They started with a fresh start against Belgium, the 0:1 defeat was very unlucky. And when Alphonso Davies scored right from the edge of Sunday’s duel with Croatia, the Canadians could also dream of premiership points after their first-ever goal at the World Cup. By the way, Davies redeemed himself for Qatar’s prologue with Belgium when he missed a penalty at the end of the match.
“We are proud of you,” his employer, Bayern Munich, told Davies on Twitter. The 22-year-old native of a refugee camp in Ghana made history in Canadian football, but the Croatians turned the game around in the first half and calmly led him to victory after the break. “It came true dream, but I’d much rather be in favor of winning,” Davies recounted.
Canada returned to the World Cup after 36 years and was applauded for its likeable football, but after two defeats it will have no chance of advancing from the group, against Morocco it will only be about honor. The experience from Qatar may come in handy at the next championship, which the Canadians will host in the summer of 2026 along with the USA and Mexico.
“The second goal put us at the end of the first half, it was a decisive moment. But otherwise we showed that we belong at the World Cup. Now we want to beat Morocco,” explained Canadian coach John Herdman, who before Sunday’s match irritated the opponent with a peppery hint that his team would have to f*** with Croatia. He did not say the well-known English expletive for “f” into the television camera in full, but it was clear where he is going. The Croatian tabloid immediately responded to Herdman with a caricature of him with a Canadian maple leaf in his mouth and in his lap.
“Thank you to the Canadian coach for the motivation,” noted Croatian striker Andrej Kramarič, who scored two goals. He added (also in a hint) that Croatia finally showed who fucked with whom.
After losing to Belgium, Canada coach John Herdman told his players that ‘they belong here, and we’re gonna go and ‘F’ Croatia, it’s as simple as it gets’.
Andrej Kramarić after Croatia’s 4-1 win eliminated Canada: pic.twitter.com/aIXRZDMlv4
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) November 27, 2022
But back to football. “We started badly, but then we showed strength. We were dominant and two goals at the World Cup are special for me,” Kramarič recapitulated.
He redeemed himself with his teammates for an embarrassing start with Morocco (0:0), the Croatians have four points just like the African team. After the collapse with the Moroccans, Belgium is one point back, and on the first day of December, a battle for everything awaits with Croatia. Even a draw will be enough to progress. “Hopefully we will play like we did against Canada and move on,” hoped Kramarič.
