Super sub Cyle Larin gives Canada World Cup lift-off with late equaliser
Cyle Larin was on the pitch just two minutes when he scored an equaliser for Canada against Bosnia and Herzegovina. Pic: Charlotte Wilson/Getty Images
No Edin Džeko, no problem? Not quite.
Bosnia and Herzegovina thought they could kick off their World Cup without their 40-year-old talisman. For long parts of an electric afternoon down by Lake Ontario, the visitors found it plain sailing.
But when Jesse Marsch, having seen his co-hosts leave so many gilded openings go abegging, turned to Canada’s veteran with 15 minutes to go here he found that this World Cup could yet be a country for old(er) men.
Cyle Larin needed just two minutes to plunder the equaliser to Jovo Lukić’s first-half opener as he powered home and raised not just the roof of Toronto Stadium but an entire nation. Canada had enough of a lift-off.
In two short years Marsch has made himself an honorary Canadian by putting himself front and centre, loudly and proudly insisting this is a golden generation which could do things the country’s previous World Cup squads couldn’t. To be fair, neither the 1986 nor 2022 vintage did a whole pile. Six games, six defeats, a single goal scored by a Canadian.
The bar was low and when the Bosnians stunned Italy in a play-off in March it felt like a truly favourable draw had made clearing a few firsts — first point, first win, first knockout games — all the more attainable. Health issues — captain Alphonso Davies and defensive linchpin Moïse Bombito both ruled out here — intervened to add an edginess as kick-off approached.
Can an Opening Ceremony ease nerves? FIFA are giving us a hefty sample size to work with. The second of three extravaganzas, of a sort, melted eardrums here before kickoff. Michael Bublé’s crooning was silky and smooth, a sharp contrast to the hectic and harried start his countrymen would make. Alanis Morissette brought the place to a crescendo with one hell of a rendition of a Canadian anthem that isn’t the most, well, anthemic.
Then there would be football. Competitive football, a rare and wondrous thing in these parts. Twelve months and 10 games have passed since Canada tasted it. Bosnia, meanwhile, have been in the heat of dogged battles for most of that time, breaking Welsh and then Italian hearts on their way here. They’re sturdy and, in a good way, a simple side. Basics are done well, over and over.
The first 15 minutes of the Canadian portion of this World Cup won’t trouble the montage makers. It was helter-skelter and short on quality. If there was any control out there, Marsch’s side had it but you’d have needed a good lawyer to argue its existence at all. Then came the kind of opening a nation’s top scorer dreams of.
Ismael Kone had probed and fresh from giving Seamus Coleman a busy night, Liam Millar was at it again. A ball from the left wasn’t half-cleared but instead put on a plate. Jonathan David, with 39 goals in 77 internationals, looked like a man who’d never buried a single one. He fluffed his shot right at Nikola Vasilj. It was a dreadful miss from a man in dreadful form. Within five minutes it was cast in a worse light.
A Bosnian corner was delivered in Bosnian style — simply. Sead Kolašinac flicked it, Max Crepeau flapped at it and Lukic nodded it. David, head down, went back to the centre circle. His blushes weren’t spared but shared when strike partner Tani Oluwaseyi blazed another golden opening hideously over on the half hour. Canada would have a raft of corners to see out the half and overcomplicated every one. They just weren’t getting the message.
Kolašinac made an even more telling intervention eight minutes after the restart. It was a remarkable one too. Left back Richie Laryea got on the end of a neat move and looked to have bundled an equaliser past Vasilj only for Kolašinac to deflect it off the bar and out.
Marsch had seen enough and called Jonathan David ashore on the hour, Villarreal winger Tajon Buchanan another game-breaker having his afternoon curtailed early. The Bosnian backline stayed sturdy as ever though. So Marsch twisted again, this time bring veteran Cyle Larin, who had toiled in both warm-up matches, in. The pressure was turning up — just enough.
With 12 minutes left Kone slalomed in off the left and fed Promise David who delightedly flicked on to Larin. With one touch, the veteran turned and swivelled. His second sent the ball arrowing into the side of the net and sent this place wild. He ran to the corner with his fingers in his ears, presumably to protect them.
With 40 seconds of added time left, Larin may even have won it but snatched at an opening. By winning Canada’s first ever World Cup point, he’d made his own.
Crepeau 6; Johnston 6, De Fougerolles 7, Cornelius 5, Laryea 6; Buchanan 5, Eustaquio 7, Kone 8, Millar 6; J David 5, Oluwaseyi 5.
Ahmed for Millar (60), P David for J David (60), Shaffelburg for Buchanan (60), Larin for Oluwaseyi 75; Osorio for Eustaquio (88).
Larin (78)
Vasilj 7; Kolasinac 8, Muharemovic 7, Katic 7, Dedic 6; Memic 7, Tahirovic 7, Basic 8, Bajraktarevic 6; Demirovic 7, Lukic 8 Subs: Bazdar for Lukic (63), Gigovic for Basic (63), Sunjic for Bajraktarevic (74), Alajbegovic for Memic (74), Burnic for Kolasinac (84).
Lukic (21)
Facundo Tello (ARG)
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