Hosts Mexico, Canada soar, crash while prepping for 2026 World Cup

Aguirre rotated his squad heavily for his second game of the window, and his B-team lineup did its best to prove itself in a 1-1 draw with Ecuador. The performance was better, but not strong enough to turn around a frustrating fall for El Tri. The team is winless in four matches and set to close its 2025 with tricky, difficult games against Uruguay and Paraguay.

Aguirre closed the international window by putting a harsh spotlight on goalkeeper Luis Malagon. The Club América man took over from legend Memo Ochoa this year but hasn't delivered his predecessor's famous consistency. Aguirre was quick to remind Malagon's critics that his spot in the net remained anything but secure.

 "We’ve tested several young goalkeepers [at the position],” Aguirre said, per Goal.com after Malagon's dismal performance against Colombia. “Everyone makes mistakes, and the competition remains open.”

But for Mexico, improvement is needed on the opposite side of the field, too. The team has struggled to score and needs its forward players to step up in a big way. No player has more opportunity — or more pressure — than AC Milan's Santiago Gimenez. The striker partners with Christian Pulisic every week in Italy but has failed to live up to his high standards; he has scored zero league goals to Pulisic's four. 

Canada

Canada took its World Cup preparations on the road in September, traveling to Europe to face mid-tier sides Wales and Romania. It went about as well as it possibly could have: Canada won both games by a combined score of 4-0, leading coach Jesse Marsch to deem the trip “the best 10 days we’ve had together.”

That European adventure was always going to be a tough act to follow, but Canada did its best this October, hosting Australia in Montreal before facing Colombia in New Jersey. The results were… mixed. Canada lost 1-0 to Australia despite outshooting it 17 to 5 and drew 0-0 with Colombia in front of a hostile away crowd.

Neither of these results are problematic in isolation; Australia is a tight, organized, aggressive team built to get results and Colombia is one of the finest attacking outfits on Earth. Failing to beat them isn’t a disaster. Failing to score against them, though, just might be, especially considering how active Canada’s offense was in both matches. It managed 21 shots across both games but failed to convert any.

Marsch isn’t worried yet. “We have a lot of attacking prowess. We have a lot of talented players in the attacking third,” he said. “World Cup is about not giving goals away. We make one mistake in the entire window and it costs us. So if we can keep being sound defensively, I know this team can score goals.”

With a perspective like that, Marsch will undoubtedly be looking toward the perpetrator of that one mistake — Hadjuk Split's Niko Sigur — for improvements in the next play window. But Sigur's error isn't exactly his own doing: he's a trained midfielder whomt Marsch pushed into a defensive role out of necessity. Sigur has managed his new position well, but it wasn't exactly a shock to see him finally make a mistake there.

To close the season, Canada will play Ecuador on Nov. 13 and Venezuela on Nov. 18.