Canada’s magical World Cup run hinges on slaying one of modern game’s giants

After Canada’s men beat South Africa to head to their first Round of 16, they celebrated as though they had won the World Cup itself. 

Ismaël Koné, who suffered a horrific broken leg in the group stage against Qatar, tossed aside his crutches and somehow danced in the dressing room, Tani Oluwaseyi and Promise David dancing beside him.

Not long after, Koné’s teammates poured through the mixed zone, talking to reporters about how happy and excited they were to be moving on. Koné skipped it, instead slowly making his way through the bowels of Los Angeles Stadium to Canada’s bus.

One instant he was dancing, fuelled by joy and adrenaline. The next, he was hobbled again, the rhythmic sound of his crutches on the cement floor mimicking the ticking of a clock. The dressing room was the dream. The tunnel was a reminder of the less happy reality.

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The Canadians flew to Houston on Monday, uncertain of their opponent on July 4. They learned late Monday night that it will be fearsome Morocco, the sixth-ranked team in the world and one of the modern game’s giants.

The Atlas Lions advanced after coming back to draw the Netherlands in their Round of 32 matchup, before dispatching the Dutch on penalties in one of the most agonizing shootouts imaginable. It was a shame that two titanic teams had to meet so early in the tournament, separated by such fine margins: the width of a post, the ricochet of a spinning ball.

But the Moroccans — World Cup semifinalists in 2022, finalists at the Africa Cup of Nations in 2025 — prevailed, deservedly, and they will look to end Canada’s dream run next.

They are reality, waiting to reassert itself: tick, tick, tick. Soccer’s lure is that it always offers hope, however, and Canada could find it in Paraguay’s suffocating win over heavily favoured Germany earlier on Monday. 

Head coach Jesse Marsch will no doubt spend this week schooling his side, ranked 30th for comparison’s sake, in similar tactics, in the sinister craft of haramball.

Haram is Arabic for “forbidden,” and haramball has become a trendy term for the ancient strategy of weaker teams playing stifling, negative soccer against higher-flying ones. Defending is easier than attacking, in the way that it’s easier to ruin something than to build it.

Canada’s men can’t compete against Morocco’s as artists, as creators, especially without Koné. 

They can when it comes to mettle.

The difference between the two sides is most easily seen in their passing abilities. The Moroccans are gorgeous movers of the ball. In the game against the Netherlands, they completed 92 per cent of their 780 passes, an incredible efficiency given the stakes.

In their group stage, the Moroccans won over Haiti and Scotland with similar levels of passing success. Even in their draw with Brazil, they completed 88 per cent of their attempts.

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Canada attempted 392 passes against South Africa and made only 82 per cent of them. Morocco passed against the mighty Netherlands nearly as efficiently as Canada passed in its best performance, against dismal, nine-man Qatar.

A lot will be made about Canada’s previous meeting with Morocco in the 2022 World Cup, when a 2-1 result belied the gap in quality between the teams. But the difference between Canada’s side now and then—only five starters from that game remain with Marsch’s squad — is arguably starker than the difference between Morocco and Canada today.

It will help Canada’s levelling cause that Morocco had a far tougher Round of 32 game, playing more than 120 minutes in sweltering Monterrey, Mexico and now with about 34 hours less rest before Saturday’s kickoff in Houston.

It should also help, psychologically rather than physically, that this World Cup, even expanded to 48 teams, has demonstrated soccer’s built-in capacities for upsets. Morocco is better than Germany, but Canada is better than Paraguay. Roughly the same distance will need to be closed, as considerable as it is.

It shouldn’t be forgotten—it should never be forgotten—that Canada has advanced to this World Cup’s Round of 16 when storied sides like Uruguay, Germany, and now the Netherlands have not. 

Regardless of the result in Houston, this team’s success will remain a historic one. But today’s reality doesn’t always have the final say over tomorrow’s achievements, and that shouldn’t be forgotten, either. Sometimes what seems destined doesn’t come to pass.

Sometimes, just often enough to make life and soccer beautiful, the inevitable makes way for the impossible, and the unlikeliest dancer is the one who does.