Canada, Argentina’s rival in the debut of the Copa América next Thursday, June 20, closed its second international friendly with a better image than in the first one, which it lost to the Netherlands by 4 to 0. Just like on Thursday the 6th in Rotterdam, the Canadian team finished goalless in the first half, but this time managed to keep the scoreless against the world runner-up at the Matmut Atlantique stadium in Bordeaux, France.
There are no equivalences between first-level teams like France and the Netherlands and an aspirational third-level team like Canada, although the final result does not reflect it. North American Jesse Marsch’s team is growing rapidly and has as its main figure: Alphonse Daviesthe offensive midfielder of the Bayern Munich. But one of his figures against the French was goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau, who twice saved his goal from falling in the first 20 minutes.
The Canadians run, score, press high, are very concentrated and at times show good technique, always with some limitations. But despite France’s dominance, much more in the first stage than in the second, they managed to put the local team in trouble. Especially at the start of the final half, when a shot from outside the area by Liam Millar hit the crossbar.
It is true that Didier Deschamps decided to start with two of his figures, Kylian Mbappe and Aurelien Tchouameni, on the substitute bench. And the new figure of Real Madrid entered to play the last 20 minutes and only in the last moment of the extra time did he manage to make a great individual play and once again goalkeeper Crépeau excelled.
A few minutes before, Randal Kolo Muani had the chance, like against Argentina in the final in Qatar, to win the match, but on that occasion he encountered a huge block from Dibu Martínez and here he appeared alone in the six-yard box, mistimed the header and the ball went wide.
