It doesn't matter until it does

Canada will need to wait a little longer for its first trophy in 25 years

Photo by Daniel Velásquez on Unsplash

There’s a difference between being disappointed in a result and feeling hopeless about one.

The former is a normal part of being a sports fan. Your team is on the wrong side of a bounce, you’re disappointed. Your star striker hits the crossbar in the dying moment, that sucks.

Without disappointment, it’s difficult to find joy in the victories. In fact, with age, you come to almost appreciate the dips because they will make the ride back up all that more exciting. As a Blue, Manchester City’s 2024-25 season has been disappointing.

Hopeless is a whole other level. That’s “God hates my team,” kind of despair. With hopeless, the star striker doesn’t hit the crossbar so much as he’s caught snorting coke off it at 3am with his topless sister-in-law. The ride is only going to keep going down, you fear. Toronto FC’s 2025 season has been hopeless, so far.

Last night’s 2-0 loss to Mexico in the Concacaf Nations League semi-final was disappointing. Undone by a bad bounce in the opening minute, a suspect non-call and a world class free kick, Canada’s loss really sucks to process today, but you don’t leave the game feeling existential dread (Toronto FC at New York Red Bulls, Saturday, 7:30pm on Apple TV).

I don’t want to get into a “Canada was the better team last night” conversation, because the better team scores more goals, but Canada was a good team last night. Canada is a good team now, which is something many of us long-timers are still processing.

Thus the disappointment. There’s no moral victory here. They lost the game and the opportunity. The Gold Cup will provide another and I think this group wins one of these big games soon. But, man. I hope soon is, you know, soon.

In terms of preparing for the 2026 World Cup, everything is still going along nicely. On that front, I’d rather be Canada right now than their 3rd place game opponent Sunday (that’s the trending-towards-hopeless USA, if you weren’t paying attention to the Nations League otherwise).

That’s, of course, the point of all of this. No one dreams of winning a Concacaf Nations League title. Even after its explained to them what it is.

Bottom line is that with two home glamour friendlies on the horizon (Ukraine and Cote d’Ivoire) and then a tournament, Jesse Marsch will have plenty of time to continue this build towards 2026 and yesterday’s disappointment shouldn’t make anyone feel hopeless.

Even if it really does suck to lose.