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Men's soccer: After Canada's historic night in Honduras, now all eyes are on Hamilton

It's Canada vs. U.S. for first place in CONCACAF World Cup qualifying, with sub-zero temperatures expected for Sunday's kickoff at high noon.

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The last time the Canadian men’s soccer team had gone to Honduras in a crucial World Cup qualifier it ended in disaster, an 8-1 embarrassment that left scars and trauma.

Needing only a draw in the Oct. 16, 2012, game at Estadio Olimpico Metropolitano, they instead were blown out, every goal a knife thrust into the gut, leaving their Cup hopes bleeding out.

“It was surreal. It was difficult to watch. You’re on the sidelines and you’re hurting like everybody else on the pitch,” former Vancouver Whitecap Terry Dunfield, who was on the bench as a substitute, told soccer writer John Molinaro. “Every time they scored, all of us on the bench felt the pain. It was like we were taking the hit too. It hurt. The pain was real. I was gutted for everyone.”

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Canada’s Ricketts Tosaint reacts after Honduras scored during a 2014 World Cup-qualifying match in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
Canada’s Ricketts Tosaint reacts after Honduras scored during a 2014 World Cup-qualifying match in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Photo by Esteban Felix /AP

Three players from that game — Lucas Cavallini, Atiba Hutchinson and Milan Borjan — were still on the roster when Canada travelled to San Pedro on Thursday night. All three saw action as this time the pain was replaced by elation after a 2-0 victory that kept the Reds atop their group in Cup qualifying.

“It was great to rewrite the story there in Honduras,” said Caps striker Tosaint Ricketts, who played in the 8-1 loss, but watched last night’s game from home.

“It’s a different time. Back in the day, Honduras was a much different team, Canada was a much different team. Fast-forward to today, and things are much different.”

Canada is in sight of qualifying for the Cup for the first time since 1986, but it’s not done yet. The next hurdle — arguably their toughest of their remaining five games — comes Sunday when they host the U.S. in Hamilton. Temperatures for the “Ice Capp” at Tim Horton’s Field are expected to be around -6 C when the players take the pitch.

Canada leads the group at 5-0-4, but the U.S. are a single point back (5-1-3). The stakes are high, the mood intense — even between Whitecaps teammates.

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There are three Americans on the first-team roster at camp: Brian White, Jake Nerwinski and Tristan Blackmon. They are, joked Ricketts, the enemy within.

“I’ll be looking right through them. I won’t even see them,” he joked about practice this weekend. “I won’t talk to them, I won’t even sit next to them at breakfast. I may not even pass them the ball at training. It’s a war.

“We have a friendly wager going on. So, you know, obviously we’ll be rooting for our respective countries,” he added. “But … this is what it’s all about … Canada versus U.S.A. It’s been a longtime rivalry and this is what I think everyone in CONCACAF wants to see.”

White was feeling confident, predicting a 2-1 U.S. win, with Ricardo Pepi netting a brace.

“Hopefully, we’re a little bit happier than the rest of the team,” he said of arriving in the locker-room Monday morning. “Obviously, we’re rooting for good performances from Derek (Cornelius), Guti (Cristian Gutierrez) and Cava, but at the end of day, we’ve got to root for the boys in the red, white and blue.”

A few oddsmakers are giving the slight edge to the U.S. — who downed El Salvador 1-0 on Thursday — because Les Rouges are missing players like Alphonso Davies and Stephen Eustáquio. Oddschecker has the U.S. at +175 odds, or an implied 36.4 per cent chance, to storm into Hamilton and win, with the Canucks at +185 (35.1 per cent). The game ending as a tie is at +200 odds (33.3 per cent).

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“This is an interesting matchup for a few reasons. Canada hasn’t lost in World Cup qualifying yet. They have 10 wins and four draws,” OddsChecker spokesman Kyle Newman said. “They now seem set to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1986 and only second time all-time. Meanwhile, the United States is looking to avoid another disappointment in the World Cup qualifying by beating a team they have just one loss against since 1986.”

But that win wasn’t in the distant past. That was in October 2019, when Davies and Cavallini scored in a 2-0 triumph.

“I believe in every one of those players that put on that kit and put on that jersey. The whole team, they’re all playing at a high level right now,” said Ricketts. “Canadian players are finally getting that respect that they deserve. And that respect kind of becomes a trend.

“In the (player transfer) market, a lot of North American players get looked at from these big teams, and that creates more opportunities. It’s a snowball effect. And it’s definitely in the favour of Canada right now. The people who were put in those opportunities are producing.”

jadams@postmedia.com

twitter.com/TheRealJJAdams

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