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Canada’s Cyle Larin (9) celebrates his second-half goal with Promise David (24).Sam Balkansky/The Associated Press
Nobody rates a draw, in sports or in real life. A draw is business, unfinished.
But every once in a while, you get a draw that feels like a turning in the road. Canada had one of those at its World Cup debut on Friday, drawing Bosnia-Herzegovina 1-1. One might go so far as to say that it was the greatest draw in our national sporting history.
Canada ties Bosnia-Herzegovina for historic World Cup point
Based on performance, it wasn’t a good draw. Canada were so far the better team that you began to suspect Bosnia sent the wrong guys to North America. Maybe these were the team’s fitness coaches, and the soccer players got lost in the airport in Sarajevo. The guys on the field all looked like they work construction in the off-season.
It started nervy, but after about 20 minutes, Canada began to assume control. Entirely. The final two-thirds of the game viewed like a kitchen party being held in the Bosnian goalmouth.
Two balls on their way into the Bosnian net were, respectively, kicked and headed away by Bosnian defenders who appear to know their own ’keeper very well and forgive him his weaknesses. They didn’t even bother trying to mark anyone. Once they felt danger, they just rushed back into their own net.
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There’s a lot of ways to mess up a scoring play in soccer. On Friday, Canada tried them all. Over, around, scuffed wide, or straight into the goalkeeper. Then there’s the indirect miss – run to nowhere, fall over, lose track of where the ball is. All of that, too.
At one point, Canada had nine corner kicks to Bosnia’s one. The difference was that on that one, Bosnia scored.
You could say that that’s where you felt the field tilt, but it felt more like Canada lost its balance and rolled into Lake Ontario. A hysterical energy overtook the team.
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Tajon Buchanan runs with the ball followed by Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Amar Memic.JOHN E SOKOLOWSKI/Reuters
Everyone knows by now that the entire history of men’s soccer in this country is one great fake out. Hey, we’ve got a player over here who looks pretty … oh, forget it, he’s playing for someone else. Hey, we finally made it into a tournament that … oh don’t bother, that didn’t work out. Hey, we’re gonna do it this time, we’re just need to show Belgium that … never mind.
So when the going gets tough in Canadian soccer, it’s time for everyone else to get going home. That way you might beat traffic.
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Canada goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau only allowed one goal on Friday, and punched away this attempt by Bosnia’s Tarik Muharemovic.Stephanie Scarbrough/The Associated Press
The team may not have felt it on Friday, but the crowd certainly did. In the prelims, they were full of confidence. They even cheered Will Arnett, and I no longer understand what he does or why he keeps showing up at our sports.
Inside the stadium, people in red outnumbered people in blue by about 10-1, but you wouldn’t have known that from the noise. I don’t care if the score is 100-0, you cannot let yourself get outshouted at home in a World Cup. It’s unseemly.
But at Toronto Stadium on Friday, they couldn’t get a stadium singalong to Summer of ’69 going at halftime.
Raise A Little Hell? Fine. Life Is A Highway? Okay. But not Summer of ’69. This nation exists in part to keep the full lyrical memory of that pristine rock classic alive. Canadian troops will be singing it as they come out of the trenches in the data-centre wars to come.
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You cannot leave Summer of ’69 hanging, but this crowd did. That’s how forlorn they were. Meanwhile, the few thousand Bosnians on hand were stress testing the structural integrity of those rickety looking stands they’ve erected around the place. Great news. They’re now rated for earthquakes.
About 60 minutes in, you knew where this was headed – a loss against the odds. Maybe the the most extreme example you’ve seen of one team outplaying another and losing anyway in a game that really mattered.
You also knew what came next – hair pulling and garment rending. The full sports grief cycle. Why does this keep happening to us? We’re so ashamed. We can’t even look Mike Myers in the eye. He comes all the way up here, to the absolute middle of nowhere, and this is how we thank him.
(Marsch, afterward: “Mike Myers was here? Sweet!”)
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Canadian fans outnumbered the Bosnian supporters on Friday, but like the team on the pitch, they need to improve in time for the next match, Cathal Kelly writes.Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press
Then Cyle Larin scored. And not a cheap goal. A really lovely bit of skill and effort.
Beyond all the jabbering about this guy versus that guy or tactics or whatever, it should be obvious what Canada’s problem is – they don’t think they can. They can’t be blamed for that. They’ve never done anything that would convince them otherwise.
Meanwhile, the Bosnians, with no good reason to do so, seemed to very much believe they could. Because they’ve won a World Cup game, and scored World Cup goals, plural, and humiliated Italy. They are full of belief.
That’s why this draw matters so much. When you haven’t taken a single point in two completed World Cups, getting your first one on Day 1 of the third should change your mindset.
You don’t want it to change too much. In his postmatch presser, Marsch compared Canada to Argentina in the last World Cup in Qatar, after their tough result at the outset against Saudi Arabia. That’s the sort of noodling behind a live mic that comes back to bite you.
Bosnian band Dubioza Kolektiv has transformed a song about disillusionment with the American Dream into a viral anthem powering Bosnia and Herzegovina’s World Cup dreams. The track is called “I Am From Bosnia – Take Me to America.”
The Associated Press
But after 40 years at a dead stop, the Canadian men’s team is now rolling. Slowly, but that’s okay. This tournament was purpose-designed to shove them bodily into the knockout rounds. FIFA wants it that way.
If Canada wins one against Qatar on Thursday – which it absolutely should – it can start booking hotel rooms. It can even start dreaming of winning the group.
For now, Friday’s draw, the greatest in recent memory, is a magical Canadian sporting moment. By next Thursday in Vancouver, it won’t be anywhere close to enough.
