PREVIEW – On Saturday ahead of the second game against Croatia. John Herdman and Stephen Eustáquio met the media to discuss the upcoming game as Canada’s ready for Croatia.
Canada’s Ready for Croatia at the Khalifa International Stadium
Croatian Head Coach Demands Respect
It was a week for the dramatic as the media and tabloids were having a field day around Herdman’s post-match comments that to the point are making this game way more interesting. Zlatko Dalic who earlier said he didn’t mind the comment as they were used for motivation but on Sunday he demanded respect.
“The Croatian team deserves respect from everyone,” Dalic said. “We have proven that by the way, we’ve played and with our conduct at the World Cup and since the very beginning we deserve respect and dignity.” “We respect everyone equally so we expect our opposing team to respect us.”
John Herdman and Stephen Eustáquio as Canada’s Ready for Croatia
“It was an emotional moment,” Herdman said. “I think it’s a learning moment and I was a little bit too honest and I will learn from that one and you keep moving forward.” “We earned respect now we have to go take three points and it’s a do-or-die situation.”
Eustáquio was quick to defend his coach and says that without him Canada would not be on the big stage and his coaching ability led them there.
“He takes out the best of us,” Eustáquio said. “It’s the preparations the details and everything that he takes care of that is just unbelievable and we were at a stage where our worry point was Bermuda with all respect were at a different level because of him and we respect what he does and we trust him and we did everything that he wanted us to do and that’s why we are here and we need to thank him for that.”
The Backstory of John Herdman and his son and the FIFA World Cup Game
"There's real belief built on a foundation." 🙌
John Herdman speaks about the #CANMNT mindset heading into our 2nd match of the @FIFAWorldCup.#WeCAN pic.twitter.com/z8nHMYznMd
— Canada Soccer (@CanadaSoccerEN) November 26, 2022
READ MORE: The 2022 CanMNT World Cup Preview: Looking to Make History
There is a bit of a back story as Herdman’s son, Jay, trained with the team at GNK Dinamo Zagreb so he has made trips to Croatia recently which adds to a very interesting story. On Sunday it will all come down to 90 minutes on the pitch to potentially decide Canada’s faith at the World Cup. There is obviously a lot of faith in the team as coach Herdman said above.
The game is scheduled for 11:00 AM ET on Sunday morning at the Khalifa International Stadium in Al-Rayyan, Qatar. It can be seen on television live in Canada on TSN and CTV while viewers can also watch it in French on RDS.
