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Estadio Cuscatlán San Salvador, El Salvador
The Headliner: Keeping up the Momentum
During their 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign, Canada won their first game 1-0 against Cuba, but then failed to beat the Honduran national team at home in the next game. Once again this year, Canada scored a crucial home win over the Hondurans at home, but now travel to San Salvador needing three points to keep their strong position in World Cup qualifying.
The two points that they dropped in their opening set ultimately eliminated them last time, and Canada has to win on the road to make sure that doesn't happen again. They aren't going to win at Azteca, and everyone knows what happened when they last played in San Pedro Sula. So winning tonight at Estadio Cuscatlan is crucial.
It won't be easy, however, as Canada consistently struggles to win in Central America, no matter who they are playing. This is the case even if they will be playing a second-rate El Salvadorian side who are under a player strike. One thing that they do have going for them, however, is that for some inexplicable reason the El Salvadorian team decided not to play the match during the heat of the day.
With Mexico beating Honduras 2-0 to start the day, here is things as they stand in Canada's group ahead of the El Salvador vs. Canada match:
| Rank | Team | Games | Wins | Losses | Draws | GF | GA | GD | PTS |
| 1 | Mexico | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | +5 | 6 |
| 2 | Canada | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 3 |
| 3 | El Salvador | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | -3 | 0 |
| 4 | Honduras | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | -3 | 0 |
Key to the Game: Controlling the Midfield
The key to Canada beating Honduras was obvious, it was a veteran midfield that completely outplayed the visiting midfield. Atiba Hutchinson was a certified monster, while Julian De Guzman and Will Johnson had some of their best games in Canadian shirts.
If Canada want to pick apart El Salvador and get a massive road victory, this is crucial. The last time they played El Salvador, at the Gold Cup this summer, they were missing a solid midfield and Kyle Bekker and Samuel Piette were unable to build anything significant in the middle for Canada.
The Lineup
Canada: Borjan, De Jong, Jakovic, Straight, Ouimette, de Guzman, Johnson, Hutchinson, Hoilett, Ricketts, Larin
There are no changes from the Canadian side that beat Honduras, and realistically this wasn't a surprise. David Edgar was likely not healthy enough to start, but may see some action at some point if Canada is trying to hold a lead.