National team underwent complete transformation

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/04/2022 (1585 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A lot of Canadian soccer fan’s don’t remember this country’s last participation in a men’s World Cup.

For one thing, the sport simply wasn’t mainstream back then. For another, “back then” was 1986. Our median age is 41. Do the math.

We do, however, recall last June, when the national team required a win over Suriname to secure a spot in the next round of qualifying. It’s quite something, in retrospect, that we weren’t 100 per cent confident of getting the result — that 8-1 humiliation in Honduras still traumatizing long-time supporters nine years later.

It’s quite something, because less than 10 months after what turned out to be a straightforward 4-0 triumph in Bridgeview, Illinois (the pandemic prevented Canada from hosting qualifiers until last September), we’re anticipating a match against Belgium at the 2022 World Cup finals.

Oh, and not just anticipating. While we may be realistic enough to acknowledge that beating, or even drawing, the 2018 semi-finalists is rather unlikely, we’re certainly not defeatist enough to presume that we can’t get out of the group.

Canada? Not defeatist?

Not anymore. You see, what happened in those 10 months was nothing short of a complete transformation of the men’s national team as a squad, as a culture and as popular allure—an accelerated evolution that caught us up to where our demographics, youthfulness and outward-looking worldview should rightfully have us as a soccer country.

In other words, it wasn’t a period of overachievement that brought us to Qatar and Friday’s Group Stage Draw. It was a look at the future, the new normal.

Oh, and we can definitely get out of the group. It’s Group F, by the way, and because we seemingly hadn’t waited long enough, ours was the final team drawn. Canada, F2. We’ll also have to wait until the penultimate day of the first round to get started. So what. It’ll give us some extra time to prepare for Belgium.

Not that it matters, but Canada have faced the Red Devils just once before — in 1989, a 2-0 defeat at Lansdowne Park in Ottawa.

Debut Yashin Award-winning goalkeeper Michel Preud’homme was between the sticks for the guests, who also started Eric Gerets, Marc Emmers and Jan Ceulemans. The Canadian lineup included Craig Forrest, Dale Mitchell and Alex Bunbury.

Their second encounter, and Canada’s first World Cup finals match in 36 years, will kick off at 7 a.m. CST at Al Thumama Stadium just outside Doha. The venue, which recently hosted an Arab Cup semi-final between Qatar and Algeria, is named after a native tree and designed to resemble the traditional Taqiyah skullcap.

It will also, hopefully, be the site of this country’s first ever World Cup goal. It would be scored on a Real Madrid goalkeeper and against an opponent featuring the likes of Kevin de Bruyne, Eden Hazard and Romelu Lukaku. Let that sink in.

In a tournament full of firsts, we’ll also make our maiden appearance opposite Croatia — finalists to France four years ago. This is a side that can still send out a Luka Modric and Ivan Perisic, but it’s also going through a bit of a generational change and could be quite vulnerable in Qatar.

Khalifa International Stadium in Al Rayyan will stage this match, which will kick off at 1 a.m. CST on Nov. 27. We should be looking to take at least a point from it.

That point — probably a World Cup first for Canada — would set the men up nicely for a final-day showdown with Morocco at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium, also in Al Rayyan. It would be a must-win, but this is clearly the most winnable match of the group.

The Atlas Lions qualified for Qatar after beating DR Congo 4-1 in Casablanca, but they had struggled to a 1-1 draw in Yaounde the week before and lost to Egypt at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, where they also drew Gabon.

Chelsea’s Hakim Ziyech is one of their better-known players, but in Paris Saint-Germain’s Achraf Hakimi they have a world-class right-back and one of the few footballers who can go step-for-step with Alphonso Davies.

Kick-off is set for 9 a.m. CST on Dec. 1, and should Canada claim the victory it would be — you guessed it — a first over the North African side. Morocco have two wins and a draw from three all-time meetings, most recently a 4-0 decision in October 2016.

Of the 15 players used by Canada manager Benito Floro that evening, only two — Milan Borjan and Jonathan Osorio — will be involved with the squad that current boss John Herdman takes to the Arabian Peninsula.

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The five-and-a-half years in between might as well have been a lifetime, or several. The only thing that’s changed since then is everything.

No disrespect to Suriname, but that’s not our level anymore. Give us Spain in the round of 16! Or Germany! And after that, Brazil! And after that…

We made it, finally. We deserve it, fully. It’s our time now.

jerradpeters@gmail.com

Twitter @JerradPeters