Canada Soccer announced on Monday that the Canadian men’s national team will face Romania in an international friendly on Friday, Sept. 5 in Bucharest, Romania. The match will be broadcast on OneSoccer. It will be the first time Canada has ever played against Romania — currently ranked 38th in the world. They are seven spots behind Canada, who recently achieved an all-time high ranking of 31st. Romania reached the round of 16 stage of the 2024 European Championship this past summer. They will also play a World Cup qualifier against Cyprus later in that window on Sept. 9 in Bucharest.
Despite not having qualified for a World Cup since France 1998, Romania feature an exciting group including Tottenham defender Radu Drǎgușin, Rangers midfielder Ianis Hagi, Cagliari midfielder Rǎzvan Marin and Parma forward Dennis Man. “Romania are a really strong team that finished top of a difficult group at Euro 2024. It will be yet another important challenge for our team on the road to the 2026 FIFA World Cup,” said Canadian men’s national team manager Jesse Marsch in a press release. For Canada, it will be just their latest test against a top-40-ranked opponent in world football. Canada kick off 2025 against 19th-ranked Mexico in the 2024-25 Concacaf Nations League semi-finals on Mar. 20 at SoFi Stadium. Depending upon the result, they will then face either 16th-ranked United States or 36th-ranked Panama in the final or third-place game on Mar. 23. Canada Soccer are set to announce an additional friendly to be played during the September international window on Wednesday.