Herdman ruffles Croatian feathers

Maybe you didn’t expect the Canadian men’s soccer team to become Croatian tabloid fodder.

Maybe you didn’t expect a mockup of a naked John Herdman with upside-down maple leaves over his mouth and a much smaller one over his, er, nether regions.

But this is Canada at the World Cup, it seems. All kinds of things can happen.

And ordinarily you might worry, right? Herdman delivered his emotional, giant-testicles-gesturing post-match speech after Canada roundly outplayed Belgium and lost 1-0 on Wednesday, and then went on TV and said “we’re off to eff Croatia” when they meet on Sunday. That isn’t something the big European or global power managers say, as a rule, and the Croatian papers seem to have had a field day.

And the traditional thinking is that this slight might wake up a Croatian team that looked slightly sleepy — or slow — in its Group F-opening draw against Morocco. Croatians are serious people, when you insult them. Which Herdman did. But maybe this is Canada now. “Look, I think there hadn’t been anything anyways. It’s still a massive game for us,” said Canadian defender Alistair Johnston on a day when he agreed to move from Major League Soccer to Celtic in the Scottish Premiership.

“We know if you don’t pick up points in your first game … realistically, you need to try and get three if you want to give yourself a genuine chance.

“We know that our backs are up against the wall in this game no matter what, and we don’t mind if it gets built up a little bit in the media. There’s a little bit of tabloid fever. I think it’s a little bit of fun, gets a little more excitement around the matchup not just from Canada and Croatia, but from other countries as well.”

He is correct. You could maybe argue that Herdman should have been more professional, more genteel. You can argue that since Canada needs to win this match, Croatia didn’t need any extra spark. Johnston talked about Croatia’s intelligence with Luka Modric in midfield, how tactically fluid they can be, and how Canada believes it can be tactically fluid in return. Croatia’s generation is older, but it was runner-up in the 2018 World Cup. This is a serious group.

So will bulletin-board material motivate the Croats more than, say, watching the Canadians generate 16 shot attempts inside the box as they bullied Belgium? Odds are Croatia knows what Canada is now. And Canada does, too.

“We’re not afraid of anybody,” said Tajon Buchanan. “We’ve shown that we can compete now.”

“This is a team that finished runners-up in the last World Cup; it’s an unbelievably talented group,” said Johnston.

“They don’t need any extra motivation. I bet they’re looking at it like, OK, you know, who’s this team that we probably never heard of until a couple months ago, coming in here and, you know, talking a big game?

“But we believe in ourselves. We believe that we can back it up. And you know, no matter what’s said, no matter what pictures are posted in tabloids, it’s all going to come down to what happens in those 90 minutes in the field. And we understand that, and we feel really good about that.”

This is Canada now, after one game in the big leagues: unafraid, unbowed, maybe even impolite, because they can be. Herdman spent four years building this team to peak against Belgium, and they delivered everything but the win. Now it’s Croatia, and another mountain. And it won’t be the Croatian tabloids that decide it.