It's elimination time at the Gold Cup

Jesse Campigotto · CBC Sports

· Posted: Jun 26, 2025 5:08 PM EDT | Last Updated: 7 minutes ago

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The travel was a spot bumpy, but the Canadian men's shot squad got the occupation done and qualified for the knockout signifier astatine the Concacaf Gold Cup, the title tourney for North and Central America and the Caribbean.

Favoured to triumph Group B arsenic the 30th-ranked squad successful the world, Canada opened with a 6-0 drubbing of No. 75 Honduras successful Vancouver but encountered immoderate tougher contests aft relocating to Houston to decorativeness retired radical play.

Needing a triumph implicit 90th-ranked Curacao past Saturday nighttime to clinch a spot successful the quarterfinals, the Canadians clung to a 1-0 pb into second-half stoppage clip earlier a Curacao substitute stunned them with a extremity successful the 94th infinitesimal to bargain a 1-1 draw. It could person been worse: Curacao had 2 goals disallowed owed to offsides and was denied a imaginable punishment footwear successful the 86th infinitesimal connected an evident manus shot erstwhile the referees ruled that play had halted due to the fact that idiosyncratic successful the assemblage blew a whistle.

WATCH | Canada blanks El Savador, advances to Gold Cup quarterfinal:

That disappointing effect enactment the unit connected Canada to triumph the radical finale against El Salvador connected Tuesday nighttime to gain archetypal spot and a much favourable matchup successful the quarterfinals. The 81st-ranked El Salvadorans made it a stone fight, playing precise conservatively (they had lone 2 shots, compared to 14 for Canada) portion racking up 19 fouls, 4 yellowish cards and a brace of reds that caused them to play 2 men abbreviated for the full 2nd half. Canada yet broke done successful the 53 infinitesimal erstwhile Jonathan David scored his record-extending 35th extremity successful 66 appearances for the nationalist team, and Tajon Buchanan recovered the nett 2½ minutes aboriginal to nonstop Canada to a nasty 2-0 win.

With the apical 2 teams successful the radical advancing, Canada (seven points) edged Honduras (six) for archetypal place, followed by Curacao (two) and El Salvador (one).

Now it's clip for the single-knockout rounds. Canada's hostile successful this weekend's quarterfinals is 106th-ranked Guatemala, which amazed a batch of radical by finishing 2nd successful Group C. Los Chapins upset No. 63 Jamaica 1-0 successful their opener and precocious with a 3-2 triumph implicit tiny Guadeloupe aft falling 1-0 to eventual radical victor Panama successful between.

Canada is 10-2-2 all-time against Guatemala. But their past meeting, successful the radical signifier of the 2023 Gold Cup, ended successful a scoreless draw.

WATCH | Canada stunned late, settles for gully with Curacao:

Head manager Jesse Marsch returned to the sidelines against El Salvador aft serving a two-match suspension for arguing with a referee during a lucifer against the United States astatine the Concacaf Nation League Finals successful March. But Canada remains beneath afloat spot connected the field. Star skipper Alphonso Davies is retired until the autumn owed to a torn ACL suffered successful the third-place lucifer astatine the Nations League Finals (the aforesaid 1 wherever Marsch got red-carded) portion starting defender Moise Bombito remains sidelined aft wrist surgery. Defender Derek Cornelius returned to the starting lineup against El Salvador aft missing the archetypal 2 matches, but seasoned midfielder Jonathan Osorio was sent location aft getting injured successful signifier earlier the Curacao game.

Canada had been hoping to get cardinal midfielder Stephen Eustaquio backmost aft his FC Porto squad was eliminated from the Club World Cup (also taking spot successful the United States) connected Monday. But it appears that helium flew backmost to Portugal with his squad and won't play successful the Gold Cup.

WATCH | David says Canada men's squad has matured en way to 2026 World Cup:

The Canada-Guatemala quarterfinal takes spot Sunday astatine 4 p.m. ET successful Minneapolis.

The victor volition look either the United States oregon Costa Rica, who play Sunday astatine 7 p.m. ET successful the aforesaid location. The 16th-ranked Americans won each 3 of their matches successful Group D, portion No. 54 Costa Rica had 2 wins and a gully against first-place Mexico successful Group A.

The different 2 quarterfinal matchups are connected Saturday successful Glendale, Ariz. 33rd-ranked Panama, which went a cleanable 3-0-0 to triumph Group C, faces Honduras (2 wins, 1 loss) astatine 7:15 p.m. ET. No. 17 Mexico, which took Group A with 2 wins and a draw, meets 58th-ranked impermanent squad Saudi Arabia (1-1-1) astatine 10:15 p.m. ET successful Glendale, Ariz.

The semifinals are connected July 2 successful St. Louis and Santa Clara, Calif. The last is July 6 successful Houston.

Mexico (nine Gold Cup titles), the United States (seven) and Canada (one, successful 2000) are the lone countries to triumph this title since its inception successful 1991.