Defender Steven Vitória said: “We are not afraid of anyone. “We kept pushing forward, trying to play that attacking style. We are proud of that. We will continue to work to close the gap and test the best teams in the world. That’s where we want to take our country.”
At this World Cup, Canada earned style points, if not actual points, in their first attendance since first entering the tournament in 1986. Defensively, however, they failed to hold out Croatia, who scored eight minutes before half-time and scored two more goals against Croatia. The second half turned to a surprise first draw with Morocco.
Belgium, the favorites in Group F, picked up three points after a nasty 0-2 loss to Morocco the previous Sunday. Group F will end on Thursday with Morocco vs Canada and Croatia vs Belgium. Two will advance to the round of 16.
Regardless of their performance in the finale, the Canadians “left behind a positive image of what we want for the future,” Vitória said.
The future is sure to continue to feature Alphonso Davies, a former West African refugee turned global star at Bayern Munich. The 22-year-old winger made Canadian history on Sunday with an early goal.
Coach John Herdman said: “When you know everyone from east to west coming home is celebrating somewhere, it’s a great moment. We have to celebrate something we’ve been waiting for a long time.”
The good vibes didn’t last long. Andrej Kramaric scored the first of his two goals, and Marko Livaja broke the deadlock.
The Croatian said they received encouragement from Herdman, who used a profanity in a television interview after the 0-1 loss to Belgium to describe what his team will do with Croatia. The Croatian media noted it during the preparation for this match.
“I want to thank coach Canada for the motivation,” Kramaric said through an interpreter. “He could have chosen different words. He could have built it another way. In the end, Croatia proved who beat whom.”
Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic, the architect of the 2018 run in Russia, greeted Herdman before the game. However, after that, they did not cross the street.
“That’s his way of doing things,” Dalic said. “He is clearly crazy. He’s a high-quality professional, but he’s going to take time to learn some things.”
Canada said it all right from the start. The string of goals started with a long save by goalkeeper Milan Borjan, and in a split second, the ball was in the net.
Cyle Larin connects with Tajon Buchanan on the right. Moving into the box, Jonathan David pulled in defender Dejan Lovren, which created an attractive channel. Davies accepted.
After starting to run from a deep position, he made his decisive move. Josip Juranovic did not see Davies arrive and had no chance of winning Buchanan’s high cross. Davies flew up to hit a header at 10 yards.
Khilafa International Stadium turns into a festival of red-shirted Canadians.
In their 1986 league debut, Canada lost all three games by a total of 5-0. In the following decades, it repeatedly stumbled in the Concacaf qualifiers. Earlier this year, the drought ended after it finished first, ahead of regional powers Mexico and the United States.
On Sunday, Canada kept up the pressure, teasing its supporters with quick breakthroughs and impressing neutral fans with forward style. Before long, however, Croatia found a way to contain Davies.
The pace became too fast and the play was too open to maintain the score 1-0.
In the 36th minute, Ivan Perisic passed the ball to Kramaric and strode in the corner of the 6m50 round to make a finish that sank into the far corner.
Croatia continued to take advantage of Canada’s space and impatient defense. In the 44th minute, Juranovic darted from midfield, passed the sleek Davies and turned into the center. The Canadians closed in, but after losing control, Juranovic let the ball touch Vitória’s feet to Livaja, who hit a low shot from the top of the box.
All hopes of Canada were extinguished in the 70th minute when Kramaric scored with his left foot from a distance of 14m. Lovro Majer scored another goal in injury time.
Canada captain Atiba Hutchinson said: “Every single player on the pitch, from the first game to this one, played with the right mentality and played fearlessly and bravely.” “But of course, we played on the world stage with a lot of quality. [on the other teams]. There are things we will have to learn. We didn’t get the results we wanted. But we will learn from this. And we will get better at it.”
