10-man Canada overcomes Hirschfeld gaffe, Cuban heat for World Cup qualifying win

For many fans of the Canadian men's soccer team, veteran goalkeeper Lars Hirschfeld's inexplicable handball and subsequent ejection in their World Cup qualifying match against Cuba Friday likely cued up thoughts commonly ascribed to plummeting bowls of petunias: "Oh no, not again." The history of this team, particularly in away CONCACAF matches, tends to be one of more things going wrong than even Murphy would anticipate, and the one-goal lead they managed to take in the 54th minute (somewhat against the run of play) seemed incredibly fragile in a tough road environment with 10 men and minus their starting keeper. Somehow, the Canadians managed to hang on despite tremendous Cuban pressure and eke out a 1-0 victory, though, and that could be incredibly important for their hopes of making it to the 2014 World Cup. There's a long way to go still, but results like this may offer some hope that this qualifying campaign might not see everything fall apart for once. When spoken in regards to the Canadian men's soccer team, that's almost ridiculous optimism.

On balance, a Canadian road win over Cuba shouldn't seem as bizarre as it does. FIFA's world rankings are an imperfect judge of teams' quality, but they're a good starting point, and they have Canada 77th in the world and ninth in CONCACAF, while Cuba's 145th and 22nd respectively (behind such powerhouses as St. Kitts and Nevis and Grenada). There are many more Canadians than Cubans playing in high-quality leagues around the world, and the red-and-white team surely would generally be favoured on paper in most cases. CONCACAF qualifying is its own ridiculous world, though, frequently featuring surfaces and stadiums that wouldn't be suitable for high school competition in many countries (Canadian captain Kevin McKenna called the Cuban field "the worst pitch I've ever played on" earlier this week), and the game being set for 2 p.m. local time in the full heat of the day (32 degrees Celsius at kickoff) didn't help either. Canada did well early on and controlled much of the first half, but when Dwayne de Rosario hit the crossbar in stoppage time, it looked very much like this would be another case of "good job, good effort" without a result.

That wasn't the case, though. Although the Cubans came out flying after the half, it was Canada that got on the scoreboard first, as David Edgar found Olivier Occean with a superb cross in the 54th minute and Occean headed it home in style. However, the other shoe still seemed poised to drop when veteran keeper Hirschfeld made an unconscionable error in the 62nd minute, coming out to play a ball and handling it outside the 18-yard box, earning himself a red card in the process and reducing the Canadians to 10 men. (Hirschfeld later told Sun Media's Kurtis Larson that he intended the ball but it took a bad bounce, forcing him to make a desperate move; that's somewhat understandable, but still incredibly poorly thought-out.) Somehow, though, the Canadians managed to survive the last 30 minutes despite being undermanned, and although it was anything but pretty, they got a much-needed result that's put them in solid shape in Group C.

Of course, this match was largely ignored by many, and there are some understandable reasons why. Going up against the tremendous quality of the first European championship matches was a tough schedule, and it didn't help that Sportsnet only provided a poor-looking standard-definition feed (which may have been thanks to stadium limitations) and had commentators Gerry Dobson and Craig Forrest calling the action off monitors in their studios rather than live. Moreover, this isn't the final stage of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup, and it's not even particularly close to it (the three group winners and three runners-up from this stage will face off in a six-team pool that runs from February through October next year), although Canada's never guaranteed to even make it that far.

Given the Canadian team's long history of disappointments (there have been some good moments, like the 2000 Gold Cup victory, but this team hasn't made it to the World Cup since 1986, before players like Edgar were even born), it's understandable that not everyone's fired up about them yet. Still, it may be just one game, but the resilience and perseverance on display in Friday's match was something remarkably new from Canada, and something that bodes well (especially coming off other strong showings like their 0-0 friendly draw with the U.S. last week) for the future (which starts with a crucial home match against Honduras Tuesday in Toronto, at 7:30 p.m. Eastern on Sportsnet One). Maybe this time, the Canadian team won't end up like the bowl of petunias.