Canada takes to the pitch today for FIFA World Cup opener; Game time set for 4:30 in Newfoundland
Canada opens its 2026 FIFA World Cup campaign today in Toronto against Bosnia and Herzegovina. As one of the tournament’s co-hosts, Canada will play all three of its group-stage matches on home soil. The national team will face Qatar June 18 in Vancouver and Switzerland on June 24th.
The matches of the 104-game tournament began Thursday, with Mexico playing South Africa and Korea playing Czechia in Mexico City. In total, Canada will host 13 games in Toronto and Vancouver.
Canada’s has appeared in the FIFA World Cup twice before 2026, in 1986 and 2022. In 1986, they lost all three group matches without scoring a goal, finishing 24th overall. In 2022, Canada again exited at the group stage, scoring two goals but earning no points, with Alphonso Davies scoring the first official goal in Canadian World Cup history .
The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be the 23rd edition of the event, the international men’s championship contested by the national teams of the member associations of FIFA. The tournament will take place from June 11 to July 19. It will be jointly hosted by sixteen cities – eleven in the United States, three in Mexico, and two in Canada. The tournament will be the first FIFA World Cup to be hosted by three nations, and the first to include 48 teams, an expansion from 32 previously.
It will be Canada’s first time hosting or co-hosting the tournament. As the host nations, Canada, Mexico and the United States all automatically qualified.
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