Haiti vs Canada

Haiti and Canada continue their 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup campaign at Children’s Mercy Park, with the sides experiencing contrasting fortunes in their opening group stage fixtures.

Haiti’s 2021 Gold Cup group stage journey started with a narrow 1-0 defeat to the United States. Haiti’s path to Group B saw them hammer Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 6-1 in the preliminary semi-finals before an overwhelming 4-1 triumph over Bermuda in the play-off final. Curiously, since being held to a 1-1 draw to Costa Rica in the CONCACAF Nations League in November 2019, none of Haiti’s subsequent eight matches have ended level (W5, L3), with six of those results win/loss seeing the winner on the day keep a clean sheet. Topically, ‘Les Grenadiers’ have lost six of their seven competitive meetings with Canada (W1) since a 1-1 stalemate in a World Cup qualifier back in November 1981, including the last two in a row by an aggregate score of 4-0.

Meanwhile, Canada swept aside the section minnows Martinique 4-1 in their tournament curtain-raiser. Three of their four strikes in the abovementioned triumph came within the opening 30 minutes of play, highlighting the potential for action-packed football from the get-go. The Canadians have established themselves as a force to be reckoned with since the calendar flipped to 2021, winning all seven competitive fixtures by an aggregate scoreline of 35-2. That sequence also includes a 3-0 thumping of Haiti in a World Cup qualifier in mid-June. Going back to a scoreless stalemate with Honduras in the 2017 Gold Cup, the ‘Canucks’ have not drawn any of their subsequent 27 games in all competitions, including friendlies (W21, L6). If John Herdman’s men win here, it may well be a landslide victory, considering nine of their last ten triumphs have yielded a winning margin of 2+ goals.