With World Cup spot clinched, Canadian looks to improve ranking vs. Panama

TORONTO — After celebrating Sunday's World Cup qualification, it was back to business Tuesday for the Canadian men's soccer team.

The squad trained under a bright sun at BMO Field in the morning before grabbing a quick lunch at the lakefront stadium and heading to the airport for an afternoon charter to Panama City for Wednesday's World Cup qualifying finale.

And while the team has already secured qualification to Qatar 2022, there is more to play for.

"We have to finish strong," said coach John Herdman. "That's the message to these players … It's a critical match."

"We said we've come here to qualify. We have," he added. "But we said we were here to define a New Canada and New Canada's finishing top of CONCACAF … to really let this country celebrate."

Canada (8-1-4, 28 points) goes into Wednesday's finale with a three-point edge over the U.S. and Mexico (both 7-2-4, 25 points) and a six-point cushion over Costa Rica (6-3-4, 22 points). Fifth-place Panama (5-5-3, 18 points) is out of contention.

In other games Wednesday, it's El Salvador at Mexico, Honduras at Jamaica and the U.S. at Costa Rica.

The top three teams will represent North and Central America and the Caribbean in Qatar this November-December with the fourth-place finisher taking on an Oceania side in an intercontinental playoff to see who joins them.

The 33rd-ranked Canadians just need a tie to finish first in CONCACAF qualifying. But they want the win, to finish with a flourish and collect as many FIFA ranking points as possible while hoping results in other regions go their way so they can crack the top 30.

The four pots in Friday's World Cup draw in Doha are divvied up by FIFA rankings. Pot 1 will feature host Qatar and the seven highest-ranked qualified