Today, the Canucks of the Canadian Men's National Soccer Team will wrap up the first half of the first round of CONCACAF 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifying with a match against the Cayman Islands. The following day, Japan's national team will play a similar mismatch game against a similar minnow in Mongolia ahead of the qualifying bubble in Asia.
The Canada-Cayman Islands match at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, is a very odd one, but is the historic first meeting at senior level between both sides, who usually face each other in 20/20 cricket. The match was technically supposed to take place a few hours before the ill-fated match between the Under-23 scratch side and Mexico in Guadalajara. However, if my own headcanon is correct, Ben Pugh, who is five years my junior, has shown his youth in managing a team of this magnitude by not submitting proper COVID-19 documentation on time.
Technically, the match would be a forfeit win to Canada and John Herdman would have the right of it to accept. The problem is that a number of players on the roster for Canada are in the middle of title races for their clubs, not to mention Alphonso Davies needing form ahead of a return to action for defending world champions Bayern. Compounding matters is the fact that Suriname booted six goals past Aruba, powered by Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink's unassuming, if chubby, nephew Nigel.
In the end, the match is set to kick off at 6 p.m. UTC-5 in Florida. Doubtless the Cayman Islands, who have had a breakthrough CONCACAF Nations League campaign, will be parking the bus and playing defensive football. Mongolia will be keen on employing a similar approach, albeit their World Cup dream is all but finished. The key for Canada is to break down the bus, or buses, and force the part-timers to run and chase, and that's when the goals will fly, and the gulf in class will be rampant in spades. It will be a performance with skill that was sorely lacking from the Under-23s who would have been in a better position to make it to Tokyo...had they defeated Haiti and/or Honduras. The original kickoff time was set for Sunday at 4 p.m., so the weather should be a bit more nicer, but not even a weather respite will avoid what should be a procession.
Predictions:
Canada 9, Cayman Islands 0
Japan 6, Mongolia 0
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