In less than a week, Canada returns to the men’s World Cup for the first time in 36 years.
Yet, to reach this monumental achievement, manager John Herdman and his squad had to pull off the unthinkable during CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football) qualifying, which was coupled with additional hurdles due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 47-year-old from Consett, England, sat down with TSN’s Rick Westhead to open up about the unprecedented challenges Canada faced to reach Qatar and what that now means looking forward with the country's hopes on their shoulders.
“I don't think anyone's going to understand what this really took. No one will understand it,” said an emotional Herdman.
“You know, the fans will see, and those that are just joining the journey, they'll just see a group of guys celebrating on the pitch, having fun together. But you imagine the conversations they were having with their loved ones, as we were asked to go out in the height of COVID, be the first national team in any sport in Canada to go on [and] compete on a pitch, where if you lost that game your World Cup dream is over … They had to be there.
“Their friends, their families were telling them, ‘What are you doing? Why are you doing this?’ ... In that COVID time, it was perceived that you might be risking your life, risking your career, and we had tough conversations.
“There's no doubt that these guys were wobbling through this journey … I mean, it was a lot mentally and emotionally.”
After overcoming those challenges and losing just two of their 14 matches in the third and final round of CONCACAF qualifying, Canada booked their ticket to the 2022 World Cup, something unheard of for this generation.
The squad have been drawn in Group F alongside Belgium, Croatia and Morocco in what is expected to be a significant challenge for the Canadians on the world’s biggest soccer stage.
For Herdman and his men, the goal now is to embrace what the squad has achieved in men’s professional soccer and make fans proud to wear the red and white of Canada rather than other countries.
“This is a massive opportunity. I mean, I think we have the biggest opportunity in the world,” he said.
“You're not here to be Belgium or Croatia, because they go there [to the World Cup]. They go there all the time. And they are carrying that weight of expectation that ‘We might be the team that get beat off Canada,’ ‘We might be the team that don't get to the quarterfinal.’”
“For us, we haven't been here for 30-odd years. As a country, I know the majority of fans are just going to enjoy this moment for what it is. The first time in generations that they've been able to put their Italian jersey in the drawer, their Croatian jersey in the drawer, their Greek jersey in the drawer and put the red on.”
Looking ahead, one expectation certainly tops the list for Herdman.
“We knew this was a big opportunity to unite a country coast to coast, and the mission is to score that first goal, that’s it.
“To have that celebration and know that 15 million people, however million, are watching that game from coast to coast, they’re jumping around their living rooms, the people in the stadium [are] celebrating.
“That's not the only goal, but for us, that's the starting point.”
Canada kicks off its World Cup journey Nov. 23 against Belgium.
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