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Morocco match really does matter

B R UCE ARTHUR

When your tournament is all but over, it becomes all too easy to start thinking about what you’ll remember. Canada still has a match to play, but it’s become accounting; Croatia saw to that. The 4-1 loss to the Croats killed Canada’s hopes of escaping Group F, and a small humiliation. You can explain why. When you have no midfielders against perhaps the best midfield in the world, bad things happen. But they happened, is the point.

In the immediate aftermath of elimination, players and the coach tried to accentuate the positives: Canada’s men scored a goal at the World Cup, they played a good first 25 minutes, they still have a fierce Morocco team to play. And they have already qualified for the next World Cup as a host nation in four years’ time. That’s all the good news, more or less.

And coach John Herdman and his players have tried to hammer those points. Maybe you need to focus on the positive to keep up the fighting spirit for Morocco. Maybe you need to focus on the positive to take the sting out of a 4-1 whipping, and a Croatian team making fun of your coach. Maybe you think you need it to develop.

“Yeah, there is gonna be a bit of a changing of the guard, potentially,” said defender Alistair Johnston. “I know Milan (Borjan, the 35-yearold goalkeeper) would like to probably play until 50, and you never know about Atiba (Hutchinson, 39). But now we have a really good young group, and it does make a difference.

“You know, getting that first goal, it changes something mentally. And to be able to get a first win or first draw, first result, just to be able to say that you’ve done that and been a part of that, it just helps alleviate some of those mental barriers.”

They don’t have that result yet, but we’ll come back to that.

Herdman’s attempt to put a

cheerful face on the Croatia match felt forced. Alphonso Davies became the first Canadian man to score a World Cup goal, yes, but it was a blowout, and an end. The players were positive where possible, reminding themselves of their journey here. Fair.

But if Canada wants to learn from this, it will need to face all the facts. Primarily, the talent wasn’t deep enough, especially in the midfield, and everything else — what some seasoned soccer observers called tactical naiveté, and the loyalty to a dead-legged Hutchinson and a onelegged Stephen Eustáquio — flowed from that, as Croatia’s superior midfield ate them alive.

“I just think that we needed to recognize that they were now breaking the press, and we needed to change certain pressing cues,” said midfielder Jonathan Osorio. “That’s all. When you go about preparing for a game, you prepare for the beginning where you have your plan, and then there’s the point in the game where they figure it out. At this level, they figure it out and then we have to counter them figuring it out.

“That’s how it is, right? It’s like a boxing match, kind of. So that’s all it was there. Their midfield three was able to figure it out on their own. Nothing from their coach, no (directions), they figured it out on their own. We have young guys on the team; we’re still learning. This is our first World Cup experience, and we will learn from this and we’ll get better.”

Beyond that, mistakes were made. Herdman’s strength in rallying and bonding his team became a weakness with his ill-fated “We’re off to Eff Croatia” rallying cry, which became a bigger point of focus than I expected. Croatia needed to win that match regardless, and was the better team, but the remark took on a life of its own.

So, how will this World Cup be remembered? The run to get here was a genuine triumph, especially in the context of Canadian men’s soccer history.

The game against Belgium was a tremendous performance, but the decision to have Davies take Canada’s early penalty was a weak point. Deferring to your players to gain buy-in is one thing, but Canada should have had an order and a plan for such a moment.

And Croatia showed Canada is still a new soccer nation. Only Germany and France had averaged more shots at goal than Canada per 90 minutes played through their first two matches, pending Brazil’s second game, but only Qatar was eliminated before Canada.

Herdman became international tabloid fodder, while Davies has dodged the international and independent press here, while only doing host broadcaster interviews. Some in the international press noticed.

So, how this World Cup is remembered is already a mixed bag, and the Morocco match matters. A result — a draw, a win, a great game after the Croatia debacle — could go a long way toward determining how this team’s run resonates. If Eustáquio is hurt, and even if he’s not, Morocco could be too big a problem. Play that match well and it helps everything.

And more, it helps the Canadian team itself.

“We’ve made a ton of people very proud back home. We need to continue to keep our heads held high and play for them, because that’s what this World Cup’s all about,” Johnston said.

“It’s about showing your country in the best light to the rest of the world.

“We know what a great opportunity that is, and also what it does for the Canadian public. I think that it really puts that trust in us going into 2026, into future competitions — whether it’s the Gold Cup, Nations League — that this team does belong. We’ve been fighting that for a long time, that feeling of belongingness. So, a result against Morocco, I think, would really go a long way in solidifying that.”

So, that’s what’s left at stake. Maybe we don’t just need to consider how we will remember this Canadian team’s World Cup. We need to consider how they will remember it, too.

SPORTS

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2022-11-29T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-11-29T08:00:00.0000000Z

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