Five things Canada must focus on ahead of its World Cup match against Switzerland

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Now comes the hard part.

After Canada finally won its first-ever World Cup match, a 6-0 drubbing of Qatar on Thursday, the team and Canadians across the country celebrated the victory. But as everyone knows, Canada lost linchpin midfielder Ismaël Koné to a broken leg. And next Wednesday, June 24 against Group B favourite Switzerland, Canada is, to put it mildly, unlikely to score a half-dozen goals.

But all those goals against Qatar means Canada needs only a draw against the higher-ranked Swiss to win the group and play the round-of-32 at home in Vancouver on July 2. Yet “only a draw” is easy to type and more difficult to pull off on the pitch against a Swiss team equally motivated to win the group.

Alphonso Davies

The star will not start against Switzerland, head coach Jesse Marsch told reporters on Friday before training. Davies’s situation, recovering from his third hamstring injury this year, is complicated. He had technically been available to deploy if it had been necessary against Qatar but Thursday night, after the win, Marsch conceded that Davies is not yet at 100 per cent.

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On Friday, Marsch said he was glad the Qatar game was well in hand and “didn’t have to force Alphonso onto the pitch.” Davies will train with the team in the days ahead, better than the netherworld of “return to play” he was still exiled to early this past week.

Davies’s convalescence is overseen by Matthias Blankenburg from Munich, an expert approved by Davies’s employer Bayern. The sports scientist bills himself as one who “works at the highest level.”

Marsch provided two outlooks for Davies, one fairly positive and one less so. Hamstrings are delicate muscles in recovery from injury. On the less positive side, of Davies’s possibly coming on as a substitute against the Swiss, Marsch said: “Hopefully he can be available.” But Marsch also said: “He’s getting closer and closer to 100 per cent, that’s for sure.”

Scoring against Switzerland

The six-goal deluge was amazing. But, let’s temper things, it came against Qatar. Before Thursday, Canada had managed 12 goals in 11 previous international matches. You don’t need to be savvy with advanced stats to see that is not good. And, worse, most of those goals came in matches against lesser opponents.

Goal-scoring remains an issue, even if Thursday was jubilant and promising. Jonathan David’s hat trick must buoy his confidence, as well as his blast at the 16^th minute that led to Cyle Larin’s opening tally, his second of the World Cup. Marsch continually says Canada has firepower. It will need it against the Swiss.

The midfield’s missing Koné-factor

Koné is the latest in a litany of injuries. He helps drive Canada’s attack. He’s a centrifugal force.

“From a talent and tactical perspective, it weakens us in the tournament,” Marsch said Friday. Defender Alistair Johnston, who powered quite a bit of the attack against Qatar, said this of Koné after the game: “He’s one of those talents that you can’t really replace.”

But as one big player is hurt, another returns. On Thursday, defender Moïse Bombito was back, playing the full second half. Last fall, he broke his left tibia. In recent weeks, his health had been one-step-forward-one-step-back.

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And while there’s no apples-to-apples replacement for Koné, being a special X-factor in Marsch’s words, one clear potential name is Nathan Saliba. He looked good on Thursday, coming in for Koné and, wonderfully, soon after scoring on a beautiful free kick.

Marsch also mentioned midfielders Mathieu Choinière and Jonathan Osorio and saluted the play of veteran midfielder Stephen Eustáquio, captain in Davies’s absence, at this World Cup.

“We built the squad over the last two years to be ready for these moments,” Marsch said.

The road ahead

On Friday, the United States defeated Australia 2-0 in Seattle, its second victory, to position itself to win Group D. The U.S. of course is playing all its games at home.

Mexico on Thursday beat South Korea 1-0 in Guadalajara, which means it will win its Group A and play its round-of-32 game at the country’s long-standing fortress of Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. If it wins, Mexico plays at Azteca again in the round-of-16, before a potential quarter-final in Miami.

Canada can keep pace with its tournament co-hosts with a draw against the Swiss.

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A round-of-32 game in Vancouver on July 2 would be against a third-place team from another group – in theory an easier showdown than against the Swiss. If Canada loses to Switzerland, it’ll probably play in Los Angeles on June 28. That’s less rest, no home crowd, against a tougher team.

But if Canada’s round-of-32 is in Vancouver, a win there leads to the round-of-16 in Vancouver on July 7.

This, for Canada, would be the soccer stratosphere. Then, let’s dream, onwards to the quarter-finals in Kansas City.

‘Allow ourselves to imagine’

Against Switzerland, scoring goals is essential but so is stopping them. Goalkeeper Max Crépeau wasn’t tested even once against Qatar but don’t forget he made a crucial save against Bosnia-Herzegovina last Friday, when Canada was down 1-0. It kept his team in the match and helped lead to the 1-1 draw.

Crépeau on Friday acknowledged, like Marsch had on Wednesday before the Qatar game, that the World Cup bright lights rattled Canada’s nerves ahead of the opener in Toronto. It showed on the field against Bosnia in the early going. “It was a little hectic and chaotic around the team in Toronto,” Marsch said of the days before the Bosnia match. Crépeau said: “It was tense.”

But when Crépeau was asked about the motivation to win the group, the rounds of 32 and 16 in Vancouver within grasp, he encapsulated the possibility of something special unfurling.

“It’s an amazing opportunity,” he said. “We can allow ourselves to imagine what it can be.”