HOUSTON \u2014 It took little time for Luc de Fougerolles to turn the sting of defeat into motivation for the future. <\/p>\n
Just over an hour after Canada was ousted from the FIFA World Cup on Saturday, the 20-year-old defender was already looking ahead to the nation\u2019s next run. <\/p>\n
\u201cI just can\u2019t wait for four years time,\u201d he said on Saturday. \u201dI think as a team, we just need to be there. I just want to have another run like this and go further and do even more for the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a historic tournament for the Canadians, who earned their first point and first win in a men\u2019s World Cup, and made it into the knockout round for the first time. Once there, they topped South Africa 1-0 to earn a spot in the round of 16.<\/p>\n
The magical run ended on Saturday with a 3-0 loss to Morocco. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that we experienced this stage, the fact that we experienced this game, the best 16, the best 32, I think in the future that\u2019s going to help us to really score this type of chances that we have,\u201d said vice-captain Stephen Eustaquio. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think overall it was a very good experience. And in the future, we\u2019re going to use this as fuel and hopefully we\u2019re going to be at a better level.\u201d<\/p>\n
The stakes have been raised for a Canadian program that came into the tournament sitting at No. 30 in FIFA\u2019s official rankings. <\/p>\n
\u201cNext World Cup, everyone\u2019s going to say that anything less than the round of 16 is a failure, right?\u201d said head coach Jesse Marsch. <\/p>\n
Even in Saturday\u2019s defeat, the team showed it can compete with the best teams in the world, he added. <\/p>\n
Canada out chanced the Moroccans 4-1 across the first half before the game turned on a goal off a freekick in the 50th minute. <\/p>\n
\u201cNobody\u2019s more disappointed in the fact that we lost a game that we were very much in control of than ourselves. And so we have to swallow that pride,\u201d Marsch said. \u201cWe have to continue to think about how to get better, be humble to the fact that we have a lot more to work to do, and commit ourselves to it every time we\u2019re together. And that\u2019s what we will do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of the athletes who played for Canada this summer could challenge for a spot on the national squad that vies for a spot in the 2030 World Cup in Morocco, Portugal and Spain.<\/p>\n
The 26-man roster Marsch named at the end of May had an average age of 25.3 and included 13 players who hadn\u2019t yet made their World Cup debuts. <\/p>\n
Getting a taste of the tournament has only made those players hungrier, said 25-year-old midfielder Ali Ahmed. <\/p>\n
Even the difficult moments will help them grow, he added. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou need moments like this, as much as it hurts to say right now. You need moments like this to learn from experience,\u201d Ahmed said. \u201dThis game has such a big mental part. And for us to go through what we\u2019ve gone through today is massive.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are a lot of incredible memories to be taken from the tournament, too, said right back Alistair Johnston. <\/p>\n
Eustaquio\u2019s stoppage-time goal against South Africa will long live in his mind. So will the images of Canadians shutting down streets for pre-game matches in Vancouver and Toronto, and videos of fans celebrating across the country. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe really proved to everyone what a footballing country Canada is. Not just when we were playing there, but when other teams came, you could see the amount of passion that was there for the sport in Canada,\u201d Johnston said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s something that I\u2019ve always known was there, but I don\u2019t think the rest of the world truly knew, and I\u2019m not sure all of Canada truly knew the true level of fandom that we have. So that was something I\u2019m really proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n
He hopes that momentum captures the attention of a new generation of athletes, and that some of the 17- and 18-year-old soccer players who were part of those celebrations will now push themselves to make the 2030 national squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to continue to build the top-end talent and the depth of this program,\u201d Johnston said. \u201dThere\u2019s a lot of important matches to play over these next four years to continue to test us. But I do think that we\u2019re in a really good place mentally, physically, where we really feel like we can go and attack this next couple years and be ready for 2030.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 5, 2026.<\/p>\n
Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2014 It took little time for Luc de Fougerolles to turn the sting of defeat into motivation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":782306,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44,82],"class_list":["post-782305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}