Canada’s first World Cup knockout game could not have landed in a more fitting setting.
The team would surely have preferred to win Group B and keep playing home games through the Round of 32 and potentially the Round of 16. Still, Los Angeles, a city with plenty of Canadians, is not a bad middle ground.
It is also a place of real significance for Canadian soccer. In 2000, Canada won their only major men’s trophy, lifting the CONCACAF Gold Cup at the nearby Rose Bowl after defeating Colombia in the final. In March 2025, Los Angeles was also the last place Davies played for the national team, when he tore his ACL in a match that later prompted Bayern to threaten legal action against Canada Soccer.
Bayern never followed through, but Davies has not played for Canada since.
“Coming back to this stadium, now I get to finish something I started a year ago in March,” Davies said. “(That was) the first time I was in the stadium. It’s a beautiful stadium, beautiful atmosphere, and it was cut short, but at the end of the day, that’s football.”
The move stateside also takes Canada out of the home spotlight, which might not be the worst thing for a team still adjusting to the pressure of playing in front of roaring home crowds. Canada played just 13 home games between the 2022 World Cup and this summer, and they have never truly contended with this kind of attention before.
There will be Canadians in Los Angeles – more than 4,000 have coordinated through Canada Soccer, with more expected — but it will not be a full sea of red. Maybe that is helpful for a group trying to win the biggest game in Canadian men’s soccer history.
And if they do? Davies wants to be part of it.
He is Canada’s biggest unknown and their greatest talent at this World Cup. Whether he starts, comes off the bench or simply waits for his moment, Blankenburg will likely be nearby, one more visible reminder of just how carefully Canada are managing Davies’ return.
