Were Maxime Crépeau's CanMNT performances strong enough to earn #1 role for World Cup?
After months of deliberation, a decision has finally been made - Maxime Crépeau will be the CanMNT’s starting goalkeeper when they face Bosnia & Herzegovina in their World Cup opener at Toronto Stadium on June 12th.
Ahead of the CanMNT’s final pre-World Cup friendly, which comes against the Republic of Ireland in Montréal on Friday, Canadian head coach Jesse Marsch took the time to announce that Crépeau would be Canada’s #1 goalkeeper for this tournament.
WE'VE GOT A GOALKEEPER ✅
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) June 4, 2026
After much deliberation, Jesse Marsch reveals Maxime Crépeau will start on Friday vs. Republic of Ireland, and, thus, will start for the CanMNT 🇨🇦 at the World Cup 🧤
Marsch: "This is the hardest decision I've had to make in my coaching career" pic.twitter.com/jnMWXfUrPG
Despite a valiant push from Dayne St. Clair, Marsch has decided to go for the experience of Crépeau, who became a Canadian fan-favourite with his heroics during Canada’s run to the 2024 Copa América semi-finals, to start this 2026 World Cup as Canada’s #1. It wasn’t an easy choice, which is why Marsch has left it until the last minute, but as Marsch has said over the last few months, he felt that he couldn’t make a bad decision - such is his respect for both players.
Maxime Crépeau comes up big 🧤
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) June 2, 2026
🔴 Watch #CanMNT on OneSoccer pic.twitter.com/mwf54sr6Nz
Returning to Crépeau, however, it’s worth noting how much of a full-circle moment this is for the 32-year-old. It can’t be forgotten that he missed out on the 2022 World Cup after breaking his leg less than a month before that tournament, so it’s a credit to him that he’s been able to recover from that injury and find a way to earn this starting role at the next World Cup. There was a reality where that injury derailed his chance of ever playing in a tournament like this, so it’s a credit to him that he was able to bounce back from it the way he did.
You add in the fact that he found out the news while Canada trains in his home province ahead of this Ireland friendly, doing so at the facilities of the club whose academy Crépeau came up through as a youngster, and that’s another layer to this story (especially when considering that it was none other than Marsch who signed Crépeau to his first professional contract when he was then the Montréal Impact’s coach).
Now, Crépeau will look to show why he was chosen and deliver the sort of performances he did for Canada in the summer of 2024, as they look to shock with a similar Cinderella run at this upcoming World Cup. 
With this decision now made, however, it’s interesting to dive into a few questions that come up when evaluating what this means for the CanMNT.
For example, has Crépeau shown enough in his performances with the CanMNT to merit earning this role despite having a rocky last 18 months at the club level, especially when considering the performances that St. Clair, who won the 2025 MLS Goalkeeper of the Year award, was putting in over that same span?
For those who prefer to use form over familiarity as a metric to evaluate National Team players, there was a large chunk of time where St. Clair was the favourite to become Canada’s #1.
To that point, though, it makes it interesting to dive into how both have actually performed for Canada, as that’s arguably the most important thing to evaluate in this scenario - especially when considering the moves that both made in the winter, with Crépeau joining Orlando City and St. Clair joining Inter Miami, as those transfers brought certain challenges that have prevented both from playing to their best level (further murkying this debate).
With Canada’s clearly defined style of play under Marsch, that changes the equation for both goalkeepers, who had to prove that they were able to fit into their team’s aggressive, high-pressing style as much as anything.
When doing that, it’s very interesting to see the data from the games each have played under Marsch.
Fittingly, both have earned a robust sample of games to prove themselves - each has started 15 matches under Marsch, with Crépeau playing 14.5 of the 30 games Canada has played since their coach’s arrival, and St. Clair 15.5 of 30 (they each played a half in Canada’s friendly against Uzbekistan this week, hence the .5).
Across those games, Crépeau has conceded 10 goals on 49 shots, making 39 saves (giving him a save percentage of 79.5%) and keeping seven clean sheets, while St. Clair has conceded 13 goals on 44 shots, making 31 saves (giving him a save percentage of 70.4%) and keeping eight clean sheets (they also kept a collective clean sheet against Uzbekistan, but that’s not reflected in this data).
It must be said that both numbers are both quite good, although that shows the first area where Crépeau has had an edge, as his raw shot-stopping numbers look quite good - if he were saving 79.5% of his shots in MLS play, he’d be the best goalkeeper in the league by that metric in 2026.
DENIED 🙅♂️#CanMNT 🇨🇦 GK Maxime Crépeau make a HUGE stop on Oleksandr Zinchenko's chipped effort 🚫
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) June 7, 2025
🔴 Watch LIVE on OneSoccer & TSN pic.twitter.com/7diS2D8vyY
With that in mind, however, it’s then worth diving into the advanced data to see if Crépeau’s metrics look better or worse depending on the shot quality both have faced in those games. Sometimes, a goalkeeper's save percentage can be altered by the environment around them.
For example, one popular metric is to use for goalkeepers xGOT (expected goals on target), which is a metric that takes into account the quality of shots that a goalkeeper faces.
For Canada, WyScout has the xGOT data of 28 out of 30 of the games that they’ve played under Marsch - fittingly, Crépeau and St. Clair each started one of the two games missing on record, as Crépeau played in a 2-1 win over Panama in October 2024 that wasn’t tracked, while St. Clair was in the net for a 0-0 draw vs. Côte d’Ivoire that also wasn’t tracked.
For what it’s worth, that missing data doesn’t mess with the xGOT data too much. Against Panama, Crépeau only faced one shot, which was a breakaway that Panama scored, while St. Clair also only faced one shot against Côte d’Ivoire, which was a free kick from distance.
At the same time, as is the case with any statistical discourse, it’s open to disclose that dataset is missing from those games, which might’ve been more relevant for some of the other advanced metrics that WyScout has available to them, in particular, such as recoveries and exits (OPTA counts recoveries, but they have a different qualification for them, so it would’ve skewed the data to include them). 
For those curious, here's how Crépeau and St. Clair stacked up in various goalkeeper categories while playing for the CanMNT under Jesse Marsch. As mentioned earlier, Crépeau is without his numbers from his start vs. Panama, and St. Clair is without his numbers from his start vs. Côte d'Ivoire (WyScout)
With that in mind, Crépeau has faced 12.17 xGOT in the 13.5 games he has on record, while St. Clair has faced 13.48 xGOT in his 14.5 games on record, meaning that Crépeau is overperforming his xGOT by 2.17 and St. Clair by 0.48.
MEMORABLE MOMENT ✨
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) April 21, 2026
Presented by @telus
Max Crépeau's incredible save WITH HIS FACE kept the CanMNT 🇨🇦 leading vs. Romania 🇷🇴 en route to their 1st win in Europe in 14 years 😎
What's your favourite Crépeau moment? 👀 pic.twitter.com/5ZNaZHd8FS
Interestingly, for those wondering about the cumulative quality of shots faced by each, by the way, a large chunk of St. Clair’s xGOT came from one game, as he faced 4.4 xGOT in a 4-0 loss to the Netherlands in Marsch’s debut in June 2024 - otherwise, he had no other game on record where he faced more than 1.3 xGOT. Crépeau, meanwhile, had no game as difficult as that Netherlands game, statistically, as his busiest game saw him face 2.55 xGOT against Argentina in the 2024 Copa América opener, although he had two other games where he faced more than 1.3 xGOT - he saw 1.41 xGOT in a friendly against the United States in September 2024, and 2.5 xGOT in a friendly against Ukraine in June 2025.
Once again, when looking at those metrics, it shows that both goalkeepers have been good shot-stoppers for Canada by the advanced numbers, but much like with the raw save numbers, Crépeau’s metrics give him a slight edge here.
Maxime Crepeau comes up HUGE on Kylian Mbappe late and the #CanMNT 🇨🇦 pick up a 0-0 draw vs. France 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/RJCMRKc3xQ
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) June 9, 2024
Of course, when playing for a team that plays Marsch’s system, shot-stopping is only part of the equation when it comes to being a successful goalkeeper. With the high line and aggressive pressing system that Marsch employs, goalkeepers need to be willing to come out of the net to play as a sweeper, which asks them to be assertive and decisive with their decision-making.
There, things are quite close, as Crépeau has 50 recoveries and nine exits (defined as the number of events leaving their line normalized per 90 minutes), while St. Clair has 48 recoveries and eight exits.
Yet, when considering that Crépeau’s per-90 numbers are a bit stronger (since he’s played one fewer game for Canada under Marsch), it once again gives him the slight edge in this category, too.
Lastly, the big number to look at is what both do on the ball, as goalkeepers need to be good with the ball at their feet in the modern game. In Marsch’s system, they don’t need to be maestros, but they are asked to play with the ball a bit.
There, Crépeau has completed 170/200 total passes (85%), including 32/58 long balls (55%), while St. Clair has completed 181/217 total passes (83%), including 42/72 long balls (58%), which is interesting to see. What that shows is that the edge in that category is split, as it’s important for goalkeepers to retain possession the way Crépeau has done, but St. Clair’s edge in long balls isn’t insignificant given that Marsch’s system sometimes requires players to be direct in their build-up play.
Overall, though, when considering the four categories - basic shot-stopping metrics, advanced shot-stopping metrics, sweeping and passing - Crépeau has a slight edge in three of the categories, while the fourth is split between the two, which perhaps helps show why he was selected as Canada’s #1 goalkeeper in the end.
Here's the individual game-by-game numbers for Crépeau under Marsch, with the advanced stats vs. Panama absent (WyScout)
Those numbers also show why it was as close as it was - when factoring in that St. Clair was by far the better goalkeeper at the club level in 2025 (even if they've both been playing similarly since changing clubs), it shows why Marsch deliberated this decision as long as he did. No matter which choice he made, there were pros and cons to consider.
Here's the individual game-by-game numbers for St. Clair under Marsch, with the advanced stats vs. Côte d'Ivoire absent (WyScout)
In the end, though, he’s chosen to bank on the body of work that Crépeau has built up in a Canadian shirt, and he’ll now hope that the veteran goalkeeper can recapture the sort of magic that had him in conversations with players like Emiliano Martínez for two weeks in 2024.
As seen here, however, if things don’t go to plan, it’s encouraging that St. Clair’s metrics for Canada aren’t that far behind Crépeau’s, as he’ll be ready to step in if needed.
For now, though, look for Crépeau to reward the faith Marsch has placed in him with this decision, helping put the noise that has surrounded this decision to rest.
