“We will go to … to Croatia”

Canada is back at the World Cup after 36 years, and this Wednesday made its debut at Qatar 2022 against Belgium. Although the North Americans lost minimally to the Belgians, the performance on the green was encouraging and their coach John Herdman was optimistic about the next game against Croatia.

However, the British-born strategist has been at the center of various criticisms of a reprehensible statement on the subject. And he released “We’re Going To … To Croatia”.

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the effect of his words. no doubt. Not just because of his sexual accent, but because of his cultural and personal baggage, since the British-born coach has spent his entire career in women’s football: from 2006 to 2011 he managed the New Zealand women’s team tactically, while from 2011 to 2018 he did In Canada, where he was called to captain the men’s team due to his great achievements.

The speech, of course, caused a stir in the Canadian press. Above all, because of his past as manager of that country’s and New Zealand’s women’s soccer teams at various stages.

Specifically, with the women of the North American country, he managed to win bronze medals at both the London 2012 Olympic Games and Rio 2016, earning the Canadian Federation a call-up to lead the men’s CONCACAF Qualifiers. Take first place and qualify for this tournament.

About the finale, he notes what it’s like to lead a women’s team compared to a male team: “There might be older guys who see that and think: ‘How is that even possible?'” ” I don’t think there is much difference between men and women. The training is similar. Moreover, I promised not to change anything and continue to be me.”

At the time he was consulted about the penalty kick that his team missed. “We wanted to score that first goal. I’m proud of Alfonso. It’s a very big moment. We’ve had the weight of a nation for 36 years of waiting. I’m very proud to see him catch that ball because you have to have a lot of courage.”

John Herdman is satisfied with the defeat he suffered on his debut. “We showed that we deserve to be here. Our fans also tried to win the battle. We can leave proud of what we’ve done. We are a football nation. We had goals we couldn’t achieve. The group stage is fully open after the result of the match between Morocco and Croatia.”

Then he affirmed: “After a match like this, I told my players that I am very proud of what they did. We have to stick together.”