Hadfield and fans lift Canada

DOHA, QATAR • Canada pretty much shocked the world with its performance against Belgium in its opening game of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Yet, heading into the contest, Canada got some unworldly advice from Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, invited to speak to the group prior to the game.

“That was a special moment for all of us; just basically him taking us through what it took for him to get into the mind frame to go and do what he did,” said Canada captain Atiba Hutchinson on Thursday. “What he spoke about was exactly what we were going through, so we could relate to it so much. I don’t think there is any better person that could have been in that room to help us prepare for that game.”

Canada had not played in a World Cup for 36 years prior to opening the 2022 tournament against Belgium at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium, up the road in the district of Al Rayyan.

“It was an amazing idea from John to have someone of that magnitude come out and speak to us,” Hutchinson said.

“He could just see it in our eyes how much it meant to us, and he got us in the right state of mind to go out and do what we’ve been speaking of doing of the last couple of weeks.

“It was amazing and just to hear the journey had had gone through, it was really cool.”

When a country has not played at the tournament in 36 years, there are plenty of unknown factors for opponents heading in to face them. But there could not have been any way Belgium was expecting Canada to push forward the way it did from the opening kickoff and take the game to the World Cup semifinalists from four years ago, and one of the tournament favourites for this year’s event.

Canada went out and dominated the game the way few people expected and had Belgium on its heels from the onset.

“I met Chris back in 2013, we were in the same speakers’ bureau,” Herdman said Thursday. “I was told that I had to listen to him because he was the best in the business.”

Canadians were out in full force at the game. The well-travelled group was in great voice, joined by a number of ex-pats who now call Qatar home.

“It felt like a home game,” said Canada defender Kamal Miller.