Canada, South Africa face historic World Cup knockout debut

South Africa and Canada opened a new chapter in World Cup history on Sunday at Los Angeles Stadium, with both sides making their first appearance in a knockout match and the winner moving on to the Round of 16. FIFA scheduled the first-ever Round of 32 game in the men’s tournament for 12:00 in Los Angeles, 15:00 in Ottawa and 21:00 in Pretoria, turning SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, into the stage for a debut that carried both pressure and possibility.

Canada arrived after finishing second in Group B, drawing Bosnia and Herzegovina, beating Qatar 6-0 and losing to Switzerland in its final group match. Jesse Marsch’s side had the better-known European-based names, with Tajon Buchanan, Alphonso Davies and Jonathan David forming the edge of a lineup built to control games rather than chase them. Yet the country entered the round of 32 with the same uncertainty as South Africa: neither had ever played a World Cup knockout match before.

That made Bafana Bafana’s route to Los Angeles more resonant. South Africa sealed its place with a 1-0 victory over South Korea on June 25, then carried into this match the sense of a team playing with nothing to lose. The national team had previously appeared at the World Cup in 1998, 2002 and 2010 and never advanced beyond the group stage. In 2010, South Africa also hosted the tournament, the first World Cup held on African soil, but this latest run gave the squad a different kind of landmark: its first chance to keep playing after the groups.

FIFA’s match preview highlighted that contrast by placing South Africa’s Ronwen Williams, Relebohile Mofokeng and Thapelo Maseko alongside Canada’s Buchanan, Davies and Jonathan David in projected lineups. The pairing underscored what has made this World Cup feel different in Los Angeles, where an underdog team can arrive singing, dancing and unburdened, then leave a crowd wondering whether the expected script still holds.

The 2026 tournament itself has widened the frame. It is the first 48-team World Cup and features 104 matches, with the final set for July 19 at New York New Jersey Stadium. But on this day, all of that expansion narrowed to one match in Inglewood, where South Africa’s joyful entrance met Canada’s own bid to make history for the first time.