Canada's next friendly has been officially announced, two days after Octavio Zambrano let the cat out of the bag.
The head coach told reporters on Saturday night that his side will be facing El Salvador in an international friendly next month in Houston, although he jumped the gun as final details were yet to be hammered out.
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"We have a game against El Salvador," Zambrano said on Saturday. "We are going in October to play them in the United States."
A Canada Soccer official quickly interjected that the game was not yet on the calendar, but on Monday the Houston Dynamo confirmed the friendly for Oct. 8 at BBVA Compass Stadium, with "a portion of the net proceeds" to be donated to Hurricane Harvey relief efforts.
International friendly alert! 🇸🇻🇨🇦@fesfut_sv 🆚 @CanadaSoccerEN at @BBVACompassStdm on Oct. 8: https://t.co/D7WILmnxGS pic.twitter.com/YwQ2EwwMdm
— Houston Dynamo (@HoustonDynamo) September 4, 2017
“Our stadium continues to be the place to see world-class international soccer in Texas, and we are proud to bring these two fantastic teams together here in Houston,” BBVA Compass Stadium general manager Juan Rodriguez said in a release. “El Salvador and Canada each have tremendous fan bases here in Houston, and we look forward to hosting them here at BBVA Compass Stadium on October 8.”
Canada has faced the Salvadorans three times in the past two years. A scoreless draw in the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup was followed up by a 0-0 result in San Salvador later that year, with the Canadians prevailing 3-1 at BC Place in Vancouver on Sept. 6, 2016. The latter two games came during an ill-fated World Cup 2018 qualification run for both nations.
Overall, Canada has a 8-4-4 record against the Central American side.