How can one forget the Canadian excitement after the victory over Jamaica that secured promotion to the World Cup for the first time since 1986?
How can one forget the happiness, the tears, the celebrations and the feeling that the hard days are over and now the beginning of a new era?
How can one forget such a big thing that happened just three months ago?
It turns out that when it comes to the Canada national football team - it is possible.
Instead of preparing for the meetings with Belgium, Morocco and Croatia at the end of the year in Qatar, today the Canadians are dealing with accusations, strikes, declarations, disagreement, public struggles and more.
The latest incident in the chaos surrounding the team took place earlier this week.
Canada was scheduled to host Panama in Vancouver for an important pre-World Cup qualifier in Qatar, but less than two hours before the opening whistle and when fans are already near the stadium the announcement was made to cancel the match.
The ambiguity was so great that some fans did not receive the news and only understood it when they found the entrance gates locked.
There were no security personnel nearby to explain what happened and what to do, so entire families folded their gear and returned home without seeing football.
Canada fans wait outside the stadium before the announcement of the cancellation of the game against Panama,
The big question is of course why the game was canceled?
Well, the players are the ones who did not agree to play due to the lack of economic transparency vis-à-vis the local association.
Those players, who have also reportedly been boycotting training recently, released a joint statement about two hours before the opening whistle that clarifies why they are behaving the way they are behaving.
In a letter opened with the words DEAR CANADA they write there: "Despite the great success of the men's and women's teams we see no change on the part of the association. Where is our money? We want to work together with the association but understand it does not respect us and jeopardizes our chances to improve and advance."
According to the players, the association rejected the renewal of the contracts for no reason and when it did, it acted unprofessionally and did not provide a proper response.
"For these reasons we are not ready to play against Panama," it was written, "it's time to wake up to save the future of Canadian football."
Later in the letter, the players added their demands ranging from transparency, an external team that will maximize sponsorship profits, etc., complete equality between the men's team and the very successful women's team, bringing past players into the system and receiving the promised bonuses for qualifying for the World Cup in Qatar.
Association President Nick Bontis.
Constraints or excuses ?, Photo: AP
As mentioned, the cancellation of the game against Panama is the latest in a series of shocking events that have occurred since the team obtained the ticket to Qatar.
For example, when at the end of the game against Jamaica, former players of the team were invited to a guard of honor, but the association did not handle the ceremony properly and many former players went home and made the event a disgrace.
The association then tried to set up a warm-up game against Tunisia that for some reason did not materialize, so instead set up a warm-up game against Iran.
But very soon a public protest arose following the identity of the rival, so much so that even Prime Minister Jason Trudeau intervened;
"It's a very bad idea to invite the Iranian national team to play here in Canada" he said as known the date of the game;
"The association will have to give a lot of explanations on this matter."
There were no real explanations, but a cancellation.
After all the tickets for the game had been sold, the association announced that it would not take place, and in its place the game against Panama would be held ... which was also canceled.
Canada fans wait outside the stadium before the announcement of the cancellation of the game against Panama, Photo: AP
All these events managed to forget the recent success and undermine the tremendous achievement set by the team just a few months ago.
The happiness and hope that were then were replaced by nerves and worry.
The future, which seemed rosy, became very murky.
"We are very disappointed with the players' decision not to play against Panama," Bontis said this week. At the same time, he apologized to the fans who came to the game, saying that the association is working with the players on an attempt to find a fair and suitable solution for everyone.
Although the association tried to provide answers, the content was so unconvincing that it raised more questions.
The main one is what to do now that there are five months left for the World Cup and the team is not playing or training?
This weekend Canada is expected to play against Curacao in the League of Nations of North and Central America, and it is still unclear whether it will be played or not.
Canada's women's team has meanwhile issued its own statement on the road to gender equality, and all this is happening at the same time as neighboring USA has signed an equality agreement for women's and men's teams. Meanwhile, the players have promised to return to training in the coming days. In the World Cup once again, and now that she has finally succeeded she throws in the bin a very significant part of the preparation attacks.
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
If you found an error in the article, we'll be happy for you to share it with us