Canada blow chance and must play knockout match in LA after loss to Swiss

Jesse Marsch looked on with obvious befuddlement as he surveyed the damage. It was always going to be a tough ask for a nation looking to rewrite history but to let a situation slip through their fingers, both literally and metaphorically, took some swallowing for the Canada head coach. A draw against Switzerland would have ensured Canada got to play their first knockout match in World Cup history on home soil but now they must travel 1,261 miles, away from Vancouver to Los Angeles, after an error from goalkeeper Maxine Crepeau flipped the contest away from them. It seems churlish to criticise Canada, who had only picked up their first World Cup point 13 days ago and have endured the trauma of losing key player Ismaël Koné with a broken leg in their second game against Qatar, but these are the fine margins in spot. Opportunity was there for them. “We just wanted to continue the energy we have felt in Canada,” Marsch bemoaned. “I’m so disappointed we couldn’t get the result to keep us here. But I’m so thankful for the energy from the country. Now we’ll go to LA. We still want to electrify our country. Let’s go for it.” The first half in Vancouver was the kind of sterile contest many feared a tournament with 48 teams would bring, and, as such, it was not too difficult to keep pace with events in Seattle, where Bosnia were trying to pull off a miracle of sorts against Qatar. They needed a hatful to take second place but they could “only” get two before the interval with Kerim Alajbegovic and an own goal from Mahmoud Abunada, in the space of five minutes, giving them impetus. It would be checked by a strike from Hassan Al Haydos. How everyone yearned for the Canada match to catch fire but they seemed like they had been caught in headlights and their start to the second period was pitiful. Ruben Vargas put the finish to a fine move after just 40 seconds and all you could see in a stadium that the Vancouver Whitecaps call home was men, women and children clasping their cheeks, mouths open, in a state of shock. This wasn’t supposed to happen.