LIVE UPDATES: Canada hosts Bosnia-Herzegovina for its first FIFA World Cup 2026 game

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Canada's never won, nor drawn, at a World Cup.

In two appearances at the tournament, our country has been outscored 12-2. 

But there's optimism surrounding this year's team, and there's a lot of expectation — from both fans and the international press — that this team will make it into the knockout round. 

Canada enters this match 30th in FIFA's world rankings, while today's opponent, Bosnia and Herzegovina, is ranked 64th. 

That said, Bosnia beat 12th-ranked Italy to qualify for this tournament, so don't read too much into the rankings when it comes to today's match. 

For the first time in their program's hardscrabble history, Canada's men will take on Bosnia and Herzegovina here at home for the FIFA World Cup. Les Rouges take to the pitch in Toronto in just a few hours.

For the players, kickoff will come as a relief — and a release. It's as though they've been actors waiting backstage while their theatre is being built around them. (In Toronto, that's literally true: BMO Field — renamed Toronto Stadium for the tournament — has gone from 28,000 seats to nearly 46,000 in amazingly short order, a cottage by the lake turned into a fortress.)

"I just want to get started," midfielder Ismaël Koné, who's returned to training after he spiked a fever on Wednesday, said earlier this week. "We've been practising and pushing and speaking about tactics, speaking about the opposite team, speaking about ourselves, speaking about the moment.… The moment is now."

Canada, having never won a game in its two previous men's World Cup appearances, finds itself today under the unfamiliar weight of expectation. If Marsch's men don't advance out of their group — they'll also face Qatar and Switzerland in Vancouver — they will be considered disappointments, even failures.

Four points should be enough to get through. They will probably beat Qatar. They will probably suffer against the Swiss. That makes today's opener the likely decider, in a nervous-making way. The beginning feels like a potential ending.

Kickoff is set for 3 p.m. ET.

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