The soccer rivalry between the United States and Canada is thriving — in the women’s game, anyway, with the world champion Americans and FIFA’s seventh-ranked team mixing it up.
That’s not so much the case on the men’s side, where the countries have met in formal competition just six times in almost 40 years. That will change over the next five weeks with two matches that will decide first place in Group A in the Concacaf Nations League, an inaugural tournament with several implications.
The first clash is Tuesday in Toronto. Canada will enter with two victories over Cuba while the United States is coming off a 7-0 rout of the Cubans in its tournament opener Friday in Washington.