Without any doubt, Canadians have barely waited for the World Cup to start. Canada national football team has managed to reach the group stage of this international competition after 36 years. More precisely, so far, they have managed to do the same thing only twice, and the 2022 World Cup is their second try.
Unfortunately, their journey has ended already at the group stage. They haven’t managed to win a game and ended up in the last place of their group. Yet should Canadians be unsatisfied with the achieved results?
Of course, we know that fans had hope that something unusual could happen. Isn’t that the charm that soccer has? But who says that reaching the World Cup itself is not an achievement? Were they really that bad? Let’s see together!
Analysis of the Canadian World Cup Group
Canada definitely had a tough group, and was, without any doubt, the weakest team on this list. Their squad can’t compare with the teams like Croatia and Belgium. However, as a surprise for everyone, Morocco ended up in first place. Because of that, we will give ourselves the right to say that Canada certainly was the weakest team in the group.
But that’s not only our opinion. Comparing Canada’s team to other teams that participate in the tournament with the World Cup team builder will tell you the same thing. You will notice that Canada national football team is one of the least valuable on the list. Apart from Alphonso Davies and Jonathon David, and Tajon Buchanan, other players do not have a bigger value on the transfer market than 10 million Euros.
Game Against Belgium
The game against Belgium was actually not that bad. It was noticeable that players had the desire to show what they know. Unfortunately, Davies missed the penalty kick in the 11th minute. If he scored, only God knows how the game would continue.
Canada was attacking pretty well during the first and biggest part of the second half. People that watched the game know it looked like Canada would manage to score a goal in the end. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Batshuayi’s goal in the 44th minute was enough for Belgium to win the match and take three points.
Game Against Croatia
Even after the defeat, Canadians were highly motivated to show what they know. This game was crucial for them. They couldn’t afford to lose because that would mean they do not have the chance to fight for the knockout phase in the last match. You could read in the mainstream media that coach Herdman had some pretty controversial statements in the locker room. But we do not know if that’s true. Even if it is, do we know what other coaches say to the players before the match and at halftime?
Anyway, once again, the game started pretty amazingly for Canada. Already in the second minute of the game, they managed to score. Davies scored a pretty nice goal. People must not forget that Croatia was the runner-up in the previous World Cup. Kramaric, Modric, Perisic, Kovacic, and other folks never give up that easily. It doesn’t need to surprise us why they scored 2 goals before halftime.
In the second half, Canadian players tried a lot to keep the ball in their possession. Unfortunately, they only had one shot at the goal. On the other hand, the Croatian team mostly focused on counter-attacks which allowed them to score 2 more goals.
Of course, we do understand that many fans from Canada hoped that miracles could happen during that match. Their hope was probably even stronger after Davies scored the goal. But Croatia is, without any doubt, one of the strongest teams in the world. Some people even claim they will, once again, manage to reach the finals. We will see whether these predictions are correct or not.
Game Against Morocco
This game had no meaning for the Canada national team as they already knew they couldn’t pass the group stage. On the other hand, the game was pretty important for Morocco as they had a really high chance to pass the group stage. The motive of both teams was visible on the court.
Already at the beginning, Morocco scored 2 goals. Already in the 4th minute, Yiyech scored a goal while En Nesyri did the same thing only 19 minutes later. The own goal of Morocco was an accident, but that didn’t influence the quality of soccer that their players provided in the second half.
It was pretty obvious that Canadians do not have the motivation to play hard. The fact that they didn’t have a single shot on goal only confirms that. On the other hand, Morocco had only two, but those two shots were the crucial ones. In the second half, neither of the teams had a shot on goal which only confirms that the game was not even interesting in the last 45 minutes.
Fortunately for Morocco, Belgium and Croatia played a draw, which ensured them first place in the group stage. A very small number of people (outside of Morocco) could guess something like that is possible.
We Can’t Say Canada National Team Was Bad
When you just look at the table, you can conclude that Canada was pretty bad. Their goal difference in the tournament was 2:7. On the other hand, they had 0 points and three defeats. But statistics never tell the full story.
Keep in mind that all the players of the starting eleven were playing the World Cup for the first time in their life. On the other hand, the current squad went to the group stage for the first time after 36 years. That was already a big achievement for Canadian soccer as well as all the fans that are regularly following this sport.
Canadian people do not have a reason to be unsatisfied or disappointed. When literally no one expected, they would go to the World Cup, the team managed to do that. We truly hope these guys won’t have to wait that long for the new opportunity to play in the World Cup.
Conclusion
We tried to analyze each game of Canada in the World Cup as well as possible. The team really looked good in certain parts of the first two games. But not many teams in the world can easily defeat Belgium or Croatia. Canada is one of the co-hosts of the World Cup 2026. Until then, the soccer experts within the country have enough time to prepare the team and make the Canadians proud once again!
