Now what?
For years the goal was to get there. Now, it's time to find a new goal
It’s hard not to feel a little sad right now. For the last two years Canadian fans always had something to look forward to — at the start of qualifying it was all about getting to the final round. They did that.
Then it was about getting to a World Cup. Mission accomplished.
Score a goal at the World Cup. Thank you, Phonzie!
Get a resul…well…sigh.
The truth is that we finally found our level and there were no more chances to go further. The wonderful ride — and it was wonderful — is over and it’s time to refocus and re-charge for the next cycle. And, if the next cycle is to also be wonderful they are going to need to exceed what they did here.
That won’t be easy. If we learned one thing over the last 8 days it’s that Canada may now be Concacaf good, but we are not yet World Cup good. Although the draw was tough, and they did good things in each of the three games they played in, the truth was that they weren’t consistent enough, clinical enough or focused enough to make another jump up.
The record doesn’t lie. They are an o-for-three team in Qatar for a reason. Yes, if Davies makes the penalty things might have been different.
But, he didn’t.
If Borjan doesn’t go for a wander today, they might get the draw.
Alas, he did.
If Herdman isn’t naive and stubborn with his tactics against Croatia…you get the point.
The World Cup is really about the ability to step up and take care of critical moments. Canada needs to learn how to do that. Doing so will require them critically evaluating their performance here. And to be open to the criticism that comes from that.
Ideally, they will be most critical with themselves. For instance, Davies doesn’t need to have someone tell him that a good leader puts his teammates in a position to succeed and he failed at that when he took the ball out of the hands of a better penalty taker against Belgium.
As I wrote after the Croatia game, the great thing about this sport is that tomorrow is never too far away, and so it is with Canada now. They have two opportunities in 2023 to erase the pain of Qatar and show that they are continuing to grow.
The Concacaf Nations League isn’t going to feature a three-hour pre-game show on TSN followed by an audience of 3 million (try 30 min on OneSoccer, followed by 30,000), but it will give them a chance to show that they can overcome adversity (they lost to Honduras during that disaster of a window they were supposed to play Iran).
Make no mistake, proving they can win things like the Nations League is the necessary foundation to being competitive at the World Cup.
More important yet, is proving they can consistently win in tournament play. Luckily, they have one to play in soon — just 205 days away, in fact.
The 2023 Gold Cup represents the most important Gold Cup Canada has played in since they defended their only title in 2003. The expectation should be that they win it.
Win. That’s what Mexico and the USA will expect and if Canada wants to be considered contenders like those two nations, then there’s no more room for noble loses like we just experienced in Qatar.
So, it’s time to let go of the Qatar story. That journey is over. It’s time to focus on the next prize.
That prize is the 2023 Gold Cup.
Onward!
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