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Canada's best ever World Cup performance has unfortunately come to an end with a round of 16 3-0 defeat to Morocco. We're going to get into all that today on 48 to 1 presented by Heineken from fans to friends. Canada, Canadian football made a lot of fans uh this year and a lot of friends based on their performance. The deepest run ever by uh Canadian men's side at a World Cup. They got their first point. They won their first match. They won their first knockout So, the question becomes, was it ultimately a success despite the 3-0 result uh against Morocco or was it a failure? Do I have to go first?
Okay. In a vacuum, it's a success, like you said. First ever point, first ever win, an emphatic victory at that um over Qatar 6-0, first ever, you know, spot in the knockout stage, beat South Africa in the last 32. Uh based on that, it is a success. And I should preface this by saying in knockout football, the results matter far more than the performance does. However, other than the opening 25-30 minutes against Morocco and the entirety of the 6-0 win over nine men Was it a nine-man Qatar? One of the most ill-disciplined teams and maybe the worst team in this tournament. Other than that, I don't think Canada played that well uh and didn't really to the level that I expected of them. And of course, Alphonso Davies was
available for 17 minutes in the entire tournament. Ismael Kone broke his leg versus Qatar. Uh center back Moise Bombito was not 100% um and Marcelo Flores tore his ACL in Liga MX with his domestic side and one was unavailable. If all these players are available, does it play out differently? We don't know. There's no way of knowing. Every team deals with injuries. On the surface, yes. I'm really going to run on and on a tangent, but on the surface, yes, it's a success, but I just felt that I wanted more. It left me wanting a little bit more, and I feel like it a little bit of a missed opportunity. For sure. I think two things can be
true, like Chandler said, you know, yes, objectively it's a success when you look at where this nation on the men's side, this program has come from, um and to what they are now and what they accomplish now. I will also say I think that sense of disappointment is a good thing. It's a positive thing. That's how we get this team moving forward, taking the next step. We're going to talk about what they need to make that leap up in quality. It will be difficult. Uh the final kind of step always is. But I think, you know, having these conversations, feeling like we wanted more. That first 45 I'll give them a little more credit. I'll give them the first 45.
Yeah, fair. I think in the first half they were very good. Um you know, I'm not going to go as far as saying, you know, Jesse Marsh like I'd rather be us than them. I mean, Morocco's in the quarterfinals and we're at home. I'd rather be Morocco right now. And Morocco have a lot of nice players. I understand where Marsh is coming from, you know, and he wants to defend his team and his players, totally. Um They were the better team for 45 minutes, in my opinion, until they conceded the first goal. We can talk about kind of what adjustments they should have made after that. Um I thought the tactical plan was perfect, frankly.
Um you know, we've seen Canada, especially under Marsh, and it's been all about high-intensity, aggression, high pressing, all out high pressing. They didn't do that against Morocco. They sat a little bit deeper, a little bit of a mid block, and they actually awaited um the ball to go to specific areas and specific players before triggering that press, right? Morocco had a backup center back in. Um Chadi Riad wasn't available, it was a big loss. And the backup, Halal, came in and like look kind of very slow clunky on the ball.
Every time he got the ball that's when Jonathan David went to press. That's when Tajon Buchanan went to go press and they won the ball back a lot. And I think Morocco were pretty overwhelmed by the speed and aggression. You need to score goals. I mean Morocco was leggy cuz they played 120 minutes over five days earlier in Mexico against the Dutch and it showed. Uh For sure. And I think maybe I should provide the context of in 2017 Canada was ranked 109th in the world. They were routinely losing to Nicaraguas, Honduras, El Salvador, Jamaica not to take anything away from those Concacaf minnows. But
you're right my disappointment is tethered to the fact that now they are a serious football program. more. We expect more from them. Um But again, you know, we keep coming back to this. This is not the first time we've had this conversation about what is missing. And what is missing here is when you're on top at this level when the margin is that thin. When you are on top when you're in the ascendancy you have to capitalize and you have to kill the game. Because when you don't then you get punished. Right and Morocco are wait sorry to cut you off again. Morocco's waiting for this match to settle. Like they were overwhelmed by it. They were leggy. The those two things are compound one another but teams of this level of this caliber of this skill are
able to weather those storms and then their skill sort of rises to the top once the match settles and that's exactly what happened. And like Jonathan David had his chance didn't Look he's not in form. He's clearly lacking confidence which is a very strange thing to say about a player who literally scored a hat-trick in this tournament. I can't remember a situation where a guy with a hat-trick in a World Cup. Very few people have done that and we're coming out of it saying he was kind in the World Cup. Like, that doesn't happen. Cyle Larin will say does everything at a great level except the one thing you want from a number nine, which is put the ball in the net. And he had the best chance of the game. And then Morocco,
you know, they had five shots total. They had four shots on target. They scored three goals. That's what we're talking about when it's how do you get to the next step? The tactical plan can be perfect. The execution can be almost But the players at the end of the day have to get you over that next little step. Um and that's that's what they were missing and Morocco punished it. Yeah. And, you know, like the original question I asked, and it was a very black and white thing, right? Success versus failure. I think from that perspective, I don't think you can anyone can say this was a failure. From that perspective, success versus
failure, it was a success. But I do think there's a gray area where it's like it's a success in the standpoint that they met expectations. Like, coming into the tournament, I had them making it to the round of 16, losing to a better [clears throat] team, and that being the tournament. And so, from that perspective, they met expectations. And if someone had told me Davies was going to play what, 30 minutes the entire tournament? 17 minutes, sorry. Koné was going to break his leg in the second group stage uh match. Flores wasn't going to be available for the entire tournament. And Bombito was going to be at what, half strength?
Maybe, yeah. And then and someone had said all of that's going to happen and they're still going to meet your expectations of actually winning a knockout match, getting to the round of 16, I'd be like, great. Unquestionable success. But, to the point that maybe there are some more expectations now. At the same time, if someone had told me, "Hey, they're going to beat Qatar. Like, I you don't know anything about the draw, the groups, or like the knock All Here's all I'm going to tell you. They're going to beat Qatar and South Africa. And then they're going to take one point from Bosnia, Switzerland, and Morocco.
Do you still think that's a success? From that standpoint, I would have been like, I don't know about that. It becomes more of a difficult question to answer. Yeah, when you put it into that context, for sure. Um again, I think the biggest thing I go back to is the expectation that we now have. Exactly. That is the positive side going forward. That's how we take the next step in this country. Clearly this tournament has ignited something in this country. Um you've seen like the groundswell of support everywhere. Um we now have to build on that at a men's program level. You know, the Women's World Cup is next year. Like we need to continue Yep. um that same uh excitement for that
because it's an entire holistic thing, you know, all the way down to the grassroots level, making sure that we have the proper avenues for young kids to play so that we can find that striker that we are desperately needing. Yeah. Um if you know, Canadian parents out there, if your child shows any skill at putting a ball into the back of the net, call up Jesse Marsh. Yeah, please. Um so that's what we need now because otherwise we cannot let this kind of die on the vine. Like we've come too far.
Like Chandler said, some of those matches that we were playing and losing and that ranking, we talked in a previous video about the hex and not even getting there. All these things. Um we need to build on this now with funding, with facilities, all that to make sure that this uh this doesn't go in vain. Well said. All right. Uh we're going to keep talking about Canada soccer, but first cuz we've been talking about success versus failure, let's hit the streets of Toronto and talk to some fans about uh one of the biggest rule changes for this World Cup, the hydration breaks, whether those have been a success or failure, and I don't think you're going to be surprised by their answers.
Personally, I'm not a fan of it. Um I grew up playing football and it's something whereas it's so dis it doesn't make genuine connection with the fans. I think it makes sense on the very hot days, but when there's not, I don't see a point in it, but I don't know. It's It kind of works for some teams. It's worked for some players. I think back home it's hated pretty badly. It's booed every time. Seems to be the same here as well. So I think everyone's caught on to what the actual hydration breaks are, but yeah, get rid of them.
Yeah, it changes the game a bit as well. Like the momentum of a half of football builds. Like if you're going to stop after that 3 minutes, like a team in a deep block can then have 3 minutes to get a breather, sit deep again. It just ruins like I think the like momentum of the game. Like it just basically turns into like four quarters now instead of two halves. Yeah. I don't mind it as long as they there's no coaching. So, they can have all their bottles at the other side of the pitch and they can talk amongst themselves. That segment was presented by Heineken from fans to friends. All right, you
heard what the fans had to say about hydration breaks. We just had our own hydration break here. We're going to get back to talking about Canada soccer. Talking about some of the reasons maybe Canada didn't quite hit their mark at, you know, full capacity in this tournament. And one of, if not the biggest reason, being that their best player and the best talent this country has ever produced, one of the best talents any CONCACAF nation has ever produced, if we're being honest, Alphonso Davies played 17 minutes. Chandler, what do you make of this entire Alphonso Davies situation? There are people that say, "Hey, if you knew that's all you could get from him,
shouldn't even have been in it. You shouldn't have brought him." There are others that You know, I would disagree with that and say, "No, you still bring him because 17 minutes of Davies is better than whoever that 24 minutes that he can play at all, you bring him. That's not even a question. So, what is your take on the entire Davies situation, which has now become, I guess, the Davies controversy? Let me choose my words carefully here. It's a loaded question. I have seen many opinions from members of Canadian media who watch football once every four years. Now, that's not to say I don't value the opinions of people who are new
to the sport or are novices. And sometimes their perspectives can be refreshing for someone who is a football sicko like myself and so deeply involved in the sport, the coverage of it, whatever you want. That said, I think the portrayal of Alphonso Davies by some has been shameful. If you are disappointed that Davies did not play in the World Cup. I guarantee you there's one person who is more disappointed than you are, and that is Alphonso Davies. He is the face of the program. In the last 15 months, he's had a complete ACL tear and three hamstring injuries. For a player of Davies' skill set, who benefits so much from pace, the ability to beat defenders on the flank and then to provide incisive balls to teammates, his hamstrings
literally are the most important thing. He cannot run without his hamstrings. And you saw in those 17 minutes versus South Africa that he wasn't right. He was not quick. He did not feel secure in his movements. He was not even able to beat South Africa's right back, who was maybe the worst player on the pitch. And this was in like the 80th minute. He's completely knackered. I feel for Davies. He wants to be out there. Canada is a better team with him. And for people to question his commitment, I just find it daft. And of course, in the back of his mind, he's thinking about his club team, Bayern Munich, who, for context, have
previously, how do I put this? The relationship with Canada Soccer is not great. criticized the CSA for And that's a big factor here, for sure. And Bayern Munich have gone out this summer and bought German left back Nathaniel Brown, presumably to take over for Davies. They have spent 55 million euros on Nathaniel Brown. That is the fifth most money Bayern Munich have ever spent on a player. This is not like an insurance plan or a what if. This is literally a succession plan for Alphonso Davies, who is a few years removed from being in Europe's best 11. Of course, he is thinking about his club team, the people that pay his mortgage.
His career. But to say that Davies was not committed to the program or did not want to be out there because he passed an MRI 2 days before the match is just sort of like short-sighted and I think it just sort of commodifies him as a player and fails to consider the human element. Yeah, well said. I think a couple of things. Alphonso Davies did more for this program than most people, most players have simply by committing to it Yeah. as early as he did. How many years did we talk about trying to get you know, dual nationals or our most promising players to actually play for Canada? And Alphonso Davies doing that, I think set us on a very good pathway that you could argue would not be possible without
Alphonso Davies. So, the idea that he's not committed to Canada, to Canada soccer, I'm sorry, it's just ridiculous. And you know, you always want to be open to opinions. Anybody who has that opinion, I'm not willing to have that conversation. I think it's it's frankly absurd. Chandler's point is I think the most important one. The guy who wanted to play, who wanted to see Alphonso Davies more than anybody at the World Cup, was Alphonso Davies. Look, we interviewed him here on this show before the tournament. And you know, when we asked him about what it would be like walking out on the field in Toronto there cuz this was at the time where it looked like he might be able to recover in time.
Ear to ear grin about the possibility of walking out leading your country. Very few players in history have been able to captain their national team at a home World Cup. Right? It's How many World Cups have there been? There's only so many captains. You can do the math. He was going to get that chance and that chance was robbed because of injury. If you're going to try and convince me that he wasn't doing everything possible to recover in time. Like I don't accept that. I'm sorry. I just flat out do not accept that argument because I think it's ridiculous. So, yeah, you know, I think you can criticize the way that Canada Soccer handled it.
Jesse Marsch with the decoy stuff. Like We talked about FIFA being transparent. Canada Soccer should have been transparent. This is the situation. It's unlikely he's not going to play in the group stage. We're going to bring him anyway because he can play in the knockout stage, which he did. And were it not for the setback in training Right. before the Morocco game, he would have played that game. That was the plan. Half an hour, 35 minutes. So, I think that is where you can criticize and say, "Why weren't they just up front?" Instead of this will he or won't he and all that stuff. And I think it did a disservice, frankly, to Alphonso Davies the way it was handled.
And I think that is the original sin of this as opposed to this absurd uh idea that Davies was not committed or needs to um you know, put his hamstring on the line for his country to show that he's a true Canadian. That's all BS. Yeah, I think you guys uh nailed that perfectly. And like I was saying off the top, I think the only thing sillier than saying Davies wasn't committed or this is, you know, an indictment of him in any way are the people saying, "If this was the case, they just shouldn't have brought him." Like what We've We've spent how many episodes talking about like, you know, this moment for Canada Soccer and the football nation that this country is becoming. But you know, let's also call it as this
isn't France. This isn't England. This isn't This is not yet the footballing nation where it's like our best talent is iffy. So, we can afford to leave him at home because our 24th best player can still come in. Like come on, let's be real about this. If there's a chance Alphonso Davies can give you any minutes in the freaking World Cup when you're Canada at home, he's going to be more valuable than whoever might have been the 20 whatever best player Canada could have brought. Do you think as Canadians that we are How do I put this? Hockey-pilled? And the whole the way we frame hockey, NHL players, or whatever injury, and how that foolhardy resilience, if you will, is part of our I don't know our fabric or our culture to overcome
injuries. Like, playing through injuries comes at an incredible risk. Yeah, and I think like there are times, we talked about England, like very different context, but like there are times where you have to dig down, pull something out extra to, you know, extract the maximum and help your team, help your country, all that stuff is true. This is a different situation. This guy, you know, Jesse Marsch said it, like he literally does not trust his body anymore. It's very clear. Um to your point about bringing him or not bringing him, Canada maybe doesn't win the game against South Africa if he doesn't come off the bench. We don't get that Eustáquio moment. One of the most special moments, the most special moment
in the men's program that we've ever seen. Like, unless Davies comes off the bench and South Africa drops deep because they're worried about it, not knowing that he's 35% of the player that he could be at full strength, Canada doesn't retake control of that game. We're not even having this conversation. There is no game against Morocco, right? Yeah. And we're talking about it being a failure. Without question. Exactly. All hypothetical, I know, but that's I think a reality. Um all right, let's let's end on this note then. Uh we talked about this, you know, being a success in the sense that they at least met expectations, they
overcame some injuries, won their first knockout match. But they're not quite at that next level where you're talking about them really being a threat to go deep in something like the World Cup, the quarterfinals and beyond. What, if anything, can Canada do, whether it be quality-wise, tactics-wise, whatever? You know, Jesse Marsch got an extension, he's going to be here through the next World Cup cycle unless something changes. What can he or this team do differently over the next 4 years to actually get to that level. Score goals. Like that's where the quality was really lacking was in the final third. And I think like you said, if you could have a composite of Jonathan David, Tani Oluwaseyi, and
Promise David, there you have a clinical number nine. That's easier said than done. I thought the tactics were fine. I think it's just having a deeper squad with better attackers who can score on the world stage. Like it's a lot to ask for, but this team is like I said, they were ranked 109th in 2017. This in footballing and international footballing terms, this is a very rapid ascension. So, it's important to maybe temper those expectations in terms of that and expect that in 4 years we will have our Erling Haaland or our Kylian Mbappé or even our Ollie Watkins would have sufficed. That would have been great. In terms of positives, you look at the age profile of Luke de Fougerolles, of Marcelo Flores, of Moïse Bombito, of Alphonso Davies, of
I'm probably missing several, but Yeah, Nico Sigur. Guys like that. He was great I thought against Morocco. Like the one thing I think that's really important to stress is like the next step from where they are now to the elite is the hardest step to make. Right. And I think we have to figure out a way Jesse Marsch I think has extracted the maximum out of the players he had available. We talked about the injuries and that's a different conversation. But he extracted the maximum out of a team that is extremely athletic, can play an aggressive style, the Red Bull pressing, that's you know, Marsch's MO where he's come from with his background.
They're great at that. What else do you have? I think when the game changes, so let's say, you know, a great 45 minutes against Morocco, you don't get the goal. Morocco's going to make adjustments. What adjustments are you then going to make? Because you can't play that way for 90 minutes. Players like physically just cannot do it. They're not machines. Aside from Haaland. Yeah. Um so you need a little more I technical quality, where then if the game settles down a little bit, you can take control of it, but in that way, where you can keep possession, you can move the ball. And look, like Canada lacks that
a little bit. It's not, you know, you don't have to be ashamed to say that. It's the reality right now. Chandler talked about that ascension and how quick it's been. You don't just get that overnight. It takes time. Um we have 4 years until the next World Cup. Might not happen in 4 years. Might take 8 years. Um but that I think is the next step that this team has to take. Yeah. And you just talked about the, you know, the ascendance over the last 9 years since they were ranked 100 and whatever in yeah, in 2017, and how much progress they've made since then, how much progress they've made over the last
couple years, the semis of the Copa, uh the round of 16 at the World Cup. It's exciting to think of all that progress in the last few years, the last 9 years, and think about putting those amount of years into the future and what we can be talking about in 2030, 2034, and beyond. That's Canada's tournament, but that is not our tournament. We're going to be here right till the end. That's why it's called 48 to 1, presented by Heineken, from fans to friends. Don't forget to download the Score app for all of our World Cup and sports content. Make sure you're subscribed to this page, that you're liking all the content. Until next time.
