Now the hard part begins, this fall they will begin the "tough" part of their path to Russia. The third round of Concacaf World Cup Qualifier's is a home-away series versus a team like Grenada,Antigua and Barbados level, the fourth round of qualification is a round robin against some teams that are barely better then Dominica, but mostly with teams of the Guatemala, Honduras and Jamaica type of level and can be dangerous for the new "young" Canadian program.
It will be interesting to see which nations will be in Canada's group, but regardless of the opponents, the true new identity of the Canadian Men National team will be forge during that third round and to have a chance to reach the Hex, Canada will need that new offensive flair it showed last night!
Now on to the Women. With their win of Group A, Canada has a chance to face a favorable opponent in the round of 16, but to have a legitimate chance to reach the quarters or to even make it further in the tournament, they desperately need more goals. Yes, it is a cliché, to win you need to score more goals then your opponent, but the fact that Canada has scored two goals in three games, one on penalty by Sinclair, is truly alarming. They haven't been able to generate consistent quality opportunities on goal during their group stage games and now with the Sophie Schmidt injury (she is expected to play but what form will she be in) the offensive part of the beautiful games is still a struggle for the Canadian Women.
With a slower Sinclair and a field of opposition never seen before at the Women World Cup stage, Canada will need either a shift of mentality and a go forward attitude to finally hit the back of the net consistently or just a pure miracle moment like Schmidt's goal, against England in their last pre-tournament game, if they want to move past the round of 16.
Defining moments to come...