Scott Stinson: Canada wins first-ever World Cup point in draw with Bosnia-Herzegovina

Cyle Larin #9 of Canada celebrates with Promise David #24 after scoring the team's first goal during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Group B match between Canada and Bosnia and Herzegovina at Toronto Stadium on June 12, 2026. Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images

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TORONTO — How close was Canada to a full-blown World Cup crisis?

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About 10 minutes, plus stoppage time.

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Knocked back by a goal from Bosnia-Herzegovina midway through the first half of the first men’s World Cup game ever to be played on Canadian soil, and missing their superstar captain Alphonso Davies through injury, the home side treated a pulsating Toronto Stadium to a master-class in Not Quite and Just About for most of the match.

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Shots ballooned into the crowd, or scuffed into the goalie’s arms, or blocked away from danger by a procession of sturdy, tattooed Bosnians.

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It was starting to look like the absence of Davies, who is in the sport’s terms Canada’s talisman, would prove crucial.

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With apologies to Princess Leia: “Help us, Alphonso Davies, you’re our only hope.”

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And then, mercifully for most of the 44,000 spectators, the dam broke.

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Cyle Larin, thrown on as a late substitute by manager Jesse Marsch, did what his teammates could not, turning in front of goal when the ball came to him and slicing a right-footed shot in the corner of the net.

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The stadium by Toronto’s waterfront, expanded and gussied up for this tournament with truly silly amounts of public money — and temporarily no longer named for a bank — exploded in joy, and it must be said, relief. Ryan Reynolds, Mike Meyers, Will Arnett and all the Canadian royalty in attendance exchanged hugs and high-fives with those around them.

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The disaster of a seventh World Cup loss in seven attempts for the men’s national team was no longer looming quite so large.

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Instead, it became a first-ever World Cup point. A 1-1 draw against a Bosnian side that knocked out no less a giant than Italy to book its spot here is a decent result, and gives the Canadians a real shot of advancing to the knockout rounds if they can take care of business against Qatar in Vancouver next week.

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Perhaps more importantly, it buys time for Davies’ bum leg to heal, in hopes that his elite skill could give them the finishing touch that they lacked for much of Friday evening.

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After eight years of anticipation to finally host a World Cup game, Canada’s hopes took a blow early last month when Davies injured his hamstring in a late-season game with Bayern Munich, his professional club.

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It continued a run of lousy injury luck for the 25-year-old, after the captain tore an ACL in March, 2025, while playing for Canada. That incident led to a brief controversy in which officials from the German giants implied that Canada Soccer had allowed Davies to play when he wasn’t completely fit, but all sides have suggested a degree of cooperation this time around.

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Davies’ importance to the Canadian squad is hard to overstate. As much as the team has taken large strides forward in recent years, and has several men who play professionally in some of the top European leagues, Davies is the headline star. His spectacular solo goal against Panama in Toronto five years ago was one of the signature moments of the 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign that put the Canadian men on the soccer map, and his soaring header against Croatia in Qatar was Canada’s first-ever World Cup goal.