Canadian prodigy Davies brings the WOW factor

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This article was published 14/08/2020 (2187 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There will come a day, although it’s still somewhere off in the distance, when watching a male Canadian footballer take the field alongside the best in the world on one of the game’s biggest occasions won’t be an item of monumental importance in the history of sport in this country.

Not that we’ll stop marking such moments, never mind celebrating them. After all, it’s part of our national character to do so.

Call it modesty, self-minimalization, an inferiority complex or whatever you want, but we less expect elite achievements on the international stage than are surprised by them — surprised because we don’t think of ourselves in those terms; we are small, we tell ourselves, and big things are the exception, not the rule.

In a broader sense, this national humility has served us well. The extreme nationalism that we see produce Brexit, Donald Trump and rainforest destruction denial isn’t for us, thank you very much. No “Canada First” here. We’re just pleased to be included, and when we do happen to come first we can’t help but marvel at the accident of it all, the extraordinariness of the accomplishment.

It was extraordinary that Bianca Andreescu won the U.S. Open, that Donovan Bailey won the hundred metres, that Ryder Hesjedal won the Giro d’Italia.

And it was extraordinary that, on Friday, Alphonso Davies lined up opposite Lionel Messi and the stars of Barcelona in a Champions League quarter-final. Alphonso Davies: the 19-year-old Edmontonian, born in a refugee camp during the Liberian Civil War, being tasked by Bayern Munich to not only help contain the greatest player in the history of the world’s most popular sport and his famous teammates, notably the combative Arturo Vidal, but also to contribute speed and ingenuity in attack — all in a knockout match in that sport’s most prestigious club competition.

If it hasn’t sunk in yet, it’s because we’re Canadians, and Canadians aren’t supposed to do what Davies just did. At least, we’ve never done it before. It’s not normal because it’s never happened. Not until Friday, when a teenager from this country did something that until a few years, months or even hours beforehand would have seemed an impossibility.

Yes, he started against Barcelona — preferred, as he has been most of the season, to the starting left-back of France’s World Cup-winning team of 2018. And then, after a few early touches and an ill-advised press up the pitch that led to a giveaway, he dominated. He absolutely dominated. Dominated mighty Barcelona. In the Champions League.

It was, to put it plainly, the best match a male Canadian footballer has played. Ever. That it came in — indeed, was a vital part of — Bayern’s 8-2 thrashing of the Blaugrana will only ensure it is bolded more darkly, underlined, in the rewritten record books. It was Bayern’s first eight-goal game in the Champions League; they became the first team to score more than four goals against Barcelona in the competition; it was the highest-scoring match in the history of the knockout stages.

And Davies produced its standout moment.

In the 62nd minute, shortly after Luis Suarez had pulled the Catalans back to within a pair of goals, Davies, with the ball at his feet and facing Messi directly, danced around the G.O.A.T and left Vidal on the ground while Sergio Busquets watched on nearby, shimmied past Nelson Semedo and dribbled to the byline before dropping his shoulder, cutting inside and sending a delicate pass across the face of goal to Joshua Kimmich, who tapped it into the back of the net.

In those few seconds, while Barcelona players were left in his dust and jaws hit the floor in front of screens from Yellowknife to Yangon, Alphonso Davies became world-class.

The highlight has already been replayed again and again in every country that follows football — which is all of them — which also means, if it wasn’t true already, that there are more people who know about and who have seen Davies play than have ever heard of Connor McDavid. That takes some sinking in as well.

Obviously, his assist drew the oohs and ahs, but there were several other “Davies moments” before he was applauded off the pitch by the artificial crowd in the 84th minute.

His walking out of the tunnel at Estadio da Luz to face Barcelona in such an important encounter was an all-time great Canadian men’s football moment, but Messi’s foul on him, and their resulting, friendly embrace in the 11th minute was an even greater one. A minute after that he got involved offensively with a cross from the left that was headed out for a corner by Clement Lenglet, and a few minutes later he engaged in his key man-to-man contest by fouling Vidal. He was booked for outmuscling the same player shortly after the restart.

Midway through the second half, still buzzing from his spectacular assist, Davies clashed heads with Semedo — a brave piece of defending that left him crumpled in pain. But he wasn’t down long (how Canadian) before he got back to blazing up and down his flank, only to be hauled down by Vidal in the 78th minute. It was the only way to stop him.

Late on, with the score out of hand, he seemed to toy with the Barca defenders, as if to produce yet another goal would be to inflict even further humiliation (again, how Canadian). Then he strode off. Job done. And how.

In the days leading up to Friday’s match, Davies spoke about the privilege of facing Messi, his childhood idol. In the days after, long after, Messi will reminisce about a teenaged Canadian who embarrassed him in Lisbon.

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And another day, somewhere down the road, we’ll watch Davies do it again (perhaps Wednesday against Lyon or Manchester City). We might even see another Canadian men’s player achieve something similar. It won’t be monumentally historical, because that monument was erected on Friday. But it’ll still be extraordinary, and we’ll still wonder modestly about it.

We are Canadian, after all.

jerradpeters@gmail.com

Twitter @JerradPeters