Final Score: Canada 0-0 Chile
Goalscorers: N/A
Copa América — Group A

History rarely comes easy, and on Saturday in Orlando the Canadian men’s national team ground out a 0-0 draw in their 2024 Copa América group stage finale against Chile, a result that was enough to see them through to the competition’s knockout stage.

For the second consecutive match, Canada’s opponent went down to ten men, as Chile’s Gabriel Suazo was shown a pair of yellow cards inside the opening 27 minutes. But needing a win to advance, Chile still put Canada under pressure throughout, forcing Les Rouges to fight to the final whistle for one of the biggest results in the program’s history in terms of its significance.

On Saturday, Canada again showed the collective fight and mentality required to get results on the world stage. That is a significant step forward for this Canadian national team, and one that will only deepen that resolve going forward at the 2024 Copa América and beyond.

Canada’s draw, combined with a Lautaro Martínez brace in a 2-0 victory for Argentina over Peru, saw them finish second in the group with four points ahead of Chile (two) and Peru (one).

“It took a lot of hard work,” Canada captain Alphonso Davies said in an interview on broadcast after the match. “First time being in this competition is not easy. There’s a lot of good teams in this competition, a lot of good players. We stuck to our plan and we played well. We had to show our fight, we had to show our teeth at times, but overall we did well.”

The significance of Saturday’s contest was instantly put into perspective with a thunderous Chilean anthem at Inter & Co Stadium before the match — that Canada would be facing not only the Chilean players on the pitch but more than 20,000 supporters in red and blue.

After a fantastic performance against Peru in Canada’s last match, Jacob Shaffelburg made his first start for the Canadian men’s national team. He came into the starting lineup in place of Liam Millar, while Jonathan Osorio replaced Ismaël Koné in Marsch’s only other change from Tuesday.

It was the Canadians who came out with attacking intent and created a few decent half-chances in the opening ten minutes, including a pair of corners. Chile started to grow into the game around the 20-minute mark as they began to shift Canada from side to side. Victor Dávila had a pair of half-chances on dangerous half-volleys — but sent both of them wide of Max Crépeau’s net.

For the second consecutive match, however, Canada saw their opponent go down to ten men as Suazo was given a second yellow card in the 27th minute. After Richie Laryea had beat him for pace down the right flank, Suazo brought the Canadian midfielder down from behind. Already on a yellow, match official Wilmar Roldan had no choice but to send the Chilean fullback off.

Canada’s Jonathan David had a tremendous chance to open the scoring in the 36th minute, when he was played in behind over the top and clipped a long ball over the onrushing Gabriel Arias, but it bounced just narrowly wide.

Minutes later, Stephen Eustáquio had a great chance as well on a deflected cross that fell into his path at the top of the box. Arias, however, charged out and made a brilliant save on the Canadian midfielder. Despite being down a man, Chile were able to hold on to keep the score 0-0 at half-time.

Chile made a pair of substitutions at the half, with Marcos Bolados and Erick Pulgar coming into the match in place of Eduardo Vargas and Marcelino Núñez respectively.

Temperatures continued to boil over from both sides early in the second half in the scorching Orlando heat. Despite their man disadvantage, Chile held onto the ball well, knowing that they needed a win in order to advance.

Canada, meanwhile, looked a little overawed at times by the moment. Their composure, especially in the final third, was lacking as they repeatedly lacked quality in moments where they could have made Chile pay for committing men forward.

With seven minutes left in the 90, Canada had a pair of solid opportunities. First, substitute Tajon Buchanan broke down the flank and played a low cross that was just deflected before it could reach David in the box. Then Buchanan got in behind minutes later and forced a solid point-blank save from Arias, with what was Canada’s first shot on target of the second half.

Fellow substitute Tani Oluwaseyi looked to have found a winner for Canada in stoppage time as he finished off a lethal counterattack — only to be denied by the offside flag.

Chile had one more half chance in stoppage time, but a lofted cross was thwarted brilliantly by Crépeau with one hand before he was able to collect the ball fully.

While the Canadian keeper didn’t need to be nearly as heroic as he was in Canada’s previous two matches. But he was still exceptional when called upon, making four saves and again showing outstanding recognition of when to be brave and come out of his net to break up attacking sequences.

The match officially ended 0-0 moments later with the final whistle, throwing Canadian players into rapturous celebration, while Chilean players stood motionless across the pitch in disbelief. This was just the second time since the turn of the century that the back-to-back Copa América winners in 2015 and 2016 had failed to advance from the group stage.

Defensively, Canada had easily their strongest performance of the tournament. They limited Chile to just 0.52 expected goals on just four shots on target for their second consecutive clean sheet.

“The collective effort is amazing,” said Crépeau in a broadcast interview after the match. “The backline and myself we put a shift, but 11 guys on the field are dedicated to being good off the ball, and that’s why we had success the last two games.”

Despite some shaky moments, particularly in the first half and when it came to discipline, Moïse Bombito and Derek Cornelius hardly put a foot wrong thereafter. Back in his natural position as a left back, Alphonso Davies was also excellent, particularly when it came to playing Canada out of pressure situations.

Always up for a fight, however, arguably the best player on the pitch on Saturday for either side was Alistair Johnston. The Celtic right back has shown an ability to thrive in tense, physical contests, and was quality on both sides of the ball, winning 10 of 17 duels, making six tackles and completing 38 of 46 passes.

The defensive effort, of course, goes well beyond that, however. Jonathan David and Cyle Larin again led the press outstandingly for Canada, as did Richie Laryea being used as a right midfielder on Saturday. In midfield, Jonathan Osorio and Stephen Eustáquio were exceptional and winning the ball back in crucial moments.

While Canada has now shown a clear ability to grind out results regardless of circumstance and pressure at this tournament so far, the biggest question emerging from this match remains their attack. Canada has still only scored one goal at this competition, or under Jesse Marsch in general in five matches.

They generated 1.07 expected goals and two big chances on nine shot attempts against Chile. But considering their opposition were down to ten men for 63 minutes and had to push for a winner throughout that time it was a little disappointing that Canada were unable to put this match to bed.

“We have to score goals,” said Davies in his post-match interview. “I definitely think if we want to advance in this tournament further, we have to score goals.”

If there is a major positive offensively, however, it was Buchanan, who came off the bench and provided the kind of spark he has been lacking in his game for most of this month. He had Canada’s best scoring chance of the game on a one-on-one opportunity against Arias, and completed two of three dribbles while looking direct and dangerous.

Les Rouges also got a great shift out of Richie Laryea, who swapped over to the right wing on Saturday and provided a constant threat in behind. Laryea won the foul that led to Suazo’s second yellow card, and was fouled five times in total showing a continued ability to be a difference-maker in these sort of close and hotly contested matches at the Copa América.

Canada will be relying on a player like Buchanan to show his immense quality in the knockout rounds. This is especially true since Shaffelburg wasn’t quite as effective as he has been coming off the bench this tournament in his first start for Canada.

In the end, however, Canada showed maturity in the way they handled this big moment. When the game threatened to boil over in the second half, they didn’t back down from the fight, but they also didn’t get sucked into anything that cost them.

They also showed a distinct improvement in holding onto the ball when they had moments to slow the match down on Saturday. This is, in part, credit to Marsch who could be seen during one second-half moment picking up the ball on the sideline to prevent Davies from taking a quick throw as a message to his team to slow down the tempo.

It is this mentality and fight that has them off to the knockout round, even if their tactical and technical performances haven’t always been at their best. In knockout competitions, however, showing collective fight and commitment like they have at the 2024 Copa América is often enough to do something special.

They go again on Friday night in Arlington, Texas against the winner of Group B, which has yet to be determined.

History has already been made in multiple different ways for Canada at the 2024 Copa América. Given what they have shown already, however, they will have every belief that they can go out on Friday and make even more.

Box Score

Lineups

Canada: Crépeau; Johnston, Bombito, Cornelius, Davies; Shaffelburg (Millar 65′), J.Osorio, Eustáquio, Laryea (Buchanan 76′); David (Miller 90+5′), Larin (Oluwaseyi 76′) 

Chile: Arias; Isla, Lichnovsky, Maripán, Suazo; Echeverría (Pérez 82′), Núñez (Pulgar 46′); D. Osorio (Galdames 30′), Sánchez, Dávila (Brereton Díaz 76′); Vargas (Bolados 46′) 

Goals

N/A 

Discipline

7′ — Yellow: Moïse Bombito (Canada)
12′ — Yellow: Gabriel Suazo (Chile)
27′ — Yellow+Red: Gabriel Suazo (Chile)
42′ — Yellow: Alphonso Davies (Canada)
57′ — Yellow: Alistair Johnston (Canada)
66′ — Yellow: Liam Millar (Canada)

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

Alistair Johnston, Canada

Johnston continuously found ways to play Canada out of difficult moments in the match, be that defensively by winning key tackles or duels, or in possession as he helped the team to hold onto the ball as well as creating dangerous moments going forward.

What’s Next?

Canada advance to the Copa América quarter-finals as the second-place team out of Group A behind Argentina.

As a result, they will play at AT & T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on Friday, July 5 (9:00 p.m. ET / 6:00 p.m. PT). Their opponent remains to be seen, but will be the winner of Group B, which has its final matchday on June 30. As it stands, that would be Venezuela, but could be Ecuador or Mexico depending on the results of those matches.