{"id":106997,"date":"2026-06-28T04:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T04:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/106997\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T04:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T04:24:09","slug":"shaffelburg-choiniere-eustaquio-and-team-canada-face-south-africa-in-world-cup-round-of-32","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/106997\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaffelburg, Choini\u00e8re, Eust\u00e1quio and Team Canada Face South Africa in World Cup Round of 32"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n      SOUTH AFRICA VS. CANADA<\/p>\n<p>Sunday, June 28<br \/>12:00 p.m. PT<br \/>SoFi Stadium (Los Angeles Stadium)<br \/>FIFA World Cup &#8211; Round of 32<\/p>\n<p>Watch: FOX, Telemundo, Peacock  <\/p>\n<p>Canada and South Africa will be playing in the knockout stage of a men&#8217;s World Cup for the first time in their respective histories. Sunday\u2019s winner moves on to face the winner of Monday\u2019s Netherlands-Morocco match in a Round of 16 matchup scheduled for July 4 in Houston.  <\/p>\n<p>Tournament co-host Canada &#8211; featuring three LAFC players, Jacob Shaffelburg, Mathieu Choini\u00e8re, and Stephen Eust\u00e1quio\u00a0 &#8211; enters the match after finishing second in Group B.<\/p>\n<p>South Africa surprised the tournament by securing their Round-of-32 spot with a 1-0 win over South Korea to finish second in Group A.<\/p>\n<p>Canada scored eight goals in their three group-stage matches, including six versus Qatar. Their 2-1 loss to Switzerland cost Canada the top spot in the group, but the Canadian attack, led by striker Jonathan David, has proven itself World Cup worthy. Canada will miss midfielder Isma\u00ebl Kon\u00e9, who suffered a tournament-ending injury against Qatar. LAFC midfielder Choini\u00e8re could be called upon to help fill Kon\u00e9\u2019s role.<\/p>\n<p>LAFC midfielder Eust\u00e1quio has started two of Canada\u2019s three matches thus far, playing 212 minutes and leading the team in passes (168) and touches (218).<\/p>\n<p>Shaffelburg nearly became the third player in Black &amp; Gold history to score a World Cup goal while under contract with LAFC, but his acrobatic finish against Qatar was ruled an own goal after video review. \u201cShaff\u201d made an impact off the bench in all three of Canada\u2019s group-stage matches, playing 75 total minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Canada superstar Alphonso Davies has yet to make his debut at this year&#8217;s World Cup. The Bayern Munich fullback has returned from injury and was expected to play against Switzerland; after that match Canada manager Jesse Marsch said, &#8220;I think Alphonso Davies will be ready to go next game.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p>Former LAFC goalkeeper Maxime Cr\u00e9peau, who helped the Black &amp; Gold to the 2022 MLS Cup title, is expected to make his fourth start in goal for Canada in this tournament.<\/p>\n<p>\n      REMAINING WORLD CUP MATCHES AT SOFI STADIUM<\/p>\n<p>Round of 32:<br \/>Sun. June 28 \u2013 South Africa vs. Canada<br \/>Thu. July 2 \u2013 Spain vs. TBD<\/p>\n<p>Quarterfinals:<br \/>Fri. July 10 \u2013 [Teams TBD]<\/p>\n<p>LAFC will be back in action on Friday, July 17, when the Black &amp; Gold travels to Carson to face the Galaxy at Dignity Health Sports Park. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:45 p.m. PT. All MLS matches are broadcast on Apple TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOUTH AFRICA VS. CANADA Sunday, June 2812:00 p.m. PTSoFi Stadium (Los Angeles Stadium)FIFA World Cup &#8211; Round of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,37961,27291,28203,116,27744],"class_list":["post-106997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-canada","tag-fifa-world-cup-26","tag-jacob-shaffelburg","tag-mathieu-choiniere","tag-news","tag-stephen-eustaquio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}