Cyle Larin’s late goal nets Canada historic point after 1-1 draw with Bosnia-Herzegovina

A little more than 90 minutes before Canada’s men kicked off their World Cup opener against Bosnia-Herzegovina, they walked out onto the Toronto Stadium pitch for the first time, looking sharp in their double-breasted suits and dress shoes. They found friends and family in the stands and waved from their places in the sun.

One of Liam Millar’s daughters held up a hand-painted sign: We Love You Daddy.

A few steps away, Luc de Fougerolles, wearing headphones, had already taken off his jacket, stripped down to his shirt sleeves. The 20-year-old stood in the box that he was about to defend, imagining the game of his dreams unfolding in front of him. He stamped at the grass with his feet, desperate to get down to his mean business, a young bull in the chute.

Canada’s men played with love. They played with menace. They played with their whole hearts, and they came back to draw the most important game in their history, 1-1. It was their first point at a men’s World Cup, and if that didn’t make their day unforgettable enough, they did it at home, in front of a crowd filled with faces they knew and people they could name.

Cyle Larin, who had come on only two minutes earlier, scored the equalizer in the 78th minute in front of 43,002 mostly Canadian fans. If they had added a roof during Toronto Stadium’s expansion, it wouldn’t have survived.

Head coach Jesse Marsch made a huge pre-game call and dropped Larin, the 31-year-old veteran striker, for Tani Oluwaseyi, who had seemingly ceded his starting spot. Oluwaseyi led his team out for warmups, and just before he did, he stood in the tunnel with a slight smile on his face, like he was in on a secret.

But there was no secret: Marsch had decided to go for his youngest, fastest 11. He had decided to go for the throat.

It looked as though his venom might pay off until Bosnia-Herzegovina scored in the 21st minute, from a free kick deep in Canadian territory, earned after a rare moment of pressure. Richie Laryea, playing in place of an injured Alphonso Davies, committed the foul. A ball threaded into the box was flicked on to Jovo Lukić, who couldn’t have missed from inches out.

That came only minutes after Jonathan David failed to convert a glorious chance, when he found the ball and open space maybe a yard from the penalty spot. He half-scuffed a left-footed shot, saved easily by Nikola Vasilj in the Bosnian goal.

When the halftime whistle blew, Canada led in every statistical category except the one that matters most.

The margins became even finer early in the second half, when Laryea seemed poised to score on his own slippery attempt. Instead, a charging Vasilj got a piece of the ball, which deflected off a trailing defender, before it finally bounced off the bar and out.

Chance after chance went wanting, but that was perhaps the most stomach-sick moment on a day that had felt as though it might end in a more inevitable-seeming celebration.

It finally came when Larin scored his long chance after a terrific run from Koné and a short feed from Promise David, another substitute.

It was a spectacular moment — and essential, too.

Had Canada failed to equalize, it would have needed to beat Qatar in its next game, on June 18 in Vancouver, to keep any hope of advancing to the knockout rounds. Instead, a win in that game will guarantee Canada’s men will advance for the first time, even absent a result in its final group-stage game against Switzerland on June 24.

Before Friday’s game, Sergej Barbarez, Bosnia-Herzegovina’s head coach, had talked about his team’s formidable resolve. “When you give your heart, and you put your heart into it, it’s always going to be fierce,” he said when he was asked what he expected from his ruthless collection of giants.

“But we shouldn’t underestimate Canadian hearts,” he said.

He was right. Cyle Larin’s in particular.