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Canada’s national men’s football club sends the world a message by advancing to the semi- finals at Copa America 2024.

There are significant signposts in a nation’s sporting history that you can point to and say that’s where and when the athletes and teams came of age. In men’s international football, that moment for Canada occurred in July when it advanced to the semi-final of the Copa America 2024 tournament in the United States, exceeding all expectations for a club that’s ranked 48th in the world.

For a country known globally as a hockey nation, advancing that far in a major global men’s football tournament is a significant achievement. By comparison, it would be as if cricket-crazy India or rugby-obsessed New Zealand enjoyed success at any level of a major international ice hockey tournament.

Football success has been bubbling in Canada for a few years. The Canadian National Woman’s team won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, and the National Men’s team qualified for the last World Cup, where it went winless while scoring just one goal.

But Copa America 2024 represented a giant leap for the Canadian men’s side. As one of six Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) guest teams, this was Canada’s Copa debut, and the pressure was on the team to position itself for 2026, when Canada, along with the United States and Mexico, will co-host the men’s World Cup.

Canada was placed in Group A, along with the world’s top-ranked team, mighty Argentina and its legendary Lionel Messi, as well as Peru and Chile. Certainly, getting out of the Group Stage and into the knockout round would be a challenge, but one readily accepted by the Canadians under the new leadership of Manager Jesse Marsch, who joined the club only a month earlier.

Meeting Argentina in its opening match, Canada stayed with the powerhouse for half the game before the defending World Cup champs wore down the Canadian side in the second half for a 2-0 victory. Canada then defeated Peru 1-0 before drawing 0-0 with Chile, and those results were enough to advance by finishing second in the Group to meet Venezuela in the quarterfinals, where they thrilled their home nation by winning on penalties to advance to the semifinals where they once again would meet Argentina — a chance to dance with the world champs.

For players used to playing before 2,500 or so fans in St. John’s, Moncton or Lethbridge, Canada was not intimidated by 82,000 fans on a hot and humid night at Met-Life Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, the majority of whom were wearing Messi jerseys. Seven million Canadians were watching on television.

Canada even stayed with the champs for the first 20 minutes, with chances by both young star striker Alphonso Davies and the ‘Maritime Messi’, young Jacob Shaffelburg, the pride of tiny Port Williams, Nova Scotia.

However, as they did in the tournament opener, Argentina’s experience and skill eventually rose to the fore, scoring in the 22nd minute and then again in the 51st minute on marker by who else but Messi to win 2-0. It was a loss on the scoreboard but an impressive showing on the global stage, which served notice to the world that Canada had arrived.

Perhaps drained by its rise through the ranks, Canada lost on penalties to Uruguay in the third- place game, but had already firmly planted its flag in the ground. Argentina solidified its place atop the world of football by scoring in the 112th minute to defeat a defiant Columbia 1-0 in the final, thus defending the Copa America title it won in 2021.

Clearly, in international football, on both the women’s and now the men’s side, Canada, a Northern Hemisphere nation, is punching above its weight and is playing the beautiful game at the highest levels. The journey forward to 2026 and beyond, should be exciting. Just imagine the possibilities.