The China Mail - Canadian football ready for World Cup coming out party

When Canada faces Bosnia-Herzegovina on June 12 in the team's first ever World Cup match on home soil, it will be the latest stop on a decades-long journey of development that has seen football gain a solid foothold in a sporting landscape dominated by ice hockey.

Already the largest participatory sport in Canada with nearly one million registered players, the 2026 World Cup is set to deliver another jolt of momentum to the country's rapidly emerging football scene.

Canada will host 13 matches -- six in Toronto, seven in Vancouver -- with Canada also facing Qatar and Switzerland in Group B.

In two previous appearances at the World Cup -- the 1986 finals in Mexico and the 2022 tournament in Qatar -- Canada has compiled a perfect record of futility: played six and lost six.

Yet Canada's American coach Jesse Marsch insists that the tournament co-hosts aren't just making up the numbers at their own party.

"We want to win the World Cup," Marsch said in an interview last year.

"That may sound ridiculous, but why would we go into any tournament at any time and think, 'Yeah, let's see how we do, and maybe we get one win. Or can we score a goal?'"

Marsch said that kind of thinking was Canadian football's "dialog in the past."

- 'Love of the team' -

But with a group of players which is often described as the best Canadian squad ever assembled, featuring the likes of Bayern Munich star Alphonso Davies and Juventus's Jonathan David, Marsch is adamant that there are grounds for optimism.

"This team now, the standard of what we think we can be is growing," Marsch said.

"We know that it'll be hard. I don't think our group is easy. It's possible we get knocked out of the group, like all these things are possible. But we believe in ourselves, we believe in our group and we believe in our players."

Marsch's confidence is backed by Canada's steady rise up the FIFA rankings.

In 2015, Canada's men's team were ranked 116th in the world. By 2025, the team had climbed as high as 26th.

The Canadians first signalled they were a force within CONCACAF during qualifying for the 2022 World Cup, when they finished above both regional powerhouses Mexico and the United States to advance to Qatar.

While they were eliminated in the group stage in Doha with losses to Belgium and eventual semi-finalists Croatia and Morocco, they impressed on the world stage in 2024 at the Copa America, with a surprise run to the semi-finals where they were defeated by world champions Argentina.

Many of Canada's likely World Cup starting line-up have their roots in the country's immigrant diaspora.

Juventus star David was born in New York to Haitian parents before moving to Canada as a child. Bayern ace Davies was born to Liberian parents in a refugee camp in Ghana in 2000, before relocating to Canada at the age of five. Talented midfielder Ismael Kone, who plays in Italy's Serie A for Sassuolo, was born in Ivory Coast.

"Obviously, there's attachments to different cultural things, but the love they have of being Canadian and playing for the Canadian national team is really strong," Marsch said.

"I've been incredibly impressed with their commitment and their love of the team, their love of their country, the belief they have in what they represent."

Just as soccer in the United States gained a valuable boost from the success of the men's team at the 1994 World Cup, Canadian officials are hoping that a prolonged campaign by Canada this year will also reap long-term rewards for the sport.

"A long run in the tournament that's compelling will create viewership demand for soccer going forward, in all forms," Canada Soccer chief executive Kevin Blue said.

V.Fan--ThChM