While Canada could take a deep dive against world No. 2 Belgium on Wednesday at the World Cup, the team’s confidence looks strong on the eve of its plunge.
“We don’t hope for anything anymore, we believe,” said midfielder Jonathan Osorio after practice on Sunday. And we have great self-confidence. »
“We want to show that we are a soccer nation, that we can compete with the best in the world,” he added. We want to surprise people because I think they underestimate us. They think we should just be happy to be here, but that’s not our mentality. We are here to be competitive, and to be competitive at a high level. »
“We believe in it within our group. With the quality we have and our brotherhood, we can go as far as we want. »
Midfielder Samuel Piette insisted Canada thrives on the challenge ahead.
“I think in qualifying, we played without fear, and we want to do it on the biggest stage,” said the Quebecer from CF Montreal. We don’t want to back down. We want to be on tiptoe and go blow for blow with Belgium. »
“We just don’t want to sit back and enjoy the moment and go one game at a time thinking it was a great experience and it was good to be here. That we’ll be back in four years. »
Only Cameroon (43e), Ecuador (44e), Qatar (50e), Saudi Arabia (51e) and Ghana (61e) are ranked lower than Canada (41e) in this 32-team tournament.
But the Canadians are riding a wave after a brilliantly contested qualifying window during the pandemic. John Herdman’s men finished first in Concacaf’s last round robin, ahead of Mexico and the United States, with an 8-2-4 record. They are participating in the World Cup for the first time since 1986, when Canada debuted in this competition.
Recently, the maple leaf representatives signed a 2-1 victory against Japan (24e), during the last preparatory match for the tournament.
The World Cup is still in uncharted territory. Canada has yet to score or win a game at this event.
Belgium, who finished third four years ago in Russia, are in their 14e presence at the World Cup and will reach the plateau of 50 games at the tournament in his second game in Qatar. The Red Devils have 20 wins and scored 68 goals in the biggest soccer tournament in the world.
Forward Jonathan David, a man of few words, doesn’t worry about numbers. “On any day, any team can beat anyone,” he said. If it falls on the right day, of course we can win. »
Piette said the Canadians have set goals for this World Cup run.
“We know it’s taken a long time to happen, and we know we have this opportunity to set firsts, like becoming the first Canadian team to score, win a game, shutout or to move on to the next round, noted Piette. I think people are slowly realizing we’re at the World Cup, but for us it’s a soccer game, a game we want to win. Yes, it is a big task. We already know that, but we will prepare for it. »
After training on Saturday morning, the Canadians switched to an evening workout on Sunday with a warmer 24°C and a cooling breeze.
Wednesday’s match against Belgium will take place at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium at 10 p.m. local time.