Forever counted out, Canadian men’s team on a continuous mission for respect

MONTREAL — It was the snide comments and quips that rubbed Alphonso Davies the wrong way. 

Before the Canadian men’s team qualified for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, Davies had to listen to a lot of trash talk from his teammates at German club Bayern Munich about Canada’s perceived low standing in the international game. 

“It's all jokes, I understand that, but for me, sometimes I take it personally. Every time I go back home, I just want to prove to them (Canada is) getting better and better. For me, the goal is to make it to a World Cup and hopefully face some of my [Bayern] teammates in a World Cup and show them that we can compete here with you guys as well," Davies said in November 2021. 

Canada had just climbed to No. 48 in the FIFA world rankings, the first time it cracked the top 50 since 1997, when Davies talked so openly about the hurtful gibes from his Bayern teammates. Since then, Canada’s star has continued to be on the rise, marked by its qualification for the 2022 World Cup and a superb semifinal showing at last year’s Copa América, where it twice went toe-to-toe with Lionel Messi and reigning World Cup champions Argentina. 

Yet, the Canadian men’s side is still battling for respect in the international soccer world, something it’ll keep in mind when it plays No. 25 Australia on Friday in Montreal and No. 13 Colombia in New Jersey next Tuesday in a pair of high-profile international friendlies. 

Canada is coming off a pair of impressive shutout performances during last month’s international window as it continues to build toward next summer’s World Cup, which it will co-host with the United States and Mexico. A comprehensive 3-0 win over No. 48 Romania in Bucharest on Sept. 5 represented the team’s first victory on European soil against a European opponent since beating Belarus in a friendly in Turkey on March 29, 2011. 

Four days after the win in the picturesque Romanian capital, Les Rouges benefitted from a highlight reel goal by centre back Derek Cornelius off a free kick in a 1-0 victory over No. 31 Wales in Swansea. 

Those results allowed Canada to reach an all-time high of No. 26 in the latest FIFA rankings that were published on Sept. 18. You’d think a pair of wins against a pair of well-respected European nations would earn Canada some respect.  

But to hear several members of the Canadian men’s team tell it, the jokes that Davies experienced four years ago haven’t stopped and are still coming from people who don’t view Canada as a legitimate soccer nation. 

Canadian winger Liam Millar plays professionally for English club Hull City, a side that boasts an international roster with players from Croatia, Scotland, Nigeria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Algeria, Turkey, Ireland and Jamaica. 

Even to this day, with the great strides Canada has made over the last several years, Millar still has a hard time convincing his Hull City cohorts that the Canadian men’s national team is for real. 

“My teammates at Hull always say to me, ‘Canada, 25th or 26th in the world rankings? That's impossible.’ And I'm like, guys, you underestimate us. You don't understand how good we are,” Millar told Sportsnet ahead of Friday’s contest vs. Australia. 

It’s a similar story told by goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau, who plays for the Portland Timbers in MLS. 

“I think we will always have to (fight for respect). I see this all the time because when we talk with people around the world, their first reflex would probably be to say that we're a hockey nation. In their mind, in their head, sometimes they assume that we might not be a football nation,” Crépeau told Sportsnet after he posted a clean sheet in last month’s win in Romania. 

“And that's why I talk about establishing (such) standards, because maybe people don't put the respect that we deserve on our names because of our reputation of being a hockey nation."  

Even Canadian coach Jesse Marsch has taken note of the lack of respect that his team gets, which also includes from his most recent counterparts in Romanian manager Mircea Lucescu and Wales bench boss Craig Bellamy. 

“After we beat Romania, (Lucescu) went into the media and said, ‘Most of (their players) aren't Canadian.” And it was his way of making an excuse as to why they lost so poorly. After we beat Wales, the coach went into the media and made up some ridiculous nonsense that we were celebrating because he was trying to take away from the fact that they lost to Canada,” Marsch said during a Thursday news conference in Montreal. 

“But the point is that this is a different Canada, right? This is a talented Canada. This is a team that doesn't fear anyone right now. We still have to maintain, internally, real hunger and a drive to continue to improve and be our best, because the minute that we start to feel like we're doing well and things are going well, that's when you can slip up.  

“So, I'm continuing to feed the hunger and demand more and more from them, because that's what we need to be at our best.” 

At the same time, Marsch isn’t intent on using the lack of respect shown towards Canada as a form of motivation. Lucescu’s recent barbs won’t be tacked to the billboard inside the team’s locker room at Stade Saputo before Friday’s contest, which will be Canada’s first in Montreal since 2017. 

Instead, the American-born coach remains focused on his main objective: Using this international window and the next three to follow to prepare his side for the World Cup, to ensure they’ll be a competitive force on home soil. 

“There's ways of looking at outside motivation as ways to inspire us, but we don't need any more motivation than a home World Cup. None of us want to let each other down, and we certainly don't want to let the country down. We want to do everything we can to prepare to light the nation on fire and to shock the world as the team that we believe that we are and can be. That is our total motivation. And it's magnificent. What a magnificent challenge,” Marsch said. 

Despite all the advances made by Canada, Millar asserts that we still haven’t seen the best from a team that “still has a lot of room to grow.”

“We're not even at our pinnacle yet, in my opinion. There will always be people who underestimate us and whatnot. I think all we can do is just show on the pitch how good we are, and we just show everyone that we can compete with the best at the highest level," Millar offered. 

“You can't affect what people say about you or what people do, so you just have to go on the field and show your quality, and everything else will take care of itself.”