SCOUTING REPORT: What should the CanMNT expect from Romania, Wales in September friendlies?
For the first time since their quarter-final exit at the 2025 Gold Cup, the CanMNT are back in action this week, as they get set to face Romania and Wales in a pair of friendlies.
First, they’ll take on 48th-ranked Romania in Bucharest on Friday, September 5th, before heading to Swansea to take on 31st-ranked Wales on Tuesday, September 9th.
Two good tests, this will be a great chance for Canada to face some different opposition as they tackle the first of six friendlies to end the year.
With the October and November windows set to be contested in North America, this is also a good chance for Canada to play in different environments, too, as they play in Europe for the first time since June of 2024, when they took on the Netherlands in Rotterdam and France in Bordeaux.
While Romania and Wales sides won’t quite offer the same test as those two teams, these are still two strong sides, ones that should offer plenty for Canada to learn from.
Here’s what to expect from both teams in this window - and what Canada can take from these matchups.
Romania under pressure as they chase World Cup goal:
As one would expect, Romania’s short-term goals are quite simple - to reach the World Cup for the first time since 1998.
Coming off a decent 2024 Euros, where they topped their group before falling to eventual semi-finalists the Netherlands in the Round of 16, they want to build off that as they look to reach the World Cup.
So far, though, it’s not looking great for Romania, who have won two and lost two of their first four games in Group H of UEFA World Cup qualifying, with their losses coming against the two teams they’re competing against to qualify - Bosnia and Herzegovina and Austria.
Road to World Cup 2026 💪🏻🇷🇴 pic.twitter.com/YTyHdiEkwb
— Echipa Națională (@hai_romania) December 13, 2024
In particular, their 1-0 loss to Bosnia will sting, as it came in their first game of this campaign, at home, in front of over 49,000 fans back in March. They did well to bounce back with a 5-1 win over San Marino later that window, but they then lost 2-1 to Austria away in June, before capping off that window with a 2-0 win vs. Cyprus.
Now, that leaves them three points behind first-place Bosnia, who have nine points from three games (and hold a game in hand over Romania), and tied with second-place Austria, who have six points from two games (giving them two games in hand over Romania) - although it’s worth noting that those two teams face each other in Bosnia next week, which could help Romania.
Just for context, though, in UEFA World Cup qualifying, the top team in each group qualifies straight to the World Cup, while the team that finishes second will head to a playoff (in which 12 group runner-ups will be joined by four teams that finish outside the top two based on their Nations League performances).
The good news for Romania? They actually have a decent shot at making the playoffs even if they don’t finish second, as they’re ninth in the order for that list of those four teams, with most of the sides in front of them likely to qualify automatically, which would quickly push them up the rankings.
The bad news, though, is that the playoffs are quite brutal, as those 16 teams will be split into four different mini-knockout tournaments where they’ll play a semi-final and a final to determine which four sides will head to the World Cup.
Because of that, Romania’s best bet to reach that 2026 tournament is to qualify automatically, and they have some ground to make up in that department, starting with a trip to Cyprus next week, as well as hosting Austria and a trip to Bosnia over the next few months.
What that means for Canada is that Romania will come into this friendly fired up, as they’ll use this game as valuable preparation for what’s ahead on their schedule.
In terms of what Canada should expect, however, Romania should expect to get on the ball, as they’ve usually used a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1 since the legendary Mircea Lucescu has taken over for his second stint in charge, which he started after the Euros.
Granted, they’ve had a few games where they’ve also held onto less of the ball, such as their matchup vs. Austria, but they’ve otherwise tended to hold more of the ball in their World Cup qualifiers and in the League C matches they played in the UEFA Nations League last fall.
Now, though, while they’ve been decent on the ball, where they’ve struggled is in the boxes, especially in World Cup qualifying. There, they’ve allowed four goals despite allowing less than 0.7 xG per game on average, and while they’ve scored eight goals in four games, five of them came against San Marino.
Further to that, they take their shots from an average of almost 19 yards under Lucescu, showing that they want to improve their shot quality - although it’s encouraging from a defensive perspective that their opponents shoot from an average distance of around 17.86 yards, indicating that they’ve got to just tighten up their defensive actions and not overhaul their actual system.
As for their squad, they’ve got a strong contingent of Romanian-based players, with 12 called up to their latest team for this window, but also have a decent smattering of players across some pretty good European clubs, including five in the top five leagues - goalkeepers Horațiu Moldovan (Real Oviedo) and Rǎzvan Sava (Udinese), defender (and captain) Andrei Rațiu (Rayo Vallecano), and midfielders Nicolae Stanciu (Genoa) and Marius Marin (Pisa).
ROMANIA 🇷🇴 SQUAD ANNOUNCED
— Romanian Football (@RoFtbl) August 29, 2025
The final squad for the matches against Canada 🇨🇦 (friendly) on September 5th and Cyprus 🇨🇾 (WCQ) on September 9th
Overall solid call-ups, but still no Drăgușin (not fully recovered / playing yet), Radu (Celta 🇪🇸) and Dragomir (Pafos 🇨🇾) dropped… pic.twitter.com/Wn4DtQkTEl
In particular, Stanciu is the key player to watch, as he leads this team both in caps (82) and goals (15), with his next cap set to send him into the top-10 among all-time Romanian men’s players, as he’s a creative midfielder who wants to get on the ball and make things happen.
Angles of a Stanciu screamer 📐☄️#CoppaItaliaFrecciarossa pic.twitter.com/Jqzm2bsBj6
— Lega Serie A (@SerieA_EN) August 16, 2025
To that point about Romania wanting to be more dangerous offensively, however, it’s worth noting that their top three scorers in this squad are all midfielders, with Stanciu included among that group, as their most prolific forward is Denis Drǎguș, who plays at Turkish top-flight side Eyüpspor and has just five goals in 24 caps. Given their goalscoring woes, finding a way to get Drǎguș scoring more regularly has to be a key objective in this window and going forward.
One thing worth watching with this Canada game, however? Romania is balancing it with their next World Cup qualifier, which comes on September 9th in Cyprus, so it remains to be seen how strong a lineup they’ll put out for this Canada game.
Certainly, given their form, they’ll want to take advantage of the chance to play a solid Canadian team and test themselves, but perhaps they might only let their regular starters play up to 60 minutes - whether that comes as starters or off the bench is another question altogether.
What’s worth watching, though, from a Canadian perspective, is the crowd - Romania’s known for their great atmospheres, as Romania’s last four games all had attendances above 40,000. Will that many come out for a friendly against Canada? Who knows, but if they do, that’ll offer a good test for Canada in terms of dealing with a hostile atmosphere, which is never a bad thing for them to have.
Wales continuing post-Bale rebuild:
What happens when you say goodbye to a player who defined an entire generation of Welsh football?
Wales is finding that out now, as they continue to navigate life without Gareth Bale, who retired from the sport after the 2022 World Cup, a tournament which he led Wales to for the first time since 1958.
Yet, that’s been the story of Bale’s time with Wales - not only did he help them end their World Cup drought, but he helped them qualify for the Euros for the first time ever in 2016, helping them reach the semi-finals of that tournament, before reaching the Round of 16 of that same tournament in 2021.
Because of that, it stands out that in their first qualifying cycle without Bale, Wales missed out on the 2024 Euros, falling on penalties to Poland in a playoff after finishing four points behind an automatic qualification spot in the group phase.
Now, they’re looking to bounce back in World Cup qualifiers, where things are so far going okay - they sit in second-place with seven points from four matches, one point behind North Macedonia (who have eight points in four matches), and three points ahead of Belgium (who have four points in two matches).
Interesting World Cup draw to say the least.
— Phil Blanche 🏴 (@philblanche) December 13, 2024
🇧🇪 Belgium
🏴 WALES
🇲🇰 North Macedonia
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan
🇱🇮 Liechtenstein
They’ve done well to beat Kazakhstan 3-1 and Liechtenstein 3-0, but they drew North Macedonia 1-1 in North Macedonia (a game in which North Macedonia scored in the first minute of second-half stoppage time before Wales responded with a 90+6’ equalizer), before losing 4-3 to Belgium in Brussels this past June.
In particular, the Belgium loss will hurt given that Wales came back from down 3-0 to tie the match at 3-3 by the 70th minute, but then fell to an 88th-minute Kevin De Bruyne goal.
Had they managed to escape their first half of World Cup qualifying with eight points, which would’ve tied them for first with North Macedonia, it’d be hard to find much fault with their campaign to date, given that they’re still to welcome Belgium and North Macedonia to Wales in the next few windows.
To be fair, they still find themselves in a great position to qualify automatically, although the pressure is now on to win those home games (and not trip up in Kazakhstan, a trip they make this window before facing Canada), as they look to avoid the playoffs.
Much like Romania, they’re in a good position to reach the playoffs regardless if they finish top two, as they’ve got an even-higher ranking than Romania after winning their Nations League B group, but they’d love to qualify automatically after the playoff heartbreak they suffered ahead of the 2024 Euros (although it’s worth noting they reached the 2022 World Cup with a dramatic 1-0 win vs. Ukraine in a playoff).
As for what to expect from this Welsh side, they want to keep progressing under manager Craig Bellamy, who took over last summer. So far, he’s done well to guide them back up to Nations League A for the second time, topping their League B group with Turkey, Iceland and Montenegro with a record of 3W-3D-0L, and has done well to build on that momentum in World Cup qualifying - that Belgium defeat was only his first loss in charge.
In terms of their style of play, they also love to hold onto the ball while playing in more of a 4-2-3-1, as they capitalize on a strong contingent of Premier League players to help them do that - much like with Romania, Wales' style of play is good news for a Canadian team that likes to press high up the pitch.
Their big challenge, however, has been for Wales to find a balance between attack and defence - they scored just nine goals but conceded only four in their six Nations League games under Bellamy, before scoring 10 and conceding six in four World Cup qualifying matches.
That's explained by a big change in their advanced numbers at both ends of the pitch - they were averaging 1.62 xG for, 1.66 xG against, allowed just 12.22 PPDA (passes per defensive action) and kept opponents shots to an average of 18.2 yards in the Nations League, but have 2.25 xG for, 1.12 xG against, are allowing 8.4 PPDA and are allowing opponents to shoot from an average of 13.6 yards in World Cup qualifiers.
What that shows is that their attack has been much more dangerous lately (they're also taking four shots more per game in World Cup qualifiers compared to Nations League), but that their defence has been a lot leakier, at least in terms of the quality of the chances they're giving up (even though they're actually giving up less in shot volume and raw xG).
When looking at their squad, they do have some intriguing names to watch, including eight in the Premier League and 11 in the Championship, with the rest all playing in EFL League One, as their entire team plays in the English pyramid (although a good chunk feature on Welsh teams Wrexham, Swansea and Cardiff City).
In particular, the big standouts are full back Neco Williams after his strong 2024-2025 season for Nottingham Forest, winger/attacking midfielder Harry Wilson after the solid year he had at Fulham, and Brennan Johnson after the breakout, Europa League-winning campaign he had with Tottenham Hotspur, while Bournemouth’s David Brooks is also a name of intrigue in midfield.
Johnson AGAIN. On the biggest stage! pic.twitter.com/K3VzZSK5tU
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) May 22, 2025
Otherwise, something else worth noting is that Wales have called up six players 20 or younger with a combined seven caps this window, as they continue to embark on a bit of a youth movement - a wise move given that they’ve got four players over 32 in their ranks. (and it’s worth noting they’d have had more players over 32 if not for some late injuries).
CYHOEDDIAD CARFAN 🇰🇿🇨🇦
— Wales 🏴 (@Cymru) August 28, 2025
O Astana i Abertawe. Ni'n barod 💪
DIWEDDARIAD CARFAN 🏴
— Wales 🏴 (@Cymru) September 3, 2025
Tom King, Rhys Norrington-Davies and Joel Colwill have joined up with the squad, replacing Danny Ward, Jay Dasilva, Joe Rodon and Nathan Broadhead. pic.twitter.com/jAUd2po9SN
Now, the big thing to watch will be to see what kind of team Wales brings out for this match, given their travels to Kazakhstan just before, but perhaps the result of that game will dictate how they treat this one, which will hopefully also be played in front of a rowdy crowd in Swansea.
Ideally, Canada would love to face as strong a team as possible, so that’s worth keeping an eye on - but either way, this Welsh side should be a good test for Canada to deal with.
What to expect from Canada?
Meanwhile, with this Canadian team, this will be a great window for head coach Jesse Marsch to experiment with their squad a bit, as they continue to navigate some big injuries and other absences.
Missing this camp will be Alphonso Davies, Alistair Johnston, Moïse Bombito and Cyle Larin, while Jonathan Osorio was left out altogether, making this a bit more of a younger group - even if Junior Hoilett has returned to the fold.
What that means, however, is that this camp will be a good opportunity for Canada to audition new names within their backline, in particular. That should allow them to build off a Gold Cup where they also didn’t have Bombito, which led to the breakout of Luc De Fougerolles, some strong performances from Joel Waterman, and the great play of Richie Laryea, which were all key positives from that tournament.
Otherwise, they’ll want to get some more clarity in goal, where Maxime Crépeau and Dayne St.Clair remain locked in a race for the #1 spot, figure out what to make of a busy midfield group, one filled with names pushing to earn a starting spot alongside Stephen Eustáquio, and they’ve of course still got plenty of questions to answer up front when it comes to finding a starting striker to pair with Jonathan David.
Here's a look at Canada's depth chart for this window. In particular, watch for the battle in goal, in midfield, and up front. Niko Sigur (midfield) and Junior Hoilett (winger) could also play some different roles, depending on the game (XI builder via Chosen11).
Because of that, while they’ll want to use this camp to push for two wins, achieving something they haven’t done a whole lot of on European soil, it’s also expected that they get a good look at their squad throughout the 180 minutes they’ll play in this camp.
To that point, it does stand out that the two teams they’re playing are stylistically the sort of sides they’ve had a lot more success against under Jesse Marsch, as they’ve struggled more to beat teams that sit back instead of those who like to get on the ball and push forward like Romania and Wales.
That’s good for Marsch, who will be able to better judge how certain players fit into his system, which was often harder to do at the Gold Cup, where teams mostly sat back against Canada, forcing them to adjust their style of play.
Of course, Canada would love to get some reps against those sorts of teams, too, as they look to beat them with more regularity, but it looks like they’ll get that chance in the next few months (in particular, a friendly vs. Ecuador in November looks quite exciting) - perhaps, they’ll have more of their team available by then, too.
For now, though, they’ve got plenty to do with the team they’ve got at their disposal, which is still quite strong, especially up front - perhaps this can be a camp where the offence can keep building some confidence, as they did in a 4-2 friendly win vs. Ukraine and a 6-0 Gold Cup group stage win vs. Honduras in June, which Canadian fans wouldn’t mind seeing.
Yet, that’s the beauty of these friendly matches - while the results are important, they’re matches where strong performances are just as important, and where individuals can make a name for themselves, two things Canada would like to see happen (along with the victories).
