Like in 86. The song of the Argentinian supporters, removed the verse which predicts a new championship, applies to the Canadian team, which will complete its second participation in the World Cup in Qatar 2022, 36 years after its only previous one in Mexico in 86.

The North American team has everything to grow in the Middle East insofar as it occupied the last position in Aztec lands with a complete defeat and without scoring a goal.

Its executioners were the France of Michel Platini (0-1), Hungary (0-2) and the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) (0-2). The balance of goals left them below Iraq, who have also fallen in all the presentations for the World Cup that made Diego Armando Maradona a legend.

On this occasion, Canada was present with a largely overseas-based team made up of players who played soccer in the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL), a fast-paced soccer match played on a small indoor field, with synthetic carpet instead of grass.

The transition to the sport regulated by FIFA was not at all easy for this team led by Briton Tony Waiters, who also qualified the team for the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984.

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A promising gift. The reality of Canadian soccer today is completely different. His coach John Herdman, also British, has a team that has a global figurehead and values ​​in European leagues such as France, Belgium, Spain and Turkey.

Herdman, 47, has a special story: he assumed his current position after successful work with the Canadian women’s team, with which he was Pan American champion in Guadalajara 2011 and double Olympic bronze in London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016.

The figure. Canada have a classy player who could be called up in any of the other 31 Qatar 2022 entrants. It’s left-back Alphonso Davies, a 21-year-old of Libyan parents who came to America north of a group of Ghanaian refugees.

The Bayern Munich footballer, valued at 70,000,000 euros, arrived at the German club at the end of 2018 from the Vancouver Whitecaps, where he took his first steps in football.

After an adaptation in the subsidiary teams of the German giant, Davies burst into the first division and was chosen the beginner (rookie) of the 2019/2020 season in which Bayern, under the management of Hansi Flick, won everything.

The dizzying winger, winner of 12 club titles, holds the Bundeliga match speed record (36.7km/h), a record that puts him on par with Jamaican Usain Bolt, who clocked 37.5km /h average in the 100 meters in Berlin in 2009.

Concacaf chose him as their best player last year for his influence in the Qualifiers with five goals and eight assists, a figure with which he topped the statistics for the category.

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The road to the World Cup. Canada won the North and Central America rankings from start to finish with a global campaign of 14 wins, four draws and two losses (76.67%). Unlike the other teams that entered the Octagon Final directly, they had to go through all three phases of the competition.

In the first, they won Group B with a perfect score (Suriname, Bermuda, Aruba and Cayman Islands) and in the second they validated their entry in the last round of a series with Haiti.

Measured against the strong rivals of the Confederation, he did not disappoint either: he finished first in the octagon with 28 units and obtained his passport for the World Cup. He ended up with a positive record against Mexico (1-1 and 2-1) and the United States (1-1 and 2-0).

Gerardo Martino’s “Aztec” team eliminated him in the semi-finals of the 2021 Gold Cup.

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Fixation. Canada will be in Group G and will have the following rivals in Qatar: Belgium (Wednesday, November 23, 4 p.m., Ahmad bin Ali Stadium); Croatia (Sunday 27 at 1 p.m., Khalifa International Stadium) and Morocco (Thursday 1 December at 12 p.m., Al Thumama Stadium).