Matchday Pundit | June 12, 2026
One day after Mexico opened this World Cup with chaos, goals and three red cards at the Azteca, Canada had their own historic night just up the road in Toronto. The first ever men’s World Cup match played on Canadian soil ended Canada 1-1 Bosnia and Herzegovina at Toronto Stadium, and while a point is not nothing, the feeling among the 43,000 people inside that ground at the final whistle was complicated. Relief that Cyle Larin came off the bench to rescue an equalizer. Frustration that Jonathan David, Canada’s all time leading scorer, could not convert a golden chance that would have changed everything. And the lingering question of what this Canadian side might look like when Alphonso Davies is finally fully fit and able to play ninety minutes in a World Cup for his country.
I have been waiting to write about Canada at a home World Cup for a long time. This is the moment this country’s football generation has been building towards. Let us go through every detail of what happened.
The Setting: Toronto Writes Itself Into History
Before anything else, let us appreciate what tonight represented. Toronto Stadium, a 43,000 capacity ground that was completely sold out and rocking from the first whistle, hosted a World Cup match on Canadian soil for the first time in history. Think about that. Canada have qualified for a World Cup only twice before this tournament, in 1986 in Mexico and in 2022 in Qatar. In both of those tournaments they did not win a single game. Tonight was the first time Canada have ever played a World Cup match in front of their own people.
The opening ceremony at Toronto Stadium was its own spectacle. Michael Buble headlined, performing several of his most beloved songs to a crowd that was equal parts football fanatics and people who had simply never attended a football match before in their lives and had turned up because their country was playing in a World Cup. That combination of long suffering football supporters and newly arrived casual fans is something Canada will lean into heavily across this tournament, and tonight the atmosphere was genuinely extraordinary. A sea of red. Noise that did not stop for ninety minutes. A country discovering itself through a sport it is only beginning to understand it loves.
Canada came into this game carrying significant injury concerns. Captain Alphonso Davies, the Bayern Munich left back who is the most recognisable Canadian footballer on the planet, was left out of the starting eleven after suffering a hamstring injury during PSG’s Champions League semi final victory over Bayern Munich on May 6. He has also been managing the long term effects of an ACL tear sustained in 2025 that cost him most of last season. Manager Jesse Marsch decided the risk of starting Davies for ninety minutes was too great. Davies himself had acknowledged the situation, saying there was no need to rush and that recovery was always the priority. He came on as a substitute in the second half but was clearly not at full fitness, unable to have the impact his talent demands.
Centre back Moise Bombito was also ruled out, having only recently returned from a broken leg. Canada were without two of their most important players from the first whistle of their most important game in the history of the sport in their country. That context matters when assessing the point they earned tonight.
The Opening Ceremony Story You Did Not Expect: Meet the Milwaukee Messi
Before we get to the goals, there is one player in this game whose backstory deserves its own spotlight. Bosnia and Herzegovina arrived in Toronto with a 21 year old midfielder born in Appleton, Wisconsin, who was raised supporting the Green Bay Packers and grew up dreaming of playing football. His name is Esmir Bajraktarevic, and he is being called the Milwaukee Messi by the American press.
Born to Bosnian parents who emigrated to the United States, Bajraktarevic came through the youth academies in Wisconsin before being spotted by scouts and eventually joining the New England Revolution in MLS. He chose to represent Bosnia and Herzegovina internationally, making his senior debut in March 2025. At 21, he is the youngest player in the Bosnia squad and was electric tonight when he came on as a substitute. His movement, his directness and his comfort on the ball in tight spaces were a reminder that this Bosnia side is not simply a collection of veterans holding on. There is a new generation here too.
The fact that a Wisconsin born kid is playing in a World Cup for Bosnia against Canada, while another Illinois born player represented Mexico against South Africa yesterday, tells you everything about how North America’s football culture is producing talent in ways the continent has never seen before.
The First Half: Canada Dominate, Bosnia Punish Them
Canada came out with real intent. Jesse Marsch set his team up in a 4-4-2 with Jonathan David and Tani Oluwaseyi leading the line, and the opening fifteen minutes belonged entirely to the hosts. They controlled possession, moved the ball with purpose, and pushed Bosnia back into their own half with a high and intense press that had the crowd on their feet.
The chance that will haunt Jonathan David for days came in the 17th minute. Canada worked a beautiful move down the right side, Oluwaseyi’s header bounced off a Bosnia defender, and the loose ball fell perfectly to David around the penalty spot with the goal gaping. Clean through, twelve yards out, goalkeeper scrambling. David hit it straight at Nikola Vasilj. Straight at him. No placement, no bend, no power into the corner. Just straight at the goalkeeper. The crowd groaned. David put his head in his hands. He knew exactly what he had done.
That missed chance defined the first half. David is Canada’s all time leading scorer with 39 international goals. He has been one of the best strikers in European football over the past three seasons, first at Lille and now at Juventus. And he will know, lying in bed tonight, that the game changed in that seventeenth minute.
Bosnia punished Canada four minutes later in a way that felt inevitable after that miss. Ivan Basic delivered a corner from the right side, Sead Kolasinac, the former Arsenal defender, flicked it on at the near post, and Jovo Lukic was standing completely unmarked a yard from goal. He powered a header past Maxime Crepeau and Bosnia had the lead. It was Lukic’s first ever international goal, and the scenes in the Bosnia section behind that goal were extraordinary. Flares were lit in the fan zone outside the stadium. The travelling support erupted.
Let us also give credit to Bosnia’s defensive organisation, because they worked hard for that goal. After Lukic’s header put them ahead, Sergej Barbarez’s side immediately dropped into a compact and disciplined defensive shape, sitting in two banks of four and inviting Canada to play in front of them. Canada dominated possession, winning corner after corner after corner. Eustaquio alone took five corners in the first half. But Bosnia were disciplined and resolute, and Canada went into half time a goal down despite controlling the ball for 66 per cent of the match.
There is also something worth noting about a small piece of World Cup history that happened during this game. Bosnia took too long to restart from a throw in and the referee awarded possession to Canada instead. This is a brand new FIFA and IFAB rule implemented for the first time at this World Cup, designed to speed up play and reduce time wasting. It was the first time in World Cup history the rule had ever been applied. Canada won the subsequent possession and nearly created a chance from it. These are the small details that accumulate across a tournament.
The Second Half: Larin Off the Bench, Toronto Erupts
Marsch made three substitutions at half time and they transformed the game. Tajon Buchanan came on for Jonathan Shaffelburg down the right. Promise David replaced his brother Jonathan up front. And Jonathan David was moved into a deeper role to create rather than finish, a tactical adjustment that told you exactly how frustrated Marsch was with the missed chance.
Then, in the 76th minute, Cyle Larin came on. The Ontario born striker from Brampton, currently on loan at Southampton from RCD Mallorca, where he scored nine goals in 22 appearances to inspire their Championship playoff push, had not started the game but arrived on the pitch as if he had been waiting for this moment his entire life. Two minutes later, the ball fell to him at the top of the box following a clever Eustaquio free kick delivery that bounced around the Bosnia penalty area. Larin took one touch to control it, and then hammered a powerful right footed shot that deflected off a Bosnia defender and flew into the bottom right corner of the net.
Toronto Stadium absolutely lost its mind.
The roar when that ball hit the net was something I have not heard from a football crowd in a very long time. 43,000 people exploding simultaneously. Larin sprinting towards the corner flag, arms outstretched, teammates piling on top of him. In the fan zones outside the ground, horns were honking and strangers were embracing in the streets. This is what a World Cup on home soil means. It reaches places that ordinary football does not reach.
The final twelve minutes were breathless. Canada pushed desperately for a winner. Buchanan terrorised Bosnia down the right. Promise David drew a foul right on the edge of the box that led to a dangerous Eustaquio free kick that Vasilj did brilliantly to push over the bar. Davies came on and showed enough glimpses to remind everyone watching exactly what this Canadian side will look like when he is fully fit. One particularly sharp burst down the left in the 87th minute drew a foul and had the crowd holding their breath. Bosnia held on. The final whistle brought a mixture of relief and frustration from both benches.
Alphonso Davies: The Elephant in the Room
The Davies situation needs its own honest assessment because it is the defining narrative of Canada’s tournament so far. The most talented player Canada have ever produced has now been to two World Cups and has not yet shown us what he can do on that stage when he is fully fit. In Qatar, he was carrying a knee issue throughout. Here, the hamstring injury suffered in May means he begins the tournament as a substitute who can offer forty five minutes at best. His ACL tear from 2025 means this World Cup has come just as he was rebuilding his fitness and sharpness after an almost complete season absence.
What Canada can take from tonight is that they are capable of competing against good opposition even without him. The system works. The pressing works. The depth in attack, with David, Larin, Buchanan, Promise David and Oluwaseyi all contributing, gives Marsch real options. But Davies is not just a player who makes this team better. He is the player who makes this team genuinely dangerous at the highest level. When he is at full tilt down that left side, there is not a right back in this tournament who can contain him.
The hope is that by the third group game against Switzerland on June 24, Davies will be fit enough to start. If Canada can manage a point or a win against Qatar on June 18 in Vancouver, they will head into that Switzerland game knowing what they need. That is a realistic and achievable path to the round of 32.
Bosnia and Herzegovina: A Remarkable Story in Their Own Right
Bosnia qualified for this World Cup by beating Italy in the UEFA playoff, a result that simultaneously ended Italy’s World Cup hopes for the third consecutive tournament and sent Bosnia to only their second ever World Cup. Their first was in 2014 in Brazil, where they lost all three group games and were eliminated without a win.
Tonight they showed they are not here simply to make up the numbers. Their organisation defensively was excellent. The experience of 40 year old captain Edin Dzeko, who did not start but came on as a second half substitute, brings genuine World Cup gravitas to the dressing room. Kolasinac, also a veteran of the 2014 campaign, was commanding at centre back. And in Bajraktarevic they have a young player capable of changing a game in twenty minutes.
The point they earned here is a valuable one. They now face Switzerland on June 18 and Qatar on June 24. A second place finish in Group B is absolutely realistic.
Canada’s Path Forward
A point from the opening game on home soil is not a disaster. It is a foundation. Mexico won their opener, which means Canada need results against Qatar and Switzerland to advance. The schedule works in their favour. Qatar on June 18 in Vancouver is genuinely winnable, and a win there would put Canada in an excellent position heading into the Switzerland game.
The question the whole country is asking tonight is simple. When does Davies come back? When this team has their captain fit and running at right backs for ninety minutes, they are a completely different proposition. Marsch knows it. The players know it. And the 43,000 people who went home with sore throats from singing all evening know it too.
Tonight was a start. Imperfect, tense, ultimately rescued by a man who grew up in Brampton and scored in front of his entire country in the first World Cup match ever played on Canadian soil.
That is the beginning of a story. Not the end of one.
Matchday Pundit | June 12, 2026
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