For Canada, the more things change...

"Unbelievable, the way it happens time in and time out for this Canadian team."

No matter how many times you get kicked in the face (figuratively or literally), it never really becomes much easier to deal with. If anything, the whole ordeal develops a sickly sense of familiarity that borders on outright masochism.

So when Canada conceded late to relinquish their lead against an underwhelming Cuban side on Monday night, fans surely were transported back to their unhappy place, overtaken by visions of last summer's Gold Cup, or maybe even the infamous 2007 semifinal that spawned the on-air outburst quoted above.

Yes, such heartbreaking endings are hardly unprecedented for Canadian sides. But then, there's another unlikely turn of events that also has plenty of established precedent over the course of the century thus far.

Getting a result against Mexico.

[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]

Barring some borderline-unfathomable results on Tuesday, Canada's second-place showing earns (term used loosely) them a semifinal date against the powerful Mexicans, with an Olympic berth on the line. Knowing that a victory against Cuba would have seen them avoid Mexico makes the collapse all the more painful, for players and supporters alike.

But if we're going to be dwelling on the immediate past for the sake of self-flagellation, why not also turn to the medium-term past for some inspiration?

• February 20, 2000: Richard Hastings picks the best time possible to score the only goal of his 12-year national-team career, finishing off a Canadian counterattack with the extra-time winner that sends Canada into the Gold Cup semifinals, en route to what would eventually be a tournament victory. Canada 2, Mexico 1 (a.e.t.)
  
• March 12, 2008: An early goal from Will Johnson is enough for Canada to nab a point in Olympic qualifying (hey, the same tournament we're going through right now!) -- and the result ultimately helps knocks Mexico out of contention for a 2008 Olympic spot. Canada 1, Mexico 1
  
• October 15, 2008: Mexico desperately needs points to keep its World Cup qualifying campaign alive in a third-round "group of death", but goals from Ali Gerba and Tomasz Radzinski are enough to keep El Tri sweating for a few more weeks. Canada 2, Mexico 2
  

Canada's improbable and inspiring victory over the U.S. was enough to make people forget that, all along, our path to the London Games was almost certain to go through Mexico. Of course, the presumption was that Canada would likely come second to the U.S., not El Salvador. But then, who could have seen their preposterous, last-second goal on Monday night coming? (Not Sean Johnson, obviously. Zing.)

And hey, y'know who came first in Canada's group four years ago in this same tournament? Guatemala. Yeah, figure that one out. It's CONCACAF, folks. The regional duopoly notwithstanding, there are still plenty of oddball results to be had.

There are tactical analyses to be done over how Canada managed to cough it up against a team that, as has been said, was sitting at a -10 goal differential coming in. But, gee, who knows, maybe the fact that they were playing their third game in five days, with two of their strikers unavailable (Babayele Sodade due to injury, Randy Edwini-Bonsu due to suspension) had something to do with their performance, and inability to put the game away. Just my guess.

Perhaps this article should be more morose. Perhaps we're supposed to be convinced that the result against the U.S. was just an anomaly, and that this is the same-old, same-old Canada -- and besides, look at how the U.S. turned out. We can't get too excited about having beaten them, can we? When we can't even beat the damned Cubans?

But then, this has all been done before. Canada's always going to be an underdog. Canada's always going to somehow churn out surprising results, either on the positive or negative side. Sometimes, those results will only come two days apart. Now, though, we are exactly where we thought we'd be (though we took a more circuitous route than originally imagined).

One game, one chance. Canada vs. Mexico (probably). Are the Mexicans talented? Yep. Will they have plenty of rowdy fans in attendance? Yep. Are they expected to win? Yep. Will the game be an extremely challenging one for the young Canadian squad? Yep.

But surely by now we've all been reminded of the old cliche: They don't play the game on paper. This team has surprised us before; who's to say they won't do it again? Canada's gotten results against Mexico before; who's to say it won't happen again?

And if none of that gives you any consolation, if you're still obsessing over what may have been against Cuba, and worrying about what might be against Mexico, then I offer this one, possibly-redemptive piece of indisputable information.

This Canadian team will get closer to the 2012 Olympic Games than Teal Bunbury did.

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