Despite an excellent performance, Canada lost 4-3 on penalties to Uruguay in an extremely entertaining, back-and-forth third place Copa America match that ended 2-2 after 90 minutes.
Canada was less than three minutes away from closing out the bronze medal match in regulation, when Uruguayan icon Luis Suarez equalized for the South Americans, sending the match to penalties.
Jonathan David had earlier given the Canadian’s the lead with 10 minutes remaining. But 37-year-old Suarez, playing in perhaps his final international match, thrust a dagger into Canadian hearts with is 69th goal for his country.
Uruguay score first, but Koné responds for Canada
Uruguay started strong and capitalized on a corner kick to take an early 1-0 lead. In the 8th minute, Federico Valverde’s corner kick found Sebastian Caceres who headed it toward Rodrigo Bentancur, who controlled the ball well before spinning around and firing a rocket over the hands of Canada goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair and under the crossbar.
Canada started to wake up after conceding and spent much of the next 20 minutes playing on the front foot creating numerous quality chances.
In the 22nd minute, Canada found the equalizer also off a set piece.
Jacob Shaffelburg sent a high in-swinging corner kick toward the back post, which Moise Bombito headed toward goal. Ismael Koné read it perfectly and ran toward the edge of the six-yard box. Uruguay goalkeeper Sergio Rochet came out to challenge but hesitated. As a result, Koné had the necessary space to complete an incredible over-head scissor kick to guide the ball into the bottom right corner to tie the match 1-1.
Canada’s defense was sliced apart a handful of times in the first half, resulting in many quality scoring chances for Uruguay, including a goal that was ruled out for offside less than two minutes after Koné tied.
But Canada’s attack was lethal in transition once again, cutting the Uruguayan defense open multiple times. Canada’s physical midfield duo of Koné and Mathieu Choiniere, combined with wingers Ali Ahmed and Shaffelburg who would drop down into the midfield while out of possession would press high up the pitch to force turnovers and limit the amount of time their opponents had on the ball to make decisions and they’d use their physicality to win duels and to win possession back. This would catch Uruguay’s defense and midfield high up the pitch and leave space behind them for Canada to send long, accurate through-balls to their speedy wingers and strikers.
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The striker partnership of Tani Oluwaysei and Jonathan Osorio worked surprisingly well. They were both able to create numerous scoring chances with their passing and shooting skills, they pressured the opposing centre backs on the ball and they’d try to win the ball back immediately after losing it. Thought Oluwaysei will be very disappointed not to have finished one of his many opportunities to score.
In defense, Richie Laryea (who normally plays winger under Marsch) replaced Alphonso Davies at left back, and 18-year-old Fulham academy product Luc de Fougerolles played alongside Bombito at center back, replacing Derek Cornelius. Alistair Johnston remained at right-back.
Canada’s Ismael Koné scores against Uruguay in the 2024 Copa America third-place match Saturday. Photo: Canada Soccer
In his first competitive cap for Canada, de Fougerolles was shaky and nervy at the start. Uruguay was targeting him, sending many through balls his way that he would have to try to defend while a Uruguay attacker ran straight at him to try to win the ball. Uruguay’s midfielders and attackers were also dribbling at him and many of their attacks came down the right-center side of the pitch.
However, credit to de Fougerolles, who grew into the game and played much better as the game went on. He was physical, unafraid to go in for a tackle, win a duel, cause a turnover, or win the ball back. Despite his early yellow card, he was fearless.
All-in-all, Canada made seven changes, starting Oluwaseyi over Cyle Larin, Osorio as the second striker over Jonathan David, Ahmed over Laryea at right wing, Choiniere over Stephen Eustaquio in midfield, Layrea at left back over Davies, de Fougerolles over Cornelius at right center back and St. Clair in goal over Max Crepeau.
Canada was playing a heavily rotated team against essentially a full-strength Uruguay side – which is ranked 14th in the World according to FIFA’s latest rankings – and dominated the majority of the match. That shows Canada’s tenacity, grit, determination, and skill and highlights that Canada has a lot of depth that is further along in its development than we thought. This will bode extremely well for Canada who will co-host the next FIFA World Cup in 2026.
Marsch wanted to give some players who hadn’t played a lot so far some game-time in an important game and even though the result didn’t go Canada’s way, those players played extremely well all night and Marsch’s decision looks to have paid off, as it gave many of Canada’s depth players a lot of confidence heading into the future.
Canada’s strong second half
Canada had a great second half, having more possession and creating more dangerous scoring chances.
Koné, who cemented himself as a man-of-the-match candidate, once again took advantage of all the open space he was given in the midfield and made a beautiful run from his half all the way to the edge of Uruguay’s box. Koné fired a powerful shot toward Rochet and the rebound fell to substitute David who made no mistake, hitting it well into the bottom right corner of the net to give Canada a 2-1 lead in the 80th minute.
Canada’s Jonathan David celebrates scoring against Uruguay in the 2024 Copa America third-place match Saturday. Photo: Canada Soccer
Canada had a some quality chances to extend the lead, in particular an Oluwaseyi header that missed wide and high and a shot by Oluwaseyi that had he hit harder could’ve slipped under Rochet’s arms. But Canada couldn’t capitalize and Uruguay was able to tie the game up late in transition.
Canada scored twice Saturday, but still finishing remains an issue. Canada missed multiple chances in the first half and in the final 10 minutes that may have put the match beyond reach.
Canada goes to penalties again
In penalties, David gave Canada a 1-0 lead before Valverde matched it.
Bombito and Bentancur both scored their team’s second kick to make it 2-2.
Koné’s penalty to the left corner of the net was saved by Rochet. Uruguay’s Giorgian de Arrascaeta capitalized on Koné’s mistake, firing it down the middle to give Uruguay a 3-2 lead.
Choiniere fired a beautiful penalty into the left corner, but Suarez roofed his penalty into the top-right corner to give Uruguay a 4-3 lead.
Davies had to score to keep the shootout alive. Andrea Pirlo on Joe Hart style, sent a Panenka down the middle which fooled Rochet but slammed off the crossbar.
Uruguay won the match 2-2 (4-3 on penalties) to win the bronze medal.
It was a disappointing result to cap off a positive performance by Canada, who arguably deserved better on the night.
But Canada’s performance over the last month suggests Jesse Marsch is indeed the man to lead Canada forward heading towards the 2026 World Cup.
