Canada will make national history on Friday when they step onto the pitch in Toronto as co-hosts of the World Cup for the first time, beginning a campaign that many hope will finally break a long streak of disappointment. The Canadian men’s national team has never won a World Cup match in three previous appearances — 1986, 2022 and a debut as co-host in 2026 — and has lost all nine matches it has played at the tournament, scoring just two goals.
Their first opponent, Bosnia and Herzegovina, knocked out four-time champions Italy in qualifying. Former Canadian national team head coach Stephen Hart said the opener is a must-win fixture if Canada is to reach the knockout stage.
“I always think in that tournament, it’s imperative you win the first game,” Hart told the BBC. “Once you win the first game, it kind of puts you at a certain mental ease. You get a bit of confidence, you have now got one game under your belt, you have got three points, so you approach the other games with less anxiety.”
Hart, who now coaches the Halifax Tides in the Canadian Premier League, said the current squad has the potential to get out of Group B.
“The squad has the potential to get out of the group stage,” Hart said. “Canada now has players that have experience not only in top leagues, but in what I consider the best football in the world, which is the Champions League.”
The team’s most famous player is captain Alphonso Davies, widely considered Canada’s greatest ever footballer. Davies was born to Liberian parents in a refugee camp in Ghana and moved to Canada at age five. He rose through Canadian youth football to win multiple club titles with Bayern Munich, becoming the first Canadian to win the Champions League in 2020.
Davies scored Canada’s first ever World Cup goal — a header against Croatia at the 2022 tournament in Qatar — and has 15 international goals despite being officially a defender. But he is recovering from a hamstring injury suffered weeks ago and looks unlikely to feature in Friday’s opener, the BBC reported.
Hart said Canada has options to fill in for their captain temporarily but called Davies irreplaceable in his impact on the team.
“Alphonso brings a certain level of inspiration to the team,” Hart said. “Fonzi brings something completely different because he can play in the full back position, you could push him further forward. He is a very dynamic player, dribbling-wise, and with creative passing.”
Other key players include Juventus forward Jonathan David, Porto midfielder Stephen Eustaquio, and a defense anchored by Marseille’s Derek Cornelius. The squad also includes defenders Moise Bombito (Nice) and Ali Ahmed (Norwich City), both carrying injury concerns. Canada has until 24 hours before kick-off to make last-minute changes to the squad, per tournament rules.
Current head coach Jesse Marsch, 52, took over ahead of the 2024 Copa America and guided the team to a fourth-place finish. Marsch, the first American to manage Canada, was an assistant coach for the United States at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, four months after retiring as a player.
Hart said Marsch has put together a team emblematic of Canada’s diversity, forged by a nation that has long embraced multiculturalism. A strong performance at the World Cup, especially avoiding group-stage elimination, could boost the sport’s future in Canada, Hart said.
After facing Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada will play Qatar — hoping to avoid the same fate the Qataris suffered in 2022 as hosts who failed to advance — and then Switzerland, which Hart called the toughest opposition in the group. He said a draw against Switzerland would be a great result for Canada.
Canada’s full 26-man roster includes four goalkeepers, 12 defenders, 10 midfielders and five forwards, drawn from clubs across Europe and North America. The team will play its group-stage matches in Toronto and Vancouver.