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Front and centre at Winston’s English Pub in Saskatoon was John Mills, pulling up a chair to watch Canada’s final group stage match at the World Cup.
Mills wouldn’t quite call soccer his most watched sport, but wanted to make the trek out to throw his support behind Team Canada in a tight 2-1 loss to Switzerland.
“This is like the one game I’ve watched in the past five years,” Mills said. “It was good, it was really close. Canada played really hard and it was a good match.”
The Canadians didn’t get their storybook finish to Group B competition on Wednesday, as they needed either a win or a tie against Switzerland to lock up first place.
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Instead, Team Canada’s time as the host team has come to an end as they’ll head south of the border for the start of knockout games on Sunday.
Canada struggled defensively to begin the second half by allowing back-to-back Swiss goals from Rubén Vargas and Johan Manzambi to fall behind 2-0.
Under a minute after being substituted, Promise David gave Canada some life in the 76th minute with a beautiful strike off a pinpoint pass from Nathan Saliba.
Team Canada pressed late, but were unable to buy one last goal to tie the match and secure the group for the host side.
“The second half was good,” said Canadian fan David Maduri. “Could it have been better? Yes, but our attacking was great and our momentum going into that last 10 minutes was awesome.”
Ben Kiesman has followed much of the World Cup through the first two weeks of competition and was impressed with how Canada pressed Switzerland in the final minutes after their poor start to the second half.
“I thought they showed a lot of resilience coming back from 2-0,” Kiesman said. “They’re still in it, they made the bracket stage. We’ll see how it goes, but very proud with how they played overall.”
One player who did not see the field Wednesday for Team Canada was captain and international star Alphonso Davies, who hasn’t played at the World Cup yet as he recovers from a hamstring injury.
Despite earlier in the week alluding to Davies being brought in as a substitution Wednesday, Team Canada head coach Jesse Marsch later called that a ‘decoy’ aimed at throwing off the Swiss side.
Maduri was among the Canadian fans however, who were expecting the wing back to finally hit the pitch.
“It was unfortunate we didn’t get to see Alphonso Davies today,” Maduri said. “I’m sure he’ll show up in the Round of 32.”
Despite the loss, Canada is headed to the knockout round for the first time in the program’s history with a 1-1-1 record to finish second in Group B.
Maduri is hopefully Wednesday’s adversity will go a long way for a Canadian team set to face its toughest test yet after making it out of the group.
“We know that the next opponent is going to be probably even tougher than playing Switzerland,” Maduri said. “We’re now going into the knockout stages, but we should be proud of where we came.”
Canada will face the runner-up in Group A in the Round of 32 which will most likely be South Korea, though South Africa and Czechia have outside shots at second place in the group.
According to Mills, the atmosphere at the pub surrounded by plenty of red and white for a midday match caught him off guard.
“I didn’t know we had so many soccer fans,” Mills said. “It’s good to see everyone in unison cheering, it was really fun.”
Originally from Ontario, Maduri was equally as impressed by the passion shown by fans in Saskatchewan for the national team.
A wave of support he only expects to intensify the deeper Canada goes into the tournament.
“It’s definitely a great atmosphere,” Maduri said.
“I love being here. I’m initially from Toronto, so coming out to Saskatoon and being able to celebrate with everybody has been really good.”
It will be a short turnaround for Team Canada as they’ll play their Round of 32 game in Los Angeles, Calif. on Sunday.
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