Canada was eliminated from the 2025 Gold Cup quarterfinals Sunday, losing a penalty shootout 6-5 to Guatemala after the game ended 1-1 in Minneapolis.
The shootout had gone to sudden death, each team scoring 5 of 6 kicks, when 19-year-old Canadian defender Luc de Fougerolles smashed his kick onto the crossbar. The miss allowed Jose Morales to step up and score the decisive kick, sending the Central Americans through to face the United States in the semifinals.
Canada went into the quarterfinal tilt heavy favourites, facing a team ranked more than 70 places below them in the FIFA World Rankings, and will feel disspointed having failed to progress past the quarterfinals stage for the second time in a row.
Canada looked in good shape heading towards halftime ahead at 1-0, thanks to a 29th minute Jonathan David penalty.
But Canada’s attempt at winning its first major trophy in 25 years suffered a major blow when Jacob Shaffelburg was sent off for incurring a needless second yellow card on the stroke of halftime. The incident proved pivotal.
Guatemala eventually capitalized on the man advantage and found their equalizer with a Rubio Rubin header in the 68th minute, sending the match to penalty kicks.
After the match Canada coach Jesse Marsch admitted to the disappointment that he and his players felt losing a match that initially seemed so winnable.
“It’s important for us to learn from this, because I think we lost because we beat ourselves, and we can’t do that in important matches, and we certainly can’t do that next summer,” Marsch said post-game.
Red card proves pivotal
And while Guatemala were good value for their victory, Shaffelburg’s sending off proved the catalyst.
In the fourth minute of first-half stoppage time the Canadian winger pursued of a forward pass from Jonathan David. But he put his shoulder into the clearing Guatemalan defender. Already on a yellow card, the referee did not hesitate to show him the second yellow and send him off.
It was a reckless tackle. Shaffelburg was guilty of not trying to avoid contact knowing he was already on a yellow card.
Sure, the red card wasn’t the sole reason for Canada’s failure to advance.
The initial lead could have been increased if not for some missed chances. And questions will be raised over Jesse Marsch’s strategy and substitutions after going down a man. Canada’s formation remained attack oriented, despite the man disadvantage.
But the early red card was the primary reason for Canada’s loss.
Canada’s high expectations fall short
Looking for their first international trophy since 2000, and less than a year out from co-hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Canada had high expectations for this Gold Cup. The Canucks had deep and talented and an experienced manager. And Canada advanced from their first round group with in relative comfort: thrashing Honduras 6-0, drawing Curacao 1-1, and topping El Salvador 2-0.
This was Canada’s last chance to lift international silverware before co-hosting next year’s World Cup, and a huge opportunity to gain momentum, test different squad combinations, and prove their squad was deep enough to play well and win. And they should have done better.
But now Canada will need to recover from the massive emotional disappointment of having their last competitive match before the World Cup be a humiliating defeat to Guatemala. It’s not ideal.
Canada looked good for most of the first half
Although warranted, the red card had a slight air of karma coming after the referee’s questionable decision to award Canada their earlier penalty kick. Replays suggested the Guatemalan player made minimal contact with Tani Oluwaseyi in the foul that led to David’s opener.
At the half-hour mark, Canada was dominating Guatemala and in complete control of the match. They had a 62 percent possession advantage, outshooting the Guatemalans 4-1 (2-1 on target), and created numerous quality chances, including other decent build-up sequences they couldn’t convert into shot attempts.
Canada had a 1-0 lead thanks to captain Jonathan David, who made up for a previous penalty miss against El Salvador in the first round.
But after half time, Guatemala pushed forward with their man advantage, creating space with their darting runs and intricate passing, and for creating enough quality chances to find the equalizer. Once they had the equalizer, they defended extremely well. Even so, Canada will feel they could have found a winner given their superior squad.
Penalty pain for Canada
But it went to penalties.
Both teams converted on their first four penalties. Dayne St. Clair will feel as if he should’ve stopped the first two Guatemalan penalties after guessing the right way and getting a hand on both of them.
Canada’s fifth penalty saw Cyle Larin skew a poor shoot almost directly at the keeper, at the perfect height and location to easily parry it away. This seemed to cap off Larin’s underwhelming substitute appearance.
Canada was given a lifeline when Jose Carlo Pinto skied his penalty over the bar sending it to sudden death.
After Nathan Saliba and Pedro Altan calmly dispatched their penalties into the top corner, Luc de Fougerolles – who showed immense courage stepping up to take such a high-stake penalty and played a sensational match overall – smashed his penalty off the crossbar.
Guatemala’s Jose Morales put his penalty right down the middle to send his country to the semifinal against either the United States later this week.
