GTA players set to feature prominently as Canada's FIFA World Cup dream begins
When Greg Spagnoli watches Canada take the field in Qatar for World Cup action Wednesday, he won't just be watching a dream 36 years in the making like most Canadians — he'll be paying close attention to three players he coached when they were teens, now on soccer's biggest stage.
Spagnoli, a teacher at St. Edmund Campion Secondary School in Brampton, once coached midfielder Jonathan Osorio, forward Cyle Larin and winger Tajon Buchanan.
To hear Spagnoli tell it, you could see the seeds of the types of players all three were going to be, even back in high school.
"Tajon was that flashy, charismatic one-[on]-one player who wanted to just break guys down one-[on]-one, Kyle was this clinical goal scorer [who] just has this nose for the net, and John was that kind of command centre, the distribution centre of the team," he said.
"They're just an older version of themselves now, so it's nice to see."
WATCH | High school coach on Team Canada's roots:
Canada's men's team last qualified for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico with a 1-0 victory over Honduras in 1985. That marked the team's lone trip to the soccer showcase, where they lost all three games without scoring a goal.
Now the team is hoping for a much better showing in Qatar, though it will be in tough Wednesday against Belgium, one of the top-ranked teams in the world. Still, Canadian soccer fans can take some solace in Saudi Arabia's massive upset of Argentina Tuesday, and hope for something similar from Canada against Belgium.
Canada will also play Croatia and Morocco as part of the group stage. The top two teams in the group will go to the Round of 16.
Canadian soccer has been on a high with the sixth-ranked Canadian women winning gold at the Tokyo Olympics. Now the men are getting their time to shine in Qatar, while lengthening their runway to the 2026 World Cup, which Canada is co-hosting with the U.S. and Mexico.
WATCH | Brampton's soccer skill shines:
Osorio, Larin and Buchanan will do doubt factor into Canada's performances, and Spagnoli says the school community in Brampton is brimming with pride.
"We're just extremely proud and happy for them. They've worked extremely hard over the last 10 or so years," he said.
And if cheering for Canada itself wasn't enough, fans from the Greater Toronto Area will have lots of local players to support too, with 17 of 25 players having grown up in the region.
Seven grew up in Brampton alone — something attributed, at least in part, to coaching.
