Canada will be the rival of the Argentine national team in the Copa América and there is already talk of a historic performance from the North American team. Starting out in regional competition and just a stone's throw from the FIFA World Cup, the prestige of Canadian football was once justified much more by the performance of its women's team, which has an Olympic gold medal in the discipline (at Tokyo 2020) and two bronzes (London 2012 and Rio 2016).

However, in recent years, the progress of men's football In this country that has two “national sports” established by state law (ice hockey in the winter, lacrosse in the summer), this is obvious and there are reasons for it. Reasons that are also related to growth and popularization of soccer in the United Statesits southern neighbor: immigration and the growing diversity of the Canadian population, the establishment of a more competitive local league (the Canadian Premier League, in 2019) and the presence of three Canadian teams in the American Major League Soccer, which includes CF Montreal, Toronto FC and the Vancouver Whitecaps.

This The development of Canadian football is even more remarkable If you remember your team's first participation in a World Cup: the unforgettable (at least for the Argentinians) Mexico 86. Even if Canada's passage to this competition was not exactly a success (last in the competition standings, without scoring and with defeats against France, Hungary and the Soviet Union), the way in which this team reached its ranking and, why not, the very constitution of this selection turned out to be quite an adventure.

A historical ranking

In the 1980s, soccer in Canada was far from the most popular sport. Ice hockey dominated the sporting scene and football was primarily seen as a recreational activity. In this context, the task of building a competitive national team was monumental. The Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) faced the challenge of recruiting and preparing a team capable of participating in Concacaf qualifying.the confederation covering North America, Central America and the Caribbean.

The first round of qualifying was against Guatemala. In the first leg, Canada drew 1-1 in Guatemala City, then won 2-1 in the return leg in Toronto, advancing to the next round. The win was an indication that the team had the potential to surprise. In the second round, Canada faced Haiti. After drawing 0-0 in Port-au-Prince, Canada won the return leg 2-0 in Edmonton, thanks to goals from Dale Mitchell and George Pakos, securing their spot in the final Concacaf qualifying tournament, known as the “Hexagonal.”

The final qualifying round was a six-team tournament that included Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico and the United States, as well as Canada. The games were played in various cities across the region, and the Canadian team had to travel thousands of kilometres.

The Hexagon's first match was against Honduras in Toronto, where Canada won 1-0 thanks to a goal by George Pakos. This positive result was followed by a series of crucial draws and wins that allowed Canada to stay in contention. One of the highlights was the 2-1 victory against El Salvador in Vancouver, thanks to goals from Igor Vrablic and Paul James. This victory put Canada in a favorable position to secure qualification.

Finally, the decisive match went against Honduras September 14, 1985, in St. John's, Newfoundland. Canada needed at least a draw to secure its spot at the World Cup. Thanks to a goal by Pakos and another by Mitchell, Canada won 2-1, thus securing a historic qualification.

More than a selection, “a jointing”

But the most curious thing about this team was his membersboth because of the nationality of some of them and their status as amateurs or, in several cases, players of another variety of football, almost another sport: indoor soccer. But let's take it in parts.

Many foreign-born players played for Canada at the 1986 World Cup: three Scots, an Italian, an Englishman, a Yugoslav, a Welshman, a Czechoslovakian, a Trinidadian and even a German They were part of this foreign legion led by the English coach Tony Waiters, a life coach from Canada who died in 2020 at the age of 83.

But in this particularity of players Not having been born in the far north of America, more connections had to be added. The team's captain, Bruce Wilson, a balding, bearded giant, had not played professionally for two years when he went to the World Cup. At the other extreme was Igor Vrablic, a native of Bratislava who ruined his promising career at the age of 22 by fixing matches with three other Canadian footballers who had gone to play in the Merlion Cup in Singapore.

But the most curious thing is that on this campus there was eleven footballers called up to the World Cup when they played football interior the United States. Yes, they were in the Major Indoor Soccer League, which wasn't even affiliated with FIFA and eventually folded when it stopped being a business. However, in those years, with the NASL gone and still no sign of MLS, this was soccer being played professionally in the United States.

This is the football that used to be called fast football, on artificial turf – the traditional carpet – and which served as inspiration, among other distortions of the beautiful game, for the famous Show ball who once knew the practiceDiego Maradona in different exhibitions.

Well, that sport that was not soccer but resembled soccer was the one played by goalkeeper Tino Lettieri – today a renowned gastronomic entrepreneur in the world of pizza -, Bob Lenarduzzi – today president of the Vancouver Whitecaps of the MLS -, Dale Mitchell, Carl Valentine, Gerry Gray, Mike Sweeney, Pasquale De Luca, James Lowery, Greg Ion – played for the Los Angeles Lazers, owned by the same team as the Lakers – David Norman and Branko Segota – second best scorer and third best passer in the history of the MISL -. Yes, 11 of the 22 who left for Mexico played another sport. Something unthinkable in today's super-professional times.

As you can appreciate, Since then, a lot of water has flowed under the bridges of Canadian football.It remains to be seen whether this new team, so different from that of 1986, can strike in its second confrontation with Argentina in this Copa América to write a historical page, but for very different reasons.