Canada just couldn’t recover from their gut-wrenching, stoppage-time loss to El Salvador – and in the end, it cost them a shot at making the FIFA U-20 World Cup.
The Canadians suffered a disappointing 2-1 defeat at the hands of Cuba at the CONCACAF U-20 Championship on Monday, four days after that heartbreak against El Salvador. Head coach Rob Gale’s team was almost immediately on the back foot against Cuba, conceding in just the fifth minute of play.
“It was a case of that early mistake and the fragility of the team mentally after conceding late in the last game,” Gale said after Monday’s game. “We didn’t put the heart and the effort in that we needed and that is usually associated with us.”
That loss, combined with a Honduras win over Haiti later in the evening, means that Canada will miss out on the U-20 World Cup once again. The team hasn’t participated in the tournament since 2007, and hasn’t qualified through CONCACAF since 2005.
“We weren’t nearly good enough in the first half for all the possession that we had,” said Gale, whose team went into halftime down 2-0. “We didn’t play with the tempo and the energy that we needed and one mistake on the first goal was absolutely crucial, as you’d see—because the opposition slows the game down.”
Gale said he “tore the wallpaper down” at halftime, and his team responded with renewed “commitment and drive” after the break, with a Jackson Farmer goal cutting the Cuban lead in half. But with the Cubans employing every available tactic to interrupt the flow of play, Canada ultimately couldn’t do enough to find an equalizer.
“We had to go direct in the second half and, to be fair, they did respond and put everything into it,” said Gale. “We were unlucky not to take chances but you cannot have a half of football off at this level and the bare minimum has to [be to] compete for the badge.”
The young Canadians will get one more chance to compete for the badge on Thursday as they close out the tournament, hoping to play spoilers against Honduras.
