Team Canada at the 2022 World Cup: not just hockey

Team Canada at the Ice Hockey World Championship is always a formidable force. But at the World Cup, "maple leaves" are not the most frequent guest. In Qatar, the Canadians will play in Group F.

Canada

The second largest country in the world, most of which is occupied by the Arctic territories. Back in the 19th century, British and French colonies were located here - that's why Canada now has two official languages.

The Canadian economy is well developed - there is enough wood and oil, as well as rare elements, at a high level engineering, electronics and energy.

Canada has hosted the Olympic Games three times: summer in 1976 in Montreal, winter in 1988 in Calgary and in 2010 in Vancouver. There is a special attitude to winter sports here, but hockey is the number one game. Football is inferior not only to him, but also to Canadian football (the local analogue of American football), basketball and baseball. However, its popularity is gradually growing.

Canada national football team

The first international trophy was won by Canadian football players back in 1904, when they won the tournament of the Summer Olympic Games in St. Louis. It was a strange Olympics - representatives of many countries did not make it to the USA, and these competitions themselves were not yet popular. As a result, only three teams came to the start in football - two American and one Canadian, which, thanks to two victories - 7:0 and 4:0 - won gold.

But according to the Hamburg account, Canadians were weak on the international stage - primarily due to the fact that domestic competitions were not sufficiently developed. The situation changed in the 1980s. In 1985, Canadians won the CONCACAF Gold Cup for the first time and made it to the World Cup for the first time in history. In Mexico, the Canadians were not the easiest opponent. In the first round, they almost lost to a draw with the French, losing only in the end against Jean-Pierre Papin - 0:1. Then they lost to the Hungarians - 0:2, and in the final match they did not cope with the USSR national team - 0:2, goals were scored by Oleg Blokhin and Alexander Zavarov.

The Soviet Union and its national team have been gone for a long time, and so far that fight remains the last for Canadians at the World Championships. And now, in Qatar, they are again among the strongest teams on the planet. Moreover, in the qualifying tournament, the Canadian team won all the matches and guaranteed itself participation in the final part of the World Cup.

Team Canada All Stars

In the main clip of the “maple leaves” there are several players from the leading championships. For example, Bayern defender Alphonso Davies, midfielders Steven Eushtakiou from Porto, Atiba Hutchinson from Besiktas, forwards Kyle Larin from Club Brugge, Jonathan David from Lille. Hutchinson is now the national team record holder for the number of matches (97), and Larin for the number of goals (25).

Opponents in Group "F"

Belgium, Morocco, Croatia.

Forecast for the performance of the Canadian team

Neither experience nor class will definitely be enough for the Canadians to reach the playoffs, but none of the rivals will have it easy with them. The only thing that the Canadian team can count on is the first point at the World Championships - which will also be an achievement for it.