{"id":215336,"date":"2026-06-29T12:07:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T12:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/who-will-canada-play-in-round-of-16-potential-world-cup-opponents-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T12:07:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T12:07:44","slug":"who-will-canada-play-in-round-of-16-potential-world-cup-opponents-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/who-will-canada-play-in-round-of-16-potential-world-cup-opponents-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Who will Canada play in round of 16? Potential World Cup opponents – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

O Canada<\/a>.
For the first time, the Canadian men’s national soccer team<\/a> has won a knockout round match at a World Cup<\/a>.
Canada beat South Africa 1-0 to open the 2026 World Cup’s round of 32<\/a>. The contest initially appeared destined for extra time, but a Stephen Eusta\u0301quio goal in stoppage time<\/a> helped power Les Rouges to their historic victory.
The Canadians earned their victory despite losing the home-field advantage that originally came with being a co-host nation at the 2026 World Cup.
Because Canada finished as the runner-up in Group B<\/a>, it had to leave home soil and travel to the United States to face South Africa. The Group B winners, Switzerland<\/a>, instead earned the right to play a match in Vancouver, while Canada became the first-ever World Cup host nation to play a contest outside of their country.
Nonetheless, Canada overcame that challenge and has become the first team to make it through to the tournament’s round of 16.
Who will Canada play in that contest? Here’s what to know about Canada’s potential round of 16 opponents as well as the date, time and location of the match:
Canada will play either the Netherlands<\/a> or Morocco<\/a> in the round of 16.
Neither opponent presents an easy match for Canada, especially since the Canucks won’t have home-field advantage in that contest. Morocco and the Netherlands are two squads with high hopes and even bigger expectations, meaning both would be favored in the round of 16.
The Dutch topped Group F without suffering a defeat in the group stage. The Netherlands recovered with two convincing victories after a thrilling draw against Japan in the opener.
Morocco is in a similar boat, riding a two-game winning streak into the round of 32 after a draw in the first match against Brazil.
All of that sets up for a road that is far from easy for Canada.
Canada will play its round of 16 match on July 4.
Canada’s round of 16 match will be played at 1 p.m. ET.
Canada’s round of 16 match will be played at NRG Stadium in Houston. The home of the NFL’s Houston Texans, the venue is currently known as Houston Stadium due to FIFA sponsorship stipulations.
USA TODAY Sports’ Jacob Camenker also contributed to this report.<\/em>
Our editors independently choose our recommendations. Some content is produced with paid support from a third party, however our editorial decisions remain independent. If you buy through our links, the USA TODAY Network may earn a commission. Prices and availability may change.<\/em><\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

O Canada.For the first time, the Canadian men’s national soccer team has won a knockout round match at a World Cup.Canada beat South Africa 1-0 to open the 2026 World Cup’s round of 32. The contest initially appeared destined for extra time, but a Stephen Eusta\u0301quio goal in stoppage time helped power Les Rouges to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":215337,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-215336","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}