Alistair Johnston raised his eyes and looked from side to side in astonishment at what he had just been through: 90-plus minutes of dreadfully unrelenting Kansas City summer heat. Watching an assistant referee collapse on the pitch in the first half. No genuine hydration breaks to speak of. Intimidating fouls from a savvy opponent. And a decidedly un-Canadian and pro-Peru crowd.
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“It’s one of those kind of matches with conditions that you wouldn’t wish upon your worst enemy,” said Johnston, the Canada defender.
Where Canada’s men’s national team find themselves now is a very different place from where they were a few years earlier.
A 1-0 win over Peru at Copa America represents the next stage of this young group’s evolution. It was not a result Canada needed to rely on their emotions to earn. Instead, it was one that they needed to restrain their emotions in the face of the oppressive heat and Peru’s hostility to earn.
But it was a result, from an emotional, oft-ugly affair, that this Canadian team looked incapable of achieving just a few years ago. In Qatar in 2022, Canada relied too heavily on emotion to propel them. They rode high on the wave of vibes and swagger. A now-famed two-word phrase propelled them into a match against Croatia they needed to win. Canada even rode the wave to an early 1-0 lead before it crashed and they were humbled 4-1.
Emotion, they were reminded, cannot win games alone against more experienced teams.
Take all the issue you want with Peru and their approach against Canada but they still have the kind of experience in major tournaments Canada long for. They qualified for the 2018 World Cup and logged a win, which Canada did not. Their results in the last two Copa America tournaments? Fourth place and runners-up. As a national team, Peru’s DNA includes the ability to grind out results in tournament play.
Before this match, Canada could not claim to have that in their arsenal outside of CONCACAF.
That is until Jonathan David smashed home Canada’s first goal in Copa America and first under new head coach Jesse Marsch. The adjectives you can use to describe Canada’s win mean it won’t be remembered as an aesthetic stunner — it was grinding. Gritty. Ugly. Determined.
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But in tournament play, the results matter just as much, if not more than the performance. That’s a realization Canada has never come to — at least, not until they left Children’s Mercy Park red-faced, heavy-eyed and with some players, including Maxime Crepeau, clutching three water bottles in just two hands.
Canada’s win over Peru is also its first in a major tournament in a generation. The relatively quick progress under Marsch shows Canada is capable of what it has long believed: with the right talent, it can hang with the kind of teams it has long envied.
“We talked about wanting to make a big statement, to make history, to show that we’re ready for bigger challenges,” Marsch said.
Since Alphonso Davies ascended to superstardom in 2020 and the rest of the team’s core of David, Tajon Buchanan, Cyle Larin and Stephen Eustaquio have cemented themselves in Europe, Canada has been clamouring for this kind of result. Players have, not so quietly behind the scenes, believed they should be considered in a different echelon of teams than Canadian teams of the past have.
Topping the CONCACAF World Cup qualifying table in 2022 was a start in moving towards that class of teams but not getting a result at the World Cup itself brought them back to Earth.
Canada had an identity as a lightning-quick, fearless and ultimately fun team. Without results against high-end opponents, they looked incapable of winning in more than one way. The lasting memory from arguably this team’s most important victory, a 2-1 win in the snow over Mexico in World Cup qualifying in 2021, was, well, a fun one: defender Sam Adekugbe leaping into a snowbank to celebrate.
As Canada crashed in the World Cup and then burned afterwards through a disappointing 2023, it was fair to wonder if this team ever be more than a fun, inspiring story.
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In the polar opposite of an Edmonton winter on Tuesday night, Canada proved that they have a future as a true tournament team.
Peru threw in a succession of forceful tackles and had Miguel Araujo sent off for a challenge on Jacob Shaffelburg. Canada stayed on the ropes but after an uninspiring first half, they did not wilt. Had the game ended 0-0, Peru manager Jorge Fossati, who said that his team wouldn’t ‘back down’ in the build-up, could have accurately treated the draw as a win.
Instead, Canada shape-shifted to match their opponent and their surroundings. Adjust, adapt, stay alive. Play a poor first half but rebound with a better second half. No taking the bait. No dumb fouls. Even when Johnston himself was headbutted by Peru’s Marcos Lopez, Canada kept the kind of cool that was hard to find on the day.
Since taking over as head coach, Marsch has challenged his team to be less naive on the field, to grow up and prove they deserve to hang with true tournament teams. Against Peru, that manifested in largely composed defending from young centre-backs, key contributions from substitutes such as Shaffelburg and, most importantly, understanding what was needed on the day for a result.
“With the experience of Peru, to manage all of the game appropriately and keep our discipline, not cross the line, not put ourselves in jeopardy of bad cards, bad fouls, showed a level of maturity,” Marsch said.
And when exhaustion set in, Canada became remarkably clinical.
Credit on that front must go to David. After three games under Marsch, Canada had yet to score a goal. Questions about their finishing ability, or lack thereof, were justified. Would an improved tactical setup matter if the goals couldn’t support the process?
Even as the pressure rose around Canada, and around the player himself, with talk of an impending move to the Premier League swirling, the first goal for Jesse Marsch’s Canada had to come from David.
Who else, after all, but the ultra-cool player long known as the ‘Iceman’ for Canada? Who else but the most clinical finisher in the history of the men’s team? Who else but a player whose inability to get flustered in the moment has caused Marsch great joy, repeatedly, in Canada camp this week?
In a game when Canada desperately needed composure, it was their most composed player who was the difference.
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Now, the moment will get even more daunting for Canada. They have every right to feel confident heading into their final group-stage game against Chile. Just a draw means they are through to the quarterfinal but in desperate need of a win to advance, two-time Copa America winners Chile will throw everything at them.
Canada’s win over Peru gives them a blueprint to success that they never had previously. With an increased sense of maturity from new captain Davies helping lead the way, Canada should now be able to understand the value of composure and maturity in tournament play.
They have the result that proves their process is beginning to work. Canada no longer have to ride the tide of emotion alone to prove themselves. The tide may be turning for good.
(Top photo: Hector Vivas/Getty Images)