A one-off showdown against the United States, with the winner earning a spot in a FIFA tournament and the loser heading home.
Chances like this don't come along very often.
But that's what the Canadian men's U20 squad will be facing on Tuesday night, with a berth in Turkey 2013 on the line in their match against our cross-border rivals. Canada rebounded from a 2-1 loss to Cuba to open the qualifying tournament with a 5-1 drubbing of Nicaragua on Friday, while the Yanks posted one-goal victories against Haiti and Costa Rica to get here. But none of those results matter at this point.
"At the end of the day it's a one-off game," head coach Nick Dasovic said Monday. "It's just about winning your battles and being ready to accept the challenge -- and it's a great challenge for the boys."
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The Canadians will come into the game in relatively high spirits after thumping a hopeless 10-man Nicaraguan squad and gaining valuable confidence in the process. But Dasovic knows the risks of getting carried away with youthful exuberance.
"They are young, and with social media everywhere, they know how big this game is," he said. "We try to calm them down."
Fueling that competitive fire will be the fact that Canada has fared well against the States as of late. The U20 squad posted a 2-1 victory over the U.S. at the Marbella Cup last October, while the U23 side helped doom the Americans' Olympic dreams with a 2-0 victory in last spring's qualifying tournament.
But discipline is the order of the day, says Dasovic -- and not letting the magnitude of the moment overwhelm the realities of what needs to be done.
"It comes down to the discipline of the whole group... understanding their roles and responsibilities," he said. "It's going to be a game where the boys will have to be focused for 90 minutes, 120 minutes, however long it takes.
"It's about being the best on that day -- not any day, but that day."
Canada will be at full strength for the match, with no players out due to injury or yellow card accumulation (the U.S. will be missing one player -- midfielder Mikey Lopez -- due to yellow cards). That leaves Dasovic -- who fielded decidedly different lineups in the matches against Cuba and Nicaragua -- with some decisions to make ahead of the crucial clash.
"We're mulling over the videos," he said. "We haven't decided on our starting XI."
Whoever does make the grade for the Canadian side will have already seen the team go through a miniature roller coaster, with the win against Nicaragua glossing over the disappointment of the sometimes-sloppy loss against the Cubans. Dasovic said that opening loss "shook" not just the players but the coaching staff -- and made them more aware of what was needed to qualify for the U20 World Cup for the first time since 2005 (Canada automatically qualified for the 2007 event as hosts).
"At the end of the day, it's about how you end the tournament, not how you start it."
And while Dasovic says the qualification process is a valuable "learning experience" for players regardless of the final outcome, suffice to say he and his troops will be hoping it's the Americans mulling the end of their tournament come late Tuesday evening.
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