3 Wins! Summary of Canada’s latest World Cup Qualifiers

3 Wins! Summary of Canada’s latest World Cup Qualifiers

 

By Jim James

 

Hello all, welcome back to the blog. Today I’m going to be recapping Canada’s World Cup Qualifiers, recapping Canada’s new smash and grab nature. We’ll be seeing the 3 games that have got Canada to within 1 point of qualifying for their 2nd ever World Cup.

 

Firstly, before we get into it, I just need to say how super excited I am that Canada are virtually in the World Cup. I’m buzzing, super excited about the tournament in Qatar, and considering we’re just starting to get into our Golden Generation, we could qualify for the 2026 and 2030 World Cups with our current core! We also have future stars like Theo Cornbeanu, Justin Smith, Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty, and Jean-Aniel Assi who all still haven’t broke through in the team yet, but are under the age of 18 and will most likely be there for 2026 at least, so our current talents aren’t the only ones that will feature. Also, the expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams in 2026 also increases our chances. Who knows, in the time it took to get from our 1st to our 2nd World Cups, we may have featured in 5 or 6! Anyway, I just wanted to say how thrilled I am in the boys. Please don’t choke.

 

Honduras 0-2 Canada

Goalscorers: Maldonado 10’ (OG), David 73’

 

Okay, we were off to a pretty good start with this game, and it started quite well, with a Tajon Buchanan cross pinballing off Denil Maldonado to make it 1-0 and Canada getting quite a few more chances in the next 10 minutes. Then Honduras dominated the rest of the first half, with a lofted free kick even going over Milan Borjan right before halftime but being cleared by Vitoria before it went in. Honduras continued to get plenty of chances in the second, with a free kick in the 70th minute having to be wonder saved by Borjan to stay out. Canada continued to work on the counter, and a few minutes later it worked as a super ball by Liam Fraser found Jonathan David who had an amazing finish to make it 2-0 Canada. The only reply Honduras had was a fantastic save yet again by Milan Borjan from Alberth Elis in the 92nd minute to keep his clean sheet. A dropping of points by Panama meant that Canada was firmly locked in the top 3. 

 

Canada 2-0 USA

Goalscorers: Larin 7’, Adekugbe 90’+6’

 

The best game of the break, This was sweet. You knew it was going to be a hard to watch game when the USA produced two good chances early and a Matt Turner goal kick was counter attacked by Canada for Larin to score in the 7th minute. I went absolutely crazy, and so did Alphonso Davies on his live stream. That was his 23rd, and he was now firmly atop the Canada all time top goalscoring list at just 26, overtaking Dwayne de Rosario (May I point out that 22-year old Jonathan David has 20 already). We’re getting off topic here. Anyway, the first half ended with another amazon save by track pants Borjan from Weston McKennie’s header. Canada had a few good chances in the second half, with a miracle save by Matt Turner who was on the floor to stop Larin’s chance in the 70th. However, it was the Americans that held the majority of the chances, with the most crazy one being a Paul Arriola bicycle kick in the 87th minute that I thought had gone in, and was on the verge of tears. However, the sigh of relief was massive when I saw it had flew past the near post. Then, in the 89th minute, Canada had another counter, David saw Adekugbe who let it rip at the edge of the box, but it went just over. That would have been his first Canada goal, and Bob and I were talking about how important of a 1st ever national team goal that would have been. In the 90 + 2nd minute, the USA had a free kick from 35 yards, and Christian Pulisic shocked everyone by shooting from it. He caught Track Pants Borjan off guard, but he saved it in the end. Then, in the 90 + 5th minute, Canada got the ball back, Kamal Miller played a long ball to Sam Adekugbe, who ran for a while, let it rip on the edge of the box, and this time he scored. The sealer. After 88 minutes of hyperventilating in a brown paper bag, I could finally relax. We had beaten our famous foes from down south. 

 

El Salvador 0-2 Canada

Goalscorers: Hutchinson 66’, David 90’ + 3’

 

Ok, I admit it. I didn’t watch this game. I was sleeping for the majority of it. However, Canada had the majority of chances, in the 22nd minute, Stephen Eustaquio’s free kick required some great hands by Kevin Carabantes, but that was it for the close calls. Then, in the 66th minute, a miracle. Substitute Cyle Larin ran down the wing with the ball, crossed it in to Atiba Hutchinson, the cross was low so Hutchinson dived, he got contact, but it was seemingly saved by Carabantes. However, it rebounded off the post, Carabantes didn’t know where it was, the ball hit of all people, Eriq Zavaleta, then it hit Hutchinson again and it went in. My summary doesn’t do it justice, you should watch the highlights of that game if you haven’t already, because that was one of the strangest goals I have ever seen. In the 90 + 3rd minute, El Salvador had a chance, it was lobbed over Milan Borjan, seemingly, but he just tipped it over the bar for a corner. In the corner Jonathan David intercepted it, and ran the length of the field to score from just outside the box to seal it. 

 

Those were all the qualifiers. We need 2 points in 3 games to seal our Qualification, and considering we’re on a 5 game win streak, the only undefeated team in the hex, and playing Jamaica, Costa Rica and Panama in March, we should be okay. I’m Jim James, until next time.