{"id":67101,"date":"2026-05-30T01:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T01:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/67101\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T01:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T01:48:10","slug":"joel-waterman-world-cup-profile-canada-chicago-fire-defender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/67101\/","title":{"rendered":"Joel Waterman: World Cup profile | Canada &#038; Chicago Fire defender"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Whether starting or coming off the bench, the veteran center back hopes to create memories with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/clubs\/canada\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Canada<\/a> at the 2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/competitions\/fifa-world-cup\/2025\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FIFA World Cup<\/a> on home soil.<\/p>\n<p>Waterman is one of two MLS defenders on Canada&#8217;s roster, alongside <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/players\/richie-laryea\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Richie Laryea<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/clubs\/toronto-fc\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Toronto FC<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Age: 30<br \/>\nHometown: Langley, British Columbia<\/p>\n<p>\n      MLS background<\/p>\n<p>Waterman is in his seventh MLS season after he joined\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/clubs\/cf-montreal\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CF Montr\u00e9al<\/a> in 2020 from Canadian Premier League side Cavalry FC.<\/p>\n<p>He went on to make 158 appearances (all competitions) for Montr\u00e9al and helped them win the 2021 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/competitions\/canadian-championship\/2025\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Canadian Championship<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Late in 2025, the center back was traded from Montr\u00e9al to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/clubs\/chicago-fire-fc\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chicago Fire FC<\/a>. He has helped Chicago return to the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>\n      Awards &amp; stats<\/p>\n<p>5g\/11a in 146 MLS appearances<br \/>\n2021 Canadian Championship winner<\/p>\n<p>\n      International experience<\/p>\n<p>Despite being an unused substitute at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Waterman has become an important member of Canada&#8217;s squad since head coach Jesse Marsch was appointed in May 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Following the coaching change, Waterman has made 14 of his 17 international appearances, including three caps at the 2025 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/competitions\/gold-cup\/2025\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Concacaf Gold Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\n      World Cup schedule<\/p>\n<p>Canada\u00a0are in Group B alongside Bosnia &amp; Herzegovina, Qatar and Switzerland.<\/p>\n<p>June 12:\u00a0Canada vs. Bosnia &amp; Herzegovina, 3 pm ET | Toronto, Ontario<br \/>\nJune 18:\u00a0Canada vs. Qatar, 6 pm ET | Vancouver, British Columbia<br \/>\nJune 24:\u00a0Canada vs. Switzerland, 3 pm ET | Vancouver, British Columbia<\/p>\n<p>The 2026 World Cup has expanded from the usual 32 nations to 48 total. The top two teams advance from each group, and the top eight third-place finishers also make the knockout phase (Round of 32).<\/p>\n<p>The tournament, which is co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada, spans from June 11 to July 19.<\/p>\n<p>\n      World Cup history<\/p>\n<p>Canada have made two previous World Cup appearances (1986, 2022), exiting at the group stage without a point in each edition.<\/p>\n<p>\n      How Canada qualified<\/p>\n<p>Canada earned automatic qualification as one of three tournament co-hosts, alongside Mexico and the United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whether starting or coming off the bench, the veteran center back hopes to create memories with Canada at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,7305,27755,28202,1072,3543],"class_list":["post-67101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-canada","tag-chicago-fire-fc","tag-joel-waterman","tag-player-profiles","tag-sendtonews","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67101","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=67101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}