Canada will hope to exercise their 2019 Gold Cup demons on Thursday when they face Haiti at Children's Mercy Park in Kansas City in the second match of the competition for both sides.
The Canucks scored three goals in 10 minutes in a 4-1 win versus Martinique, while the Haitians conceded an early goal and could not recover, losing 1-0 to the United States.
Match preview
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Haiti put up a valiant effort in their opening fixture, but they ultimately could not find a way through a tough American defence who allowed only three shots on target.
Now they will try to do something that they have not been able to do in over two years, bounce back from a defeat with a victory.
Not only do they have a hard time recovering from a loss, but they have not made it out of the group stage of this tournament when losing their opening fixture since 2009, advancing on that occasion only because they were among the best third-place finishers.
Manager Jean-Jacques Pierre will be tasked with slowing down a team that kept his players off the scoreboard in consecutive fixtures last month, only the second team to do that over the last two years.
Haiti will have to find a way to generate some more scoring opportunities than they did in their two qualifiers versus Canada in June, when they fired only 10 shots total over two legs.
Their defensive shape seems to have been damaged by those two losses as well, with Les Grenadiers having conceded in five successive matches after beginning 2021 with three consecutive shutouts.
The Canadians came into their opening game in fine form on a six-game winning streak, but they started that match with a terrible miscue which led to a goal from Martinique in the opening 10 minutes.
However, that goal seemed to bring this team to life, and they responded in a big way with three goals in the first half, cruising to an impressive victory, their seventh in a row.
Canada will be very familiar with Haiti, knocking them out of World Cup qualifying with successive shutout wins, 1-0 and 3-0 heading into this tournament.
The last time they faced Les Grenadiers in this competition two years ago, it was a match that manager John Herdman and his side would rather forget, squandering a 2-0 lead in that quarter-final and losing 3-2 to the Haitians for only the second time in their history.
One lesson they have learned from that defeat is never to get too comfortable, and that is a lesson that they seem to have taken to heart, winning their last 11 games in which they have scored first.
Despite conceding for the first time in six games, they have still been a tough defensive side to break down, allowing only two shots on target versus Les Matinino while not allowing more than two shots on target in any of their last seven fixtures.
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Team News
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Montreal born keeper Josue Duverger had a nightmare match the last time his team faced Canada, allowing an own-goal from a backpass early in the second half with the game tied 0-0.
In their opening game versus the US, Kevin Lafrance made his first start at centre-back for Haiti since their 3-0 defeat to Canada, playing alongside Ricardo Ade, who has now started the last six matches for his country.
Five Haitian players were ruled out of their opening match against the US after positive COVID-19 tests, and although the names were not revealed, Frantzdy Pierrot, Louicius Don Deedson, Steeven Saba, Jems Geffrard, Stephane Lambese and Isaac Rouaud did not play and were not on the substitutes bench either.
Midfielder Leverton Pierre has made five consecutive starts for Haiti after earning his first cap on June 12 in a 1-0 defeat to Canada.
Even without star winger Alphonso Davies, who has been ruled out with an ankle ligament tear, Canada looked more than comfortable in their opening match, especially 22-year-old Tajon Buchanan, who assisted one goal and was a force to be reckoned with out wide.
Cyle Larin notched the equaliser for Canada, putting him even with his teammate Lucas Cavallini and former Canadian international Alex Bunbury with 16 all-time.
Steven Vitoria made his third successive start for Canada at centre-back, playing alongside Alistair Johnston and Kamal Miller, and despite a rough opening, all three were strong defensively, allowing only two shots on target.
Midfielder Harry Paton missed their opening match because of COVID protocols, while Frank Sturing has replaced Scott Kennedy on defence, with Kennedy out for the tournament with an injury.
Haiti possible starting lineup:
Sylvestre; Experience, Lafrance, Ade, Arcus; Pierre, Clerveaux; Herivaux, Etienne; Nazon, Antoine
Canada possible starting lineup:
Crepeau; Johnston, Vitoria, Henry; Laryea, Osorio, Piette, Eustaquio, Buchanan; Corbeanu, Larin
We say: Haiti 0-2 Canada
Haiti missed one of their top goalscorers in their last outing in Frantzdy Pierrot, and they seemed to lack energy and offence without him, which they will need going up against an all-around solid Canadian team.
Canada are missing probably their two biggest offensive weapons in Alphonso Davies and Jonathan David, but it does not seem to affect them one bit as they have been dominant against most sides lately within their region.
Top tip
Joel Lefevre
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Haiti win with a probability of 44.21%. A win for Canada had a probability of 30.09% and a draw had a probability of 25.7%.
The most likely scoreline for a Haiti win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.37%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.05%) and 2-0 (7.69%). The likeliest Canada win was 0-1 (8.24%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.21%). The actual scoreline of 1-4 was predicted with a 0.8% likelihood.
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