Canada’s next opponent in their historic FIFA World Cup run will be Morocco after that team beat the Netherlands in a 3-2 win Monday night.
Morocco sits sixth in FIFA world rankings, and the Netherlands seventh.
Both teams had entered Monday night’s clash undefeated and the game marked the first top-10 matchup at the 2026 tournament.
The match went to penalty kicks, with midfielder Ismail Saibari making the winning goal.
Morocco has been on its own record-breaking run, becoming the highest-scoring African nation in tournament history and setting a record amongst African teams for most World Cup victories with eight.
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Their advancement from Group C was also just the third time an African nation has reached the knockout stage of a FIFA World Cup.
Morocco finished with the same number of points as Brazil in Group C but fell to second place since Brazil finished with a higher goal differential.
Canada and Morocco last faced off against one another during the group stage of the 2022 FIFA World Cup on Dec. 1, 2022, as Morocco took the 2-1 win in Doha, Qatar.
Kickoff is set for July 4 at 1 p.m. EST.
The Morocco vs Netherlands game was not the first top 10 match-up of the tournament. In fact, Morocco itself played 2, the first one being the first game vs Brazil. Unless you meant first top 10 match-up in the knockout round.
The sport is famous for ‘fake injuries’ and ‘wussy’ players. Yes players get injured at soccer games, but not that many. During the 2026 World Cup Ismaël Koné, who suffered a horrific broken leg in the group stage against Qatar, tossed aside his crutches and somehow danced in the dressing room. The real injuries and deaths occur among the fans. Statistically it is more dangerous to be a soccer fan than a player. ( between 1964 to present 1312 deaths occurred at soccer matches)
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