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Spurs Legends preview the World Cup - Paul Stalteri on Group F

Fri 18 November 2022, 14:15|Tottenham Hotspur

The greatest football show on earth kicks-off this weekend as Qatar hosts the World Cup.

The first match sees the hosts up against Ecuador at the Al Bayt Stadium on Sunday (4pm). That begins a run of 48 matches across eight groups until Friday 2 December. The knockout stage begins the next day, 3 December, with the final on Sunday 18 December.

With the tournament looming, we've called on a number of Spurs legends - players and managers - to preview the groups, with an eye on their respective country.

Next up, former Canada skipper Paul Stalteri talks us through Les Rouges and Group F...

Group F

Morocco, Croatia, Belgium, Canada

Match dates

23/11 - Morocco v Croatia, Belgium v Canada; 27/11 - Belgium v Morocco, Croatia v Canada; 1/12 - Canada v Morocco, Croatia v Belgium.

Paul Stalteri

Third in Canada's all-time caps with 84 between 1997-2010, often as captain, Paul Stalteri made 56 appearances for us between 2005-08, and is forever remembered for his last-minute winner at West Ham in 2007. Bundesliga title-winner during his time at Werder Bremen, Paul is now coaching in the MLS at Toronto...

“It’s tricky in one sense, that Canada will go in there with no real experience in a World Cup, but they are going in there with a mix of experienced players and really young, dynamic, fast players who, when they’re all on the pitch at the same time, they’re a pretty good team. They can catch teams on the counter-attack and have smart players on the pitch who make the right runs. In the end, you have guys son the field like Jonathan David (Lille), Cyle Larin (Club Brugge) and Alphonso Davies (Bayern Munich) who can score goals, and that’s something maybe we’ve lacked over the years. Now, we’ve players who, give them half a chance, they are able to score. They are lethal. They are an extremely dynamic team going forward with those players. They will be difficult to play against. At the back, okay, not so much depth, but going forward, they’ve got some real weapons. Looking at the group, none of the games are easy. Morocco will be a test. Canada begin against Belgium, and I can’t believe how quickly it’s coming around. Belgium is an interesting one, simply because of the speed and dynamism of the Canada team, from the wide positions and up front. You’ve got guys like Alistair Johnston (Montreal) or Richie Laryea (Toronto) in the wide positions attacking with Tajon Buchanan (Club Brugge), and David is a real weapon, he scored a number of times this year. Belgium aren’t the youngest team on paper, players with massive experience, and that’s a factor as well, but maybe we can catch them on the counter, you never know. Obviously, Belgium are massive favourites, number one in the world for a number of years, then you have Kevin De Bruyne, he’s on another planet. It will be fascinating. Croatia, of course that’s tough, players like Luka (Modric), he’s still going (and was a team-mate of Paul’s at Spurs). It’s an interesting group. One thing worth mentioning is that through the pandemic and other factors, Canada haven’t really been able to play teams away from CONCACAF (federation) in the last few years, other than the last window when they played Uruguay and Qatar. They’ve not played a European team for a while, and now we play two in the group. That might be a factor, as well.”