HOUSTON (AP) — Canada’s unprecedented run to the World Cup’s round of 16 put the country where hockey is king in the international soccer spotlight.
Now, the challenge is to build on this year’s success.
“It’s a privilege to have a Canadian national team competing on the international level at levels that had never been dreamed of 10 years ago,” coach Jesse Marsch said. “There’s real excitement. With that excitement comes higher expectations, right? So, next World Cup, everyone’s gonna say that anything less than the round of 16 is a failure.”
Canada’s magical World Cup run ended Saturday as Azzedine Ounahi scored twice to lead Morocco to a 3-0 win and make the country the first African nation to reach the quarterfinals more than once.
The loss came after World Cup co-host Canada won its first-ever knockout round with a 1-0 victory over South Africa to reach Saturday’s match. The country, which is 30th in the FIFA rankings, was playing in the World Cup for just the third time and the run had captivated a nation that is normally far more interested in hockey than the pitch.
“Something that’s going to resonate most with this team and the country is that we really proved to everyone what a footballing country Canada is,” defender Alistair Johnston said.
The game was tied at halftime after a first half in which Canada controlled possession.
Neither team was able to break through until Ounahi took a free kick from Achraf Hakimi and made a right-footed shot through traffic from outside the box to the bottom right corner to put Morocco on top 1-0 in the 50th minute.
Ounahi made it 2-0 on a right-footed shot from the middle of the box off a pass from Brahim Díaz in the 82nd minute.
Soufiane Rahimi added a goal in the final minute of stoppage time.
Despite the lopsided score, Marsch thought his team played better than Morocco and shared his postgame message to his players.
“I told them that I was proud of them and I challenged them to understand that we can play like this all the time against the best teams in the world,” he said. “We can be better on the day. And then the challenge is, can we hold that standard for 90 minutes?”
Midfielder Stephen Eustáquio, who scored the only goal in Canada’s win over South Africa, believes the team’s success in this World Cup will build confidence and lead to more success in the future.
“The fact that we were able to be one of the 16 best teams of this World Cup is amazing for the country,” he said. “It’s amazing for this team. But we have to start from there realizing that the gap isn’t that big and that we have to fight.”
Canada reached the round of 16 despite missing star Alphonso Davies for the majority of the tournament because of a hamstring injury. The Bayern Munich player logged only 15 minutes as a substitute in the victory over South Africa but wasn’t available Saturday.
Marsch knows there’s still more work to do in terms of continuing to build infrastructure and youth academies in the country to feed talent into the national team.
But that’s for another day. On Saturday, he simply wanted to take a moment to appreciate what his plucky team accomplished this year.
“In terms of the commitment of the group and making the country proud and making the program proud they couldn’t have done more,” he said. “And in dealing with injuries and question marks and things being unsure on so many different levels, the group stayed strong throughout the tournament.”
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