Canada battles back to draw Iceland in Toronto friendly

• Canada 2 (David 67’, 76’), Iceland 2 (Óskarsson 9’, 21’)           
• Canadians give up 2 1st half goals for 1st time under Marsch      
• Marcelo Flores, Ralph Priso earn their 1st official caps  
• Cyle Larin has gone 12 games without a goal for Canada  

TORONTO – The road to the 2026 FIFA World Cup is proving to be rockier than expected for Canada. 

Down two goals at halftime, Canada needed a pair of second-half penalties to come from behind and earn a 2-2 draw against Iceland in Saturday’s international friendly at BMO Field.  

Juventus forward Jonathan David saved Canada’s blushes by converting both attempts from the penalty spot before an announced crowd of 26,328.

With Canada’s World Cup campaign set to kick off in less than 80 days, a result like this would normally set off major alarm bells. But this draw comes with somewhat of an asterisk considering a short-handed Canada was dealing with a rash of injuries and was missing its captain, its two starting centre backs and its two top central midfielders.   

So, it’s not exactly fair to read too much into this when trying to predict Canada’s fortunes this summer. Still, Canada is 30th in the current FIFA rankings, 45 spots above Iceland, and has more than enough talent and depth that it should have been able to beat the modest European nation who failed to qualify for the World Cup.