Canada in Qatar: Who are Les Rouges?
Canada is very much an unknown entity going into this Winter’s World Cup. The Sports Gazette speaks to multiple sources to get the news around football in Canada, and to preview their chances at this year’s tournament.
The last time Canada featured at a World Cup, Diego Maradona was football’s most expensive player, the ‘Phantom of the Opera’ was debuting across London’s West End, and the Soviet Union had not yet collapsed.
In 1986, Canada’s World Cup campaign ended abruptly after an underwhelming 2-0 loss against the Soviets in Mexico.
Three games played, three games lost: a meagre participation on football’s most sought-after stage.
It must be said, however, that the footballing sentiment in Canada in 1986 was unequivocally different to that of the present day. This is a country where football is on the up.
“It wasn’t until it started to look like Canada might actually pull this off – that was the only time that anybody started talking about ‘86,” Ryan Tune – Canadian fan and chairman of one of Bayern Munich’s largest fan groups, told the Sports Gazette.
Fast-forward to 2022, where a win against Jamaica would seal their qualification. An emphatic 4-0 victory in front of a home crowd of nearly 30,000 meant Les Rouges would, amongst all the trademark footballing nations, compete in Qatar this Winter, ending a 36-year drought.
“Remember: they didn’t just qualify, they topped the continent and beat the US and Mexico en route, playing some great football along the way,” said Toronto-based sports writer, Joe Callaghan.
Mexico and the US have long been the traditional frontrunners of CONCACAF, but this squad of players have upset the balance.
Both Callaghan and Tune cite the new-found diversity amongst the team, and Canada as a whole, as a reason for the popularisation of the sport.
“That’s the thing about this team: they represent the new, young, diverse Canada better than any other sport right now.
“The squad is packed with first and second-generation Canadians, the sons of immigrants who have brought football culture from their own homelands in Europe, Africa and elsewhere,” said Callaghan.
“What you have here (Toronto) is a lot of diversity. There’s a lot of people coming from countries where soccer is number one,” Tune agreed.
Speaking purely in terms of demographics, almost 22% of Canada’s population are immigrants; the migrant population has more than doubled since the last time Canada qualified for a World Cup.
In a metropolitan centre like Toronto, these figures are concentrated. This concentration brings diversity, and this diversity brings football. It’s not all as simple as that, but you only need to look at the Canadian men’s football roster to see this effect in play where the majority of the squad possess dual heritage.
Davies – the jewel in the crown of Canadian football – currently plays at Ryan’s beloved Bayern Munich but started his career at Vancouver Whitecaps FC. The industrious full back has won German league titles, domestic cups, and a Champions League all at the ripe age of 21.
His level of stardom in Canada is rapidly approaching superstardom.
“Soccer has grown, and that growth has led to players being exposed to the rest of the world a bit more” Tune said.
Case in point: Stephen Eustáquio is turning heads in Portugal, impressing in the league and in the Champions League for FC Porto.
Jonathan David currently plays his club football at Lille in Ligue 1. This season, the 21-year-old forward has scored nine goals in 11 appearances for the French side.
Callaghan tipped Club Brugge’s 23-year-old, Tajon Buchanan, to star for Canada this Winter.
“On both wings Canada have pace, creativity, and a little magic. If Alphonso Davies on the left is better known than Tajon Buchanan on the right, that may soon change.
“Buchanan has arguably been the revelation of qualifying and looks primed to springboard on from Belgiam to a bigger European league soon,” said Callaghan.
To only focus on the younger contingent of the squad, however, would be to do an injustice to this team. John Herdman has managed to contrive a fabulous balance of youth and experience through which this Canadian outfit thrives.
Atiba Hutchinson, 39, and Milan Borjan, 34, are but two examples of those in the squad who provide a sensibility and prudence that perfectly supplements the rawness of youth within the squad.
“Herdman is a manager who it seems is constantly talking about moments. This feels like a particularly seminal one,” Callaghan said.
Herdman – a Newcastle United fan from Durham – made the switch from the women’s national team to the men’s in 2018, highlighting a pertinent issue already tackled by the Sports Gazette.
Many questioned if Herdman would have the necessary grit to make that switch. And those incredulous doubters have been proven wrong.
“It always seems like he’s got the right mix of communication, mentorship, coaching, and also enthusiasm and passion,” Tune said.
These ingredients have been part of a winning recipe. Since Herdman took over, Canada have climbed from 72nd in FIFA’s World Rankings to 41st – a remarkable rise.
There’s no doubt that football’s slow rise to fruition in Canada has run in tandem with the success of both the men’s, and women’s national teams, who under the tutelage of Herdman – past and present – have reached unparalleled heights.
In Qatar, Belgium, Croatia, and Morocco will make up the rest of Group F, so progression won’t be a formality, as The Athletic’s Jay Harris confirms.
“It is going to be extremely difficult for Canada to reach the knockout stages.
“Belgium and Croatia are top sides who both reached the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup whereas this is Canada’s first appearance since 1986,” Harris said.
But such is the frantic and unpredictable nature of a World Cup, that Harris isn’t completely ruling them out.
“You never know what can happen at the World Cup.
“It will be a difficult group to get out of, but this is a young squad at the beginning of their journey, whereas it feels this is the end of an era for Belgium and Croatia,” he said.
Canada’s game against Morocco seems the most likely in which Les Rouges can pick up points, but Tune possesses something us English historically haven’t ever had: a level head.
“I realistically just want to see competitive football,” he said.
‘Where’s your English spirit, Ryan?’ I asked him, before receiving a sobering reminder that football probably won’t be coming home this Winter.
“Whether or not there’s any achievements this time round, I think it’s exciting to believe that all of this is building towards a consistent team that should be competing for a spot in the World Cup going forward,” Tune concluded.
