It was only a year ago that Alphonso Davies scored the Canadian men’s national team’s first goal in the FIFA World Cup. 12 months later, that iconic moment in Canadian sports history feels like a lifetime ago after Canada’s devasting home loss on Nov. 21st to Jamaica in the quarterfinals of the CONCACAF Nations League.
Canada’s growth as a soccer nation began on June 13th, 2017, when 16-year-old Davies made his international debut for the senior team, becoming the youngest player in history to represent Canada at the senior level.
His promotion to the senior team sparked optimism within Canada Soccer and among Canadian soccer fans, as there were high expectations for the youngster to become the star of the Canadian national team. Those expectations have certainly been fulfilled since his debut in 2017.
Given Davies’ skillset and profound knowledge of the game, it didn’t take long for the Edmonton-native to score his first goal with the senior team. On July 7th, 2017, Davies buried his first two goals for Canada in a 4-2 CONCACAF Gold Cup win against French Guiana.
Although the Canadian team was eventually eliminated by Jamaica in the quarterfinals of that tournament, the future was bright for Les Rouges.
Just over a year after the 2017 Gold Cup, Jonathan David – another Canadian soccer superstar – made his debut with the senior national team.
On Sept. 9th, 2018, the 18-year-old striker scored a brace in five minutes, for his first two Canadian goals in an 8-0 trouncing of the U.S. Virgin Islands in a CONCACAF Nations League Qualifying game.
Fast forward two and a half years later, Davies, David and new head coach John Herdman – who took over after leading the Canadian women’s national team to back-to-back Olympic bronze medals – were all entering their first FIFA World Cup Qualifying campaign together.
The squad, centred around the two young superstars, cruised through the first round of qualifying, outscoring their opponents – Suriname, Bermuda, Aruba and the Cayman Islands – by a combined score of 27-1.
Canada’s plus-26 goal differential after round one carried into the second round as they swept Haiti in both legs by an aggregate score of 4-0.
With the win against Haiti, Canada qualified into the “real” qualifying window against CONCACAF’s top nations: Mexico, United States, Panama, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Honduras and El Salvador.
On Sept. 2nd, 2021, Canada opened the final round of qualifying at home with a 1-1 draw to Honduras, before earning another point in Nashville after holding the Americans to a draw.
Three days later, Canada picked up their first win of the final round at Toronto’s BMO Field, beating El Salvador 3-0, and it all went up from there.
In the following international window, Canada drew Mexico on the road at the hostile Estadio Azteca, a place where the Mexicans have been indisputable. Mexico has won 41 of the 51 games they’ve played there in World Cup Qualifying since 2018, and they’ve only lost twice. Toronto FC’s Jonathan Osorio scored Canada’s goal that game at the end of the first half to even the score at one and hold on for the monumental result.
Canada’s biggest wins of qualifying came at home against both Mexico and the United States.
In a cold and snowy Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton on Nov. 16th, 2021, Cyle Larin scored a brace for Canada to withstand a Mexican comeback and hold onto a 2-1 victory.
Two months later in Hamilton, Ontario, Larin’s seventh-minute goal not only gave Canada the lead but also made him the all-time leading goal scorer among Canadian men, surpassing Dwayne De Rosario for top spot. Sam Adekugbe scored in second half stoppage time to give the Canadians the 2-0 win against the rival Americans.
Through the final round of qualifying, the Canadians won eight of 14 games, while drawing four and only losing two, to finish atop of the table with a plus-16 goal differential and 28 points.
Canada’s dominance all throughout qualifying earned them their highest spot ever on the FIFA World Rankings, ranking 33rd on Feb. 10th, 2022.
More importantly, their first-place finish qualified Canada for the FIFA World Cup for the first time since 1986, which was before all but one player – Atiba Hutchinson – was even born.
At that point, the squad was booming with confidence heading into Qatar with legitimate aspirations of not only winning the country’s first ever game at the World Cup but making it out of their group and going on a deep run.
In Canada’s group, Les Rouges were up against Belgium, the number two ranked team in the world heading into the World Cup; Croatia, the 2018 World Cup Runners-Up; and Morocco.
Against Belgium, the Canadians were on the front foot early, resulting in a penalty kick being awarded to Canada which was ultimately missed. Right before half time, Michy Batshuayi put Belgium on the board with the goal that stood as the winner as Canada dropped their opener of the 2022 World Cup.
However, it didn’t take Canada long to avenge their loss to Belgium and take the lead in their second match against Croatia.
In the second minute of the match, Davies scored Canada’s first ever FIFA World Cup goal which was celebrated and cherished across the country.
But this memorable moment may have been Canada’s peak as a soccer nation.
Canada ended up losing that game 4-1 as poor play to close out the first half and a lackluster second half resulted in a calamitous loss and elimination from advancing in the tournament.
To make matters worse, the Canadians were also brutal in their final match against Morocco – though Morocco did end up reaching the semifinals – losing 2-1 and going winless in the country’s first World Cup in 36 years.
Since their loss to Morocco on Dec. 1st, 2022, the Canadian men’s national team have continued to perform poorly after dropping some big matches in 2023.
On June 18th, 2023, Canada lost to the United States in the 2022-23 CONCACAF Nations League Final, before losing again to the Americans a few weeks later – albeit Canada lost in penalties – in the 2023 CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinals.
Most recently, the Canadians lost 3-2 to Jamaica – 4-4 on aggregate, losing on away goals – to be eliminated in the quarterfinals of the 2023-24 CONCACAF Nations League.
More importantly, the loss also meant that Canada did not automatically qualify for the 2024 CONMEBOL Copa America.
Competing in the Copa America would provide the Canadian team with intense matches against some of the best teams in South America – Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Colombia – whose talents far exceed that of CONCACAF, the North American region.
Now, the Canadians need to win a do-or-die game against Trinidad and Tobago on March 23rd, 2024 – who beat the United States 2-1 in their second leg – to qualify for the tournament as one of the six CONCACAF nations participating.
Beating Trinidad and Tobago will be no easy task, especially for a team that is going through some shuffling off the field.
John Herdman stepped down as head coach of the Canadian team on Aug. 28th, 2023, to pursue an opportunity as coach of Toronto FC.
Part of Herdman’s reasoning for leaving the Canadian team was because he did not feel that the team had sufficient resources and financial support from Canada Soccer to make a serious push at the 2026 World Cup as The Athletic’s Joshua Kloke reported.
Canada Soccer’s financial struggles have been well documented and is a microcosm of money mismanagement and poor leadership as reported by TSN’s Rick Westhead.
Now, the Canadian men’s national team is bound to suffer because of the inexcusable decision-making by Canada Soccer executives, which has left holes both on and off the pitch, leading to devasting losses on the field.
With the loss to Jamaica, the loss of former head coach John Herdman and the lack of resources it appears that Canada Soccer has, the next few weeks and months will be interesting to see what changes are made. Those changes will dictate whether Canada features at the 2024 Copa America and if they can be a formidable team when they co-host the 2026 FIFA World Cup in just over two and a half years’ time.
For more information on the Canadian senior men’s national team, head to canadasoccer.com.