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The Canadians avoided No. 58 Saudi Arabia, the lone guest team in the 16-country field.

The 18th edition of the CONCACAF championship runs June 14 to July 6, spanning 14 stadiums across 11 metropolitan areas in the U.S. and Canada. 

The tournament is coming to Canada for a third time with Toronto's BMO Field having staged games in 2015 and 2023. This time Vancouver will be a host city.

After round-robin play June 14-24, the four group winners and four runners-up move on to the knockout stage, with quarterfinals scheduled for June 28-29, followed by the semifinals July 2 and final July 6 at Houston's NRG Stadium.

Mexico, Canada, Panama and the U.S., as the top teams in the CONCACAF rankings, were seeded and kept part in different groups.

Group A consists of No. 17 Mexico, No. 54 Costa Rica, No. 137 Suriname and No. 139 Dominican Republic while Group C is made up of No. 33 Panama, No. 63 Jamaica, No. 106 Guatemala and unranked Guadeloupe. Group D features the 16th-ranked U.S., No. 83 Haiti, No. 100 Trinidad and Tobago and Saudi Arabia.

Should Canada win its group, it would face the runner-up in Group C in the quarterfinals while the second-place team in B faces the C winner.

Canada will be without coach Jesse Marsch for its opening game at the tournament. Marsch was sent off in the CONCACAF Nations League third-place game in March and has to serve a one-game ban.

The Canadian men are 9-13-7 all-time against Honduras, winning 4-1 the last time they met in March 2023 at BMO Field. They are 10-5-4 against El Salvador, winning 3-0 and 2-0 when they met in September 2021 and February 2022.

Canada has won all three meetings with Curaçao, including a 2-0 decision the last time they met in CONCACAF Nations League play in March 2023. That game was Canada's first after the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Mexico is the current Gold Cup champion, having defeated Panama 1-0 in the 2023 final for its record ninth Gold Cup title. The U.S. has lifted the trophy seven times and Canada once, in 2000.

The Canadian men lost to the U.S. in a quarterfinal penalty shootout last time out, at the 2023 tournament.

Canada finished third in 2002 and was a losing semifinalist in 2007 and 2021, beaten by the U.S., and Mexico, respectively.

Canada, the U.S, Mexico, Panama, El Salvador, Haiti, Curaçao and the Dominican Republic, qualified for this year's tournament via the 2024-25 CONCACAF Nations League. 

Costa Rica, Jamaica, Honduras, Trinidad and Tobago, Guatemala, Suriname and Guadeloupe booked their tickets by winning two-legged qualifying playoffs.

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This report by °µÍø½ûÇø was first published April 10, 2025