The Canadian men’s national team had never played Qatar before today. Interestingly enough, in 2015 an U-15 match was played, Alphonso Davies and Jonathan David scoring for Canada in a 2-0 win. Today was almost a carbon copy repeat of that youth game with the same result and David scoring Canada’s second goal.
Today’s game was Canada’s first test against non-CONCACAF competition since January 2020. Les Rouges faced the upcoming World Cup hosts, where all of Qatar’s players line up in the domestic Qatar Stars League, and with about 80% of the squad belonging to just two clubs; Al-Duhail Doha, and Al Sadd SC.