TORONTO: Canada will carry immense pressure into their World Cup opener when, in perhaps the most seminal moment in the country’s football history, they face Bosnia and Herzegovina on Friday in front of a partisan home crowd with both teams seeking a first-ever knockout stage berth.

Canada’s quest for respectability on the global stage has been nothing short of painful, and six defeats from six matches across the 1986 and 2022 tournaments tell the story of a nation still searching for its World Cup identity.

But coach Jesse Marsch’s revolution has injected fresh belief into a program that, less than two months after he took over in May 2024, advanced to the semi-finals in their Copa America debut before being sent home by reigning World Cup champions Argentina.

Marsch’s blueprint for World Cup success has hit an early snag, however, with a mounting injury list threatening to derail Canada’s golden opportunity to thrust football further into the mainstream of the country’s sporting and cultural landscape.

Captain Alphonso Davies, who scored Canada’s first-ever goal at a World Cup, will watch the Group ‘B’ opener from the sidelines at Toronto Stadium with a hamstring injury last month.

The Davies blow is compounded by the loss of Marcelo Flores, who will miss the tournament entirely due to a knee injury he suffered in May, while defender Moise Bombito’s recovery from a broken leg appears to have stalled after lasting just 30 minutes in a warm-up against Uzbekistan.

With Davies expected back for group stage clashes against Qatar and Switzerland, the burden of carrying Canadian hopes falls largely on Jonathan David, the nation’s all-time leading scorer with 39 goals.

Maxime Crepeau, who last week was named Canada’s starting goalkeeper, will finally get his World Cup moment after missing the 2022 edition with a broken leg suffered during the MLS Cup Final 15 days before that year’s tournament kicked off in Qatar.

Standing in Canada’s way right out of the gate is a first-time meeting with Bosnia’s battle-hardened Dragons, who are back on the biggest stage after their penalty shootout heroics against four-time champions Italy secured a second World Cup appearance.

Veteran striker Edin Dzeko, one of only two remaining players from Bosnia’s debut World Cup appearance in 2014, will be captain and father figure to a youthful squad who are being tipped to make a big impression at the tournament.

The vast experience of Dzeko, Bosnia’s all-time leading goalscorer by a considerable margin and one of a World Cup-record eight players aged 40 or older selected to play at the tournament, will be crucial in the team’s bid to escape the group.

Defender Sead Kolasinac is the only other returning member from the country’s last World Cup appearance.

Bosnia will have support of their small Muslim community in Toronto who reside just 15 kilometers away from the venue.

The fans didn’t expected their team to be the part of this World Cup but when Bosnia beat Italy to seal their place in the extravaganza the emotions at a Toronto mosque turned from tense to euphoric, said Anes Dzumhur, program manager at the city’s Bosnian Islamic Association.

“It was unbelievable,” Dzumhur told AFP in a spacious room above the mosque’s prayer hall, decorated with books and Bosnian cultural items.

He joked that there are grievances within his community — men who pray together but do not get along — but when Bosnia’s victory was secured, those rivalries evaporated.

“That day everybody was hugging. I even showed some of them, I showed the picture, ‘Oh my God, look who you are hugging here.’”

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2026