I’ve been coaching long enough to know a program-defining moment when I see one, and Canada just had one. Stephen Eustaquio scored in the 92nd minute to beat South Africa 1-0, and just like that, a country that had never gotten past the group stage in 1986 or in Qatar back in 2022 was through to the Round of 16. First time ever, decided about as late as a goal can be decided.
It’s not just us either. Cape Verde is still alive. Paraguay just knocked out a four-time champion. If you’ve got a kid who plays soccer here in South Vancouver, there’s a real coaching lesson sitting underneath all of it, and it’s one we lean on constantly at South Van FC.
Canada Wrote Its Own Underdog Story
The group stage did not make any of this feel inevitable. We drew Bosnia and Herzegovina in the opener, the kind of result you forget by the next morning. Six goals against Qatar felt fantastic for about three days, right up until Switzerland beat us and made the whole tournament feel shaky again. Second in the group got us through, but only just, and that meant South Africa in the Round of 32 with basically zero cushion.
I watched that South Africa game the way I imagine half the country did, checking the clock more than the ball for long stretches once it stayed scoreless into the second half. There was a run of minutes around the 70th where I was already bracing for extra time and penalties. Then Eustaquio got on the end of something in the 92nd minute and it was over. First Round of 16 in this country’s history, and it took nearly every second available to get there.
That’s not a team that backed into an easy bracket. It’s a group that kept grinding when the tidy version of this story had them on a flight home a week early.
This Has Been the Underdogs’ Tournament
Cape Verde is the one I keep coming back to. Population around 525,000, first World Cup appearance ever, and they just refuse to lose in a way that matters. A scoreless draw with Spain, then down against Uruguay before clawing back to 2-2 on a free kick from a spot most players wouldn’t even shoot from. Tying all three group games and still moving on is something that happens once in a long while. Chile did it years ago. The last debut nation to manage it was Slovakia, back in 2010, so Cape Verde is only the second in recent memory.
Then there’s Paraguay, who I’ll admit I did not have getting past Germany in any version of this tournament I’d have written down. Four World Cup titles between the two sides, all of them Germany’s, and Paraguay still walked away with it on penalties after a 1-1 draw. Morocco knocked out the Netherlands around the same stretch of games. None of it lines up on paper, not the budgets, not the squad depth, and that’s really the point. These are teams that refused to play like they already knew how the script was supposed to end.
Why This Matters More Than the Trophy
A team doesn’t get more talented over the course of a month. What changes is that a group of players decides they belong on that pitch and then backs it up under real pressure, game after game, until somebody has to believe them.
That’s a training-ground lesson as much as it’s a World Cup one, and it’s something we talk about constantly at South Van FC. Ambition means competing hard no matter who’s across from you. Discipline is the stuff nobody sees, an extra rep, an early arrival, staying after to fix the one thing that went wrong, and it’s usually what separates the teams that hold up under pressure from the ones that fold. A ten-year-old who plays with that mentality on a random Saturday morning is going to outperform their own reputation more often than not.
What It Means for Grassroots Soccer in Vancouver
Every time Canada does something historic at a World Cup, we feel it directly. After the 2022 qualification, registrations climbed across BC, and with the tournament partly hosted here and Canada making a deep run, that effect is going to be bigger. Kids in South Vancouver aren’t just watching a World Cup happen somewhere else. They’re watching a Canadian team that looks like it belongs, and a bracket full of teams that prove pedigree isn’t the whole story.
That matters for how we talk to players here too. A club from South Vancouver, built without the resources of the biggest academies in the region, is its own kind of underdog story. We tell our players that development isn’t about starting with more talent than everyone else. It’s about showing up for the daily habits and staying part of a community that pushes you, which is really the same thing that got Canada and Cape Verde this far.
The Takeaway for Parents and Players
If your kid’s been watching this tournament, point them to Canada’s rocky group stage before that Round of 16 breakthrough, or to Cape Verde. Upsets aren’t really the story here. The habits built long before anyone was watching are the story.
That’s what we’re building toward at South Van FC too, one session at a time, not because talent doesn’t matter but because it’s rarely the thing that decides where a player ends up. If you want to see what that looks like in practice, our academy is a good place to start.
Harjit Kainth is the founder, head coach, and academy director at South Van FC. He built the club from the ground up in South Vancouver with a focus on long-term player development, and oversees both the youth academy and the VMSL men’s team. If you have questions about the programme or want to talk development, reach out at southvanfc@gmail.com.
South Van FC is a community football club based in South Vancouver, BC. We run a youth development academy and a VMSL Men’s team, built around one philosophy: develop real players, technically sharp, tactically aware, and mentally tough. Learn more at southvanfc.com.