2022-23 Concacaf Nations League Final
Canada vs. United States
Sunday, June 18 at 5:30 p.m. PT/8:30 p.m. ET
Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada
Watch Live: OneSoccer.ca & TELUS Ch. 980

Canada. The United States. For a trophy. Need we say more?

Sunday night’s battle line has been drawn at the 49th parallel, as two familiar rivals meet in Las Vegas to contest the Concacaf Nations League Final.

The Canadian men’s national team has a chance to lift silverware for the first time since the 2000 Concacaf Gold Cup on Sunday, as they take on an in-form, confident U.S. side.

Last time Canada did battle with their American neighbours (on the men’s side of the game, at least), things went well for Les Rouges. Few Canadian fans could ever forget that deux à zéro victory in World Cup Qualifying at Hamilton’s Tim Hortons Field. Cyle Larin and Sam Adekugbe were the heroes for Canada on that day, which all but sealed their trip to Qatar for the World Cup.

These two foes have met 40 times over the past century, but never have they faced off with silverware on the line. With Canada striving to establish themselves as a top team in Concacaf, this may be the most significant of those meetings yet.

Canada: Plenty left in the tank to make history

Canada roll into Allegiant Stadium ultra-focused on lifting that Nations League trophy, having completed the first job on Thursday night in the semifinal against Panama but now comes the real challenge.

With such a short turnaround before the final, John Herdman has a difficult task on his hands to put together his best possible lineup. He indicated on Wednesday that there’s a rotation plan in place to manage the minutes of players returning from injury — Alphonso Davies and Jonathan Osorio were both limited to about half an hour on Thursday, and Alistair Johnston came out early to preserve him for Sunday. Still, with this being such a keystone moment for the men’s national team program, expect each player to give everything he has on Sunday.

Setting up his team for this game will be a difficult exercise for Herdman. There have been a lot of calls for Canada to start with a three-man midfield — like the one he switched to in the second half against Panama — and so it might not be a surprise to see Jonathan Osorio draw into the lineup alongside Stephen Eustáquio and either Ismaël Koné or, perhaps, Atiba Hutchinson.

However, doing so means there’s an odd man out in attack. Could Richie Laryea come out of the side, with Tajon Buchanan moving to right wingback? That would allow Cyle Larin and Jonathan David to remain up top, with Alphonso Davies on the left. That said, David’s performance against Panama was so good in part because he was able to operate below Larin and Buchanan.

There’s plenty to think about for Herdman, who’s shown in the past he’s not afraid to take risks.

In-form USA remain top dogs; can Canada change that?

The United States, much like Canada, come into this game brimming with confidence. They thrashed their bitterest rivals, Mexico, by a 3-0 scoreline on Thursday in a game that ended with tempers boiling over. The good news for interim head coach BJ Callaghan is that his side played some of the best football it’s played in a while in that game.

The bad news, though? Two key starters, Juventus midfielder Weston McKennie and Barcelona right-back Sergiño Dest, were shown red cards for retaliating in scrums with Mexican players. Both, therefore, will miss the final against Canada.

It’s likely that Callaghan will now have to turn to Borussia Mönchengladbach’s Joe Scally at right-back now — a matchup on the flank that Canada might feel favours Alphonso Davies — and possibly Celta Vigo’s Luca de la Torre in midfield.

Although Canada certainly consider the U.S. their greatest rival, the Americans definitely still reserve more animosity for their foes to the south. They will, of course, be eager to win this Nations League (and defend their title from 2021), but also to establish themselves firmly as the top team in Concacaf. Still, the U.S. certainly approached their semifinal as if that in itself was a final; it’s possible their battle with Mexico will have been, psychologically, more draining than Canada’s first-hurdle approach.

The U.S. men’s team is in a bit of a transitional stage right now, with interim coach B.J. Callaghan leading them at the Nations League after previous coach Gregg Berhalter’s contract expired. Their new permanent coach — or rather, old permanent coach — was announced on Friday to be Berhalter again, but he won’t take charge until after this summer’s Gold Cup.

At the World Cup in Qatar, the Americans put in several impressive performances — including a gritty draw with England — but bowed out in an admirable defeat to the Netherlands in the round of 16. Since then, they’ve been in tremendous form, losing just one of their six games in 2023 (a 2-1 loss in a friendly against Serbia). In the process, they’ve managed a draw against Colombia and Mexico in friendlies, beat Grenada and El Salvador in the Nations League to qualify for this final four, and of course defeated the Mexicans again this week.

There’s plenty of talent in the American team of course, starting with Christian Pulisic — whose two goals against Mexico proved how good he can be when used the right way.

John Herdman said on Saturday that he believes, on paper, there’s more quality in the U.S. squad than in Canada’s — certainly, at least, more players currently playing in top European leagues. However, Canada went unbeaten against them in two World Cup qualifiers, including a 1-1 draw in Nashville.

Trophy, bragging rights, Concacaf supremacy at stake

Last time the Canadian men’s national team won a trophy, they didn’t even have to play the United States.

They beat Mexico in the quarter-final of the 2000 Gold Cup, but it ultimately wasn’t even a Concacaf side they had to beat in the final to claim regional supremacy: rather, they lifted that silver (or gold) ware by beating Colombia in the final.

Prior to now, the biggest game Canada played against the U.S. was probably that World Cup qualifier in Hamilton. Or, perhaps, the semifinal of the 2007 Gold Cup (in which Atiba Hutchinson was, as we all know, onside).

John Herdman has spoken repeatedly about how important it is for Canada to play big games in the lead-up to a home World Cup in 2026. Well, this one is a capital B Big Game for Canada.

RELATED: JACK: Canada in pole position to shuffle the deck in Concacaf at Nations League Final

“We’re going to have a home World Cup in three years, the biggest opportunity to ever land in any of these players’ lives, my life as a coach, the media’s lives,” Herdman said Saturday. “It’s the biggest event on the planet. When you’re playing in Canada at a home World Cup, you’ve got to win big matches — bigger than this one. So the starting point is bringing that future to the now, and making sure that what they feel after the game in the dressing room is that it was a performance where they just left everything out there, they played fearlessly, and they played to win, and there’s no regrets in that.

“The football gods will decide whether they want to give us this trophy now or make us wait another year or two. But we know what we can control.”

A send-off for Atiba Hutchinson?

Canada captain Atiba Hutchinson confirmed on Saturday that he’ll be hanging up his boots after Sunday’s final, calling it quits on a 20-year career that’s seen him become his country’s all-time caps leader. The Brampton, Ontario native has had an illustrious career for club and country, having led Canada out at the World Cup in Qatar last November, but all of his 13 career trophies have come at club level.

There would, perhaps, be no better way for Hutchinson to go out than for him to lift the Nations League trophy for his country on Sunday evening. Hutchinson has played the United States six times before, but he actually has yet to beat them with Canada; undoubtedly, that’s another record he’d like to correct before he goes out.

Hutchinson will likely remain around the Canadian soccer ecosystem in some way after he retires from playing, but fans who have stuck with this national team through (more recently) ups and (a lot of) downs may find themselves misty-eyed if he does in fact lift a trophy this weekend in Vegas.

This is it, then. A chance for Canada to continue writing the incredible story of this men’s national team’s evolution. If the 2022 qualification cycle was the first novel, with its climax and denouement in Qatar, then Sunday is a chance to prove that this, right here, is not just an epilogue to what was a good story.

Instead, this should be the sequel — the Empire Strikes Back to 2022’s Star Wars; the Aliens to its Alien.

This is Canada’s chance to prove that, not only do they belong here, but that their Concacaf foes should fear them.

They’re in Vegas, so: the chips are down. The cards are on the table.

Canada are officially all-in.

(Okay, that’s enough.)

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PROJECTED STARTING XIs

Canada: Borjan; Johnston, Vitória, Kennedy; Buchanan, Osorio, Eustáquio, Koné, Davies; David, Larin

United States: Turner; Scally, M. Robinson, Richards, A. Robinson; Reyna, Musah, De La Torre; Weah, Balogun, Pulisic

ALL-TIME SERIES

Canada wins: 11 || United States wins: 17 || Draws: 12

Previous meeting:

January 30, 2022 — Canada 2-0 United States

MATCH OFFICIALS

KEY QUOTES

“Winning is a big part of the narrative. It’s the next step, for this team to win consistently, and trophies are important. It’s a good generation of players, arguably it’s not the best squad of players in Concacaf — there’s a better squad, maybe two in Concacaf — but it’s a generational group that can win things. We know the brotherhood is the foundation that gives us that little bit extra.” — Canada head coach John Herdman