Breathe it in - the CanMNT has qualified for the 2022 World Cup
After the CanMNT's historic qualification to the men's World Cup, here's an ode to the journey they've undergone to get to that point.
Hey everyone, Alexandre here.
They have finally done it. The journey is over.
If you’re reading this, that means that the CanMNT has qualified for the 2022 Men’s World Cup, snapping a 36-year drought in the process, leading me to release this piece.
Thanks to either a win, draw or even a loss against Jamaica, Canada has completed the job that they started 367 long days ago when they kicked off their World Cup qualifying campaign with a 5-1 win over Bermuda.
But for those who have followed this men’s team, the journey has been much longer than that. As of today, it’s been 2025 days since their journey to the 2018 World Cup ended in heartbreak, and 13 072 days since they last kicked off at the World Cup back in 1986, 36 long years ago.
When they made it then, it was thought that it’d be the first of many. Having fought so hard to get there, marking a memorable qualifying run with a huge win in St. John’s, Newfoundland over Honduras, it felt like that wouldn’t be the last time we’d hear of Canada’s men making memories in those sorts of games.
Instead, though, what followed were some lean years in their quest to qualify for the World Cup. They came close in the 1994 cycle, losing in the intercontinental playoff, before making the final round in 1997, but bowed out of that one early.
And then, from there, other than a Gold Cup win in 2000, their lone triumph in CONCACAF’s marquee men’s tournament to date, it’s gotten quite rough, as heading into this cycle, 1997 remained as the last time this team even made the final round, let alone come close to a World Cup.
But that changed this time around.
Led by a new generation of players, such as Alphonso Davies, Jonathan David and Stephen Eustaquio, who joined a core group of veterans, such as Atiba Hutchinson and Milan Borjan, they assembled what has arguably been the deepest team in their history. Along with their head coach, John Herdman, who has found a way to maximize that talent at his disposal, it gave them a new feeling ahead of this cycle, one where they looked to finally return to the big dance.
With plans to compete at the 2026 World Cup, where they’d for sure snap their drought by virtue of being co-hosts for that competition, they wanted to ensure that they’d get a taste of the big dance in 2022, first.
But when they set out on this journey 364 days ago, it felt like a far-reaching dream to do that. Having to start in the first round, Canada was going to need to play 20 games (and win most of them) to make it to the World Cup, an arduous journey to undertake.
At the same time, it was one that Canada was happy to do. Under the original format for this 2022 World Cup cycle, where there was supposed to be changes from the old system for the first time since the 90s, Canada wasn’t even supposed to make the final round, poised to go through a 29-team gauntlet just to fight for a spot in the intercontinental playoff, already eliminated from the final round by the virtue of their FIFA Ranking at the time.
Then, thanks to the pandemic, CONCACAF brought back a more of an old-school format, one where Canada would get a chance to qualify for that final round on the pitch, with there being an expansion of the final round from 6 (as had been the case for many cycles) to 8.
To get there first, though, that required a tough journey, one that started 364 days ago.
And there, we saw this Canadian team really break out of their shell.
First, they rolled through the first round with ease, beating Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Aruba and Suriname by a combined score of 27-1, showing that they weren’t here to mess around.
After that, a stiff second-round test awaited them in Haiti, who they had to beat over two legs to qualify for the final round, the ‘Octagonal’. There, despite lingering worries from Haiti’s famous upset over Canada back in 2019, Canada also showed a ruthless side to themselves, dispatching Haiti with a pair of victories, picking up a 4-0 win on aggregate.
So heading into the Octo, the mood was high. At the same time, it’s where you felt that things were about to get real for them, as not only was it Canada’s first participation at that stage in over 2 decades, it was expected to be as tough as ever given that it consisted of 8 of the best teams in CONCACAF fighting for 3.5 World Cup spots.
But there, they showed that they’re indeed a different team. They started a bit slow, picking up just 1 win in their first 5 games, but they were undefeated through those matches, and had picked up some good results, such as a 3-0 win over El Salvador at home, a 1-1 draw with the US away and a 1-1 draw with Mexico away.
So heading into their 6th game of the Octo, against Panama at home, Canada was sitting in the top 4, in a decent spot as they neared the halfway point of that stage.
There, they hit a roadblock, though. Having gone down early to a team that was also in the top 4, it looked like they were heading to a disappointing result, even as they clawed things back to make it 1-1 by halftime, as this Panama team was flexing its muscles.
And then the moment where everything changed happened in the 66th minute.
There, Alphonso Davies, an emblem of the rise of this team given his growth towards becoming one of the best left backs in the world with Bayern Munich, where he’d already won everything there is to win there, came to life down the right-hand side.
Seeing a chance to pounce on a loose ball that seemed destined to go out of bounds, the speedy Davies turned on the afterburners, caught the Panamanian defenders sleeping, before running in and scoring a goal that would soon be shared around the nation as Canada would then go on to grab a 4-1 win.
And since then, it’s been all systems go for Canada.
In November, they picked up a key 1-0 win over Costa Rica, and then snapped a 21-year drought against CONCACAF giants, Mexico, in a 2-1 win that they jokingly called the ‘Iceteca’ given the frosty temperatures that it was played in, as well as a nod to Mexico’s famed Azteca stadium.
After that, they rolled into January, where despite being quite shorthanded, they picked up a trio of 2-0 wins over Honduras, United States and El Salvador, leading them to where they were heading into this camp, on the precipice of the World Cup.
Then, they hit a roadblock to kick off this window, as a trip down to Costa Rica saw them denied of a chance to qualify in front of a hostile crowd, but that just set up the scene for this chance to create history at home, and from there, they took care of business in front of their home fans.
Not only that, they have won the hearts of people across the world while doing so, not just catching the eyes of Canadians, but people who were starting to realize that Canada was the story of this World Cup cycle.
So this piece just serves as a reminder of that journey. Be it if you were there when Canada kicked off against Bermuda on March 25th, 2021 (or far before that), or if you joined sometime after that Davies goal, what was special about this journey was the moments that came out of it, and how everyone rallied around this team as things went along.
And now that they’re in the World Cup, this is a good time to reminisce.
Go back and watch some of those highlights, breathe in the spectacle that was the Iceteca, or the forgotten (but equally as special) Iced Capp, and relive this journey.
Then, say it out loud, as for the first time in far too long, the Canadian Men’s National Team will be at the World Cup later this year, competing against the best teams in the world for a shot at global supremacy.
And after, take that energy and invest it back into the sport in this country, so that there are more moments like this in the future.
For example, it isn’t talked about enough, but Canada also has a very good women’s team, one that won a Olympic gold medal last summer (and have 2 other bronze medals from 2012 and 2016 to go along with), despite dealing with some serious infrastructural issues, such as the fact that there is still somehow not a professional women’s league in this country. That needs to change, and one way to do that is to go out and support the National Team, and show that there needs to be a top-flight women’s league so that Canada can continue to grow there.
Otherwise, you can also get stuck into the local soccer options that are available now, such as the Canadian Premier League, and other local provincial leagues across the country, where there are players who will one day play for the men’s and women’s teams in these big games.
Then through those things, we can really cement the fact that Canada is a soccer country, one where moments like this one, or the gold medal last summer, will continue to happen in the future.
It’s been a journey just to get to this point, and it’s one that’s just getting started for this country, piece by piece.
And for me, it’s an honour to be able to sit here and write such an article, and I hope to be able to write many more like it in the future.
So on that note, get back to celebrating, and I’ll continue to share the stories of this run, including the game that made this all possible, stories that I’m proud to tell, and hope to tell for a long, long time.
Yours truly,
Alexandre
Cyle Larin celebrates his goal vs Jamaica on Sunday (Canada Soccer/Martin Bayzl)