Canada will have a 50% capacity home crowd for their upcoming World Cup Qualifier on Jan. 30 against the United States, the federation announced Thursday.
The match at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton, Ontario will now have a capacity of 12,000 spectators. The decision comes amid the COVID-19 pandemic’s continued worldwide presence, with the Omicron variant especially impactful.
“We remain excited to bring the men’s national team FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 qualifying match to Hamilton with the team riding a nation-wide wave of support at the top of the table and we thank all of our fans who helped us sell out Tim Hortons Field back in December and are pushing our team to new heights,” Canada Soccer president Dr. Nick Bontis said in a release.
“We prioritize the safety of all players, staff and fans and want to acknowledge the diligent and ongoing work, not only these past few weeks, but throughout the final round of FIFA World Cup qualifiers, of our partners at all levels of government to ensure that we are able to play in front of our fans on home soil.”
This Canada-US match comes at the midway point of the January/February window, with head coach John Herdman’s team also traveling to Honduras (Jan. 27) and El Salvador (Feb. 2) in the coming weeks.
An undefeated Canada sits atop the Octagonal standings with 16 points from eight games, with the top three finishers earning an automatic Qatar 2022 berth (fourth place goes to inter-confederation playoff). The country last qualified for a World Cup in 1986.
Les Rouges will be without star player Alphonso Davies for this Octagonal trio of games, with the Vancouver Whitecaps FC product suffering from mild myocarditis and unable to compete for Bayern Munich.
