What to know for tonight's big Canada vs. Mexico soccer match
CBC
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The Canadian men's soccer team is red-hot. The weather in Edmonton is ice-cold. Here's what else you should know for tonight's crucial World Cup qualifying match vs. Mexico at 7:05 p.m. local time (9:05 p.m. ET):
We're halfway there.
All eight teams involved in the final round of qualifying in the CONCACAF region (that's North and Central American and the Caribbean) have played seven of their 14 matches. With three wins and four draws, Canada is the only unbeaten team. It sits third in the standings with 14 points — one point behind both the United States and Mexico, who are the traditional powers in this part of the world. A win is worth three points, and a draw is worth one. So, depending on how the U.S. fares today at Jamaica (they play at 5 p.m. ET), Canada could jump all the way up to first place by the end of the night.
When this round wraps up in late March, the top three teams in the standings will be awarded a spot in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The fourth-place team gets another shot via an intercontinental playoff. So the Canadian men are in great position to earn their first trip to the World Cup since 1986.
Canada is on a roll.
Friday night's 1-0 win over Costa Rica in Edmonton was Canada's second victory in a row — both against quality opponents. Costa Rica qualified for four of the last five World Cups (including a trip to the quarter-finals in 2014) and is currently fifth in the CONCACAF standings. Before that came a momentous 4-1 win over fourth-place Panama, which qualified for the last World Cup. That match, in Toronto, featured Alphonso Davies' electrifying go-ahead goal that might be the most impressive play in the history of Canadian men's soccer.
For the most part, the Canadians have taken care of business at home — a key for any team with World Cup aspirations. Prior to the back-to-back victories over Costa Rica and Panama, they beat seventh-place El Salvador 3-0 in Toronto. The only real blemish so far was a 1-1 draw vs. last-place Honduras in Toronto in September.
Canada has also earned some impressive and important results on the road. A 0-0 stalemate at Jamaica was meh, but a pair of 1-1 draws at the United States and Mexico can almost be considered wins, seeing as how they came on the road against the top two teams in the region. The one in Mexico City was especially encouraging. It marked the first time in 41 years that the Canadian men came away with anything but a loss at notorious Estadio Azteca, where the heat, altitude and boisterous fans create one of the world's toughest environments for visiting teams.
Commonwealth Stadium could be Canada's Azteca.
Speaking of tough environments, the forecast for kickoff time tonight calls for a temperature of minus-7. With the windchill, it'll feel like 14 below. A bunch of snow also got dumped on Edmonton over the last day or so, causing the Mexican team's flight to be delayed and training at Commonwealth Stadium to be cancelled for both sides (Canada found an indoor facility to practise in yesterday, but Mexico did not).
While this particular weather is a bit extreme, it's kind of what Canada had in mind when it decided to place its two November home games — both against warm-weather opponents — in the country's northernmost major city. If this sounds a bit unsportsmanlike, well, that's kind of the point. Some CONCACAF countries (and their fans) are infamous for stacking the deck against visiting teams, who come back telling war stories about being woken up by dubious fire alarms in the middle of the night and having literal bags of urine chucked at them during games.
The cold, of course, cuts both ways. It's not like the Canadian players enjoy playing in minus-14 temps. The calculation is simply that they'll be less-miserable enough to make a difference. For more on the weather's role in tonight's match, read this piece by Chris Jones, who's in Edmonton reporting for CBC Sports and gets credit for making the Commonwealth/Azteca connection.
Mexico seems a little off.
