It was a struggle, but the Canadian men’s national team fought to a 1-0 win over Costa Rica at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium in Concacaf World Cup qualifying on Friday night.
Jonathan David scored the eventual winner in the 57th minute to save Canada’s blushes in their opening match of the November window.
Here are three thoughts from the match.
For all the talk ahead of the game about the near-freezing temperatures and how uncomfortable Costa Rica would be in those conditions, they didn’t appear bothered.
In fact, it behooved Costa Rica until Jonathan David’s opener.
With the ball taking weird bounces and needing an extra touch or two to settle before releasing a pass, it killed a lot of Canada’s fluidity in possession. It stalled a fair number of promising-looking counters, with the likes of Tajon Buchanan and Liam Millar tripping over the ball on the run in the first half.
This led to several long balls, as is customary in these situations. Unfortunately for Canada, they either couldn’t win the initial aerial duel or lost the second ball.
The “freeze the opponents” strategy has long been suggested by Canadian supporters as a cunning strategy over the last 30 years. In previous cycles, it would’ve been advantageous. It may even benefit Canada in Tuesday’s match against Mexico. They eventually had the quality to find a winner on Friday despite the unflattering pitch. Sometimes that’s necessary in Concacaf, and that usually leads to a World Cup berth.
But the supposed advantage became Canada’s kryptonite for nearly an hour.
This was supposed to be the triumphant return of a local hero. There's no doubt that Alphonso Davies remains an icon and a proud son of Edmonton, although he appeared to take on too much responsibility on Friday night.
The 21-year-old completed five dribbles on 13 attempts and 20 of 30 passes. He logged one quality chance in the 65th minute that was blasted over the bar along with a sublime free kick in the 80th minute, which Cyle Larin batted into the net with his hand.
John Herdman revealed post-match that he spoke to legendary NBA coach Phil Jackson before the game and relayed the key takeaways from that conversation to his players before they took the field.
One of those perfectly described Davies’ predicament.
"You play that game, not this occasion,” Herdman said. “I think for Alphonso coming home, it's a tough moment. It's not easy. He feels that he's got to perform at levels way beyond what he really needs to do. The conversations were quite simple, we actually don't need anything more from you. We don't need superstar moments. We just need you to play at your maximum intensity and your maximum effort and that will be enough for us."
It wasn’t a terrible performance by any means, but after a meteoric display against Panama last month and the hoopla surrounding his return home, Davies wasn’t the leading man this time around.
With that storyline out of the way, that could free up Davies for Tuesday’s crunch tie.
"I think against Mexico, you will see a different type of performance [from Davies]," added Herdman.
With Davies dominating most of the pre-game buildup, it was easy to forget Atiba Hutchinson’s pursuit of history.
Earning his 89th cap for the national team off the bench, Hutchinson is now level with Julian de Guzman atop the all-time appearances list.
The Besiktas midfielder made his Canada debut in 2003 as a fresh-faced 19-year-old. Now 38, he can secure cap No. 90 and set the record on Tuesday night against Mexico.
Fittingly, a youngster debuted for Canada in the 83rd minute on the same night Hutchinson achieved his feat. Newly committed striker Ike Ugbo, formerly of Chelsea and now with Belgian side Genk, earned his first Canadian cap since he officially switched international allegiances on Nov. 4. Ugbo, 23, is one of two out-and-out No. 9s in this squad along with the Vancouver Whitecaps' Lucas Cavallini.
