Canada and Switzerland dominated their opponents on June 18 in the World Cup, which sets up a big Group B finale between the two on June 24 in Vancouver.
Both teams are 1–0–1 in group play after the June 18 wins, and the winner on June 24 will secure Group B. Their opponents, Qatar and Bosnia and Herzegovina, dropped to 0–1–1 with their defeats on June 18.
Switzerland won 4–1 over Bosnia and Herzegovina at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. Johan Manzambi broke a scoreless tie in the seventh minute for Switzerland, and the Swiss piled on the goals late with Rubén Vargas in the 84th minute, followed by Manzambi again in the 90th minute and Granit Xhaka during stoppage time.
“It’s probably the best moment of my career so far,” Manzambi told reporters afterward. “We knew why we didn’t start well, and we had to be patient, but we’re a good team, and I think we showed that.”
Switzerland head coach Murat Yakin touted the 20-year-old star after the game. Manzambi had just made his World Cup debut days before on June 13.
“We give him so much freedom. He can create pressure, dribbling, he can work on the finishes, score goals,” Yakin told reporters on June 18. “He was very important to us as a substitute in the past, and we are so happy to have him on our team. He was so important for today’s match.”
“He put a lot of pressure on the opponent,” Yakin said. “He is a player who can surprise us. He surprises us as well as the opponent. He can come through the center or the sides.”
Bosnia’s Ermin Mahmic scored his team’s lone goal in stoppage time, too, with his team down 3–0. Switzerland otherwise outshot Bosnia 13–5 and controlled possession for 57 percent of the match, but it was Switzerland’s late surge after a hydration break that really put the game away.
“It was very important that after the second hydration break, we would change a few things, because then the opponent can’t react immediately,” Yakin told reporters after the game. “Maybe that was the edge we had. We brought in very fast players, and our opponent couldn’t run [with them], and it opened up gaps on the edge. That was my strategy. I waited until the break.”
Canada later rolled past Qatar 6–0 in Vancouver before a big home crowd. Cyle Larin got the scoring going in the 16th minute, and Jonathan David scored the first goal of his hat trick 13 minutes later.
David added his second in stoppage time for the first half, and Nathan Saliba made it 4–0 in the 64th minute during the second half. Mohamed Manai pushed it to 5–0 in the 75th minute, and David netted his third in stoppage time.
Canada peppered Qatar with 30 shots in the match, and Qatar mustered only two. The Canadians had possession 55 percent of the time.
Canada also won a World Cup match for the first time ever, and the Canadians bounced back from a 1–1 tie against Bosnia on June 12 in Toronto.
Before this year, Canada had made only two World Cup appearances, going 0–3 in both 1986 and 2022. The tie earned Canada’s first-ever points in the group standings, but now Canada can go for much more with a Group B title on the line.
Canada did suffer one loss on the day: Ismael Kone went down with a leg injury during the second half. Kone will leave a void that Canada will need to make up for against Switzerland on June 24.
Switzerland is a much more seasoned country at the World Cup, with 13 appearances and two quarterfinal appearances. The Swiss have reached the round of 16 in three consecutive World Cups, and Switzerland did it two other times before the current streak.
