By Ollie Irish
Canada qualified for the World Cup finals once, in 1986. Never before, not since. To get there, the Canucks beat Honduras – a momentous day in Canadian soccer history – but then lost all three of their group games in Mexico that year. They didn’t disgrace themselves, however, losing only 1-0 to then-European Champions France (to a late Jean-Pierre Papin goal), 2-0 to Hungary and then 2-0 to the Soviet Union. Okay, they didn’t score any goals but they played hard and were a genuinely tough team to beat.
On Canada Day, Pies salutes the rugged class of ’86 with this little YouTube gem:
And we must never, EVER forget that Canada, represented by Galt FC, won a gold medal in football at the 1904 Summer Olympics in St Louis. Also, let it never, EVER be mentioned that only three teams competed for medals that year (the other two were American).
Go Canada. I’d love to see them qualify for Brazil 2014.