When Canada Went to the World Cup: The Story of Mexico 86

A League Disappears

Early in 1985, the North American Soccer League expired. After years of over-expansion, the league had pinned its last financial hopes on a bid to host the 1986 World Cup, but when Mexico was chosen as a substitute host for Colombia, the end was nigh. Its demise left the vast majority of Canada’s national team players without clubs. While a handful, like Colin Miller at Rangers, found contracts in Europe, most were left to maintain their fitness with indoor football just as their World Cup qualification campaign was reaching its crucial phase.

The timing could not have been worse. The Canadian squad had built up a considerable head of steam at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. After beating Cameroon on their way to the quarter-finals, they met Brazil at Stanford Stadium and held them to a 1-1 draw, only losing a penalty shoot-out 5-3. Brazil would go on to win the silver medal. That performance had filled the Canadian players with the belief they could reach the World Cup finals for the first time.

It was a difficult task. CONCACAF was initially awarded two places, but with Mexico now qualifying automatically as hosts, that number dropped to one. For the seventeen teams that entered the qualification tournament, the field felt unusually open. The USA was not the force it is today, having failed to qualify for a World Cup since 1950.

The Road to Newfoundland

Canada’s route through the CONCACAF Championship, which doubled as the World Cup qualifier, began with a stroke of luck. Jamaica’s withdrawal from the first knockout round gave them a bye into the final tournament stage. There, they were placed in a group with Guatemala and Haiti, which they won by two points to advance to a final round-robin group against Honduras and Costa Rica.

It all came down to a final match at home to Honduras. The game was played in St Johns, Newfoundland, in front of a capacity crowd of just 6,000 people. A single point was all that was required. An early goal from George Pakos gave them the lead before Honduras pegged them back. But in the second half, Igor Vrablic scored from a corner, securing a 2-1 win and a place in Mexico.

It was a remarkable achievement for a team of players largely unemployed by the collapse of their domestic professional league.

An Unforgiving Draw

Any hope for a gentle introduction to the World Cup finals was extinguished at the group stage draw. Canada were placed alongside the European champions, France, the Soviet Union and Hungary. The French side was, of course, the one containing Platini, Giresse and Tigana which had dazzled its way to the 1984 European Championship. Many bookmakers were taking bets not on whether Canada would win a point, but on whether they would even score a goal.

Against France in Leon, they held their own. Mike Sweeney even had a shot headed off the line in the first half. They held out until, with just eleven minutes to play, a Jean-Pierre Papin goal gave France a narrow 1-0 victory. Deflated, Canada then lost 2-0 to Hungary and, with their elimination already confirmed, 2-0 to the Soviet Union. They exited the tournament with no points and no goals, but with their pride very much intact.

The 1986 qualification did not, as might have been expected, herald a new era for Canadian football. The country’s domestic leagues floundered through the 1990s, hamstrung by financial constraints. It was only with the creation of Toronto FC in 2006 and its entry into Major League Soccer that the game has shown significant signs of life again.

TFC has been a success, averaging crowds of over 20,000 and winning the 2009 Canadian Championship. Such has been the appetite for the sport that a second Canadian MLS franchise has already been awarded to Vancouver for the 2011 season. Canada has already been eliminated from the running for the 2010 World Cup, picking up just two points in a group containing Mexico, Jamaica and Honduras.

Next Saturday in Philadelphia, they play Honduras again, this time for a place in the semi-finals of the Gold Cup.