hello I’m Matt Galloway and this is the current podcast go you know how sometimes they say it’s an honor just to be nominated you could say that losing to a team led by lonel messy is kind of like that it’s a huge victory for Canada to even be on the field at the Copa America and they made a respectable showing with a two-nil loss to Argentina in The Opening match of this tournament Canada’s first ever appearance at the world’s oldest international soccer tournament for more on what that means and what to watch over the next couple of weeks we’re joined by Canadian soccer journalist John Molinaro who’s with me in studio now John good morning hey good morning um this is a tough matchup for Canada’s first ever game at aopa America um you go up against the world champions you go up against lonel Messi how did the game go down in your eyes they lost two Canada did but it wasn’t I mean I think they did better than perhaps the score might suggest yeah they played really well I mean for 90 minutes they really went Toe totoe with Argentina uh rode their luck at times and got a fantastic effort from uh Canadian goalkeeper Maxim kpo who um you know stopped lonel Messi I think two or three times which I’m sure was a world like a highlight for him uh stopped Angel Di Maria on a breakaway in the ninth minute which you know was I thought you know for sure Argentina was going to score there but they also you know asked questions of the argentinians I mean Alonso Davies and Jonathan David Kyle lahen ton Buchanan they all had really good looks on goal and Stephan hakio probably should have put Canada up one- nothing at that at the end of the first half he should have bued a chance on a clear header um but no I mean you know they weren’t over a I mean you have to remember the these are the defending World Cup champions they’d only lost twice in their previous 58 games over the last 5 years so in another era I mean this could have ended like a like a football score cricket score right like Canada could have been thrashed very much so I mean they’ve only met once before in 2010 and that was a thrashing that was 5- n for Argentina and buari and going into this I mean I kind of thought it had it was going to go that way just because you know Argentina’s at the height of their powers they’ve got such a you know glittering star array of talent that I thought this is going to get ugly but Canada performed really really well and I think you know you don’t get moral points for V for you don’t get points for moral victories but uh certainly a moral victory for Canada how important is the Copa America and how did Canada end up in this for the first time yeah it’s huge it’s uh you know this is the South American Championship so I would argue that you know behind only the World Cup and the euro is going on right now this is probably the third most important uh International T soccer tournament on the men’s side and it’s the oldest tournament as well so it’s pretty prestigious um you know Canada qualified because the tournament is being held in the United States so normally it would be only open for South American teams but because the United States is hosting it they open the door to six conquer CAF teams six teams from North America to to compete Canada had to qualify they ended up losing to Jamaica in a two game playoff which forced them then to play against Trinidad and they ended up beating Trinidad in Texas to qualify so it’s a big deal I mean playing in a in a tournament of this caliber and this of this Prestige it’s a huge honor for Canada and it’s really important especially with the 2026 World Cup coming up it’s really important that they play What I Call top tier teams on a regular basis right it’s not simply good enough for them to play teams in their own region in the conera region they have to go up against the likes of Argentina and Chile and Peru so I think this is a great preparation for the 2026 you’ve been speaking with members of the team how do they feel about their chances how do they I mean just being there is is nice but you don’t want to just show up no they feel good I mean there’s this sort of I wouldn’t say Cockiness but certainly um confidence going into this tournament I mean I I spoke to Toronto FC Captain Jonathan asario last week you know the longest serving member of this can team and he talked about you know it’s not good enough just to go out and show up and it’s not good enough just about you know putting in a performance it’s about results and I think they you know they played um the Netherlands and France earlier this month in a pair of friendlies and they acquitted themselves quite well even though they didn’t win either game Drew with France Drew with France a number two in the world so and from what Jonathan said that those sort of results kind of gave them you know the feeling of you know we can go there and we can sort of play with a great deal of fear and sort of you know hold our heads High against some of the top teams in the world and it certainly showed yesterday is that a change for the men’s team I mean the story line in this country forever it seems like has been that the men’s team has long been outclass by the success of the women’s team um are the men pulling things together kind of showing there’s a lot of talent generational Talent right now and is something happening with that Talent yeah I think so I mean the the confidence has kind of been there in the last couple years I think you know you know qualifying for the World Cup certainly helped but yeah you’re you’re quite right I mean there is this I mean I hate to use the term golden generation but there is this sort of collection of talent who are playing at the very highest level of European Club football uh you know whether it’s Alonso Davies Jonathan David Stephanie stako Kyle lren They’re all playing for top teams in Europe and I think that’s only going to sort of improve you’re going to see more Canadians making the move uh to top teams so it’s it seems to this this sort of as I said this golden time for Canadian soccer on the men’s side who are you know finally getting their act together are they going to be able to get it of the first round of this competition tough Matt it’s really tough I mean they have to play Peru next uh which is a winnable game because Peru isn’t it’s I would suggest one of the weaker teams from South America in this competition but then they have to sort of end things against Chile who are a very veteran experienced team and who have won this competition several times so you’d have to think they’re going to have to take four points from those two games and that’s going to be really tough is Argentina the the class of this tournament I mean it’s just beginning but are they the ones that that people would pin as the the team to watch I think so yeah I mean as I said they’ve they’ve they’ve only lost twice in the last five years they’re the defending Copa America Champions they have lonel Messi and but it’s not just a one-man team and they’ve got such an amazing side when you think of that the array of talent they have but I think they’re the favorites but you know I wouldn’t be surprised if Brazil uh you know traditional soccer power um you know comes through because they’re relying on some pretty impressive players whether it’s venicius JR or Rodrigo of Real Madrid and I think for my Dark Horse pick is actually Colombia because they’ve actually you know defeated Brazil in World Cup qualifying lately and they just seem to be a country on the rise so I think it’s probably going to be one of those three teams we were saying just before you came in um just finally that this is a great time if you are a soccer fan or you like the excitement maybe you don’t care about the game but you like the excitement of going into a place and watching it with a bunch of people who are just rabid um this is a wild time right now that’s crazy I mean you’ve got sort of the Copa America and the European championships going on at the same time both of the finals are going to be on July 14th so that’s fantastic I mean it’s this sort of schoras Borg of football that you know you can see the top players in the world competing against each other and then we’ll get a small break and then we see you know the Canadian women you know go for gold and try to reach the metal Podium for a fourth straight time in Paris so it’s uh yeah it’s it’s a wonderful Feast of football this summer so really enjoying it we will see you on the couch presuming that’s where you will be in front of the big screen John thank you you’re welcome John Molinaro is a Canadian soccer journalist
Canada’s men’s soccer team played its first-ever game at the Copa America tournament on Thursday — and lost 2-0 to world champions Argentina and their star player Lionel Messi. Soccer journalist John Molinaro explains why that’s still something to be proud of.
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