Alexander Brown: Canadian soccer has arrived, but not ascended
As with Canada itself, no amount of hyperbolic rhetoric can make up for a performance no better than par for the course.
For once, Canada, resist the comforting lie.
Set aside the emotional response to post-national, self-promotional slop about an empty ‘mosaic’.
Ignore the prisoners of the moment who cast the drubbing of lowly Qatar – on two red cards, no less – as the ‘biggest sporting event’ in our history.
Do not settle for the laughably self-congratulatory quotes of manager Jesse Marsch, who, following Morocco’s 3–0 drubbing of Canada in the round of sixteen, claimed, ‘I’d rather be us than them; as good as Morocco are, I’d rather be us.’
A deluded, prideful loser is still a loser, even if it wears our inexplicably black-and-cocaine-speckled jersey.
The truth of the matter is this: by no measure did we nail this World Cup. The United States, woefully overrated, turned in one of the worst performances of the tournament against Belgium and crashed out in the round of sixteen. Mexico could not overcome the great Anglo back wall that England were forced to assemble after a costly red card obliged them to park the bus, nor could they compete with the soaring talent and athleticism of 23-year-old Jude Bellingham, nurtured by England’s youth system since the age of 13.
None of the tournament’s three hosts distinguished themselves on the pitch. Canada beat the teams they were supposed to beat. They drew with an underwhelming Bosnia. They could not live with Switzerland or Morocco; the latter was no surprise, given that Morocco are among the world’s ten best sides.
And yet, as a co-host, there was much to be proud of.
Raucous red-and-white crowds marched through our streets, bringing life and patriotism of the non-‘elbows-up’ variety to cities starved of identity, meaning, and shared cultural commitment. Watch parties have brought Balkanised communities together from coast to coast. Toronto’s celebrated and thoroughly integrated Portuguese community won global plaudits for its treatment of the retiring Cristiano Ronaldo, a sporting icon who found himself feted as temporary Toronto royalty.
The total public cost for Canada to host its portion of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup has been estimated at $1.066 billion. That is, of course, a ludicrous number. When governments attempt to pass that off as an investment, they are lying. There is no world in which you recoup even a fraction of the cost. The tourism figures don’t add up. Nor have the hotel figures needed to match them materialised. And yet, not every expense is purely a matter for the head. Austerity, though too rarely pursued, tends to offer little positive valence or appeal.