Canada are one of the three host nations for this summer’s tournament – yet their first-ever knockout game at a men’s World Cup will not be played on Canadian soil.
Instead, Les Rouges will make the trip south of the border to Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium to take on South Africa on Sunday, June 28, with kick-off set for midday local time (8pm UK time).
That is in spite of the fact that both BMO Field in Toronto and BC Place in Vancouver will host games later on in the round
The venues for all of the knockout games were determined before the tournament began, with each side allocated according to where they finished in their groups and in the ranking of third-placed sides.
The way the stadiums were laid out, Canada could have ended up playing their second round game in Vancouver instead of Los Angeles.
However, Canada would have needed to finish top of Group B to get a game on home turf – much as Mexico have done by finishing atop Group A.
Jesse Marsch’s side looked like they may be on course to do just that after going into their final group game against Switzerland needing only to avoid defeat to finish in first place, thanks to their superior goal difference.
The Swiss had other ideas, though, claiming a 2-1 victory in Vancouver that saw them finish top of the group instead.
That means that Switzerland, not Canada, have been allocated Vancouver for their next game, which is set to be played on Thursday, July 2.
Toronto will meanwhile host Portugal’s meeting with Croatia earlier the same evening.
Canada will host just one more game thereafter, with Vancouver also set to host a round of 16 game.
That could be Switzerland yet again, with the winner of their round of 32 game set to face the winner of Colombia vs Ghana.
Every game from the quarter-finals onwards will be played in the United States of America.