The Reds will go to Qatar at the end of the year. Their last appearance at a World Cup? In Mexico in 1986. They finished bottom of their group without scoring a single goal.
One thing is certain: the Canadians will be present at the next two Worlds. If they will be there because of their status as host country in 2026, they have obtained their ticket to Qatar via the qualifiers. Something they hadn’t been able to do for 36 years. An eternity. “When I took over the reins of the team and said: ‘We are going to qualify for the World Cup’, I don’t think anyone believed us.”laughed John Herdman, the English coach of Canada. “I’m happy for all those fans because they waited and waited and waited. They kept supporting us. And here we go!”
Since swapping the bench for the women’s national team for the men’s in 2017 (the decision caused a lot of controversy), Herdman has breathed new life into Canadian football. While his tactical sense inevitably made a certain difference, as did the perfect mix between talent (David, Davies…) and experience (Hutchinson, Borjan…), this former primary school teacher was able to count on other assets to qualify Canada.
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