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This was the match where Canada needed to prove their stake into the Quarterfinals was real. After two solid matches against French Guiana and Costa Rica, Les Rouge needed to finish the job and so far their current rivals in Honduras was the next side to face this turnaround with confidence.
After the full ninety minutes was done the side that showed no fear and showed no sense of worry, put their best foot forward and finished second in Group A and advanced to the Quarterfinals for the first time in a long time.
"I feel excited."
— Canada Soccer (@CanadaSoccerEN) July 15, 2017
- Octavio Zambrano praises #CANMNT's spirit after the boys qualified for the quarter-finals. #GoldCup2017 pic.twitter.com/QvqYENGMk6
While there were no goals scored and Honduras was gifted three goals by the CONCACAF Discipline Committee on the whole FlorentMaluda kerfuffle and French Guiana, Los Contracacos showed no terror on the field with the exception of two huge goal line clearances to help Milan Borjan maintain his clean sheet.
Michael Petrasso late in the first half just clears that ball off the line and then late in the second half you saw Steven Vitoria standing in front of the line and deflects the ball away from the line.
But Zambrano kept Alphonso Davies on the bench till he subbed him into the match around the 73rd minute for David Hoilett and tried to use his speed and agility to fake out the Honduran defenders.
But all in all this was a sloppy match at times as both sides continued to create unforced errors and sadly couldn't capitalize on those opportunities and that's how we got to a scoreless draw.
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But once again the biggest word of the night for Canada is simply confidence. This type of confidence hasn't been seen since DwayneDeRosario and company were making Canada a strong side during past Gold Cups and World Cup qualifying runs.
This was all led by Octavio Zambrano who used his own influences from his former days as a head coach of the Los Angeles Galaxy and the MetroStars to put himself into a great position to manage Canada and now with three professional national team matches under his belt, he will await his opponents in the final two group stage match days in the Quarterfinals.
The nation should celebrate this achievement and enjoy the weekend as Canada has made the first step of getting to the mountain and start climbing back up it, their next level is the Quarterfinals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup.