KEY TAKEAWAYS: CanMNT flex aggressive full back play, new-look midfield duo in emphatic win vs. Honduras

The CanMNT got off to a flying start to their 2025 Gold Cup campaign on Tuesday, as they beat Honduras 6-0 at BC Place. 

After drawing Guadeloupe 2-2 in their last Gold Cup opener, coming in 2023 at BMO Field, this was a night and day performance from that game, which, in hindsight, set the table for what was overall a frustrating tournament, other than an inspired quarter-final performance in their eventual elimination to the US. 

Now, they’ll hope that this game is a sign that this 2025 tournament is going to go a lot better than that last one did, and it’s hard not to feel that way after this performance, one that reaffirmed their credentials as a potential favourite. 

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!

ÊTES-VOUS PAS DIVERTIS ?!

🇨🇦 🇭🇳 #CANMNT pic.twitter.com/3xeVkBJJWR

— CANMNT (@CANMNT_Official) June 18, 2025

After a bit of a slow start, one that saw both them and Honduras feel each other out early, Canada finally broke the dam in the 27th minute with a Niko Sigur goal, and from there, it was all Canada the rest of the way. 

Before half time, they had a second through Tani Oluwaseyi in first half stoppage time, and then cruised through the second half, with Tajon Buchanan chipping in with a pair of goals in the 48th and 65th minute, Promise David finding the net in the 75th minute, and then Nathan Saliba rounding off the scoring in the 90th minute to send the fans home with the 6-0 result. 

GOAL 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦

PROMISE DAVID MAKES IT 5 🔥

Look at the footwork on this effort as the #CanMNT go up 5-0 over Honduras 🇭🇳 amid chants of "We want six!"

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— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) June 18, 2025

Now, that sets them up nicely for the rest of the group stage, especially after Curaçao and El Salvador drew 0-0 in the other Group B match on Tuesday, with Canada set to play Curaçao this Saturday and El Salvador next week, where they’ll feel they have a great chance of winning this group. 

Before looking too far ahead, however, here are three KEY takeaways from this one. 

Laryea, Sigur help create crucial overloads in the attack:

As expected, Honduras sat back quite deep in this game, inviting Canada to hold more of the ball. Already a team that doesn’t hold a lot of possession, they took that to a whole new level in this game, especially early - they finished the first half with just 39% possession, and only started to see the ball as Canada racked up the goals and score effects came into play. 

Because of that lack of early possession from Honduras, however, it put pressure on Canada to play aggressively, as they tried to break down their low block. Given that Canada expected to see that coming into this game, however, they knew that this was going to be an important challenge for them, as they’ve sometimes struggled in games where their opponents have sat back and dared them to attack. 

Safe to say they had no such problem attacking in this game. 

That’s shown in the numbers, as they finished the game with a significant edge in shots (19-7), shots on target (8-4), big chances created (9-2), xG (4.71-0.79), touches in the box (30-10) and possession (54-46)

The xG figure stands out - that was the most Canada have created since Marsch’s arrival, besting their output from a recent clash vs. Ukraine - as well as their possession figures, with Canada usually more likely to hit on the counter with direct attacking play under Marsch. 

In particular, expanding on the possession figures, their ability to create wide overloads ended up being a big asset on the ball, and that manifested itself in their first three goals.

As seen here, Canada (in black) sent 46.5% of their attacks down the left, and 30.5% down the right (OPTA)

As they’ve done a lot under Jesse Marsch, Canada attacked in a similar formation, as their 4-2-2-2 became a 3-2-5, with one of the full backs flying forward while the other tucked back to help make a back three. 

That ended up perfectly suiting the full back pair of Richie Laryea and Niko Sigur, as both are adept at pushing up the pitch, but are also capable of tucking in and helping their team in possession.

Here's Sigur jumpstarting a dangerous Canada attack with some impressive composure and poise on the ball in his own box (OneSoccer/TSN)

Naturally, with Laryea’s speed, he was given slightly more license to roam, especially with Ali Ahmed playing in front of him - Laryea’s overloads helped Ahmed drift centrally, although there were a few occasions where Laryea underlapped to allow Ahmed time to take on defenders out wide, too.

Funnily enough, for all of Laryea’s early involvement, with Joel Waterman targeting a few early long balls to him that were called offside, one of Sigur’s rarer forays forward produced the game's first goal. There, he did an excellent job of bursting forward after Nathan Saliba won a ball in midfield, before playing an excellent 1-2 with Jonathan David and then finishing off the sequence with a tidy finish after completing his run into the box. 

GOAL 🇨🇦

NIKO SIGUR SCORES HIS FIRST FOR THE #CANMNT 😎

Canada go up 1-0 over Honduras with a smooth give-and-go, finished perfectly 💪

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— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) June 18, 2025

From there, that goal opened up the floodgates for Canada, which started to put Honduras under pressure. That allowed Laryea to play a big role in the next two goals, as he did well to cut inside and play a beautiful slip pass for Tani Oluwaseyi’s goal, before making a bursting run down the left to set up Tajon Buchanan’s first, picking out a low cross that Oluwaseyi deflected to set up Buchanan. 

GOAL 🇨🇦🇨🇦

It's TANI TIME 😎#CanMNT are up 2-0 over Honduras 🇭🇳 at the stroke of half-time as Tani Oluwaseyi finds a near-impossible angle and smacks it home 🚀

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— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) June 18, 2025

It wasn’t surprising to see, however, as Canada seemed to know that they could wreak havoc with their full backs in this game, which was good to see, as there have been times when they haven’t been as aggressive in that area. 

GOAL 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦

TAJON MAKES IT 3️⃣

It's 3-0 for the #CanMNT vs. Honduras as Tajon Buchanan finishes off pass across goal with his first touch 💪

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— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) June 18, 2025

Perhaps, however, this shows that it can be their secret weapon against low blocks. Sometimes, when faced off against teams who sit back, you need to be able to create overloads, be it centrally or out wide, and Canada did a great job of overwhelming Honduras on the flanks in this one. 

“It took us a little bit of time to size them up and see the type of game this was,” Canada’s assistant coach, Mauro Biello, said afterwards. “But once we figured it out, our aggression took over, we were winning a lot of balls, we had a lot of transition moments in that first half.”

“When you look at the performance that Niko and Richie had, it just adds to the attack when you’ve got your full backs jumping into the final third and creating those overloads like that. They had a hard time dealing with that, but it’s what we wanted to create with our team when we have the ball, and they executed tonight.”

Here's another great clip from Sigur, who wins a 1v1, and then turns defence into offence with a nice pass (OneSoccer/TSN)

Saliba and Choinière shine in midfield:

This Gold Cup has been billed as an opportunity for new players to step up for the CanMNT, with a lot of focus being put on the battles brewing up front, out wide and at the back. 

Make no mistake, however - there might be just as good of a battle brewing in midfield. 

With no Stephen Eustáquio in midfield for this first portion of the tournament as he fulfills Club World Cup obligations with FC Porto, it leaves the middle of the park wide open, as he’s been the one constant in this team since Marsch’s arrival. 

Would it be Ismaël Koné’s time to shine? Could Mathieu Choinière step up with some big performances, having shone for Canada at the end of 2024? Or would the Nathan Saliba breakout party begin in earnest? 

It turns out, it’d be a great opportunity for the latter two, as Canada elected to go with Choinière and Saliba in a pivot to start the match. 

Choinière’s inclusion wasn’t that surprising, as he was the most natural Eustáquio replacement available, but it was interesting to see Saliba and not Koné, given that the latter has much more experience with Canada. 

At the same time, given that Marsch has said that this could be a big summer for Saliba, it was a sign of the confidence that he and his staff have in him. Plus, to their credit, Saliba rewarded them with an excellent performance, too, as he and Choinière held things down in midfield.

Right from the first whistle, both were quite aggressive on both sides of the ball, doing a great job of playing right on top of Honduras’s midfielders. 

As a result, they ended up playing a massive role in this game, even if that might’ve gotten lost in Canada’s flurry of goals - although it’ll be a good consolation prize that Saliba capped this game with a banger, one that he was certainly deserving of.

Here's one of many Saliba's dangerous offensive actions, as he crashes the box and creates a great chance for Jonathan David (OneSoccer/TSN)

Yet, this pair proved that they could be quite the duo going forward. With Choinière’s strong defensive game (he had two tackles, eight recoveries and won six out of eight of his duels), and Saliba’s tidy possession play (he completed 41 out of 50 passes, created two chances and had nine passes into the final third), they seemed to complement each other nicely, giving Canada a good balance in midfield.

An example of the sort of clean passes Saliba and Choinière made all night, with Saliba jumpstarting a counter-attack with a nice ball (OneSoccer/TSN)

Given that Canada has often struggled to find that balance in games where Eustáquio isn’t available, that’s a huge sign, one that could benefit them for this tournament - and create some selection headaches for when Canada’s vice-captain returns from the Club World Cup. 

“They were amazing,” Biello said of the midfield duo. “They were so aggressive. They didn't give the other team any type of opportunity to go forward; they smothered them, as they brought that aggression.”

Here are all of Choinière and Saliba's defensive actions from this game (OPTA)

Speaking of headaches, however, it’ll be interesting to see if Saliba’s performance jolts Koné, who has gone from a surefire starter to a bit more of a rotational piece over the last few months, having had an up-and-down year for club and country. 

GOAL 🇨🇦x6

NATHAN SALIBA, TAKE A BOW ⭐️

The #CFMTL midfielder, linked to Anderlecht 🇧🇪, scores his first #CanMNT goal to make it 6-0 vs. Honduras 🤯

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— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) June 18, 2025

There’s no doubt that Koné is a hugely important part of this team, but as he continues to battle consistency issues, there is room for someone like Saliba or Choinière to leapfrog him in the depth chart - they might’ve already done that with this game. 

That’s not a bad thing, however - as we’ve seen elsewhere on the field with Canada, whenever someone steps up with a good performance, it pushes the others at their position to match them - perhaps, Choinière and Saliba’s excellence from this game can unlock another gear from Koné. 

Canada shows key improvement on set-pieces:

It’s not lost on this Canadian team - they need to be better on set pieces, an area they’ve struggled in to begin Marsch’s tenure. 

As a result, they recently hired Nicolas Gagnon as a dedicated set-piece coach to help address that, having scored just one set-piece goal in Marsch’s first 15 games in charge. 

Now, after today’s game, which saw Buchanan score from a corner, they’ve made it two set-piece goals since Gagnon’s arrival (ironically, both off the foot of Buchanan, and not one of their larger attackers), showing that they’re making incremental progress in that area. 

GOAL 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦#CanMNT are cruising to victory, now up 4-0 over Honduras 🇭🇳 as Tajon Buchanan notches a 2nd from a corner kick 🎯

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— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) June 18, 2025

Certainly, the numbers show that - of the 4.61 xG they generated, 2.25 of it came from set-plays, as they had several dangerous plays on the free kicks and corners they won in this game. 

That’s encouraging, as a big worry with Canada’s set-pieces before Gagnon’s arrival wasn’t that they weren’t scoring, but they didn’t generate enough dangerous chances, with a lack of dangerous runs appearing to be the big reason why that was the case. 

Safe to say, this game showed that they’re starting to remedy those set-piece woes. 

In particular, they did benefit from Choinière’s dangerous service - he took a lot of Canada’s set-pieces, finishing with four chances created for a total of 1.05 xA, which helped his side massively. 

From there, Canada’s other players did well to get on the end of that service, making the sort of calculated and aggressive runs that they haven’t made enough of before. Combined with more direction on where to make those runs, that ended up being a good combo, and Honduras had no answers for the sort of plays Canada were throwing at them, as they could’ve conceded several more set-piece goals on the night.

Here's a great example of Choinière's service, combined with some aggressive but targeted runs (OneSoccer/TSN)

Now, look for Canada to build on this, as they know that this could help them massively as they navigate tournament football. On most days, they’re not going to have a free-flowing attacking performance like this, so they’ll need to be ready to step up with a set-piece goal or two at a crucial moment, which can go a long way in a semi-final, for example.

And here's another dangerous ball from Choinière, one that created another big chance for Canada after some great movement in the box (OneSoccer/TSN)

A few months ago, they didn’t look to have that sort of play in their locker, but now, they’re showing vital signs of life, and will look to keep building on that going forward.