Canada won't underestimate South Africa ahead of World Cup knockout game

South Africa were a surprise to come out of Group A in second place and as Canada prepares for them in the Round of 32, Jesse Marsch and Alistair Johnston shared their thoughts on playing against the African side on Sunday.

VANCOUVER — He may be leading Canada through a historic FIFA World Cup run, but head coach Jesse Marsch is not about to commit the Canadianism of saying sorry.

The American bench boss knows he’s faced criticism for telling media he expected Alphonso Davies to factor into Wednesday’s group stage game, then saying after the 2-1 loss to Switzerland that his star left back wasn’t ready to play.

He doesn’t care.

“Some people want to say, ‘Why was I using Alphonso as a decoy?’ Like, it’s the World Cup,” Marsch said Thursday ahead of Canada’s training session.

“We’re not playing a friendly match. This is a competitive environment where we want to win any advantage we can get. Even if it’s a two or three per cent advantage, where the opponent has to think a little bit more, then we want them to have to do that. So I’m certainly not apologizing for that.”

Canada will keep looking for advantages as it presses on in the tournament, the coach added.

And he still expects Davies — who’s been recovering from a hamstring injury since early May — to play.

The 25-year-old Bayern Munich standout could be in the lineup for another historic Canadian game on Sunday, Marsch said.

Despite falling to Switzerland on Wednesday, the co-host nation claimed second spot in Group B to earn the country’s first-ever knockout game in a men’s World Cup.

The Canadians will face South Africa, the runners-up of Group A, in a round-of-32 matchup in Los Angeles.

South Africa earned its first-ever spot in a World Cup knockout game with a 1-0 upset of South Korea on Wednesday.

It was a game many were expecting the Koreans to dominate, Marsch said.

“What you see in South Africa is a team that’s very physical, that in open spaces is very athletic, and has a lot of belief right now in what they’re doing. So I was impressed with South Africa in this match,” he said. ”At the end of the game, what you see is that South Africa earned that result and they were the better team, and they’re going to give us a big challenge.”

Defender Alistair Johnston was out eating dinner with his family during the South Africa-South Korea game.

He checked the score intermittently on his phone, but presumed he already knew who he and his national squad teammates would be up against in L.A.

“We’d all seen kind of the permutations of what it would be. It seemed like Korea was probably the betting favourite,” he said. ”So, I wasn’t too focused on it. And you hear that South Africa got a goal, and they defended well and managed to win the game.”

Johnston admits he hasn’t yet done a deep dive on Bafana Bafana, but he knows they’ll pose threats.

“There’s a reason why we’re playing them. Then they finish second in their group, they’re obviously a really strong team,” he said.

“It’s going to be a good game. I think it’s going to be an open game. I think it’s going to be two teams that are willing to run and want to play in transition. There’s going to be a lot of skill on the pitch, and I think that’ll be not only a good game for neutrals, but hopefully a really good game for Canadian fans.”

The fact that the knockout game won’t be played on home soil still stings.

A win or a draw against Switzerland would have seen Canada win Group B and play a round-of-32 matchup in Vancouver on July 2.

Canadian fans have rallied around the team in recent weeks, packing both BC Place and Toronto stadium, spending hours outside of the team’s hotels to cheer players, turning streets into flowing rivers of boisterous, red-clad supporters.

“Obviously, we wanted to stay in Canada and play in front of our fans and use all that energy,” Marsch said. ”But it’s also a big mental load on our team.

All the people around town, people around the hotel, it’s a little bit of a circus. I mean, it’s one we’ve really enjoyed, but I do think that going away will give us a little bit more pause and calmness around the experience, and make sure that we can focus totally on exactly what the match is.”

The atmosphere is completely different than anything the program has ever experienced before, said Johnston.

“Since day one, we’ve always said that we want to grow the game in Canada,” said the 27-year-old veteran right back. ”And the biggest and best way to do that is to win football matches at big tournaments.

And look, we’re into a knockout stage against a team that is going to be a really difficult opposition, but again, one that we feel, if we play at our best, we can cause them a lot of trouble. Then it becomes just 90 minutes, 120 minutes, and you’ll see where you go.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 25, 2026.

Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press