Despite two goals from Alphonso Davies, Canada surprisingly failed to reach the quarter-finals of the CONCACAF Nations League. Mexico narrowly escaped this fate – and thus secured a Copa America ticket.
Just a year ago, Canada’s national team took part in a World Cup for the first time since 1986 – but now there is a sense of alarm. On Wednesday night (CET), Alphonso Davies & Co. surprisingly lost the second leg of their CONCACAF Nations League quarter-final at home to Jamaica 2:3.
As a result, the Canadians were not only eliminated from the competition, but also missed out on a direct ticket to the Copa America 2024, which they had firmly planned on. Instead, they will now have to hope for the play-offs in March, in which the four losing Nations League quarter-finalists will play out two more participants.
After the 2:1 away win in the first leg against Jamaica, everything initially seemed to go according to plan in the second encounter: Bayern professional Davies gave the hosts a 1-0 lead at the break with his 15th international goal. But things changed in a wild second half in front of 17,588 spectators in Toronto.
Shamar Nicholson’s double strike (62nd/66th) was immediately countered by Ismael Koné, who made it 2:2 (69th) following Davies’ assist. However, a controversial handball penalty, which also survived the VAR check and was converted by Bobby de Cordova-Reid (78′), finally put the visitors on the road to victory. Even a late overtime after Demarai Gray was shown a yellow card (84′) did not help Canada
The eleventh minute of stoppage time and the penalty shoot-out save Mexico
Mexico, on the other hand, avoided a similar shock in dramatic fashion. Against Honduras, the world number 12 equalized the 2-0 defeat from the first leg with a goal from West Ham professional Edson Alvarez in the eleventh minute of stoppage time and then retained the upper hand in the penalty shoot-out. Cesar Huerta was allowed to take the ultimately decisive penalty to make it 4:2 three times because keeper Edrick Menjivar had twice left his goal line too early
In the Nations League Finals, Mexico will now face Panama in the semi-finals in March, while Jamaica will take on defending champions USA. Even more valuable for the four teams, however, is confirmation of their participation in the Copa America
