada in front!
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Updated at 00.27 CEST
13 min Itâs been a bright start to the game. Canada are dominating possession, as expected, but Qatar look sharp and purposeful on the break.
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9 min Cornelius is booked for a foul on the lively Akram Afif.
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8 min Zach Neeleyâs email begins with the oldest opening line in the book.
double quotation markSpeaking of the 1958 group stage, England drew 0-0 with Brazil, which was the first scoreless draw in World Cup history. Lucky sods back then didnât know how good they had it. Not bad for England against the first team to win outside of their own continent (which I believed held up till 2010) and didnât give up a goal until the semi-finals. Wales and Northern Ireland made it to the knock outs while England didnât after losing a tiebreakeragainst the Soviet Union (no goal difference, 2nd and 3rd played each other if on equal points).
Northern Ireland also needed a playoff to get through, which meant the quarter-final against France was their third game in five days. No wonder they were plugged 4-0.
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7 min Ali Ahmedâs corner from the right is headed away, but he collects the loose ball and curls a good cross beyond the far post. The unmarked David meets it with a technically excellent volley that is pushed away by Abunada, diving to his right. Lovely effort, though Abunada would expect to save that 39 times out of 40.
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4 min Canada appeal for a penalty â for anything â when Laryea is bundled over on the edge of the area. The referee doesnât think it was a foul, in or outside the box.
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Updated at 00.13 CEST
3 min âI found myself in Paris for the Croatia game in 2018, with some Japanese colleagues who seemed somewhat confused by my total lack of interest in conversation once the game started,â writes Tom Hopkins. âI did, however, find myself sat next to a lovely Croatian couple and we were sympathetic to each other as fortunes ebbed and flowed.
âIn the fullness of time, actually quite a happy memory. At the time, not so much. Kane should have passed to Sterling.
Itâs sometimes forgotten that, though Croatia were undoubtedly the better team, England could have put them away before half-time. I was in Perth for work, so the match started at 2am I think. I wasnât exactly the poster boy for productivity the following day. Well, the same day; you know what I mean.
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1 min A quarter-chance for Qatar after 41 seconds. Akram Arifâs dummy allows Homam Ahmed to surge into space on the left and curl an inviting cross beyond the far post. It arrives at a slightly awkward height for Edmilson Jr, who canât quite adjust his body in time and slices a volley well wide. Lovely move, though.
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Updated at 00.05 CEST
1 min Peep peep! Canada kick off from left to right as we watch.
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Updated at 00.06 CEST
âAfternoon Rob from Ottawa (our sleepy capital),â writes Eddy Nason. âThereâs even a big screen showing this game at my daughterâs school BBQ so people here must be into this! Go Canada!â
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Jesse Marsch's pre-match thoughts
double quotation markWe feel that Cyle [Larin] is a good match-up for this game. We need a presence in the box; itâs a game where both Cyle and Jonny [David] can both find goals if theyâre aggressive and ready for moments.
[On how long the returning Ali Ahmed might last] Weâll check in at half-time and see whereâs at. Heâs a naturally fit guy â weâll evaluate at 45 and then again at 60.
JS, the president of the Voyageurs, sent me a video that I saw a few minutes ago and looks like thereâs about 70 million people marching to the stadium! Weâre excited, we want to make sure we put on a performance that is very Canadian: itâs about fighting, itâs about working for each other and bringing the crowd into the game.
We want to make sure weâre on the front foot, that weâre the aggressor and we go after the game at every moment.
Share
âThereâs no point in beating a dead horse,â says Rebekah Voss, gawping at a dead horse, âbut I canât stop thinking about yesterdayâs England match. See, back in 2018, I was 13 years old and sent to summer camp in the middle of nowhere. One of our counsellors was an unlucky sod from England who was crazy into the World Cup and was more than happy to explain to the kids how the sport worked and that England was obviously the best team ever. He got us all hooked.
âThen one fateful day he comes tearing across the lawn when weâre off to disc golf and screams ENGLAND SCORED! WE ARE GOING TO WIN! That game was, of course, the semi-final versus Croatia. We watched how everything went downhill. It was my first-ever heartbreak. I saw the first half yesterday and thought, itâs going to happen again. I am so pleased that it didnât.
âMark from Summer Camp, if youâre reading this by any chance, thanks for making me fall in love with the beautiful game, curse you for making me like England of all teams⊠But most of all, I hope that you, too, feel a certain sense of satisfaction.â
I was thinking about that game the other day, specifically how a hydration break might have changed it. England were getting overrun in midfield before Ivan Perisic equalised in the 68th minute, so maybe an ad break would have slowed Croatiaâs momentum. Iâm loath to say it would have given England the chance to stiffen their midfield because Gareth Southgate was quite passive at that stage of his career.
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Reintroducing Qatarâs star man
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Ben Fisher
The hype around Johan Manzambi will only heighten after his star turn from the substitutesâ bench helped Switzerland out of a hole and get their tournament truly up and running. The 20-year-old managed to excel for Freiburg in their comprehensive Europa League final defeat against Aston Villa last month and, with 73 minutes played here and three minutes after entering as part of a triple substitution, his superb volley put an end to a sterile contest, hooking a right-foot shot into the Bosnia and Herzegovina net.
At that point Switzerland had registered eight shots, three on target, but things unravelled in the final third. It was, of course, a similar story in their opener against Qatar, when they finished with 26 shots but had to settle for a draw. Manzambi scored twice here, his second finish understated but sumptuous, before Ermin Mahmic thumped in an unstoppable volley in stoppage time, the ball clocked at 71mph according to the wraparound LED screen. Switzerlandâs captain, Granit Xhaka, capped the scoring from the penalty spot after Amar Memic tripped Djibril Sow.
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Full time: Switzerland 4-1 Bosnia and Herzegovina
Switzerland have several toes in the knockout stage after overwhelming Bosnia and Herzegovina in the last 20 minutes in LA. Freiburgâs Johan Manzambi, aged 20, came off the bench to score twice.
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Updated at 23.06 CEST
Team news
Canadaâs head coach Jesse Marsch makes two changes. Cyle Larin, who came off the bench to equalise against Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Ali Ahmed come in for Liam Millar and Tani Oluwaseyi. Alphonso Davies is among the substitutes.
Qatar are unchanged.
Canada (4-4-2) Crepeau; Johnston, De Fougerolles, Cornelius, Laryea; Buchanan, Kone, Eustaquio, Ahmed; J David, Larin.
Subs: St Clair, Goodman, Waterman, Bombito, Davies, Sigur, Choiniere, Millar, Shaffelburg, Osorio, Saliba, Oluwaseyi, P David, Nelson.
Qatar (4-2-3-1) Abunada; Alawi, Miguel, Khoukhi, Ahmed; Laye, Gaber; Edmilson Junior, Madibo, Afif; Abdurisag.
Subs: Zakaria, Barsham, Mendes, Al-Brake, Hussein, Hatem, Boudiaf, Al-Ganehi, Fathy, Alaaeldin, Muntari, Al-Haydos, Ali, Jamshid, Al-Mannai.
Referee Cristian Garay (Chile)
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Updated at 00.02 CEST
Itâs no longer goalless in the match between Switzerland and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Daniel Gallan has more.
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Jonathan Wilson
Daichi Kamadaâs late equaliser for Japan against the Netherlands on Sunday did not merely mean that the scoreline more accurately reflected the game. It also extended to four the unbeaten run of teams from the Asian confederation against Europe at this tournament. There is a degree of contingency to that record, and nobody should draw definitive conclusions from the first week of a World Cup, but equally if there were a shift in the power dynamics of world football, it might look a bit like this.
The tone was set on day one with South Koreaâs victory over Czech Republic. It perhaps shouldnât have come as a surprise to anybody who saw their qualifying playoff semi-final against Ireland that the Czechs would be so ponderous and lumbering, a side that understood the value of dead balls and long throws and little else. But still, the ease with which South Korea passed their way around them was striking. If Son Heung-min had been the player he was three or four years ago, the Korean victory would have been far more emphatic.
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With 20 minutes remaining, itâs still goalless in Los Ageless. Maybe weâre heading for a repeat of Group E at USA 94, when Norway finished bottom despite collecting the same points as the group winners Mexico.
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Jeff Rueter
Asked how heâs handling the scrutiny of coaching a World Cup co-host â where even apparently insignificant comments can end up in the headlines â Jesse Marsch was quick to flash a grin.
âMaybe weâll get through this one without creating news cycles,â Marsch quipped a day before his Canada team welcome Qatar to Vancouver for a pivotal Group B clash. The teams are level on one point each after the first round of games, leaving the group wide open.
Marsch and midfielder IsmaĂ«l KonĂ© refused to look beyond Thursdayâs match though. KonĂ© pushed back against one reporterâs insinuation that the players are more anonymous in Vancouver than in Toronto, the site of their draw against Bosnia and Herzegovina last week. But training in British Columbia since Monday has allowed Marsch and his men to ease the pressure of being co-hosts.
âThe bigger the event, thereâs going to be more distractions,â Marsch said, âso weâve tried to minimize that. But at the same time, itâs really difficult to prepare for everything, the madness that surrounds ⊠a World Cup.â
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Switzerland v Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other match in this group, is goalless at half-time. You can follow the second half with Daniel Gallan.
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Updated at 22.01 CEST
The Group B story so far
Canada 1-1 Bosnia and Herzegovina
Qatar 1-1 Switzerland
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Updated at 22.02 CEST
Who fancies a bit of history? Fear not, weâre not about to impose 5,000 words on the group stage of the 1958 World Cup upon you. Weâre talking about making history, something Canada or Qatar could do in the next few hours.
Theyâve already made a small bit of history by drawing their opening games, the first time either team had picked up a point at a menâs World Cup. Today they can achieve something more substantial. A win for either team would be their first at a World Cup â and, most importantly, would pretty much ensure qualification for the knockout stage.
Yes, yes, the knockout stage is the last 32, which before this tournament would have been the group stage, so what does it really mean. Never mind that legitimate but slightly joyless view. In the modern world we need every good-news story we can get; when this game gets going, the footballers of Canada and Qatar will have the chance to become immortal.
Kick off 3pm local time/6pm EDT/11pm BST/8am AEST
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Rob will be here shortly. In the meantime, hereâs how Canada are preparing for todayâs game:
Asked how heâs handling the scrutiny of coaching a World Cup co-host â where even apparently insignificant comments can end up in the headlines â Jesse Marsch was quick to flash a grin.
âMaybe weâll get through this one without creating news cycles,â Marsch quipped a day before his Canada team welcome Qatar to Vancouver for a pivotal Group B clash. The teams are level on one point each after the first round of games, leaving the group wide open.
Marsch and midfielder IsmaĂ«l KonĂ© refused to look beyond Thursdayâs match though. KonĂ© pushed back against one reporterâs insinuation that the players are more anonymous in Vancouver than in Toronto, the site of their draw against Bosnia and Herzegovina last week. But training in British Columbia since Monday has allowed Marsch and his men to ease the pressure of being co-hosts.
âThe bigger the event, thereâs going to be more distractions,â Marsch said, âso weâve tried to minimize that. But at the same time, itâs really difficult to prepare for everything, the madness that surrounds ⊠a World Cup.â
You can read the full report below:
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38 min: Off the line by Afif!
Laryea gets to the byline in the area and slides the ball across the six-yard box. It reaches Buchanan, whose off-balance shot is blocked on the line by Afif.
Share
37 min Canada have been excellent and itâs hard to see any scenario in which they donât win this game. Then again, we said the same at White Hart Lane on 4 February 2004.
Share
33 min: No penalty, Homam Ahmed sent off!
Replays show the contact was fractionally outside the area, so the penalty is chalked off â but Homam Ahmed is dogsoed as a result.
Share
Updated at 00.37 CEST
31 min: Penalty to Canada!
Buchanan gets behind the defence and is bundled over by Homam Ahmed. He is booked. It might have been a red card because he wasnât trying to play the ball, but thereâs also an argument that it wasnât a foul.
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Updated at 00.39 CEST
Canada are on course for their first World Cup win â and with it, almost certainly, a place in the knockout stage. Tajon Buchananâs low shot from distance was blocked, with the ball spinning towards Jonathan David 12 yarsd from goal. He reacted beautifully to judge the flight of the ball and then snap a volley past Abumada at the near post. Ordinarily youâd criticise a keeper for being beaten at the near post but that was so well struck by David.
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GOAL! Canada 2-0 Qatar (David 29)
Canada are in the process of making history!
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Updated at 00.34 CEST
24 min Time for a hydration break. And did you know that water is a healthy and cheap choice to keep you hydrated, but other drinks can also count towards your fluid intake. We also get some fluids from the foods we eat.
Not getting enough fluids can lead to dehydration. Dehydration means your body loses more fluids than you take in. If itâs not treated, it can get worse and become a serious problem.
Also, a 30-second advert during these breaks is reportedly worth hundreds of thousands to Fox.
Share
23 min âWales didnât just âmake it to the knockoutsâ in 1958,â says Matt Dony, who should know because he was there. âThey were probably one John Charles injury away from eliminating Brazil. After being kicked around the park by Hungary in the previous game, Charles was unfit to face Brazil. Even Pele has since said that, had Charles played, Wales would likely have won. Still, there was always 2022. And at this rate, weâll have another crack at World Cup glory in 2086âŠâ
John Charles was a giant of a player, but I still think Brazil would have won 1-0 in the counterfactual quarter-final.
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21 min Ali Ahmedâs free-kick from the right is headed wide by Cornelius. It was no sort of chance, with loads of players jumping for the ball at the same time. One of them, Qatar centre-half Boualem Khoukhi, has stayed down holding his face. I think Cornelius accidentally headed him on the side of the face after making contact with the ball.
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19 min Most of Canadaâs best attacks have come down the right through Johnston and Buchanan. They win another corner on that side, but nothing comes of it this time.
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Edmilson Jr. tried to dribble out of trouble but was pressed by David and conceded a corner. When Ali Ahmedâs corner was half cleared, Johnston scurried to the byline on the right and clipped a good cross towards the unmarked David 12 yards out. His stinging shot was spilled by Abunada and Larin gobbled up the rebound. Itâs second goal of the tournament, and heâs only played about half an hour.
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GOAL! Canada 1-0 Qatar (Larin 16)
Check the decibel levels: Cyle Larin has put Canada in front!
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Updated at 00.27 CEST
13 min Itâs been a bright start to the game. Canada are dominating possession, as expected, but Qatar look sharp and purposeful on the break.
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9 min Cornelius is booked for a foul on the lively Akram Afif.
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8 min Zach Neeleyâs email begins with the oldest opening line in the book.
double quotation markSpeaking of the 1958 group stage, England drew 0-0 with Brazil, which was the first scoreless draw in World Cup history. Lucky sods back then didnât know how good they had it. Not bad for England against the first team to win outside of their own continent (which I believed held up till 2010) and didnât give up a goal until the semi-finals. Wales and Northern Ireland made it to the knock outs while England didnât after losing a tiebreakeragainst the Soviet Union (no goal difference, 2nd and 3rd played each other if on equal points).
Northern Ireland also needed a playoff to get through, which meant the quarter-final against France was their third game in five days. No wonder they were plugged 4-0.
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7 min Ali Ahmedâs corner from the right is headed away, but he collects the loose ball and curls a good cross beyond the far post. The unmarked David meets it with a technically excellent volley that is pushed away by Abunada, diving to his right. Lovely effort, though Abunada would expect to save that 39 times out of 40.
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4 min Canada appeal for a penalty â for anything â when Laryea is bundled over on the edge of the area. The referee doesnât think it was a foul, in or outside the box.
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Updated at 00.13 CEST
3 min âI found myself in Paris for the Croatia game in 2018, with some Japanese colleagues who seemed somewhat confused by my total lack of interest in conversation once the game started,â writes Tom Hopkins. âI did, however, find myself sat next to a lovely Croatian couple and we were sympathetic to each other as fortunes ebbed and flowed.
âIn the fullness of time, actually quite a happy memory. At the time, not so much. Kane should have passed to Sterling.
Itâs sometimes forgotten that, though Croatia were undoubtedly the better team, England could have put them away before half-time. I was in Perth for work, so the match started at 2am I think. I wasnât exactly the poster boy for productivity the following day. Well, the same day; you know what I mean.
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1 min A quarter-chance for Qatar after 41 seconds. Akram Arifâs dummy allows Homam Ahmed to surge into space on the left and curl an inviting cross beyond the far post. It arrives at a slightly awkward height for Edmilson Jr, who canât quite adjust his body in time and slices a volley well wide. Lovely move, though.
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Updated at 00.05 CEST
1 min Peep peep! Canada kick off from left to right as we watch.
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Updated at 00.06 CEST
âAfternoon Rob from Ottawa (our sleepy capital),â writes Eddy Nason. âThereâs even a big screen showing this game at my daughterâs school BBQ so people here must be into this! Go Canada!â
Share
Jesse Marsch's pre-match thoughts
double quotation markWe feel that Cyle [Larin] is a good match-up for this game. We need a presence in the box; itâs a game where both Cyle and Jonny [David] can both find goals if theyâre aggressive and ready for moments.
[On how long the returning Ali Ahmed might last] Weâll check in at half-time and see whereâs at. Heâs a naturally fit guy â weâll evaluate at 45 and then again at 60.
JS, the president of the Voyageurs, sent me a video that I saw a few minutes ago and looks like thereâs about 70 million people marching to the stadium! Weâre excited, we want to make sure we put on a performance that is very Canadian: itâs about fighting, itâs about working for each other and bringing the crowd into the game.
We want to make sure weâre on the front foot, that weâre the aggressor and we go after the game at every moment.
Share
âThereâs no point in beating a dead horse,â says Rebekah Voss, gawping at a dead horse, âbut I canât stop thinking about yesterdayâs England match. See, back in 2018, I was 13 years old and sent to summer camp in the middle of nowhere. One of our counsellors was an unlucky sod from England who was crazy into the World Cup and was more than happy to explain to the kids how the sport worked and that England was obviously the best team ever. He got us all hooked.
âThen one fateful day he comes tearing across the lawn when weâre off to disc golf and screams ENGLAND SCORED! WE ARE GOING TO WIN! That game was, of course, the semi-final versus Croatia. We watched how everything went downhill. It was my first-ever heartbreak. I saw the first half yesterday and thought, itâs going to happen again. I am so pleased that it didnât.
âMark from Summer Camp, if youâre reading this by any chance, thanks for making me fall in love with the beautiful game, curse you for making me like England of all teams⊠But most of all, I hope that you, too, feel a certain sense of satisfaction.â
I was thinking about that game the other day, specifically how a hydration break might have changed it. England were getting overrun in midfield before Ivan Perisic equalised in the 68th minute, so maybe an ad break would have slowed Croatiaâs momentum. Iâm loath to say it would have given England the chance to stiffen their midfield because Gareth Southgate was quite passive at that stage of his career.
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Reintroducing Qatarâs star man
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Ben Fisher
The hype around Johan Manzambi will only heighten after his star turn from the substitutesâ bench helped Switzerland out of a hole and get their tournament truly up and running. The 20-year-old managed to excel for Freiburg in their comprehensive Europa League final defeat against Aston Villa last month and, with 73 minutes played here and three minutes after entering as part of a triple substitution, his superb volley put an end to a sterile contest, hooking a right-foot shot into the Bosnia and Herzegovina net.
At that point Switzerland had registered eight shots, three on target, but things unravelled in the final third. It was, of course, a similar story in their opener against Qatar, when they finished with 26 shots but had to settle for a draw. Manzambi scored twice here, his second finish understated but sumptuous, before Ermin Mahmic thumped in an unstoppable volley in stoppage time, the ball clocked at 71mph according to the wraparound LED screen. Switzerlandâs captain, Granit Xhaka, capped the scoring from the penalty spot after Amar Memic tripped Djibril Sow.
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Full time: Switzerland 4-1 Bosnia and Herzegovina
Switzerland have several toes in the knockout stage after overwhelming Bosnia and Herzegovina in the last 20 minutes in LA. Freiburgâs Johan Manzambi, aged 20, came off the bench to score twice.
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Updated at 23.06 CEST
Team news
Canadaâs head coach Jesse Marsch makes two changes. Cyle Larin, who came off the bench to equalise against Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Ali Ahmed come in for Liam Millar and Tani Oluwaseyi. Alphonso Davies is among the substitutes.
Qatar are unchanged.
Canada (4-4-2) Crepeau; Johnston, De Fougerolles, Cornelius, Laryea; Buchanan, Kone, Eustaquio, Ahmed; J David, Larin.
Subs: St Clair, Goodman, Waterman, Bombito, Davies, Sigur, Choiniere, Millar, Shaffelburg, Osorio, Saliba, Oluwaseyi, P David, Nelson.
Qatar (4-2-3-1) Abunada; Alawi, Miguel, Khoukhi, Ahmed; Laye, Gaber; Edmilson Junior, Madibo, Afif; Abdurisag.
Subs: Zakaria, Barsham, Mendes, Al-Brake, Hussein, Hatem, Boudiaf, Al-Ganehi, Fathy, Alaaeldin, Muntari, Al-Haydos, Ali, Jamshid, Al-Mannai.
Referee Cristian Garay (Chile)
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Updated at 00.02 CEST
Itâs no longer goalless in the match between Switzerland and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Daniel Gallan has more.
Share
Jonathan Wilson
Daichi Kamadaâs late equaliser for Japan against the Netherlands on Sunday did not merely mean that the scoreline more accurately reflected the game. It also extended to four the unbeaten run of teams from the Asian confederation against Europe at this tournament. There is a degree of contingency to that record, and nobody should draw definitive conclusions from the first week of a World Cup, but equally if there were a shift in the power dynamics of world football, it might look a bit like this.
The tone was set on day one with South Koreaâs victory over Czech Republic. It perhaps shouldnât have come as a surprise to anybody who saw their qualifying playoff semi-final against Ireland that the Czechs would be so ponderous and lumbering, a side that understood the value of dead balls and long throws and little else. But still, the ease with which South Korea passed their way around them was striking. If Son Heung-min had been the player he was three or four years ago, the Korean victory would have been far more emphatic.
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With 20 minutes remaining, itâs still goalless in Los Ageless. Maybe weâre heading for a repeat of Group E at USA 94, when Norway finished bottom despite collecting the same points as the group winners Mexico.
Share
Jeff Rueter
Asked how heâs handling the scrutiny of coaching a World Cup co-host â where even apparently insignificant comments can end up in the headlines â Jesse Marsch was quick to flash a grin.
âMaybe weâll get through this one without creating news cycles,â Marsch quipped a day before his Canada team welcome Qatar to Vancouver for a pivotal Group B clash. The teams are level on one point each after the first round of games, leaving the group wide open.
Marsch and midfielder IsmaĂ«l KonĂ© refused to look beyond Thursdayâs match though. KonĂ© pushed back against one reporterâs insinuation that the players are more anonymous in Vancouver than in Toronto, the site of their draw against Bosnia and Herzegovina last week. But training in British Columbia since Monday has allowed Marsch and his men to ease the pressure of being co-hosts.
âThe bigger the event, thereâs going to be more distractions,â Marsch said, âso weâve tried to minimize that. But at the same time, itâs really difficult to prepare for everything, the madness that surrounds ⊠a World Cup.â
Share
Switzerland v Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other match in this group, is goalless at half-time. You can follow the second half with Daniel Gallan.
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Updated at 22.01 CEST
The Group B story so far
Canada 1-1 Bosnia and Herzegovina
Qatar 1-1 Switzerland
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Updated at 22.02 CEST
Who fancies a bit of history? Fear not, weâre not about to impose 5,000 words on the group stage of the 1958 World Cup upon you. Weâre talking about making history, something Canada or Qatar could do in the next few hours.
Theyâve already made a small bit of history by drawing their opening games, the first time either team had picked up a point at a menâs World Cup. Today they can achieve something more substantial. A win for either team would be their first at a World Cup â and, most importantly, would pretty much ensure qualification for the knockout stage.
Yes, yes, the knockout stage is the last 32, which before this tournament would have been the group stage, so what does it really mean. Never mind that legitimate but slightly joyless view. In the modern world we need every good-news story we can get; when this game gets going, the footballers of Canada and Qatar will have the chance to become immortal.
Kick off 3pm local time/6pm EDT/11pm BST/8am AEST
Share
Rob will be here shortly. In the meantime, hereâs how Canada are preparing for todayâs game:
Asked how heâs handling the scrutiny of coaching a World Cup co-host â where even apparently insignificant comments can end up in the headlines â Jesse Marsch was quick to flash a grin.
âMaybe weâll get through this one without creating news cycles,â Marsch quipped a day before his Canada team welcome Qatar to Vancouver for a pivotal Group B clash. The teams are level on one point each after the first round of games, leaving the group wide open.
Marsch and midfielder IsmaĂ«l KonĂ© refused to look beyond Thursdayâs match though. KonĂ© pushed back against one reporterâs insinuation that the players are more anonymous in Vancouver than in Toronto, the site of their draw against Bosnia and Herzegovina last week. But training in British Columbia since Monday has allowed Marsch and his men to ease the pressure of being co-hosts.
âThe bigger the event, thereâs going to be more distractions,â Marsch said, âso weâve tried to minimize that. But at the same time, itâs really difficult to prepare for everything, the madness that surrounds ⊠a World Cup.â
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