1-1 draw in Toronto Friday<\/a>, the first ever World Cup match played on Canadian soil.<\/p>\nJust over 3,000 kilometres away, in Ajax, Ont., locals will be cheering on one of their own at Derek Cornelius Square, a.k.a. Pat Bayly Square, temporarily renamed after the hometown star centreback.<\/p>\n
Alyssa Cornelius, David\u2019s sister, says she grew up playing with her brother on the fields behind the square, and will be among the crowd at the outdoor watch party there Thursday.<\/p>\n
“It’s a crazy moment, and it’s an exciting moment to see our town rally behind him,” she told CBC Radio\u2019s Metro Morning Thursday.<\/p>\n
“Everyone’s like, you guys must be so proud, and we’re like, yeah, and come to the watch party!” she said. “I’m already wearing my Canada jersey. We’re ready to go. My daughter has hers, my husband has his. We’re ready to celebrate at Derek Cornelius Square.”<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a chance of showers in the forecast all day, but other outdoor watch parties are also planned across the Greater Toronto Area for the big match, including the FIFA Fan Festival at Fort York, Canada Soccer House at Harbourfront Centre and the big screen at Nathan Phillips Square (with Mayor Olivia Chow planning to attend).<\/p>\n
The opening time of the FIFA Fan Festival is delayed until 4 p.m. Thursday due to the weather, FIFA World Cup 26 Toronto said in a social media post.<\/p>\n
Canada stars returning, goldfish predicts win<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s match is close to a must-win for Canada, as the national team looks to make it through to the knockout stage for the first time in the history of the tournament. Every team in Canada\u2019s group is tied in points, and higher-seeded Switzerland is waiting in the wings for the final group stage match next week.<\/p>\n
And though Canada’s national team has never recorded a win at the World Cup, there\u2019s good news for the club heading into the match.<\/p>\n
Some welcome star power will be returning to the roster Thursday night. Team captain Alphonso Davies will be available after missing the first match with a hamstring strain. Defender Mo\u00efse Bombito, who broke his leg in October, will also be back.<\/p>\n
And most importantly, the club got a big boost Thursday morning, as one of Toronto\u2019s most trusted soccer pundits picked the national club to top Qatar: Swimbappe, the city’s soccer-oracle goldfish, swam to Canada\u2019s side of the tank Thursday morning, predicting a win for the red-and-white.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a nail-biting draw at Toronto Stadium last week, Team Canada is across the country in Vancouver Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[16174,17,27297,35176,2764,33345,27287,23415,4080,35177,541,6371,2019,48,30496,3543],"class_list":["post-94021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-alphonso-davies","tag-canada","tag-derek-cornelius","tag-derek-cornelius-square","tag-greater-toronto-area","tag-match","tag-moise-bombito","tag-nathan-phillips-square","tag-olivia-chow","tag-pat-bayly-square","tag-qatar","tag-switzerland","tag-team-canada","tag-toronto","tag-watch-parties","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94021","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=94021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}