SCOUTING REPORT: What should CanMNT expect from Uzbekistan and the Republic of Ireland in final pre-World Cup friendlies?
The CanMNT’s World Cup preparation is about to ramp up in a big way over the next week, as they get set for two crucial pre-tournament friendlies against Uzbekistan and the Republic of Ireland.
Now that they’ve revealed which 26 players they aim to bring to the World Cup (although some late injuries have already shaken up that group), the work is only just beginning for Jesse Marsch’s side, who have just under two weeks to prepare for their tournament opener against Bosnia & Herzegovina at Toronto Stadium on June 12th. 
Here's the CanMNT's World Cup squad, although since this reveal, Marcelo Flores has picked up a knee injury and been ruled out of the tournament
Given the state of their squad, these pre-tournament matches will be extremely valuable to them, as they get the chance to iron out final tactical details and re-spark some chemistry while working some of their players up to full fitness and match sharpness.
Two solid tests await them, but with the chance to play these games at home, this will be a great opportunity to build some hype in front of Canadian crowds and create momentum that can hopefully carry over to the tournament.
Because of that, while the focus in these pre-tournament friendlies is usually on delivering good performances, Canada will hope that they can pick up a victory or two, showing that they’re ready to kick off the World Cup on a strong note.
With that in mind, here’s what you need to know about Canada’s pre-World Cup opponents - and what to expect from this Canadian side in those matches.
Uzbekistan:
To begin, Canada will head to Edmonton to take on Uzbekistan at Commonwealth Stadium on June 1st, in what will be a fascinating test of where this Canadian team is heading into this tournament.
An Uzbekistan side that qualified for their first-ever World Cup this cycle, they’ll enter this match in good spirits, as they get set for their maiden voyage in this tournament.
Having been drawn in Group K with Portugal, Colombia and DR Congo, it won’t be easy for Uzbekistan to make any noise this summer, but they’ll hope that they’re capable of surprising despite that.
Certainly, they did well to shock teams in AFC World Cup qualifying, navigating their way through a tough process to take advantage of the extra spots afforded to the region thanks to the expansion of the main tournament to 48 teams.
After entering the second round of qualifiers, they managed to cruise through a group with Iran, Turkmenistan and Hong Kong, picking up an impressive 14 points in six games (4W-2D-0L) to finish tied atop the group with Iran, allowing them to comfortably proceed to the next stage. Then, in the third round, they finished second in a group with Iran, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kyrgyzstan and North Korea after accumulating an impressive 21 points (6W-3D-1L) in 10 games, allowing them to qualify automatically at the earliest possible stage.
Yet, that’s what’s most remarkable about Uzbekistan’s qualification. While, in theory, they appeared to be the exact sort of nation expected to take advantage of the World Cup’s expansion, it could be argued that they were good enough to qualify under the old format, as they had the fourth-best performance of any team in the third round. For context, the old AFC format saw four teams qualify directly, and a fifth qualify for the intercontinental playoff, whereas this format saw eight teams qualify directly, and a ninth head to the intercontinental playoff.
Because of that, it’ll be fascinating to see if they can build on what they did during qualifying, where they took a huge step forward as a group. Having done a good job of improving their results at the U17 and U20 levels over the last few years, this has been a long time coming for Uzbekistan, who can now look at this World Cup qualification as the fruit of the labour they’ve put into developing this program from top to bottom.
They know it won’t be easy to get results at the World Cup, as it’s always difficult for debutants to immediately leave their mark, but they’ve certainly put themselves in a decent position to make some noise.
In particular, it stands out that after securing qualification to the World Cup last June, they decided to switch managers, hiring former 2006 World Cup winner, Fabio Cannavaro, to lead the team into the World Cup. It was a bold move, given the work that previous manager Timur Kapadze, who had over 100 caps for Uzbekistan as a player, did to help his team qualify, but Uzbekistan will be banking on Cannavaro’s experience in this tournament to help the team surprise as debutants.
So far, Cannavaro hasn’t done too badly since getting hired, either, with wins over Egypt and Gabon, draws against Venezuela and Iran, and a narrow defeat to Uruguay standing out, but he’ll ultimately be judged on his performance at the World Cup.
Speaking of that tournament, though, it’s worth noting that if Uzbekistan are to have any success there, they’ll need to be solid as a team. They’ve got some standout performers within their ranks, as every international team does, but on paper, they don’t have a whole lot of star power - of the 30 players that made their preliminary squad, just one plays in a top five European league.
🇺🇿 Milliy terma jamoamiz 6–26-may kunlari Toshkentda yig‘in o‘tkazadi.
— O‘zbekiston FA (@UzbekistanFA) May 5, 2026
Yig‘in doirasida Superliga klublariga qarshi yopiq nazorat uchrashuvlari rejalashtirilgan.
Bosh murabbiy Fabio Cannavaro jalb qilgan kengaytirilgan tarkib bilan tanishing. pic.twitter.com/txbL2e7ifg
To be fair, that one player, Abdukodir Khusanov, isn’t doing too badly for himself, as he’s a regular contributor for Premier League giants Manchester City, but as a centre back, he might not stand out as much as other players of his calibre.
Otherwise, though, Uzbekistan has just two other players who are playing outside of Uzbekistan, Iran, UAE, Azerbaijan or Iraq in that list of 30, and that’s the pair of forwards Abbosbek Fayzullaev and Eldor Shomurodov, who both play for Turkish side İstanbul Başakşehir. Granted, both are quite important members of this team, as Shomurodov is Uzbekistan’s all-time top scorer with 44 goals in 90 caps and is the captain of the side, while Fayzullaev already has eight goals in 30 caps as a 22-year-old, so that’s worth noting.
Overall, though, this team is used to playing off each other as a team, anyway - in 16 World Cup qualifying games, they scored 27 goals but conceded just 11, showing that their strength as a team was more on the defensive side of things, hinting at a good collective approach.
Perhaps, though, that explains why they were willing to entrust Cannavaro, an elite defender in his day (it can’t be forgotten that he won the Ballon D’Or in 2006), with this head coaching job, as they wanted to maintain that defensive solidity.
To his credit, in the friendlies his side has played, they’ve remained solid at the back - in the six friendlies on record on WyScout under Cannavaro, they’ve conceded an average of 0.5 goals, 0.98 xG and 9.83 shots per game, which are all excellent defensive numbers. Thanks to an approach that sees them absorb pressure without the ball (they’ve held just 42.95% possession in those six games), they’ve done well to protect their goal and then try to attack the other way - they’ve scored an average of 1.5 goals on 1.75 xG from 10.17 shots per game in those friendlies, with a goal against Uruguay being their biggest offensive highlight.
What that shows, though, is why this should be a fascinating matchup against Canada, who have typically struggled to break down strong defensive teams like this one.
Meanwhile, for Uzbekistan, this will be a good chance to further reinforce their style of play against a good Canadian team, one loaded with strong offensive options, even if this Canadian side hasn’t been able to hit their top level quite consistently enough as a group over the last few years.
Republic of Ireland:
While Canada’s first game will be a good test against a World Cup opponent, their second match, which will be played at Montréal’s Stade Saputo on June 5th, comes against a Republic of Ireland side that narrowly missed out on qualifying for this tournament.
That’s not the worst thing from a Canadian perspective, as they might be in a better position to win that game against an Irish side that might not have as much to play for, but it’ll also put the pressure on the hosts to get a result and prove they’re ready to start the tournament on a high note.
Certainly, just because Ireland isn’t in the World Cup doesn’t mean they’re not a strong team. It can’t be forgotten that it can sometimes be quite difficult to qualify as a European team out of UEFA, where there are a lot of solid teams - just ask four-time World Cup winners Italy, who have now missed this tournament three editions in a row.
Because of that, it’ll be interesting to see what version of Ireland shows up in this friendly - that they beat Qatar, one of Canada’s Group B opponents, in a recent exhibition shows that they’ll be up for a good game.
No doubt, though, they’ll have a twinge of regret about how their qualification campaign went, as after opening their qualifying group with a draw and two losses, they won three games in a row to finish within three points of Portugal, who qualified automatically as group winners. Given that they even beat Portugal, who are one of the favourites to win the World Cup this summer, they showed that they could’ve perhaps been in a position to qualify automatically had they not started so slowly.
Instead, they had to go through the playoffs (which to be fair, they only qualified for on the last day after a dramatic 3-2 win over Hungary), but that’s where they were hit with more heartbreak, as despite taking a 2-0 lead over the Czech Republic in their semi-finals, they lost on penalties after a dramatic comeback from the Czechs, who eventually qualified for the final tournament.
Yet, that was the story of the qualifiers for Ireland - they got agonizingly close, but couldn’t get the job done.
As a result, their wait to return to the World Cup will be another four years, with their qualification for the 1990, 1994 and 2002 tournaments remaining as the lone trio of World Cups they were able to play in.
For what it’s worth, though, as is the case with European teams, they’ll be able to quickly turn their attention to the next European Championships once this summer is over. Having failed to qualify for that tournament in both 2020 and 2024, the pressure will be on them to reach the 2028 tournament, especially after seeing how close they were to reaching the World Cup in this cycle.
Perhaps a strong Euros qualification campaign can spark a good 2030 World Cup journey, showing that while this cycle didn’t end the way they wanted, they could set themselves up to use it as fuel for what’s still to come for them.
Speaking of the 2030 cycle, it’s worth noting that they’ve kept an eye on that when naming their squad for this window, as several regulars missed out after long club seasons. When looking at the list of players called up, it stands out that 15 of the 20 players they called up were 26 or younger, including three 18-year-olds.
Plus, among those 20 called, they’ve done well to take a look at some players at interesting clubs, such as Benfica’s 18-year-old Jaden Umeh, Newcastle United’s 21-year-old Alex Murphy and Tottenham Hotspur’s 18-year-old Mason Melia. Along with key players from the past cycle such as Nathan Collins (Brentford), Troy Parrott (AZ Alkmaar), Jake O’Brien (Everton) and the soon-to-retire Seamus Coleman (Everton), there is still a decent squad even if they’re missing some key regulars.
Shamrock Rovers' Matt Healy and St. Patrick's Athletic's Kian Leavy have both received their first call-ups in the latest Ireland squad update ahead of our clash with Canada.
— Ireland Football ⚽️🇮🇪 (@IrelandFootball) May 30, 2026
16-year-old Josh O'Dwyer, who is joining Red Bull Salzburg from Shamrock Rovers, will also travel with… pic.twitter.com/Dv2YlgVUbe
Coached by a familiar face to the CanMNT in Heimir Hallgrímsson, who faced off against them a few times when coaching Jamaica between 2022 and 2024 (famously beating Canada in a Concacaf Nations League quarter-final in 2023), they’ll be a solid and tough unit as they usually are.
But once again, like with Uzbekistan, you can see why Canada chose Ireland as an opponent, even despite not qualifying for the World Cup, when looking at their statistical profile.
Fittingly, as is the case with Hallgrímsson-coached teams (who is most famous for his exploits with his home nation of Iceland between 2013 and 2018), they’re a team that sits back (averaging 46% possession in the last year), preferring to play on the counter-attack.
Because of that, this matchup will once again be a good test for Canada to see how they can do against a side that sits back, which will be a big priority across these two friendlies.
Canada:
Speaking of this Canadian side, however, when looking at the other two opponents, you can see why they scheduled these games.
While they might not be the most enticing games on paper, especially compared to some of the matches their fellow co-hosts, the US and Mexico, are playing over the next few weeks, these two games will offer a good look at what Canada needs to expect in their World Cup group.
On paper, this Uzbekistan game will hopefully offer a good comparison for Canada when they take on another AFC side in Qatar in what is going to be a massive game for them, while Ireland will hopefully offer a good parallel to what Canada should expect from another UEFA side, Bosnia & Herzegovina, in their World Cup opener. By playing teams from similar confederations who have similar styles of play, that will hopefully prepare Canada for what’s to come in those games.
That’s huge, because with the way the group stage is set up for Canada, they’ll need to get the job done against both Bosnia & Herzegovina and Qatar to have any chance at winning their group when they take on Switzerland in their final match. Ideally, they enter that Switzerland match with four or six points in their pocket and qualification to the next round already secured, instead of entering that match needing a win to reach the knockout stage.
Because of that, look for Canada to build on what they’ve done well as of late, which is to remain solid defensively (even despite all of the injuries they’ve dealt with at the back), and find a way to get their mojo back offensively while improving their ability to break down low blocks.
If they can do that while building up the fitness of key players such as Moïse Bombito, Derek Cornelius and Ali Ahmed, and also finalize the last lineup questions they face, this will be a successful week.
As said earlier, this week won’t make or break Canada’s World Cup hopes - several teams have had poor pre-tournament camps and gone on to do well at the tournament, and vice versa - but it can certainly set the tone for what’s to come. And given the way this Canadian team plays, which is always to put their foot pedal to the medal, they will undoubtedly want to set the tone in these games, so look for them to come out flying and make the most of their last opportunity to fine-tune themselves before they dive into what will be the biggest games in the program’s history.
