There were moments for Canada, but your assessment is pretty accurate. Oluwaseyi is not first choice striker. It should be Jonathan David and/or Cyle Larin. JD and CL have 74 goals between them in 174 combined appearances. Much like Scotland however, the striker depth chart is pretty weak ... recent call-ups included former ICT player Aribim Pepple.
What Canada had that Scotland didn't (other than an easier group) however was team spirit and effort. Perhaps I am being a little disingenuous, but too many Scotland players seemed less than interested, jaded after a long season, or simply didn't perform. For Canada, they may not have the skill of the bigger nations, and for sure I think Netherlands or Morocco may put an end to their journey, but in most of their games they battled for every ball.
Manager Jesse Marsch got a lot of criticism south of the border for encouraging his guys to keep going when they were playing Qatar and it was 5-0, then 6-0. He wanted them to compete to the very end and score 7, 8, or 9 if they could. These players would crawl over broken glass to play for him and for their country and that's how we used to be. Heck, look at all the others who overtook us in the hunt for a last 32 slot and almost every one of them took their last game by the scruff of the neck and left nothing out there on the pitch at the end of their respective games. We did not.
Going back to the Canada game, one thing I did notice was that as soon as Alphonso Davies came on in the 75th minute, that lifted Canada immensely and the remaining 15 minutes were spent pretty much camped out in the South African half. He had some nice touches and his presence, even not fully fit gave a lift and some extra energy to all around the team. I think they also knew he only had 20 minutes in him at this stage of his recovery so needed to get it done before it went to extra-time!
Not sure if this was broadcast outside Canada, but at the end, the media here of course stayed with the players and coach as they huddled on the pitch, and he gave them a team-talk. He was calling them "Canadian Heroes" which is true as they have gone further than Canada ever has before, and noting that kids will start playing, or become re-invigorated by the game because of how far they have got so far and the feelgood factor around the team. It was a very inspirational talk and very emotional for many of the players (and the manager). If somehow, they can make it past their next opponents, then that would be amazing, but they would need to lift their game, and Davies would also need to be available for longer than 15 minutes. The manager himself described it as a "free hit" and has come in for some flak for saying that, but I think what he meant in the heat of the moment is that qualifying for the last 32 was the (realistic) goal, and getting to the last 16 or any further is totally and utterly a bonus and most Canadian fans will agree with that realistic assessment - even if hoping for a bit of luck and far more :)
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Scotty ·
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