Playing against vastly more experienced teams, Canada stunned the soccer world by advancing to the final eight at the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship in the United Arab Emirates after beating Burkina Faso 1-0 Monday in the round-of-16.
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- Canada advances to quarter-finals
Canada was instantly labelled as world-beaters, capable of holding its own against soccer's elite. Dreams of lifting the championship trophy quickly entered the young Canadians' minds.
Striker Iain Hume sits on the ground next to teammate Sita-Tady Mantondo, after Canada lost against Spain during the quarter-finals of the U-20 World Soccer Championship on Friday. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
However, the dream was shattered in the cruellest of fashions on Friday by a Spanish team littered with stars who play for some of the biggest clubs in La Liga.
Spain beat Canada 2-1 in overtime in its quarter-final match to send coach Dale Mitchell's brave team packing.
Substitute forward Javier Arizmendi, who plays for Atletico Madrid, broke the hearts of Team Canada, scoring the "golden goal" in the 95th minute after collecting a loose ball in Canada's penalty box and slipping it past goalkeeper Alim Karim.
"First of all, we are really proud that they've come this far," Mitchell said after the game.
"The kids themselves are a bit disappointed because there was a good opportunity to go to the semifinal. Even though I don't think that we played our best game of the tournament tonight. In the first half we were a little shaky."
Canada went down 1-0 when Spanish midfielder Andres Iniesta, who plays for FC Barcelona, scored in the 35th minute.
Canada equalized in the 52nd minute through striker Iain Hume, who blasted a brilliant shot from 25 yards out into the corner of the net. The goal was his third of the tournament.
Spain was reduced to 10 men after midfielder Victor Vitolo picked up his second yellow card of the game in the 65th minute. But Canada failed to capitalize with the man advantage, hitting the crossbar on one occasion and firing shots that just whispered by the post.
"Iain (Hume) got us back in the game with a great goal and then they had a man sent off and it looked like things were starting to swing our way," said Mitchell. "But against the 10 men, we didn't spread them out and keep the ball as well as could have done."
Canada's failure to put the game away paved the way for Arizmendi's game-winning goal.
After Canadian defender Andres Arango failed to clear the ball on a long free kick, Arizmendi took advantage of the defensive error, beating two other Canadian defenders before poking a left-footed shot past Alim.
"At the end of the day, it seemed like Spain resorts to playing two big guys up front and playing long balls into your box," Mitchell said. "In that particular case, we didn't deal with it well enough to clear it and it ended up in our net."
Spain will now face Colombia in Monday's semifinal after the South Americans edged the United Arab Emirates 1-0 in their quarter-final Friday.
Prior to this year, Canada had only progressed beyond the opening group stage once in five previous World Youth Championship appearances (1979, 1985, 1987, 1997 and 2001). Canada advanced to the round-of-16 at the 1997 tournament in Malaysia when the team was knocked out by Spain.
Spain won the tournament in 1999 in Nigeria.
The soccer equivalent of the world junior hockey championship, FIFA's World Youth Championship has launched the careers of such soccer legends as Argentina's Maradona, Holland's Marco Van Basten, Portuguese star Luis Figo and English sensation Michael Owen, to name a few.
with files from CP Online
