"We are ready": The CanMNT take big step towards short and long-term goals with Canadian Shield triumph
You can’t fault their dedication.
For a second, you might’ve thought you’d have stumbled upon a time machine, one that took you to June 12th, 2026, when the CanMNT is going to kick off their 2026 World Cup with a match at BMO Field.
On that day, Canada will hope to make history, as they look for their first-ever World Cup win, with a chance to do that on home soil after coming up short in their previous six attempts.
For now, however, that day remains at the back of their minds. Until Canada plays their last preparation match for the World Cup, the priority is on the here and now, and Canada has a lot of work to do over the next 12 months.
At the same time, they also continue to show off impressive growth with each match they play, and their match vs. Côte d’Ivoire was no exception.
Played almost exactly a year before Canada’s World Cup opener, this June 10th, 2025 match won’t be one Canada will reflect on very fondly, at least in terms of their actual performance. In fact, it was probably one of their choppiest and most disjointed games they’ve played in the past 14 months, as it finished in a 0-0 draw in regular time, with Côte d’Ivoire winning the match on penalties.
Côte d'Ivoire win the shootout to win tonight's match, but it's the #CanMNT walking away with the Canadian Shield trophy 🏆 pic.twitter.com/9CrOojQNYM
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) June 11, 2025
Thanks to that result, however, Canada was able to claim the inaugural Canadian Shield, as they finished atop Côte d’Ivoire, Ukraine and New Zealand to win this friendly invitational tournament.
In the grand scheme of things, this trophy won’t mean much - just the subdued emotion behind the trophy lift gives an idea of how this team felt about this honour - but despite that, it’s still an important honour.
Canadian Shield champions, you’ll never sing that 🎵🏆#CanMNT pic.twitter.com/9sqZWukqSN
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) June 11, 2025
Plus, as mentioned above, it offered a glimpse of what the 2026 World Cup could look like, at least in terms of the intensity at which the match was played. In an era where friendlies can often be accused of being, well, friendly, these teams had no love lost in terms of how they played, as they combined for 41 fouls, nine yellow cards, and one red card (issued to a Côte d’Ivoire coach).
For context, only two matches under Jesse Marsch have had more fouls - a friendly vs. Mexico last fall, and their Nations League semi-final vs. that same Mexican side.
Yet, much like Mexico did in their two matches against Canada, Côte d’Ivoire were willing to engage Canada physically, and they met an opponent more than happy to oblige.
That’s key, as a large part of Jesse Marsch’s tactical identity has been to push this team to be more aggressive, with a willingness to impose themselves on matches, and they certainly did that. 
Make no mistake, they’ll have plenty to work on from this game, as they struggled to find a foothold in possession and were stale in the attack, getting shut out for the eighth time in 17 games under Marsch. In particular, it is worrying that of those three games they’ve played with 40+ fouls, they’ve not scored in any of them, as they’ve not been dangerous enough in matches where their opponents sit behind the ball and try to hack them down.
The statistics paint a picture of their struggles in this game, too - they held just 45% of possession in this match, and had only eight shots (with one reaching the target), while completing only 74% of their passes, including 36% of their long balls. Despite making 49 final third entries to Côte d’Ivoire’s 37, they also only had 14 touches in their opponents' box - Côte d’Ivoire, meanwhile, had 18.
That’s something to watch, especially ahead of the Gold Cup, where one has to imagine a steady dose of low blocks and physical games awaits Canada, although there’s no better way for them to solve that problem than by facing it head-on.
In this game, however, they’ll stomach some of their struggles, as they did show a sign of a new reality that they live in - they’ve got a deeper squad than ever. After their 4-2 win vs. Ukraine on Saturday, they made a whopping 10 changes for this Côte d’Ivoire game, which in part might explain some of their struggles in this match, as they missed the trio of Stephen Eustáquio, Jonathan David and Tajon Buchanan, in particular.
It’s quite impressive to think that Canada rotated that heavily for a match against the defending AFCON champions, who went with a pretty full-strength XI after a loss to New Zealand on Saturday, and came out with a draw. Given that they learned a lot about some players that they wanted to see more from, that can only help them grow as a team going forward.
“Yeah, both Ukraine and Côte d'Ivoire put their best teams out against us. That says a lot. I think that shows what international football is starting to think about our team,” Marsch said. “It would have been easy for them to do a split squad, and it would have been easy for us to weigh one team more than the other, but I wanted to have two balanced squads, as I wanted to challenge everybody to understand their roles and to experience what it would be like to play against that level of opponent.”
“Now, I know that from where we were 10 days ago to where we are right now, we’re a much more prepared team for what next summer will require, and that's been the goal of these friendlies, is to try to get the best opponents possible, the level of opponent that we think we're going to see next summer.”
It’s also a sign of their elevated standards that they clearly weren’t happy with their performance despite these circumstances, either. Even though they lifted the Canadian Shield at the end of the day, they still lost the penalty shootout in frustrating fashion, and that was reflected on their faces after the match, as they looked a lot more like a team that had lost a World Cup quarter-final than a side about to lift a trophy.
Stephen Eustáquio said #CanMNT learned more from today’s Côte d’Ivoire game than the win vs. Ukraine.
— Charlie O'Connor-Clarke (@charliejclarke) June 11, 2025
Adds that they know they’ll probably have games a lot like this one at the World Cup. pic.twitter.com/R9CppYwbpL
Yet, that serves as a good reminder of where they’re at, heading into the Gold Cup and next summer. At the moment, you can’t question their commitment to this team and each other, that they’ve got a clear identity, and their squad is better than ever.
The final challenge remains figuring out how to put all of their pieces together, something they continue to show in glimpses - 70 minutes against Ukraine here, 45 minutes against the US there - with those matches serving as a true look at what this team can look like under Marsch. In particular, that Ukraine match might serve as a beacon to guide them this summer, as they reflect on a match where they went up 4-0 on a very good UEFA team, with a rotated squad, and think: ‘why not play like that every game?’.
At the same time, they’ll also know that not every game they’ll play is perfect. There’s always the chance that you show up to a Gold Cup final or World Cup Round of 16 match without your A-game, but good teams make sure that doesn’t stop them from finding a way to triumph.
Canada is still working on that last part, as their loss to Mexico in the Nations League showed, but a game like this is a good building block in that regard.
"I think we learned more today than we did last game against Ukraine," CanMNT midfielder, Stephen Eustáquio, offered afterwards. "Maybe a couple of months ago, if we played against Côte d'Ivoire, we would've conceded in the first half, but the guys are mentally stronger, we know what to do in tough times, and at the World Cup, there are going to be lots of games where we're going to (deal with) this kind of physicality."
Now, they’ll look to take what they learned from this game, as well as the lingering positivity from their trophy lift and win vs. Ukraine, and shift their attention to their Gold Cup opener at BC Place on June 17th, when they’ll face Honduras.
Jesse Marsch urges #CanMNT fans to come out and support at the Gold Cup in VAN on June 17.
— Ben Steiner (@BenSteiner00) June 11, 2025
"I hope that going to Vancouver for a meaningful match vs. Honduras, I want to challenge that community to come out and support this team and be behind the movement in every way."
Having made it clear that this summer is all about “Gold Cup or bust”, they’ll have a further chance to flex their strong mentality in that quest, while putting the rest of Concacaf on notice.
As this Canadian Shield showed, they’re more than ready to step up and lift a Gold Cup, and will hope that the practice they got from lifting this trophy serves them well in about a month, further showing the importance of this friendly tournament for them.
No matter what happens at the Gold Cup, Canada is focused on that World Cup, as they’ve been for the past 12 months, but it isn’t lost on them how important the next 4 weeks will be for them, just as they understood how important this past week has been for the team.
“When you're a coach or a leader, it's about knowing what’s necessary now, what's necessary in a week, what's necessary in a month, what's necessary in six months, and what's necessary in a year. In this job, I've had more leeway, as I’ve had a two-year runway. Some jobs you have a two-month runway, or a two-week runway,” Marsch said.
He continued: “If I were to give our entire project a grade, it would be high, because the group has responded every time, and even though it's not been perfect, I think we continue to understand what every moment needs, and then we are ready to deliver.”
“I'm excited for the Gold Cup for that reason, like I think we can take this experience, and yeah, the games will be different in the Gold Cup, but I think we'll be able to say this was a big experience and we came out on top, we won the trophy, and made another step in our overall progress.”
“But now, we're ready for the next biggest challenge, and we want to win that (Gold Cup) trophy.”
