Canada's messy win over 9-man El Salvador completes Gold Cup quarterfinal field

Canada advanced to the Gold Cup quarterfinals with a 2-0 win over El Salvador on Tuesday in a messy match punctuated by two red cards issued to El Salvador in the first half.

Canada, thrown off its game by El Salvador's excessively physical approach, had to wait until the 53rd minute to open the scoring. Jonathan David, who had a first-half penalty saved by Mario Gonzalez, broke the deadlock by picking out the bottom corner with a precise finish. Tajon Buchanan doubled the lead three minutes later to seal the result.

The win means Canada finishes atop Group B. Jesse Marsch's team will meet Guatemala in the quarterfinals of the competition.

Marsch was on the bench for the first time at the tournament. He spent the first two matches serving a suspension for a red card he received during the Nations League third-place game in March.

Tuesday's contest at Shell Energy Stadium in Houston got off to an inauspicious start, with El Salvador's Santos Ortiz taking an errant boot to the head in the opening seconds and requiring treatment that delayed play for nearly 10 minutes.

Ortiz was then sent off after being shown his second yellow card in the 35th minute for a wild tackle. Jairo Henriquez followed that up by throwing an inexplicable elbow to the face of Alistair Johnston deep into first-half stoppage time, immediately after David was denied from the penalty spot.

Referee Joe Dickerson was told by the VAR to review the incident, and he brandished a red card after a quick check. El Salvador became the first team to have two players sent off in the first half of a Gold Cup match.

El Salvador's physio was also sent off after the halftime whistle.

"Typical CONCACAF," Canada's David said after the match of El Salvador's tactics. "I think a bit chaotic, a lot of fouls – but we knew, we expected this, so we were just ready for it."

The untidy contest brought an end to the opening round of the tournament and finalized the quarterfinal matchups.

Gold Cup quarterfinal matchups (all times ET):

June 28: Panama vs. Honduras (7:15 p.m.)
June 28: Mexico vs. Saudi Arabia (10:15 p.m.)
June 29: Canada vs. Guatemala (4 p.m.)
June 29: United States vs. Costa Rica (7 p.m.)

Canada and the United States are on the same side of the bracket and will meet in the semifinals if they both win their respective quarterfinal games.

Mexico is the reigning Gold Cup champion, and is looking to become the first nation to win the CONCACAF event 10 times.

The Gold Cup final is slated for July 6.