Canada wins inaugural Canadian Shield Tournament despite penalty shootout loss to Ivory Coast

Neil Davidson · The Canadian Press

· Posted: Jun 10, 2025 11:56 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours ago

Canada won the inaugural Canadian Shield Tournament connected Tuesday nighttime contempt losing to African champion Ivory Coast 5-4 successful a punishment shootout.

The crippled went to a shootout aft it finished knotted astatine 0-0 aft 90 minutes.

The 30th-ranked Canadian men finished with 4 points, 1 up of No. 86 New Zealand and No. 25 Ukraine and 2 up of No. 41 Ivory Coast.

Victory was assured for Canada conscionable by getting to the shootout, fixed it would decorativeness the nighttime with astatine slightest 4 points — with 2 points for a shootout triumph and 1 for a shootout nonaccomplishment — portion nary 1 other had much than three. A regularisation triumph was worthy 3 points astatine the tournament.

Jonathan David, Mathieu Choiniere, Derek Cornelius and Ismael Kone scored for Canada successful the shootout. Badra Ali Sangare stopped Tani Oluwaseyi and Luc de Fougerolles.

WATCH | Canada falls to Ivory Coast connected penalties but wins Canadian Shield connected points:

Clement Akpa, Jereme Boga, Emmanuel Latte Lath, Franck Kessie and Mohamed Diomande scored for Ivory Coast successful the shootout, beating Dayne St. Clair. Mory Gbane missed the target.

Ukraine defeated New Zealand 2-1 successful the aboriginal crippled Tuesday, leaving some teams astatine 1-1-0 with 3 points. That effect meant Ivory Coast had to triumph by 2 goals to instrumentality the trophy.

Ivory Coast is presently ranked 5th successful Africa by FIFA — down No. 12 Morocco, No. 19 Senegal, No. 32 Egypt and No. 36 Algeria. But the Elephants are the reigning Africa Cup of Nations champions and person been ranked arsenic precocious arsenic No. 12 successful the world.

Ivory Coast looked dangerous, comfortably moving the shot astir arsenic drums resonated successful its supporters' conception astatine BMO Field. The Ivorian 'keeper had small to bash successful the archetypal fractional different than ticker his squad from afar.

Both teams managed conscionable 1 changeable connected people earlier the interruption with Canada ne'er truly uncovering its rhythm. The 2nd fractional was choppy and chippy with plentifulness of stops and starts earlier an announced assemblage of 18,489 astatine BMO Field.

As promised, Canada manager Jesse Marsch fielded astir an wholly antithetic lineup with lone centre backmost Cornelius retaining his spot from the Ukraine starting 11. Veteran guardant Cyle Larin served arsenic skipper for the archetypal time.

Daniel Jebbison, a 21-year-old guardant with England's Bournemouth, won his 3rd headdress successful his archetypal start. Vancouver Whitecaps winger Jayden Nelson besides made his archetypal start, earning his seventh cap.

It was a much experienced radical of starters, with a combined headdress number of 369 going into the crippled compared to 241 for the starting 11 against Ukraine. Larin, Jonathan Osorio and Richie Laryea accounted for 226 of Tuesday's total.

Osorio's 85th headdress moved him into 3rd spot connected the Canadian men's all-time database down Julian de Guzman (89) and Atiba Hutchinson (105). Canadian midfielder Stephen Eustaquio was honoured earlier the crippled for earning his 50th headdress against Ukraine.

St. Clair started successful goal. The Minnesota United 'keeper is tied for the MLS pb successful shutouts with 8 and ranks 2nd successful goals-against mean astatine 0.88.

WATCH | Canada defeats Ukraine successful tourney opener:

Joel Waterman enactment the shot successful the Ivory Coast extremity successful the sixth infinitesimal lone to spot the offside emblem spell up. At the different end, St. Clair stopped a 21st-minute escaped footwear whipped successful by Nicolas Pepe, formerly of England's Arsenal and present with Spain's Villarreal.

Canadas champion chances of the archetypal fractional came disconnected a escaped footwear and 2 corners arsenic the timepiece coiled down, but each clip the last shot was disconnected target.

Three of Canada's backmost 4 — Cornelius, Waterman and Sam Adekugbe — were connected yellowish cards by the 48th minute.

An unmarked Pepe wasted a glorious accidental successful the 52nd infinitesimal erstwhile his header was disconnected target. Soon after, Waterman made a redeeming tackle to halt Pepe.

David and Tajon Buchanan, who accounted for 3 goals against Ukraine, came disconnected the seat successful the 76th infinitesimal arsenic Canada looked for a goal.

Adekugbe had to beryllium helped disconnected the tract successful the 83rd minute, favouring his limb aft going down.

Canada had ne'er faced Ivory Coast before. The past clip it faced an African broadside was astatine the World Cup successful Qatar successful December 2022 erstwhile it mislaid 2-1 to Morocco successful its last group-stage game.

The Ivory Coast squad draws connected players from clubs successful Belgium, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey.

Canada heads to the CONCACAF Gold Cup next, opening against No. 95 Honduras connected June 17 successful Vancouver earlier completing Group B play successful Houston against No. 90 Curacao and No. 81 El Salvador connected June 21 and 24, respectively.

Canada went into Tuesday's lucifer with a 7-4-5 grounds nether Marsch, with 1 of those ties turning into a punishment shootout nonaccomplishment to Uruguay and different into a shootout triumph implicit Venezuela. His erstwhile 3 games successful Canada — against Ukraine, Suriname and Panama — were each victories.

Ivory Coast returns to World Cup qualifying play successful September. It presently leads Group F successful African qualifying with a 5-0-1 record, 1 constituent up of No. 79 Gabon successful the six-country radical that besides includes No. 140 Burundi, No. 111 Kenya, No. 126 Gambia and the 203rd-ranked Seychelles.