By Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (September 9^th 2025)

Significant Defeat

Former Leeds United manager Jesse Marsch, saw his Canada side inflict only the second defeat that Craig Bellamy had suffered in his tenure as Wales’ manager. Derek Cornelius’ spectacular freekick was the only goal of the match. In 12 matches in charge of Wales Bellamy has only tasted defeat twice, although this was a more youthful and experimental Welsh side than usual.

Nevertheless, Canada had significant absentees too, including their captain, Bayern Munich’s Alphonso Davies, who is recovering from a serious injury to his right leg – an ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) tear and damage to knee cartilage as well. Missing through injury since international duty at the end of March 2025, he has only just resumed training with his club, albeit individual training.

Their vice-captain, Porto’s Stephen Eustáqio is currently recovering from a lower body injury suffered during the match against Romania on September 5^th although he played the full match and captained the side in his 51^st international. Marsch pointed out that Canada, therefore, had to do without two of their most experienced and influential players.

Regular goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau of the Portland Timbers was unavailable due to the protocol for concussion – he was replaced by Minnesota United’s Dayne St. Clair who annoyed Wales supporters who thought he had feigned injury.

Learning Curve

In the absence of VAR, referee Rob Jones’ decision to wave away early appeals for a penalty against debutant Ronan Kpakio for a foul on Richie Laryea proved the importance of VAR as replays showed that Laryea had indeed been brough down in the box. Laryea went close from a tight angle after nimble footwork to forge an opportunity from a tight angle after 27 minutes.

Wales, fresh from their World Cup qualifier win over Kazakhstan on September 4^th, retained only three players from that match. Naturally, that affected the performance, which lacked the usual fluency they have found under Bellamy.

While Wales created some chances they failed to take advantage. Daniel James’ tame shot illustrated this, especially when contrasted with Canada’s chances. Ismaël Koné, currently on loan at Sassuolo from Marseille, hit the post after latching on to a stray pass by Neco Williams.

English-born Fulham defender, Luc de Fougerolles, currently on loan to Belgian outfit Verbroedering Dender EH (Eendracht Hekelgem), also struck the woodwork from Ali Ahmed’s corner – the crossbar with a magnificent backheeled volley just before Cornelius exacted full retribution for a foul on Nathan-Dylan Saliba with a superb dipping freekick from 25 metres out, which gave Wales’ goalkeeper, Adam Davies, deputising for the injured Karl Darlow, no chance.

Prior to that Villarreal’s Tani Oluwaseyi went close. Valuable lessons were learned, as Canada provided a stiff test, which is what Bellamy wanted – Wales’ second half performance was improved. Mark Harris’ overhead shot would have resulted in his first international goal, but for a goal-line header by de Fougerolles which St. Clair claimed.

Cornelius’ tackle thwarted Harry Wilson before he could get his shot away – minutes earlier Charlie Crew squandered a good opportunity with a tame header.

Ben Davies managed to deflect Saliba’s pass to Oluwaseyi away as the Villarreal man was poised to shoot. Wales almost snatched a draw in the 90^th minute after Sorba Thomas’ cross from Ben Davies’ pass resulted in Harris shooting just wide.

Bellamy was pleased with the second half performance even if he was less than enamoured with the Canadian bench’s decision to start celebrating a tad early – just before the final whistle was blown.

Friendly

Although it was just a friendly, Marsch aroused the ire of Wales manager Craig Bellamy “I really hate losing, more than I like winning and there’s a big difference in that,” Bellamy said at the post-match press conference. “And I see them celebrating at the end, I’m like (long pause) ‘I hope I see you in a World Cup. I hope I see you again.’”

Bellamy continued: “But I have to also as well be gracious. Thank Jesse for shaking his coaches’ hands before the final whistle. I have to get used to that. I don’t want to get used to it. But yeah, I have to take it on the chin.”

Marsch saw it somewhat differently. “I wasn’t involved with that,” he said. “I think it was my staff.”

He explained that they had been told that there would be 3 minutes of added time. So, they thought it was over after 93 minutes, but Jones allowed 5 minutes of added time. “We have respect for Wales and their coaching staff and we want them to be successful,” Marsch added. He expects Wales to qualify for the World Cup.