Osorio and Nelson seal a clean-sheet win for Canada over Uzbekistan
Canada are finding their rhythm at the right time. On a wet night in Edmonton on June 1, the World Cup co-hosts beat Uzbekistan 2-0 at a rain-soaked Commonwealth Stadium, with Jonathan Osorio breaking the deadlock midway through the second half and Jayden Nelson sealing it deep into stoppage time. With the tournament opener now less than a fortnight away, it was the kind of controlled, clean-sheet win Jesse Marsch will have wanted.
Osorio breaks a stubborn Uzbekistan
For an hour this had the feel of a typical pre-tournament friendly, scrappy in the rain and short on clear chances. Uzbekistan, who have qualified for their first ever World Cup, defended in numbers and made Canada work for openings. The breakthrough came in the 58th minute through Osorio, the Toronto FC veteran who has been part of the Canadian setup for over a decade, finishing from close range after Tani Oluwaseyi picked him out.
Once ahead, Canada looked the more likely to add to the score, and they got the second in the first minute of stoppage time when Nelson finished off a move to make it 2-0. For a player still fighting to nail down his place in the final World Cup squad, the timing of the goal could hardly have been better.
A co-host building momentum
Canada have not lost their footing in this build-up. They drew with Iceland and Tunisia during the previous international window, so turning those stalemates into a clean-sheet win over Uzbekistan gives Marsch a settled look at the back as he trims his group. The conditions were hardly ideal for slick football, but a co-host wants to head into a home World Cup with a defence that holds, and Canada have kept the door shut again.
The squad questions are at the margins now rather than in the spine of the team, which is roughly where Marsch would want to be with the opener approaching. After signing a new contract that runs to 2030, the American has the security to make his calls without second-guessing.
Toronto opener looms
Canada open the World Cup on June 12 against Bosnia and Herzegovina at BMO Field in Toronto, the first of three group matches on home soil. They have been drawn in Group B alongside Bosnia, Qatar and Switzerland, before heading west to Vancouver for the remaining fixtures. A side that drew its last two is finding a cutting edge at the moment that counts, and for a country co-hosting its first home World Cup, that timing matters.
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