Toronto, March 28 (BNA): Kyle Larren, Tajon Buchanan and Junior Hewlett scored a goal and Canada secured their first World Cup place in 36 years with a 4-0 victory over Jamaica.
Canada has only competed in the World Cup once before, in 1986, according to the Associated Press.
“Speechless. A dream come true,” said midfielder Jonathan Osorio. “We all dreamed of this as young children, and as a Canadian it was impossible. Today the impossible happened. It feels unbelievable.”
Canada missed an opportunity to secure a place in Qatar last week with a 1-0 loss to Costa Rica. It was Canada’s first loss in three World Cup qualifying rounds and cut a six-game winning streak.
Supported by local fans at BMO Filed, Canada rebounded in a big way against the Jamaicans, who had already been eliminated from the World Cup competition.
After the match, fans swarmed the Canadian national anthem and Osorio led the crowd to a drum tune before the team danced on the field. Buchanan walked around the square waving the Canadian flag.
Canada coach John Herdman has become the first coach ever to lead a men’s and women’s team to the World Cup berth. He coached the Canadian women’s national team from 2011 to 2018.
In a post-match interview, Canadian goalkeeper Milan Burgan poured champagne on Herdmann.
“Canada is a football nation, man. And we will keep coming,” Herdman said. We are just getting started.”
Canada leads the table in the final round of qualifying with 28 points, followed by the United States (25 points), which beat third-placed Mexico (25) by goal difference. The United States defeated Panama 5-1 and Mexico 1-0 Honduras in a late match on Sunday.
Costa Rica beat El Salvador 2-1 to maintain fourth place with 22 points and prevent the United States from winning on Sunday night. Anthony Contreras scored with a bicycle kick in the 30th minute, Christian Gill equalized one minute later and Joel Campbell put Ticos ahead in the first minute of first-half stoppage time. Costa Rica hosts the United States on Wednesday evening.
The top three runners in North and Central America and the Caribbean have booked the trip to Qatar. The fourth-place finisher goes to an Intercontinental playoff against a team from Oceania.
The Canadians wrapped up the qualifying round on Wednesday in Panama.
With Canada ranked 73rd in July 2020 when the formula was announced, they had to advance through two early rounds and were playing their 17th qualifier on Sunday. Canada improved to number 33.
It snowed at times in the BMO field. Temperatures were in the 20s at the time of the match, but it didn’t frighten a red-clad crowd of over 29,000.
Laren put Canada ahead early with their 13th qualifying goal. He had another clear chance in the 38th minute but the ball went wide.
Lareen is one goal behind Ali Mabkhout of the United Arab Emirates for the most goals in qualifying for Qatar. Larren, who leads the national team with 24 goals, scored six goals in the last round.
Buchanan scored in the 44th minute, celebrating with a backhand jump, to give Canada a 2-0 lead before the break.
Howlett added the final goal in the 82nd minute and his own goal in the 88th minute to conclude the scoring.
“Look, I’m just happy for these boys,” Herdman said. “When I took the job for the first time and said, ‘We’re going to the World Cup, we’re going to qualify. I don’t think they believed us.'”
Only one of Canada’s players was alive on Sunday when the nation was last in a World Cup final: Captain Atiba Hutchison was three years old when the Canadians lost to France, Hungary and the Soviet Union by a combined 5-0 score at the 1986 tournament in Mexico.
Canada were playing without star Alphonso Davies, who had missed the previous three qualifiers due to the discovery of myocarditis after contracting COVID-19 in January.