Mini football figure - Canada

Canada

The Canadian national football team represents the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) as a select team at international level in matches against teams from other national associations. It has participated in the World Cup once (1986).

History

The Canadians played their first international match on 28 November 1885 against the USA in Newark, New Jersey. It was won 1-0 and is considered an unofficial match. On 19 September 1888, a Canadian team played in Scotland and lost 4-0. The first official match was on 7 June 1924 in Brisbane, Australia against the national team of Australia. The Canadians lost this one 3-2.

Internationally, Canadian footballers have had few successes to date. The Canadian national team made its first and so far only appearance at a World Cup in Mexico in 1986, but was eliminated in the preliminary round after games against France (0:1), Hungary (0:2) and the USSR (0:2) without scoring a point or a goal.

Canada's greatest success, apart from qualifying for the 1986 World Cup, came with the surprise win of the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 2000. Since then, they have reached the semi-finals three more times (2002, 2007 and 2021). In 1985, the national team won the CONCACAF Championship, the forerunner of the Gold Cup.

Stadium

The national stadium of the Canadians is the National Soccer Stadium in Toronto, Ontario, known as BMO Field when the Canadian Major League Soccer representative Toronto FC plays there. Previous national stadiums or alternate venues include Swangard Stadium in Burnaby, British Columbia, Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta and Complexe sportif Claude-Robillard in Montreal, Québec.

Participations in Football World Cups

Although Canada has been a member of FIFA since 1913, the team first participated in World Cup qualifying in 1958, then again not until 1966, but since then in all qualifiers. However, they have only qualified once for a final tournament. There they lost all their matches. In the eternal table of World Cup finalists, Canada ranks 71st and, like four other teams, has yet to score a World Cup goal.

Records

(as of 14 July 2013) Canada has played the most matches against the USA (32) and Mexico (29). Canada's most successful record against another country with more than one match is against Trinidad and Tobago (7 wins, 2 draws, 2 losses). Canada's most wins have come against the USA (8 from 32 matches), while their most losses have come against Mexico (17 from 29 matches). The USA also drew the most games (11 out of 32).