Canada earn first point at a World Cup

Canada 1-1 Bosnia-Herzegovina

TORONTO, ON–Canada got their first ever World Cup in their first ever World Cup match on home soil with a 1-1 draw against Bosnia-Herzegovina at Toronto Stadium (aka BMO Field). Alphonso Davies was out with a hamstring issue while Edin Dzeko was an unused sub for Bosnia.

Canada did not looked overwhelmed by the occasion and had an energetic start, but so did their opponents, who were the better on set pieces early. Indeed, it would be on a set piece that the Dragons would get the lead. In the 21st minute, Jovo Lukic headed in a corner form Sead Kolasinac to give Bosnia the lead.

Canada was not undeterred looking the better team in stretches, but could not find the goal. They looked to have equalized in the 53rd minute, but Richie Lareya’s shot was cleared off the line by Kolasinac. It appeared that Canada would not be able to buy a goal this afternoon in Toronto, but substitute Cyle Larin would have other ideas.

In the 78th minute, Larin took a pass from Promise David and then his shot took a slight deflection past Nikola Vasilj to make it 1-1. Canada were the better team on the pitch this afternoon, but in the end would have to settle for a point.

“We felt like we had them,” said Canada head coach Jesse Marsch. “We were starting to push the game, the subs came on to change the game. I told them, ‘We’ve got them, now it’s time to push your foot on the jugular.’ I’m disappointed with the first half. We didn’t play aggressive. We talked about it afterwards and the second half, the moment we stepped on the pitch, was different… but we have to make sure we learn from today. We’ll keep pushing.”

“I will need to ramp up the atmosphere in my team now because they were a bit down, said Bosnian coach Sergej Barbarez. “We didn’t have that much balance, but overall I think that this was the most realistic outcome. We had a chance to make it 2-0, but we were also very close to conceding twice, so this is a fair result. Overall we were a bit too passive. The idea was to try to surprise the opponent, but we didn’t execute well on that part.”

Canada will travel to Vancouver to host Qatar on Thursday (3pm, PT, FS1/Telemundo) while Bosnia will travel to Los Angeles to face Switzerland on Thursday (noon PT, Fox/Telemundo).