Argentina vs Canada: Argentina commence title defense against debutants
Argentina will get their Copa America title defense underway on Thursday when they take on debutants Canada. La Albiceleste come into this competition as not only the reigning Copa America champions after their win in 2021 but are also the current World Cup title holders as well. Currently led by Lionel Scaloni, Argentina have been in excellent form since their win on penalties during the 2022 FIFA World Cup final, and have won all but one of their 14 matches played since then to set them up nicely for their hopes to retain the Copa America this summer.
For the second time in history, the Copa America is being hosted by the United States, which gives several Concacaf teams a chance to participate as well. That includes Canada, who are making their debut in this competition this summer. The Canucks have not had the best of luck on the world stage, but will view this tournament as an opportunity to test their mettle against some of the top teams on the international stage. This will be the first meeting between Argentina and Canada since the South American powerhouse cruised to a 5-0 win under then-manager Diego Maradona back in 2010, and Canada, who are now being managed by American tactician Jesse Marsch, will be naturally hoping to avoid the same kind of embarrassing result on Thursday evening.
In order to achieve that, however, Canada will need their big stars to have a strong showing, especially considering that the Canucks have a rather dire record when it comes to playing against CONMEBOL teams. To date, they have won just three of their past 24 meetings against South American sides, which does not honestly bode well for Marsch’s side.
Still, despite the clear gulf between the two teams, Canada do have some key players performing on the big stage. That includes Alphonso Davies, who plays his club football for Bayern Munich, while Lille’s Jonathan David has a very impressive goal-scoring record for his national side, with 26 goals in just under 50 appearances for Canada. Naturally, Canada will need more than just these two to show up – they will need Argentina to have a really bad day at the office in order to upset the odds.
As we did see at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Argentina are capable of having an off day. Just take a look at Saudi Arabia’s defeat of the South American powerhouse on matchday one that really sent shockwaves around the world. Of course, it turned out to be the wake-up Lionel Messi and his colleagues needed as they went on to eventually win the title, but all in all, it does show that even a top team with the number one player in the world is certainly not without reproach.
However, Argentina come into this competition having won all of their games so far in 2024, while Canada have experienced mixed results. Despite beating Trinidad & Tobago 2-0 to qualify for this competition, they were thoroughly outplayed in a 4-0 friendly defeat to the Netherlands before managing to hold France to a scoreless draw. Although the result against France may appear encouraging, Les Bleus did not have to make a single save throughout that match as Canada spent long spells merely trying to absorb as much pressure as possible.
That strategy isn’t likely to pay off against Argentina, whose fearsome attack is enough to make even higher-ranked teams a bit uneasy. As such, it will be very interesting to see how Canada manage expectations in what will be very likely a tough opening match in their first ever Copa America appearance.
