LOS ANGELES STADIUM — At least one American is headed to the round of 16 at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Canada coach Jesse Marsch, who was an assistant coach with the U.S. men’s national team when the Stars and Stripes reached the same stage under Bob Bradley in 2010, on Sudnay became the first manager at this summer’s tournament to win a knockout round game, as his Reds topped South Africa 1-0 on a 91st minute strike by veteran midfielder Stephen Eustáquio.
The Canadians will now play for a place in the quarterfinals against the winner of Monday’s round of 32 contest between three-time World Cup runner-up Netherlands and Morocco, which reached the semis four years ago in Qatar.
But Canada’s history-making run — they’d never advanced from group play or even won a World Cup game before this summer — in a competition that the country is co-hosting along with the United States and Canada didn’t begin with glory.
Expected to beat plucky Bosnia and Herzegovina on June 12 in the first World Cup match played on Canadian soil, Marsch’s team settled for a come-from-behind 1-1 tie in Toronto that helped stop them from topping a group that also contained Qatar and Switzerland.
(Photo by Ulrik Pedersen/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Now the Bosnians stand between the USA and a place alongside their northern neighbors in the round of 16. Mauricio Pochettino’s side faces the Golden Lilies on Wednesday in the San Francisco Bay Area. It’s a potential trap game for Pochettino’s side — not that Marsch, the former Premier League and Bundesliga boss who was passed over for the U.S. job when Gregg Berhalter was rehired in 2023 — is at all concerned about how his mom nation fares.
“Doug, I appreciate your question,” he told me when I asked what Pochettino’s side had to be wary of against Bosnia to advance. “But I don’t really care.”
That didn’t stop the Princeton University graduate and former Chicago Fire captain, who made two international appearances for the U.S. during his playing days, from weighing in.
“It’s up to the U.S. to figure out, and they can learn from the matches that Bosnia played,” he continued. “I know a couple of players on their team, and Bosnia is a group of fighters, so they were not easy to play against.
“I was very complimentary of them after the game. I thought we could have been better in the match, but I think that whoever they play, they will give a really hard match.”
Sunday’s match was played in Southern California because Canada finished second in Group B. All three of Canada’s first round contests were played north of the border. The win over the Qataris and loss to the Swiss took place in Vancouver. Sunday marked the first time a World Cup host had ever played a game in another country other than their own.
“It’s a shame we couldn’t do it in Vancouver, right in front of our fans,” Marsch said. “Nonetheless, I think you saw the team’s character, quality, mentality, togetherness. “It’s a pleasure to be their coach.”
(Photo by Jared C. Tilton – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
