Having beaten the World Cup host country, Canada can go on with renewed optimism. Since 2018, the Canadians hadn't played on a foreign continent or against anybody from outside CONCACAF.
As the World Cup drew near, everyone was understandably worried about how John Herdman's squad would do against teams they hadn't seen before. The Reds' international friendlies against Qatar on Friday in Vienna, Austria, served as their first real test, and they came out on top.
Canada sailed to a 2-0 win on the strength of two first-half goals. In the fourth minute, Cyle Larin opened the score and Jonathan David extended the advantage nine minutes later. David, who has been on fire for Lille at the club level, carried that success over to his national squad, where he quickly pounced on a loose ball after a long run of brilliant play by his teammates.
Watch: The reason why Jonathan David hid Nike emblem on Canada jersey
After scoring the second goal for Canada, Jonathan David went on to cover the Nike emblem on his jersey with his right hand, prompting a unanimous reaction from the crowd. Recent online discussion has focused on the fact that the Canadian national soccer team has yet to reveal a new shirt for the World Cup.
There has been a lot of hubbub over the discontentment among John Herdman's team due to the lack of uniform. In fact, they are not thrilled about being the only team in the 2022 World Cup in November that won't be wearing fresh new jerseys.
Since Nike had previously declined to provide Canada with a new World Cup uniform, the team has been forced to resort to this deception in order to protect its image. As this is the first time since 1986 that Canada has qualified for international soccer's showcase event, several of the players believe that their uniform provider should do something special to commemorate the occasion.
Undoubtedly, David is one of the several athletes that feel this way. For the Canucks, this is an unpalatable prospect. However, given that they just qualified for the tournament in March of this year, it's reasonable to believe that their gear producer Nike ran out of time to design new kits.
