What do you do if the game goes in the opposite direction, if all quality is frozen, if your existence in the World Cup is at stake?
Get to know Canada.
Croatia got one match for free, and now they have every chance to play many more.
Today I feel like Celine Dion.
After all, Justin Trudeau hasn’t had this much fun since putting on makeup and going to a school prom in 2001. Canada’s prime minister urged his people to set their hours and get up early, just in time for their second breakfast, Canada winning the Davis Cup in tennis for the first first time ever, and his first ever soccer World Cup goal.
During Canada’s trip here, and even after the spellbinding attack against Belgium in the opening game, much was made of the fact that seven of the team’s players come from the ninth largest city in the country. Brampton, a half-hour west of Toronto, with a population of just under 700,000, has led Canada’s path from soccer’s motherland with white middle-class youth to modern-day epic of diversity. Eternal machine Atippa Hutchinson grew up there, earlier this year opening Cruyff’s stadium (several small artificial turf pitches, the phenomenon is in nine countries – all playing in the World Cup) named after him. In the past, the courses have been named after Olympic gold medalists Kadisha Buchanan and Ashley Lawrence, also from Brampton.
There arose the football culture that incorporated the new Canada, led by a steady pillar of stone..
Captain Hutchinson stepped in to claim his 100th title here, and we were curious as to whether Canada was really real.
Seven years ago I was in Montreal to watch football, and what I remember most is how fondly I fell of a good-looking Englishman named John Herdman. He coached the Canadian women’s national team at the time, but his roots go back to Newcastle. Growing up were defunct steel mills, drinking adults, and a divorced home where the father was depressed and schizophrenic and the mother was strung out but couldn’t quite cope. He himself became the captain of the national team.
He said – I think I’m still trying to prove to my mother that I’m worth it.
Dynamo Dynamo got the oceans
Herdman tried a 4-4-2 against Croatia, and a minute later, playing from the goalkeeper, a super cross, a powerful header from Alfonso Davies made it 1-0. The perfect performance came from Tajon Buchanan, straight from Brampton.
They didn’t even have time to earn it.
At the premiere, Croatia were just a sleeper stroll against Morocco, and now they received partly a slap in the face, partly a more grateful match picture. Playing with two central midfielders against Croatia is a bit demanding, because if Canada is from Brampton, the Croatia spirit comes from a few square meters around the center circle of Maksimir Stadium. Everyone knows what Dynamo Kovacic-Brozović-Modric can do if they are given space around them, and here they have oceans. Stephen Eustachio was one, and Atiba Hutchinson, 39, many – but in 2022 N’Golo Kante wasn’t spot on. The radius of action is limited, so to speak.
Capturing triangles across the midfield, Croatia provided chances for Kramaric, Livaja and Perisic, and finally the dams burst.
Laziness and old age
Perisic came across Alistair Johnson and Kramaric (Dynamo, himself) with a 1-1 goal after half an hour, and Livaja made it 2-1 before half-time. Canada tried to tighten up in the second half, but not enough. Kramarek 3-1 After 70, Madjer finished fourth in injury time. Those were fair numbers
This, of course, was exactly what Croatia needed. A dream match, a mission that was like olive oil in the machines. Here the midfield was allowed to roll, here Livaja and Kramaric were allowed to score, all while concentrating on I got. A naive, inexperienced opposition in the tournament gave everything it could wish for. open dampers, free surfaces, good impact in the step before the final against Belgium, who are in roughly the same position; Phenomenal basic ability, but slow and old.
Canada danced to a Premier League game and at least got to score. Atiba Hutchinson played and made his 100th game while the whole world was watching.
Just in time for lunch, Justin Trudeau could tell that the World Cup was over.
As it is commonly called when the England national team is out of Wimbledon time:
Tennis anyone?