The Canadian team will play next Sunday in the Gold Cup against Martinique. The Maple Leaf group took a hit with the news that it won’t be showing off its star Alphonso Davies in competition. The player injured his ankle during training this week and is back at Bayern Munich. The Canadian team coach accepts that they will have to adapt to losing Davis.
“It’s a good opportunity for us, I spoke with the leaders and told them we have to face the moment. Looking at the stats, Alfonso makes 50 percent of the finishing touches, the crosses, the attacks, and that amounts to a lot of our offensive operations. Without him, we’re going to have to be more creative in Dealing with the tactical elements, but this will give the other players another chance to take responsibility,” the Canadian coach shared, John Herdman.
Davies helped Canada reach the quarter-finals in the previous two editions he participated in, in 2017 and 2019. In his debut in 2017, he was named Young Player of the Tournament.
“You can never guarantee your best players in these tournaments, we’ve seen it in many teams like the Dane with (Christian) Eriksen, who could have foreseen that,” Herdmann said. “With these kinds of injuries, sometimes the recovery is quick, sometimes it isn’t. Unfortunately, it will take longer than expected. He has high priorities, the first with us in September in the World Cup qualifiers and the second with aspirations with his club. It is disappointing the way it happened. It does, but I hope it opens the door for someone else to take center stage.”
Canada has a group of young players dubbed the “golden generation” hoping to surprise the tournament despite losing their most important man.