O Canada, the wait remains. Alphonso Davies had the chance to score his nation’s first-ever World Cup goal, to grab a quick lead on Belgium. As Davies readied for the spot kick in the 11th minute after a hand ball, red-clad Canadian fans at the other end of Ahmed bin Ali Stadium buzzed in anticipation for a moment decades in the making. (More Football News)
“You’re carrying the weight of a nation: 36 years of waiting — longer than 3🐷6 for our first goal,” c📖oach John Herdman said.
Goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois ꦛguessed correctly to dive right and batted Davis’ attempt with his forearm. The ba🍎ll bounced away, and the Canadians never got any closer to scoring.
Despite dominating the world’s second-ranked team in Canada’s first World Cup match since 1986, the Canadians fell to Bel♔gium 1-0 Wednesday night as Michy Batshuayi scored on a quick counter in the 44th minute. Davies did not speak with media after the game.
“He’s our star player. He’s one of the best players ♔in the world. He’ll mo✨ve on and he’ll have another chance and he’ll bury it,” midfielder Jonathan Osorio said. “There was also the best goalkeeper in the world in net he had to put it past.”
Courtois had studied video of Davies.
“He shot twice that sid﷽e, so that’s why I decided to go that way,” Courtois said.
A large part of the crowd of 40,43♛2 in the Arabian desert stadium supported Canada. Many waved the Maple Leaf and they proudly sang “O Canada” before the m🌳atch.
“Goosebumps,” Osorio said. “Times are changing in this country for this sport. I was little bit surprised. It’s not a close trip from Canada to get here. It shows 🎀you how much support we have, how much the fans love football, how much people love football in Canada. This is a change in the history of this sport in this country. It felt like a home game. And I think Belgium felt like an away game.”
Players broughඣt along the sword they carried around Central America and the Caribbean during 🐼qualifying, which is inscribed “Nihil timendum est (Fear nothing).”
Retired Canad♐ian astronaut Chris Hadfield spoke with the team before the match. Atiba Hutchinson, at 39, became the oldest non-goalkeeper to start a Wඣorld Cup match.
Even though Canada dropped to 0-4 in the World Cup, players felt proud and felt they had momentum going into Sunday’s game against Croatia, the l𝓀osing finalist in the 2018 World Cup. Croatia opened with a 0-0 draw against Morocco.
“They walk away proud, I’m sure, proud of the feeling that we’re a football nation,” Herdman said. “We came into that game with a couple of goals. The first goal 🎀was to play fearless, and the seco🌱nd goal was to entertain. We had some other goals, which were to create some firsts, but we weren’t quite up to those moments.” He gathered players on the field after the final whistle.
“I was really passionate in the circle,” Herdman said, recounting what he told them. “I thought th✤at was a big step for this country. We deserve to be here. You’ve shown that. You’ve shown that you can live here.”
