Hutchinson the gold standard for Canadian men’s soccer

Opinion

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This article was published 16/06/2023 (814 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As popular idioms go, few are as old and often-used as “swan song.” It can be traced to Greek mythology of the 5th century BCE and celebrates the last, poetic number the bird will ever sing.

These days, it’s mostly purposed in reference to performance. The film Phantom Thread was actor Daniel Day-Lewis’s swan song; the Requiem in D Minor was Mozart’s. In sport, Zinedine Zidane’s was the 2006 World Cup Final, where the France midfielder was sent off and his team defeated on penalties.

On Sunday, Atiba Hutchinson’s swan song will be sung in the last match of the Canada midfielder’s career, and his first international final.

At 40-years-old, and having played only 113 minutes for club and country this calendar year, he likely won’t start the championship match of the CONCACAF Nations League against the United States (7:30 p.m., OneSoccer/FuboTV). John Herdman did give him a quarter-hour on the field against Panama on Thursday, and in an ideal scenario the Canada coach would prefer to do similar on Sunday.

That would be to close out a victory at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas and, at the same time, to give Hutchinson’s family, teammates and fans the opportunity to applaud the most important figure in Canadian men’s soccer history — hopefully while celebrating a first international title in 23 years.

Not that defeat would somehow diminish a legacy fully and admirably intact on multiple continents, and one that remains among the gold standards of sport in this country. Any sport.

In various phases of his life, Hutchinson has been a trailblazer, a self-believer and a champion.

His overseas exploits, especially at Besiktas, are familiar enough. Long before joining the Istanbul giants and becoming the first Canadian to captain his side in the Champions League, he was playing in the old Canadian Professional Soccer League following a failed trial with Germany’s Schalke.

Then, after moving to Europe at 19, he sputtered in Sweden before landing in Denmark, where he’d go on to win four titles, the league-and-cup double and a Player of the Year award. Next at PSV Eindhoven and finally in Turkey he lifted a further seven trophies before announcing his retirement this spring, concluding a two-decades career in European football.

If the likes of Jonathan David, Alphonso Davies, Alistair Johnston and Ismael Kone, among many others, have been able to move and succeed abroad, it’s because Hutchinson showed them how to get there and modelled how to do it.

Which is why it’s extremely appropriate, poetic even, that he enters well-deserved retirement having taken players almost half his age to a destination he, himself, is only now reaching for the very first time.

Canada’s last major final was in the 2000 Gold Cup, when after eliminating Mexico and Trinidad & Tobago, a strong line-up including Craig Forrest, Jason de Vos, Jim Brennan and Carlo Corazzin beat Faustino Asprilla’s Colombia in Los Angeles.

Hutchinson made his international debut two-and-a-half years later, and ever since he’s been the lone constant as the program nosedived, bottomed out, made an upturn and eventually earned World Cup qualification.

A Nations League championship would complete that extraordinary journey. No matter the score when the referee blows his whistle, Hutchinson’s swan song will have begun the moment he took his final step onto the pitch.

Socrates liked to believe that swan songs were reflective, triumphant tunes. Sunday’s certainly will be, and the ancient Greeks could’ve hardly composed a better one.

Nations League Notebook

• Canada might’ve contested the final of the 2007 Gold Cup if Hutchinson’s late equalizer against the United States hadn’t been controversially disallowed for offside. The U.S. went on to beat Mexico to claim the trophy.

• The United States thumped Mexico 3-0 in Thursday’s other Nations League semi-final, setting up Sunday’s clash with Canada. Four players were ejected from the encounter, including Sergino Dest and Weston McKennie – both of whom will miss the final through suspension.

• All four red cards were shown during a bizarre second half in which the rehiring of American manager Gregg Berhalter was announced, meaning the Nations League final will conclude B.J Callaghan’s interim role in the job after replacing… Gregg Berhalter.

• Yet to play a full match since suffering a hamstring injury that cost him the last month of the season at Bayern Munich, Alphonso Davies was introduced just after the hour-mark for Canada and found the back of the only just seven minutes later. Jonathan David’s clean finish had opened the scoring against Panama — the Lille striker being played through by Kamal Miller’s excellent pass.

• Herdman could well start the same XI that began the Panama semi-final. Davies, no doubt, will be agitating to start, and given the multiple knocks picked up by Sam Adekugbe on Thursday he might end up getting his way. That said, Herdman can take credit for what was a well-balanced lineup, and with a two-goal lead midway through the second half he was able to rest key players, including Johnston and Tajon Buchanan.

• Florian Balogun’s 21 goals for Reims was the fourth-most in Ligue 1 this season, and the former England youth international’s switch to the United States finally provides his new team with a capable striker to lead the line. With Christian Pulisic, Gio Reyna and Timothy Weah operating behind him, the U.S. can deploy a formidable front four.

• Probable Canada XI: Borjan; Johnston, Vitoria, Miller; Buchanan, Eustaquio, Kone, Osorio, Laryea; Davies, David.

• Probable United States XI: Turner; Scally, M. Robinson, Richards, J. Robinson; Musah, de la Torre; Weah, Reyna, Pulisic; Balogun.

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