World Cup Report and Reaction: Switzerland catch Canada cold with quick second half double to win group and send Les Rouges to LA to face South Africa

Canada’s home field advantage at this World Cup came to an agonizing end at BC Place on Wednesday afternoon after a strong start to the second half saw Switzerland come away with a 2-1 victory to finish top of Group B and stay in Vancouver for the Round of 32. The result means Canada will now play their first ever knockout round match in Los Angeles and will surprisingly face South Africa, after Bafana Bafana stunned South Korea to finish second in their group later in the day.

After a scoreless first half, Ruben Vargas blew the game wide open within a minute of the restart, catching Canada cold. When Johan Manzambi doubled the Swiss lead in the 57th minute, Canada’s hopes were on life support, but they just wouldn’t give up and battled back valiantly. Promise David reduced the deficit within seconds of coming on the pitch, setting up a wild, but ultimately fruitless finish to the game for the Canadians.

While the loss is deflating, the fact that Canada finished second in the group and advanced to the knockout rounds for the first time in the country’s history is certainly cause for celebration. Winning the group was always a high target, qualification was always the key objective. That’s been achieved and Canada put in three strong performances to get there. While you can never take anything for granted at a World Cup, South Africa is an opponent Canada will relish and a place in the last 16 should be more an expectation rather than a hope.

Jesse Marsch made two changes to his midfield for this one, with Nathan Saliba coming in for the injured Ismael Kone, and Mathieu Choiniere came in for his first minutes this World Cup, replacing Stephen Eustaquio, who was missing from recent training sessions. Switzerland, meanwhile, handed a first World Cup start to 19-year-old phenom Manzambi, who already had a pair of goal in the tournament.

If there were nerves around the stadium, the anthems didn’t show it, but once that first whistle blew there definitely felt an air of nervous excitement filling the dome. How that transferred onto the pitch was the big question, but both teams were trying to play attacking football from the off, with neither able to carve out a clear goalscoring opportunity in the first 10 minutes.

The best early chance of the game fell to Switzerland in the 11th minute. Breel Embolo was played in on goal, looking offside as he streaked into the box, but Maxime Crepeau stood tall to keep out the danger in any case.

Canada responded with another breakaway chance two minutes later. Cyle Larin was played in in similar fashion, but Gregor Kobel got a hand on the ball as the striker tried to round him, before a late flag was put up on the play. Tucking the ball away, even though it wouldn’t have counted, would have done wonders for Larin’s and the fans’ belief, but he couldn’t muse on what could have been.

The pace of the Swiss front two was certainly causing problems to the Canadian defence, with a few scares, but nothing to trouble Crepeau.

Luc de Fougerolles brought a save out of Kobel when he got onto a Choiniere free kick in the 20th minute, as the game flowed quickly from end to end.

The hydration break came and went, with the Swiss enjoying more of the ball and completing around three times the amount of passes than Canadians, but the chances were falling Canada’s way, with Larin bringing a save out of Kobel in the 33rd minute, when laying it off felt the better option.

Alistair Johnston blasted over from the edge of the box five minutes before the break, after the ball fell to him in the second phase of a free kick, then moments later Kobel turned a low shot from Ali Ahmed around his near post.

Canada were finishing the half strong, and Jonathan David drove wide in the 44th minute.

The chances were coming for Canada, while Switzerland were still looking lively, without testing Crepeau. Neither team could break the deadlock before half-time, however, and the sides headed in scoreless, a result that suited Canada in their quest to win the group.

But that wasn’t to last long. Just 39 seconds of the second half to be precise, as Switzerland found the breakthrough both teams craved.

The ball came to Vargas in the box from Manzambi, and with space and time, he took a touch and hit the ball in off the left post, despite a last ditch slide from Derek Cornelius.

The worst possible start to the half for Canada, but with plenty of time to not panic and have to change their gameplan just yet.

It wasn’t the first time Marsch’s side had trailed in the tournament. This time they had a lot less time to correct it and getting the ball was proving hard as the Swiss controlled the play.

Larin failed to connect with a cross into the box from the left and they were punished for leaving space in that attack from a quick Swiss counter as Embolo got onto a long ball forward and held it up superbly, playing it outside to a wide open Manzambi, and the teenager’s shot went under Crepeau and into the net to double Switzerland’s lead.

Crepeau will know he should have done better on the shot, but it was now a mountain to climb of Dufourspitze proportions for Canada.

They responded well, as Marsch made a triple substitution immediately after the goal bringing on Tani Oluwaseyi for Larin, Liam Miller for Ahmed, and Eustaquio for Choiniere.

Canada had upped the tempo and were getting chances and Nico Elvedi came up with a big block on the edge of the six yard box to deny David.

Both teams used the hydration break to make subs, with the Swiss changing two and Canada bringing on Promise David for Tajon Buchanan to go for it in the closing moments.

And it proved to be inspired as Promise pulled one back for Canada almost immediately after the restart, with his first tough of the game.

Nathan Saliba superbly brought down a ball forward from De Fougerolles on the right, spinning and sending the perfect cross in for David to stretch and direct home past Kobel.

The dream was back on!

The goal brought the BC Place to its feet in an explosion of noise and the belief was back.

Derek Cornelius headed a free kick wide in the 79th minute as Canada pushed for the equaliser and the Swiss tried to close out the game.

Canada threw everything at Switzerland in the six minutes of stoppage time with Cornelius, David, and Johnston all having looks on goal, but the leveler wasn’t to come and the Swiss held on for the victory, topping the group and now staying in Vancouver for the Round of 16.

It was a battling effort from Canada and they can certainly come out of this group game with their heads held high. You can certainly ask some questions of Marsch in terms of how his team were set up and then came out for the second half, but these were also issues he addressed himself.

Being away from Canada now may take a little bit of pressure off the team and when you think that they pushed Switzerland all the way, without four or five likely first choice starters, there’s a lot to take from the game. The defence will need to be better if they are going to make a run of it and the tests will only get harder. But for now, let’s just take in the history that’s been made already for a moment, then let’s turn our attention to making more.

FINAL SCORE: Canada 1 – 2 Switzerland

ATT: 52,497

CANADA: Maxime Crépeau; Alistair Johnston, Luc de Fougerolles, Derek Cornelius, Richie Laryea (Jacob Shaffelburg 83′); Tajon Buchanan (Promise David 74′), Mathieu Choiniere (Stephen Eustaquio 58′), Nathan Saliba, Ali Ahmed (Liam Miller 58′); Jonathan David, Cyle Larin (Tani Oluwaseyi 58′)

SWITZERLAND: Gregor Kobel, Nico Elvedi, Manuel Akanji, Ricardo Rodriguez, Luca Jaquez (Michel Aebischer 74′); Remo Freuler, Johan Manzambi (Christian Fassnacht 85′), Granit Xhaka, Djibril Sow (Silvan Widmer 74′); Breel Embolo (Cedric Itten 85′), Ruben Vargas (Dan Ndoye 80′)

SCORING SUMMARY:
46′ – SUI 1-0 – Ruben Vargas (Johan Manzambi)
57′ – SUI 2-0 – Johan Manzambi (Breel Embolo)
76′ – CAN 2-1 – Promise David (Nathan Saliba)

REACTION:

CANADA

JESSIE MARSCH

Immediate postgame thoughts on the match and the task ahead:

“I know our team has heart. I know we will give everything to every moment, and that is something to so be proud of. So then it’s just about managing little moments. Even at the start of the game I thought we were tentative, not sprinting enough, but we’re gonna focus on the positives – we’re gonna focus on the response, again good performances off the bench.

The only thing I wish I’d done differently is that I was thinking of going to five at the back at half-time to really lock things down. I think I should have done that. We thought about bringing on Alphonso [Davies] but we’re trying to manage him and he should be ready for the next match.”

Thoughts on playing top teams like Switzerland:

“Switzerland is a very good team, a very ​experienced team, a very intelligent team, and I think that showed today. We need to continue to understand how to handle those kinds of opponents, how to handle those kinds ​of games, and we got to do it quickly because we’re going to be in the knockout phase, which ​is exactly where we wanted to be.”

On now leaving Vancouver and Canada for knockout rounds:

“Look, it’s been awesome and that’s the disappointment. I’m so thankful for the energy in the country, but we’re gonna go LA and we still want to electrify our country. We’re in the knockout stage: let’s go for it.”

FORWARD PROMISE DAVID

On the differing emotions of scoring his first World Cup goal, losing the game, but qualifying for the knockout rounds:

“Obviously not securing the draw or the win means having to leave here [Vancouver], so we’re obviously disappointed about that and the home field advantage. But I think we should look at all three games and not just this one. Yeah, there were negatives in this one, but there were positives in all three games. We scored in all three games, we scored a lot in the second game, and we did show a level of attacking football that people really doubted about us. Everybody contributed. People who started the game, people who came into the game, played a big factor in all three of the games.

Based on the situation a couple of months ago for myself, it’s not something I thought about being able to do, but with the help of the medical staff and making sure I get healthy after surgery, being able to score here means a lot.”

MIDFIELDER LIAM MILLAR

On the intense atmosphere as the game wound down and picking themselves up for a short turnaround:

“It’s part of our job [to pick themselves up]. We’re disappointed but I’m trying to look at it from the perspective of how I felt in Qatar four years ago – disappointed to not get out of the group, disappointed we didn’t get a point. Now we’ve got four points in this group and we got out of the group, so I’m trying to look at it in the most positive way that I can. The second half performance was also very positive, so I’m trying to take all positives out of the game and bring that into the game in LA too.”