USA Too Strong For Canada In 2023 CONCACAF Nations League Final
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By Kaus Pandey
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Summary
- Canada and USA battled it out in the CONCACAF Nations League final
- USA dominated Canada to win the final 2-0
- The USA have retained their CONCACAF Nations League Trophy
Canadian soccer fans threw their full support behind Team Canada who made it to the CONCACAF Nations League final. They took on the United States who are the defending champs on 18 June at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Canada Beaten 2-0 By Defending Champs
The USA won the last CONCACAF Nations League final which took place in 2021. They were favorites to the final as they have played great football throughout the tournament and ended up making the finals with an impressive 3-0 win over Mexico in the semi-finals. Mexico is always a tough team to beat and the US took a lot of confidence into the final with their impressive win over Mexico.
Canada made it to the semi-finals by defeating Panama 2-0 and knew their toughest test would be to beat the US. The Canadian team have showed a lot of promise during the 2023 CONCACAF Nations League as they put together their best performance in 36 years during the tournament.
Team Canada faltered on the big stage though as the pressure of the final and a very competent Team USA made it difficult for Canada to make any inroads. The pro-USA crowd made things more difficult for Canada with chants of ‘Stick to Hockey’ being directed towards Canada and their fans.
Team USA scored twice during the first half and that put a lot of pressure on Canada for the rest of the game. Chris Richards scored the first goal in the 19th minute and Folarin Balogun scored the second goal in the 34th minute to give USA a strong 2-0 lead. Gio Reyna was the star of the first half as he set up both goals for Richards and Balogun.
Canada Will Still Be Pleased With Their Overall Performance
While Canada will be disappointed at how things turned out in the CONCACAF Nations League final, they should be pleased overall at how they have performed during the tournament.
Canada will need to go back and analyse what went wrong in the final, so that they can make plans to fix their weaknesses and prepare to come back stronger when they play the United States potentially in the upcoming 2023 CONCACAF Gold Cup!
