Canada World Cup 2026 team guide

This article is part of the Guardian’s 2026 World Cup Experts’ Network, a cooperation between some of the best media organisations from the 48 countries who qualified. theguardian.com is running previews from three countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 11 June.

The plan

As co-hosts, placed inside a competitive group, Canada enter the World Cup with high expectations, despite never winning a match at a previous tournament. Since a Concacaf Nations League semi-final defeat to Mexico in March 2025 the team have lost one of 15 matches at the time of writing, a run that has included some excellent opponents such as Colombia, Ecuador, Ukraine and the USA, whom they have defeated twice in the past two years, including their first win on US soil in 57 years.

The coach, Jesse Marsch, has maintained a consistent 4-4-2 with the emphasis on pressing from the front and pace in wide positions. “Some teams press to win the ball back, we press to punish and think about scoring immediately when we recover the ball,” said Marsch, who is American, but has captured the hearts of many Canadians since he took the job in May 2024 and guided the team to the semi-finals of the Copa América.

Success at that tournament, and subsequently in friendlies, is based on a defensive structure Marsch worked on immediately when taking the job and playing against the Netherlands and France in his first two matches in charge. Nine clean sheets in 13 matches before the pre-tournament friendlies is even more impressive considering Moïse Bombito, their star centre-back from Nice, and Bayern Munich’s Alphonso Davies did not playin any of those matches because of injury.

“In my first year in charge we developed the playing style and it’s clear we are more of a complete team with Moïse and Alphonso,” Marsch says. “The last year has been about developing the overall mentality to make sure when the lights are the brightest we will be ready to host World Cup games and I think this team is special and can handle that.”

The coach

Jesse Marsch’s first venture into international management has been a successful one, but not one he found easy to adjust to. “From the moment I worked with this group of players in the first camp, I knew I was going to fall in love with these guys,” he says. “They are a unique group of really good people, who are very talented, and when I said goodbye to them it was different from what I was used to as a head coach in the club game.” Marsch has enjoyed those gaps in his schedule, using time to visit Canadian players across the world and spending a lot of time in the country at the provincial level to help bring a more united approach to the way the game is developed and governed.

Star player

Alphonso Davies’s return will add to Canada’s potential, if he is fit enough. Photograph: Michael Owens/Getty Images

The captain, Alphonso Davies, has not played for Canada since tearing his ACL against USA in the Nations League third-place match last March. Whether to play him at left-back or on the wing has been one of the biggest questions for years, but under Marsch the Bayern Munich man has predominantly been used at the back and has been excellent. However, another injury setback, against Paris St-Germain in the Champions League semi-final second leg – his third in the past three months – has put his participation for the opening game against Bosnia and Herzegovina in doubt. He has started 12 of 29 internationals in the Marsch-era at the time of writing.

One to watch

Few players have received more work and attention from his national coach than the midfielder Ismaël Koné, who was dropped during the Copa América as he struggled to make an impact. Since then he has been excellent for Sassuolo in Serie A and has turned into a dynamic box-to-box midfielder for Marsch, learning valuable lessons defensively in Italy, where his discipline and tactical concentration has improved significantly. Expected to start next to the excellent Stephen Eustáquio in a key double-pivot tandem for Canada.

Unsung hero

Norwich’s Ali Ahmed has become a favourite of Marsch’s because of his selfless work on the pitch. Ahmed is asked to lead the press on the left wing, often cutting inside to increase the midfield numbers and bring intensity and energy off the ball. One of the reasons Marsch has not deployed Davies further forward is because he views his team without the ball more than with it and in that vision the former Vancouver Whitecaps man is crucial.

Probable starting XI

What to expect from fans at games?

Canada is ready to host the world, but the attention is more on this team than other games happening in the country. Being the only side to start on the east coast and move directly to the west coast allows fans in Toronto and Vancouver to watch their team in the group stages. The supporters group The Voyageurs will lead the noise with their flags and chants of “Ooh, Ahh Canada”. Canada is known for its cosmopolitan population and cultural diversity, with people from all over the world, and should benefit from playing three group opponents (Switzerland, Qatar and Bosnia and Herzegovina) with relatively small populations.

Relationship with the US/Trump?

Marsch is not one to keep his opinions to himself and in February 2025, before the Concacaf Nations League finals, he said: “If I have one message to our president, it’s lay off the ridiculous rhetoric about Canada being the 51st state. As an American, I’m ashamed of the arrogance and disregard that we’ve shown one of our historically oldest, strongest and most loyal allies.”

Canada would go on to defeat the Americans soon after and although it was a match for third place Marsch was extremely emotional on the sidelines and that led to him being sent off for abusing an official. Marsch, who passionately sings O Canada before matches, has never shied away from being American and although he has made an effort to not speak publicly about politics since then it is clear he knows how much Canada enjoys beating the USA at any sport.

Written by Kristian Jack for Onesoccer