MATCH PREVIEW: CanMNT battle Australia in Montréal as World Cup prep continues

The Canadian men's national team begins leg two of a six-game, three-window autumn friendly slate on Friday, as they meet world no. 25 Australia at Montreal's Stade Saputo.

After winning against Romania and Wales in September, Jesse Marsch's side is back on home soil this week to kick off a new set of challenges to help prepare for the upcoming World Cup. The Canada boss has explained that, with six friendlies scheduled in pairs across the September, October and November windows, he is viewing the six matches more like one large window, in terms of the progress he's demanding of the team and the decisions he'll need to make later.

As a result, there's little turnover in the squad; of the 21 players who featured in either of the September matches, 19 are in the current squad — the only absences being Theo Bair and Junior Hoilett. The group was set to be improved by the return of Moïse Bombito, but he withdrew after suffering a tibia fracture last weekend. Key players that are returning after missing the last camp, though, are Liam Millar, Jonathan Osorio and Cyle Larin.

Canada will take on Australia in a good test against a side that has already qualified for the World Cup. It'll be a homecoming of sorts; the men's national team hasn't played in the province of Quebec since 2017 (a 2-1 win over Curação in which Alphonso Davies made his senior debut).

Four of Canada's squad — Max Crépeau, Ismaël Koné, Mathieu Choinière and Nathan Saliba —  grew up in the Montreal area, and they would've had two more had Bombito and James Pantemis not pulled out due to injury.

This is not expected to be just a celebration, though. It's another legitimate test against potential World Cup opposition.

"There's ways of looking at outside motivation as ways to inspire us, but we don't need any more motivation than a home World Cup in eight, nine months," Marsch told reporters on Thursday. "None of us want to let each other down, and we certainly don't want to let our country down. We want to do everything we can to prepare to light the nation on fire and to shock the world as the team that we believe we are and can be."

The Socceroos have won their last six consecutive matches, including a pair of wins over New Zealand in September, following World Cup Qualifying triumphs against Saudi Arabia, Japan, China and Indonesia. They finished second in their six-team qualification group to claim a spot in the 2026 tournament.

Led by coach Tony Popovic since 2024, it's a seasoned group with plenty of experience travelling long distances to play. Australia did reasonably well at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, finishing second in Group D by beating Tunisia and Denmark to get to the knockout rounds. They lost the round of 16 to eventual champions Argentina, but certainly put up a good fight.

Six members of the current Socceroos squad played at the last World Cup, including goalkeeper Mathew Ryan, who currently plays for La Liga side Levante but has featured in the Premier League for Brighton and Arsenal. He has 100 caps for Australia, and has started every single match at a World Cup or AFC Asian Cup in the last 11 years (26 major tournament games in total).

This Australian side is missing some of its key players, including Niko Sigur's Hajduk Split teammate Fran Karačić, Leicester City defender Harry Souttar, and St. Pauli midfielder Jackson Irvine. Still, they have some good players; Jordan Bos of Feyenoord is a talented young left-back, while 21-year-old Mo Touré is establishing himself as perhaps the team's World Cup starting striker with two goals in his first four caps.

"I think it's a very stingy team, very organized defensively, very aggressive, good on set-pieces, and doesn't give much away," Marsch said of his opponents for Friday. "Committed as a group to be organized, to be aggressive. This will not be an easy match for us. Even when we say, put on a show, they don't give up many goals. We knnow that part of the game will be difficult.

"Certainly, the hallmark of who we are is to always make it difficult on the opponent, to press and counter-press, to eliminate space. I think one of the things [Australia] have is real size and physical presence, and one of the things we have is speed ad power, so both teams will be trying to manage things a little bit."

Photo: Canada Soccer

Meanwhile, Marsch is not expected to make major changes to his Canada team, after telling the media in September he's done with rotating and experimenting. With the World Cup just eight months away, he's narrowing down which players might be in the starting XI in June.

Nine players started both the Romania and Wales friendlies; all nine are in the squad again, and will likely start in Montréal. What's more intriguing is how Marsch chooses to use his bench. He has a lot of attacking options to bring in, like Jacob Shaffelburg and Promise David, and now Liam Millar is back. Millar was Marsch's go-to on the left wing when he first started out at Canada boss, but it would be harsh to take Ali Ahmed out of that spot after how good he's been lately.

Marsch didn't give everything away in his prematch press conference on Thursday, but he did confirm that Maxime Crépeau will start in goal, with Dayne St. Clair to start next Tuesday's game against Colombia. He also revealed that Ismaël Koné will start in midfield.

PROJECTED LINEUPS

Canada: Crépeau; Sigur, De Fougerolles, Cornelius, Laryea; Buchanan, Koné, Choinière, Ahmed; Oluwaseyi, J. David 

Australia: Ryan; Miller, Circati, Degenek, Burgess, Boss; O'Neill, Devlin; Boyle, Touré, Metcalfe

ALL-TIME SERIES

Canada wins: 3 | Wales wins: 5 | Draws: 1

Last meeting: Oct. 15, 2013 – Canada 0-3 Australia

KEY QUOTES

"This is a different Canada. This is a talented Canada, this is a team that doesn't fear anyone right now. We still have to maintain, internally, real hunger and drive to continue to improve and be our best, because the minute that we start to feel like we're doing well and things are going well, that's when you can slip up. I'm continuing to feed the hunger and demand more and more from them, because that's what we need to be at our best. " — Canada head coach Jesse Marsch

"I'm so happy to play here in Montréal, it's been a while. I think I was at that game against Curaçao in 2017. It's crazy to be here, back with family, and the fanbase is so great here. I think we're here to put on a good show and play our style." — Canada midfielder Mathieu Choinière