Alphonso Davies available for Canada vs. Qatar World Cup match

Head coach Jesse Marsch wasn’t revealing which players will be in his starting lineup when Canada continues its FIFA World Cup quest Thursday. 

He did say, though, that captain Alphonso Davies will be available for the game against Qatar in Vancouver.

“He’s been in training this week and he’ll be available tomorrow,” Marsch told reporters Wednesday evening. “We’ll see how the match goes and then make a decision on how we choose to use him.”

Davies has not played since early May when he suffered a hamstring injury while representing Bayern Munich in a Champions League semifinal.

He joined the national squad in Edmonton at the end of May and has been following return-to-play protocols ever since, including warming up with teammates during Tuesday’s training session, running and passing balls. 

Davies has been working with his personal physiotherapist as well as Canada’s staff, Marsch said, and is looking “really good.” 

Now the coaches need to determine what Davies can contribute when the co-host nation takes on Qatar.

“It’s just a matter of what kind of game is it, what kind of moment is it and how do we feel Alphonso can contribute right now,” the coach said. “But he’s ready. He’ll be available”

Canada’s talent pool was plagued by injuries leading up to the World Cup and there were questions over whether some stars, including Davies and central defender Moïse Bombito, would make the 26-man roster. 

As those athletes return to health, the coaching staff must carefully calculate what they can handle in terms of game action, Marsch said. 

“We took some risks on how we put this squad together, hoping that we could manage all these situations to give our best players the best chance to be on the pitch for us in the most important games,” he said. “So I think that strategy was still a very good one. But what we don’t want to do is put players at risk. Because that’s not good for them and that’s certainly not good for the team.”

Canada, ranked 30th in FIFA’s latest standings, started its World Cup campaign with a 1-1 draw against Bosnia-Herzegovina in Toronto last Friday. 

The result earned Canada its first-ever point in the tournament. 

The squad can accomplish another first Thursday — posting Canada’s first-ever World Cup win.

“I think we did beautiful things during this first match. We need to stay positive,” said midfielder Ismaël Koné. “We wrote history. And we’re so close. So we are going to have to focus on details because we know that you win through details.”

Those details need to be strong through the entire game, he added, with the team playing with the same tempo and urgency they showed in the second half of last week’s matchup against Bosnia. 

“I think we have a high-speed team, a high-paced team, we’re very athletic,” Kone said. “We’re able to do stuff that sometimes teams cannot prepare for.” 

The 56th-ranked Qataris stunned many with a 1-1 draw against favoured Switzerland on Saturday to leave each team in Group B with a single point. 

Marsch attended the game in Santa Barbara, Calif., and said he saw a committed Qatar give the Swiss a difficult battle. 

“(Qatar) has talent. They have talent and they have … discipline and focus and confidence,” he said. “This sets up to be a very tough match for us. So we respect them and I think that they’re a good team … In all ways, we’re expecting their best and we’re going to make sure we’re at our best.” 

Canada and Qatar met once previously, with the Canadians taking a 2-0 victory at a friendly in Austria back in September 2022.

Going up against the host nation won’t be easy, acknowledged Qatar’s head coach Julen Lopetegui. 

“They are a very good team, strong team physically, technically with a high rhythm with excellent coach, good players, top players,” he said. 

“For us it will be a big challenge, big difficulty, but that’s why we’re in the World Cup, to be able to do our best, to be able to improve our limits.

Qatar also made history with its first World Cup point last week. 

The Middle Eastern country of just over 300,000 people may be small, but it’s passion for soccer is big, Lopetegui said. 

“When you follow one dream, you are never under pressure,” he said. “We achieved something that never happened in the history of Qatar.”

The 19th-ranked Swiss meet No. 64 Bosnia in Los Angeles on Thursday before Canada meets Qatar in Vancouver.

Several analytics models have improved Canada’s outlook since the opening round of matches. The Athletic projects Canada has an 87 per cent chance of reaching the round of 32 and a 43 per cent chance of winning the group. Soccer analyst Michael Caley gives Canada a 53 per cent chance of finishing first.

“We can lose to anybody, but we also know if we’re at our best, that we can beat anybody,” right back Alistair Johnston said Monday. 

“That’s something that we understand, I think, as a group. And it’s what makes it frustrating when we don’t play our at our best, because there’s such a big discrepancy, I think, between when we’re really at it and when we’re not. 

“So it’s going to be really important right from the first whistle (on Thursday) that we don’t waste that first half, kind of like we did against Bosnia.”