Canada fans were disappointed with their team's round of 16 loss to Morocco on Saturday, but there is optimism from Canada's players about what the squad could do at the 2030 World Cup.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
Whoever Jesse Marsch thinks was the better team on Saturday, the fact remains that when the occasion required decisive moments, it wasn’t Canada that delivered.
Instead, it’s Morocco moving on to Thursday’s quarter-final with France, after a 3-0 victory in Houston that highlighted the gulf in game-breaking talent between the two sides.
Case in point: Soccer analytics site FotMob has seven Moroccan players graded with higher scores in the match than the leading Canadian, Stephen Eustáquio. But that’s not all that surprising.
Marsch can point to industrial markers like Eustáquio leading the way with 11.95 kilometres of distance covered, or Tajon Buchanan forcing a game-high 12 turnovers, or Jonathan David pressing more than anyone else.
But when it comes to the sharp end of the pitch, as well as tournament soccer, it was Morocco showing how it’s done. The African champions converted three of their four shots on target through a brace from Azzedine Ounahi and Soufiane Rahimi adding another in injury time. Canada was 0-for-3 in the same metric.
Cathal Kelly: Alphonso Davies's confusing absence costs Canada when it mattered most
“Goals change games,” Marsch admitted after the match. “And then they can sit back a little bit more, we have to find ways to push a little bit, and then it winds up being two, and then a third at the end, but … the overall impact in the match, we were better than the No. 7 team in the world today.”
While that view was challenged by his opposite number – “It takes some nerve to say that when you’re losing 3-0,” Mohamed Ouahbi said via a translator – the challenge for Canada now is to deepen its talent pool in all areas of the pitch. The non-availability of its best player, Alphonso Davies, for much of the competition was hardly ideal, and the other players that Canada would have been looking to for inspiration, Tajon Buchanan and Jonathan David – save for his hat trick against Qatar – were largely irrelevant.
While the tournament has largely been a success for the men’s program – first point, first win, first knockout victory – Canada was helped by being a seeded team as one of the three co-hosts. The average FIFA ranking of the opponents it faced up to the round of 16 was 49.8, the highest number among the 16 teams, meaning an easier path through the tournament on paper.
Still, Canada beat the teams it was expected to beat, and lost to teams that were better than them, according to the rankings. Turning those defeats into more positive results is the challenge heading into the next cycle.
Stephen Eustáquio (7) and the Canadian team provided some big moments in their first-ever games in the World Cup's knockout round. Eustáquio said that some of the 17 and 18-year-old players who watched this World Cup will have to step in and help in 2030.Fran Santiago/Getty Images
“The fact that we were able to be one of the 16 best teams of this World Cup, I think, is amazing for the country,” Eustáquio said. “It’s amazing for this team, but we have to start from there.
“We’re realizing that the gap isn’t that big, that we have to fight, but hopefully we can get good matches during these four years that can really prepare us for the next World Cup.”
That tournament, which will be jointly held in Spain, Portugal, and Morocco – with three matches in Argentina, Uruguay and Chile to celebrate the World Cup’s centenary – will also require a successful qualifying campaign.
The good news for Canada is the age range of some of the players already in the squad, young men who will be depended upon from here on out. Luc de Fougerolles played in all five games – and is listed as the fifth-best defender in the tournament according to FIFA’s power rankings – and is just 20, the youngest player in Canada’s squad.
Niko Sigur and Nathan Saliba are 22, while Ismaël Koné – who saw his campaign cruelly cut short with a broken leg – has time on his side, having featured in his second World Cup at 24 years of age. And then there’s 22-year-old winger Marcelo Flores, whose hopes were ended on the eve of the tournament with an ACL tear.
Wistful fans thank Canada's World Cup squad for energizing the country
But more talent will be required. Alistair Johnston is hoping that Canada’s accomplishments here can help grease the wheels, inspiring today’s 17- and 18-year-olds to want to be part of the experience in 2030.
“Look, that’s going to add competition, but that’s that we need,” he said. “We need to continue to build the top-end talent and the depth of this program, and that’s something that’s a challenge, not just for the coaches back home, the senior players to continue to lead and bring young players in, but also our coaching staff.
“But it’s something that we’re going to need to do.”
The expectation now for Canada is that it can translate the excitement of the past few months into something tangible for the near and long-term future. Part of that will be realized with the construction of Canada Soccer’s national training centre, which the organization describes as the “cornerstone legacy project” arising from this country’s role as a World Cup co-host.
At club level, the future of both the Vancouver Whitecaps and CF Montreal needs to be sorted out, while the Canadian Premier League – with eight teams in five provinces – needs to show it can bear fruit by bringing young players through. It also needs to shore itself up financially, with two teams having folded through the league’s first eight seasons.
But all those are part of the growing pains of any country looking to expand its footprint in the global game. The 2026 World Cup has provided the momentum, and it’s now up to Canadians to carry it forward.
“We’re finally a soccer country, man, we need this support to go forward,” Eustáquio told TSN seconds after Canada’s tournament ended.
“We’re going to enter another cycle of four years. The youngsters here, they need your support throughout the four years so we make sure we can go even further at the next World Cup.”