Game Notes: French Guiana v Canada

FRENCH GUIANA

• Last Time Out at the Gold Cup (GC): first-ever Gold Cup appearance

• Head Coach: Jair Karam (since 2013)

• Previous Gold Cup appearances: none

• Qualification method: 3rd place, 2017 Scotiabank CFU Men’s Caribbean Cup (Overall Record: 5W-1D-2L; 16GF, 7GA)

• 2016/17 Caribbean Cup results: (1st Round) 1-2 loss v Bermuda, 3-0 win v Cuba; (2nd Round) 1-2 loss v Dominican Republic, 3-0 win v Bermuda; (3rd Round) 1-0 win v St. Kitts & Nevis, 5-2 v Haiti; (Semifinals) 1-1 draw v Jamaica, 2:4 pens; (3rd Place) 1-0 win v Martinique

• 2016/17 Caribbean Cup scorers: Sloan Privat (4 goals); Rhudy Evens (3); Arnold Abelinti, Ludovic Baal, Roy Contout (2); Loic Baal, Alex Eric, Kevin Rimane (1)

• Scored at least 1 goal in each of eight 2016/17 Caribbean Cup matches

• Privat scored three goals in the Caribbean Cup encounter that secured French Guiana’s GC berth, a 5-2 victory over Haiti on November 9, 2016

• Narrowly missed out on qualifying for the 2015 GC after losing the CFU-UNCAF playoff to Honduras (agg: 3-4) ... Won the first leg 3-1 at home (Marvin Torvic 26’; Sloan Privat 27’, 62’), before succumbing 3-0 in the second leg at San Pedro Sula

• One of two 2017 GC entrants, along with Martinique, that competes in regional CONCACAF member competitions, but is not recognized as a FIFA member

• Midfielder Florent Malouda. who currently plays for India’s Delhi Dynamos, competed for France in the FIFA World Cup (2006, 2010) and the European Championship (2008, 2012). The 37-year-old also won the UEFA Champions League (2011/12) and the English Premier League (2009/10) with Chelsea

• 12 of 23 players based professionally in France league pyramid, and 9 play in French Guiana’s domestic league

• First side to make its GC debut since Grenada and Nicaragua both made their maiden appearances in the 2009 tournament ... attempting to be the first team to win or score a goal in its maiden GC appearance since Guadeloupe made a run to the 2007 semifinals 

CANADA

• Last Time Out at the Gold Cup (GC): Canada 0, Costa Rica 0 (July 14, 2015) ... Playing in front of a home crowd at BMO Field in Toronto, Canada could’ve advanced out of group play for the first time since 2009 with a victory over Costa Rica. Instead, it finished scoreless for a third consecutive match, completing group play with two points.

• Head Coach: Octavio Zambrano (since March 2017) ... the Ecuadorian is in his first national-team managerial job after a long club career ... spent six seasons as a head coach in Major League Soccer with LA Galaxy (1997-99) and MetroStars (2000-02)

• Qualification method: automatic North American entrant

• Previous Gold Cup Appearances: 12 (1991, 1993, 1996, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015)

• Gold Cup Record: GP-41; W-15; D-11; L-15; GF-43; GA-53

• Best Finish: Champion-1 (2000) ... defeated Colombia, 2-0, in 2000 final (Jason De Vos 45’; Carlo Corazzin 68’ pen) ... only team besides Mexico (7) and the United States (5) to win title

• Top GC Scorer: Dwayne De Rosario, Ali Gerba (6 goals each)

• 2018 FIFA World Cup Qualification: eliminated in fourth round (2W-1D-3L), finishing one point behind second-place Honduras in Group A ... overall qualifying record: GP-10; W-5, D-2, L-3; GF-15, GA-9 ... has not progressed to final round of CONCACAF qualifying since the 1998 World Cup cycle ... only World Cup appearance came at Mexico ’86

• Last GC win: 1-0 v Guadeloupe (Dwayne De Rosario 62’ pen) on June 11, 2011 ..winless in last 7 GC outings

• Scoreless in last six Gold Cup matches ... two goals scored in last 10 GC games ... last scored multiple goals in a GC match in a 2-2 draw against Costa Rica to close group play in 2009 (Patrice Bernier 25’; Marcel de Jong 28’)

• Conceded a goal per match or fewer in each of the last four GC editions (10 goals in 13 matches overall) ... has not allowed more than two goals since a 4-1 loss to Brazil in 1996, a stretch of 33 matches

• GC record against Caribbean opposition: GP-13; W-6; D-3; L-4; GF-16; GA-12 ... lost two straight GC matches against Caribbean sides by 1-0 score (Jamaica 2015, Martinique 2013)