Why this World Cup Performance was a disaster for Canadian Football
By Jim James
Hello all, and welcome back to the blog. Canada’s World Cup adventure is over. 0 points, 2 goals, and absolutely dismal performances. Many media outlets will say: “But they tried their best!”, and “we weren’t expected to go far anyway”, but I don’t see it that way. In my opinion, this World Cup performance was one of the worst Canada could have had, and we have completely botched the 3 games which were supposed to be our big break. Not only for the players, but for Canadian football. This was an unmitigated disaster for the sport, and the way back to our heights of earlier this year is very, very difficult.
This World Cup performance was supposed to be the big break on the World’s Biggest stage for Canada. The qualifying stage saw a unified and superb Canadian team, with wins vs the USA and Mexico and topping the CONCACAF group. With a team featuring young stars such as Alphonso Davies, Jonathan David, Tajon Buchanan, and underrated stars such as Cyle Larin and Alistair Johnston, this team was the hipster king in World Cup predictions, with many people, including myself, fancying them to top Croatia and Morocco.
If a good performance was had, our key men could see the spotlight in top 5 league European teams, and Canadian kids would want to copy their Canadian football idols. Canadian football would become more mainstream in media, with the tournament being an iconic moment in Canadian history. This was THE golden opportunity for Canada.
But we blew it. Two losses and being the first team other than QATAR to be knocked out of the World Cup. We have also cemented our places as serial chokers, and laughing stocks of the entire tournament. And that doesn’t bode well for the future of the players. Or manager John Herdman, who was essentially responsible for Croatia playing so hard in the 2nd game with his comments about them after the Belgium game.
The way I see it, only Alphonso Davies (to a degree) and Tajon Buchanan should walk away from this tournament with their heads held high. The rest had below average to bad tournaments, with specifically Milan Borjan and Atiba Hutchinson having dismal displays. With all these players potentially getting moves to big teams after the tournament, this was a major letdown for not just the team and the country but the future of the sport in the country.
This was a team that was getting love and support from a lot of the football world, and they looked unbeatable. Now, no matter what, no one will trust us until AT LEAST 2026. This wasn’t in the script. We were supposed to go through, and then exit valiantly in the Round of 16 vs Germany or Spain. However, some of the best talents football has to offer gave us a firm slap in the face.
Hey, at least we aren’t in as bad a place as Belgium, eh?
I’m Jim James, until next time.