Jesse Marsch\u2019s side always looked capable of scoring, though Juventus\u2019s Jonathan David missed a golden opportunity in the first half and a preposterous Sead Kolasinac block that saw the ball cannon on to the crossbar prevented Richie Laryea finding the net in the second. Bosnia, though, were always playing with fire, holding dear Lukic\u2019s first-half header on his first competitive start for his country. It was a goal that tested the foundations of the south stand, where 7,000 temporary seats were erected to increase the stadium\u2019s capacity, many of them occupied by Bosnia\u2019s most ardent supporters.<\/p>\n
For the locals, a first World Cup game on Canadian soil represented an occasion they were always going to savour, regardless of result and long before the captain, Stephen Eust\u00e1quio, rolled the ball to Isma\u00ebl Kon\u00e9 at kick-off. By that point, it had been quite the show; Michael Bubl\u00e9 was smuggled on to the centre circle among the 48 flag bearers \u2013 the US flag was again booed in some quarters \u2013 before performing Bring It On Home to Me and, a few minutes later, Alanis Morissette took centre stage to sing Canada\u2019s national anthem, Marsch, born in Wisconsin, singing every word. Oh, and there was a fly-over from the The Snowbirds, the Canadian air force\u2019s answer to the Red Arrows.<\/p>\n
There was plenty of early gusto from Canada, as expected, Liam Millar\u2019s long throw causing Bosnia and Herzegovina a headache inside 45 seconds. Amar Memic, who started up front alongside Ermedin Demirovic with Edin Dzeko not at full fitness, passed up the first real chance a minute later, blazing over inside the area.<\/p>\n
Jonathan David, Canada\u2019s biggest hitter in the absence of Alphonso Davies, missed a sitter on 17 minutes, leaving Marsch to contort in agony on the touchline. Marsch acknowledged his players could not afford to be overhyped but both of his full-backs, Laryea and Alistair Johnston, made hasty challenges, the latter booked for crudely wiping out Memic.<\/p>\n
Laryea\u2019s poor challenge was the precursor to Bosnia\u2019s opener. It stemmed from a seemingly training-ground corner routine, Kolasinac rising high at the front post to flick the ball closer to danger and Lukic glanced in a yard or two from the goalline. Cue delirium in the south stand, in the middle of which thousands of Bosnia\u2019s supporters\u2019 group BHFanaticos were stationed.<\/p>\n
![\"Bosnia-Herzegovina's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/VMJGMMKS4Q62YHHSHIOGR4CZDQ.jpg\")
Bosnia-Herzegovina’s players celebrateJovo Lukic’s opening goal. Photograph: Cole Burston\/AFP via Getty Images <\/p>\n
The water break immediately afterwards provided Marsch with the chance to lighten the load on his players, though the sound of Whitney Houston blaring over the stadium speakers felt untimely.<\/p>\n
Marsch\u2019s team selection was predictable, though in attack Villarreal\u2019s Tani Oluwaseyi was preferred to the Southampton forward Larin. Oluwaseyi was guilty of spurning another big chance for Canada just after the half-hour, spooning over when presented with a clear sight of goal.<\/p>\n
Canada dominated possession, had more shots and three times as many touches in the opposition box, but had nothing to show for it at the interval. Eust\u00e1quio had spoken about the importance of not being overawed but they suffered from a little stage fright in big moments. \u201cWe don\u2019t want for all the emotions to block us mentally or physically so that we can\u2019t perform,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Canada broadly carried on where they left off, plenty of promising moves fizzling out in the final phase. At the same time there was nothing more Laryea, who plays here for Toronto, could have done when Kolasinac made an extraordinary clearance eight minutes into the second half, intervening to divert his goal-bound shot on to the crossbar before Bosnia cleared the ball.<\/p>\n
Laryea\u2019s sidefoot effort past Nikola Vasilj came at the end of an incisive Canada interchange. If that stung, more pain almost followed but Demirovic fluffed his lines when a deflection put him clear on goal. Bosnia were having to sustain lots of Canada pressure. Dzeko, in a warm-up bib on the sidelines, recognised as much, waving his hands like windmills, encouraging his team-mates to respawn.<\/p>\n
The chances kept coming for Canada. Nikola Katic headed off the line to thwart Oluwaseyi. A few minutes earlier a frustrated Marsch thumped a ball down on the touchline as another goalscoring opportunity eluded them. A triple substitution on the hour saw Marsch replenish his frontline, introducing Promise David, the highly rated Union Saint-Gilloise striker, Jacob Shaffelburg and Ali Ahmed.<\/p>\n
And then came Larin, in place of Oluwaseyi. Kone fed David, who located Larin with a flick. Larin made the finish look easy, swivelling inside the box and volleying past Vasilj. \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World Cup, Group B: Canada 1 (Larin 79) Bosnia & Herzegovina 1 (Lukic 21) \u201cHistory is about to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2956,61,60,6398,112,4018],"class_list":["post-498009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-fifa","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-match-report","tag-sports","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}