HOUSTON, July 2 -- Alphonso Davies played twenty minutes against South Africa. In those twenty minutes, Canada went from being controlled to doing the controlling, from 42 percent of possession to over 60, and Jonathan David said afterward the South Africans started giving space they had not given all match. The 1-0 was already secured when Davies came on at the 75th minute, Eustaquio's stoppage-time volley long since settled. What those twenty minutes settled was something else: whether Canada's captain, coming back from a hamstring injury that had kept him out since May, was ready to start. On Saturday against Morocco in Houston, he will get that start.

The question those twenty minutes did not answer is whether he can give Jesse Marsc...