At long last, Canada has won a World Cup game. In its eighth attempt across three tournaments, Canada was lifted by Jonathan David\u2019s hat trick in a comfortable 6-0 win over Qatar in Vancouver, moving to the top of Group B with four points from its first two matches at the 2026 FIFA Men\u2019s World Cup. Qatar\u2019s performance, meanwhile, was marred by two red cards, including a vicious tackle that seriously injured Canada\u2019s Isma\u00ebl Kon\u00e9.<\/p>\n
The result puts Canada on the verge of advancing to the knockout stage, and it can win the group with either a victory or a draw against Switzerland. Qatar, meanwhile, now needs a stunning upset in its final game against Bosnia and Herzegovina to have any chance of advancing.<\/p>\n
Here are my four takeaways from the match:<\/p>\n
(Photo by Fran Santiago\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n Before this World Cup, Canada\u2019s biggest question was the form of strikers Cyle Larin and Jonathan David. Both have scored important goals and built impressive club resumes, but Larin had gone 14 games without scoring for Canada, while David was coming off a poor season with Juventus that fell well short of the level he had shown in France\u2019s Ligue 1.<\/p>\n In the opener against Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canadian head coach Jesse Marsch started David. After David struggled to make an impact, he was replaced by Larin, who scored the equalizer in a 1-1 draw. Against Qatar, Marsch switched to a two-striker formation with Larin and David playing together. It could not have gone any better.\u00a0<\/p>\n David and Larin showed excellent chemistry in the blowout win. David scored twice and Larin once, and both were repeatedly involved in Canada\u2019s goals. On the opener, David\u2019s shot was saved by Qatar goalkeeper Abunada, but the rebound fell to Larin, who headed it home.<\/p>\n The third goal followed a similar pattern, with the roles reversed: Larin\u2019s shot was saved, and David was there for the easy finish.<\/p>\n The second goal was a beautiful individual effort from David, who volleyed home a ball that came off a deflected shot from Tajon Buchanan.<\/p>\n Then finally, with Canada running away with it late and Qatar down to nine men, David took an attempted shot from Nathan Saliba and slotted it past Abunada.\u00a0<\/p>\n David finished the game with fantastic stats that included eight attempts, five on target, and three goals. Larin, meanwhile, was 10\/13 in passing with three blocked shots, two on target and a goal. This was on the heels of rescuing Canada in the first game.\u00a0<\/p>\n Just as important as the goals, both Larin and David now have momentum heading into more important games at this World Cup. The narrative now is not about their struggles, but rather their quality.\u00a0<\/p>\n This is a formation that Marsch might now be considering for future games. David and Larin can play together and the two of them can overload the defense with strength and physicality.\u00a0<\/p>\n (Photo by Ercin Erturk\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n In addition to Larin and David, Canada also had standout performances from right back Alistair Johnson and right winger Tajon Buchanan, who both dominated their side of the field. Neary every dangerous play was created by either Johnson, Buchanan or both.\u00a0<\/p>\n Buchanan, a speedy winger for Villarreal, was explosive, and it was his run down the middle that drew the red card for the denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity. Johnson, who is a starter in Scotland with Celtic, was instrumental in his crosses and his passes into the final third.\u00a0<\/p>\n Both Johnson and Buchanan are of a similar background. Both were born in Canada in 1998 but came to the United States to play NCAA soccer, Johnson with St. Johns then Wake Forest and Buchanan with Syracuse. Both then went into MLS via the MLS Superdraft. Johnson went to Nashville SC, followed by CF Montreal. Buchanan was with the New England Revolution.\u00a0<\/p>\n Now in 2026, both are with teams that were in the Champions League this past year and who will be in Europe\u2019s top competition again next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n (Photo by Jared C. Tilton – FIFA\/FIFA via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY At long last, Canada has won a World Cup game. In its eighth attempt across three tournaments, Canada was lifted by Jonathan David\u2019s hat trick in a comfortable 6-0 win over Qatar in Vancouver, moving to the top of Group B with four points from its first two matches at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}