The decoy days are over – apparently. Alphonso Davies made his first media appearance of this World Cup in Los Angeles on Saturday lunchtime and promised the opening last-32 game of the tournament would be the stage for his long-awaited return.
For Canada, who face fellow knockout newcomers South Africa here in a Sunday matinee, it could not come at a more crucial time. For his head coach, Jesse Marsch, who had used Davies’s fitness as an apparent ruse to distract his Swiss counterparts in Vancouver this week, it’s opportune too. That gimmick didn’t work. Les Rouges suffered a first defeat of their own World Cup and were sent down south.
