Canada opened its account in Qatar with a memorable performance against group favourites Belgium, a match marred by two costly errors, a missed penalty and a goal conceded in transition, denying John Herdman’s men a better fate, which most observers agreed they deserved.

But in restrospect, that opening match may have left us all with a false hope, given the results that followed for Canada and the fact that Belgium, the world’s second ranked nation, crashed out of the group stage.

While we can point to a lot of positives in Canada’s performances across the three matches, from the individual versatility of many of the players to the team’s flexibility in shifting and adapting formations, there were a number of negatives that ultimately spelled the squad’s downfall.

One of the key flaws was Herdman’s inability to define Alphonso Davies’ best role. Over the course of the tournament, Davies started each of the three games in a different position. At his club, Bayern Munich, Davies has become recognized as one of the best left sided wingbacks in world football. That’s where he played in Canada’s opening match against Belgium.

In the second round match against Croatia, however, he started on the front line and, despite scoring Canada’s first ever World Cup goal in the opening 68 seconds, his effectiveness thereafter was nullified by an attentive Croatian backline.

In match number three against Morocco, Davies was deployed as a right wingback, a position he’s largely unfamiliar with and it showed in his subpar performance. I understand Herdman’s desire to give his best player something of a free role, particularly when the team is in possession, but the result was Davies never really established himself as the type of attacking threat he often displays at club level.

Another critical mistake was Canada’s tendency to play a high defensive line, a posture that led directly to the lone Belgian goal and Morocco’s second and, eventual, game winning tally. While Canada’s central defensive tandem is undoubtedly athletic and well-conditioned, lack of pace was clearly an issue in those circumstances. At the World Cup level, the margin for error is fine and the risks of deploying aggressive defensive tactics, while commendable, are high.

As much as we will analyze the team’s shortcomings at this World Cup, there were a number of individual performances that deserve to be highlighted. For one, Alistair Johnston proved on this stage he can be a top level central or right sided defender. His play throughout the tournament was rock solid and consistent, he tracked back on many occasions to win balls and intervened often with strong but well-timed tackles. And on the offensive side, his crossing ability is world class. It’s no surprise then that we learned about Celtic’s interest in the player and I have no doubt he can perform and thrive at the Scottish Premiership level.

While he was limited to only two appearances, Stephen Eustaquio showed his quality and reliability as a deep lying midfielder, displaying the calmness and intelligence he is known for. His absence during the Morocco game was notable in that his opposite number, Amrabat, was such an influential figure in the play of the North Africans.

In post game interviews after the final match, many of the Canadian players cited a common theme – a lack of consistency across the three group stage games. During the qualifying campaign, consistency was Canada’s most noteworthy characteristic. In the Octagonal phase in particular, they were a solid team for 90 minutes, game in and game out, with few lapses. That consistency was less evident in Qatar, with Canada playing well across 60 minutes against Belgium, only the first 30 minutes vs Croatia and certainly the last 30 minutes vs Morocco.

John Herdman spoke of lessons, or “learnings” in his parlance, the team can take from this experience in Qatar and, no doubt, those learnings will be applied to the process as the men’s program looks ahead to an exciting new quadrennial that will culminate with Canada returning to the world stage as co-hosts in 2026.