Canada : An Unexpected World Cup Dream
A Cold and Snowy Match Leaves Canada’s Soccer Team in an Unexpected Spot.The men’s soccer match between Canada and Mexico at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton this week was peak Canada. At minus 9 Celsius with snow piled around the pitch, Canada won 2-1 and rose to the top of the regional qualifying standings for the World Cup. While Canada has long been a powerhouse in women’s soccer, few predicted that Canada’s men would be in this position. What’s really interesting about Canada is that it’s been a higher-profile women’s soccer nation than men’s soccer nation for quite a long time.
Canada’s not been to a World Cup since 1986. From a European perspective, I don’t think we would necessarily have been expecting Canada to qualify, and we certainly wouldn’t expect Canada to be ahead of Mexico in particular.But for a country that’s not been to the World Cup for so long to not just have a hope of qualifying but to be currently in pole position, that is quite impressive. Canada is, in some ways, the most surprising and possibly the most intriguing team.There’s a gathering momentum around Canada, particularly because they’ve got not just one, but two outstanding players in Alphonso Davies and Jonathan David. Canada has definitely not produced players like that before and that’s a significant change.
Davies, definitely. Davies will be one of the best players on the planet for 10 years from this point on. He’s a regular at Bayern Munich, which is one of the top five club teams in the world. He’s already won the Champions League.David is a little bit further back in his development, but he’s played well in the Champions League and scored some clutch goals.And around Davies and David there’s a supporting cast that is improving as well.They have six games left in the qualification, so nothing’s certain yet. There is still not much margin for error because it’s quite tight at the top. So it will probably go down to the last couple of games.
Canada’s not been to a World Cup since 1986. From a European perspective, I don’t think we would necessarily have been expecting Canada to qualify, and we certainly wouldn’t expect Canada to be ahead of Mexico in particular.But for a country that’s not been to the World Cup for so long to not just have a hope of qualifying but to be currently in pole position, that is quite impressive. Canada is, in some ways, the most surprising and possibly the most intriguing team.There’s a gathering momentum around Canada, particularly because they’ve got not just one, but two outstanding players in Alphonso Davies and Jonathan David. Canada has definitely not produced players like that before and that’s a significant change.
Davies, definitely. Davies will be one of the best players on the planet for 10 years from this point on. He’s a regular at Bayern Munich, which is one of the top five club teams in the world. He’s already won the Champions League.David is a little bit further back in his development, but he’s played well in the Champions League and scored some clutch goals.And around Davies and David there’s a supporting cast that is improving as well.They have six games left in the qualification, so nothing’s certain yet. There is still not much margin for error because it’s quite tight at the top. So it will probably go down to the last couple of games.
A native of Windsor, Ontario, Ian Austen was educated in Toronto, lives in Ottawa and has reported about Canada for The New York Times for the past 16 years.
