Three takeaways from Canada's opening Gold Cup win over Martinique

The Canadian men’s national team opened its 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup campaign with an emphatic 4-1 victory over Martinique at Children’s Mercy Park – the home of Sporting Kansas City – in Group B action on Sunday.

Emmanuel Riviere stunned the Canadians with an early opener off a Mark-Anthony Kaye turnover, but a quick response through Cyle Larin off a Junior Hoilett corner leveled the score on 16 minutes. Jonathan Osorio gave Les Rouges the lead shortly thereafter before Stephen Eustaquio buried his first goal for the national team. Theo Corbeanu rounded off the scoring late in the second half.

Here are three takeaways from Canada’s opening win.

With Alphonso Davies injuring his ankle and returning to Bayern Munich for the recovery phase, there were two burning questions entering the Gold Cup for Canada.

The first was who would replace Davies in the lineup, and the other was whether coach John Herdman would stick with the 3-5-2 he deployed to close out the June international window.

Both queries were unquestionably answered as Tajon Buchanan slotted into the 3-5-2 at left wingback. He finished the game with an assist, completed three of his five dribbles, 42-of-48 passes and was fouled five times whilst repeatedly beating Martinique right-back Romario Barthelery for pace. In fact, Barthelery was so overwhelmed by the New England Revolution man, that he was hauled off at halftime.

“He was enjoying himself, that’s for sure,” Herdman said in his post-match press conference. “Tajon's bringing that excitement for the crowd and for the fans back home. Every team needs a player like that. Every fanbase love that type of player, that play carefree. They want to go after the fullbacks and a very mature performance.

Based on his performance on Sunday, it’s fair to assume that Buchanan will start against Haiti on Thursday in that left wingback role. Playing inverted, Buchanan has the pace, dribbling and ability to dart into the box – he’s averaging approximately 6.4 touches in the box per 90 minutes in MLS this season – to adequately replace Davies in that position. The only difference is the Bayern star regularly drifted inside on the ball in June, but there are similar traits to justify Buchanan’s positional tweak.

“He hasn't played wingback too many times in his career,” Herdman stated. “But he really showed that, for me, maturity in all moments of the game. It was a standout performance tonight from that young man. The future looks bright.”

Whether he stays in that role – and if Canada even sticks to the 3-5-2 entirely – against the United States in the Group B finale remains to be seen.

Make that eight goals for Cyle Larin this calendar year.

The latest strike, off a corner from Junior Hoilett, who became Canada’s all-time assists leader on Sunday, was well-timed as he towered over Martinique’s defense to confidently bury the ensuing header.

That equalizer for Canada now stands as Larin’s 16th for the program, tying Lucas Cavallini for fifth on the national team’s all-time leading scorers list. With Larin and Cavallini fighting for minutes during the Gold Cup, it’ll be a battle to see if either will break Dwayne De Rosario’s record by the end of the tournament.

Having registered five consecutive clean sheets, Canada entered the 2021 Gold Cup with a strong defensive record. 

That streak dissipated after just 10 minutes when Mark-Anthony Kaye’s first-time pass landed on the feet of Kevin Fortune, who played in Emmanuel Riviere before Kamal Miller intervened, only for the redirected shot to slowly trickle over the line.

This isn’t the first time this year that Canada has experienced a sluggish start to a match, having slowly grown into each of its World Cup qualifiers in June. The team has had the individual quality against opponents like Martinique to overcome those issues, but this is a trend to monitor as the Canadians face stronger opposition.