Terror on the Soccer Pitch

It was a rough weekend to be a CanMNT fan. But not as bad as Maxime Creapeau's was.

Nov 7, 2022

Maxime Crepeau is out of the World Cup. Alphonso Davies, apparently, is not, but few Canadian fans will breathe easy until they see the star run in comfort again.

Injuries happen. As sports fans we understand this. They suck, but they happen.

And, we all knew that at least one global star would probably end up missing Qatar, or, if not outright miss then not be close to their best at the tournament. As Canadians we just didn’t want that global star to be ours — we have so few to spare!

Look: There’s approximately 0% chance that Bayern Munich would allow Phonzie to go to Qatar if there was any chance that his hamstring strain is actually a tear, and they are just being nice about it so he can go.

So, let’s take the reports at face value and hope that it’s actually a blessing in disguise in that he no longer will be risking further damage in the games leading up to Belgium.

Maxime Crepeau is another situation all together. Broken legs don’t heal in three weeks.

Imagin the pain — both physical and emotional — Crepeau was feeling as that moment in Saturday’s MLS Cup played out. His World Cup dream was dying — he probably will be in the mix in 2026, but there’s no guarantee, especially now that he has to recover from a broken leg — and his dream of winning MLS Cup was in danger too. It’s heart-breaking on a human level.

Thanks to Gareth Bale’s dramatics and the worst penalty shoot-out performance in MLS history by Philadelphia, the latter was dealt with. The former, however…

As indicated above, injuries happen. You just don’t expect them to be to your back-up keeper. That makes this hard to fully process. What does Crepeau’s loss mean to CanMNT?

Well, first off, it’s an opportunity for a player that wasn’t expecting to go to Qatar. James Pantemis, likely. As a third keeper, it’s probably not going to impact the results and it will give a guy that looks to be part of that ‘26 mix an early feel for what a World Cup is. That’s a positive.

That’s the only positive. Although Crepeau was the back-up and that wasn’t going to change in Qatar — Milan Borjan will start all three games — he was also a guy that played a huge role in qualifying and, most importantly, a keeper that the team trusts.

That’s not to say that Dayne St. Clair or Pantemis couldn’t gain that trust, but at a World Cup you would rather deal with what’s known rather than hope for things to emerge.

Borjan probably won’t get hurt. But, he could. And, now what was comfortable depth at the keeping position is very uncomfortable.

However, the biggest blow might be the emotional hit losing Crepeau could have on the rest of the roster. This is a close bunch and he was part of it. Seeing your friend lose his dream so close to the end is going to impact you. They’ll say brave things about stepping up to honour him, but this injury and the tough roster decisions that John Herdman is going to need to make in the next few days are going to be a splash of reality that this isn’t qualifying anymore.

The team that captured the nation’s heart in the fall of 2021 and winter of 2022 is gone now. A new group will need to emerge in 2022. It’s a similar group, but the dynamics will be different and some of the faces too.

Any success Canada has in Qatar will be dependent on their ability to quickly move on from a set-back like this.

Just over two weeks to Belgium…

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