Friday afternoon in Toronto has been almost a decade in the making.
On June 13, 2018 — eight years ago minus one day — the 2026 FIFA World Cup was awarded to Canada, Mexico and the United States.
At that time, the Canadian men's national team hadn't been to a World Cup in 32 years. Jesse Marsch was coach of the New York Red Bulls. Luc de Fougerolles was 12 years old.
The Canadian Premier League was barely more than an idea, still 10 months from kicking a ball.
On Friday, a ball will be kicked at Toronto Stadium, and Canada will be playing on home soil in a men's World Cup.
They take on Bosnia and Herzegovina in a Group B opener that feels remarkably different from Canada's first game against Belgium in Qatar four years ago. This time, a considerable amount of pressure sits on a co-host that still has yet to collect a point at a World Cup.
Bosnia coach Sergej Barbarez stated plainly on Thursday that Canada are the favourites in this match, pointing to his side's 64th position in the FIFA World Rankings as Canada sit 30th. However, Bosnia have proven well able to slay a giant in their road to this World Cup; they famously knocked Italy out of the European play-off on penalties to get here.
They have come to Canada carrying the hopes and dreams of their own nation, and have been truly remarkable representatives along the way of a resilient country that has survived some very dark times in the past 40 years.
Canada, however, know they too represent a nation on the rise in world football. Stephen Eustáquio, who will captain the team on Friday in Alphonso Davies' absence, used his pre-match remarks to the press to implore Canadians to get behind their team in this tournament.
Marsch, now on the precipice of a moment he has been talking about since the day he was hired in 2024, stressed that he prefers his team to embrace the excitement of opening a World Cup on home soil, rather than bow to the pressure.
"If you do this for a living, this is where you want to be, right?" Marsch said. "I came to Canada to be the coach because I like these guys, and I believe they can fit the way I wanted to play, but I came here to lead them in a World Cup. In a home World Cup. I wanted this responsibility. Steph [Eustáquio] wanted to be the captain. What a dream! It's a dream to be the captain of a home nation at a World Cup. Nobody here is afraid of that."
Plenty of tactical nuances could play a role in Friday's game; Canada's press must be relentless in the sweltering heat, and they must cope with Bosnia's physicality in the middle of the park. They'll need stars like Jonathan David to be stars, and they have to shut down the likes of Edin Dzeko (though his fitness remains a question).
More than anything, though, Marsch wants his team to stick to the identity he has meticulously crafted over the past two years, and he wants them to inspire a nation.
"I've felt a real momentum behind this team and behind this moment," he said. "Canada has become more and more multicultural, and the excitement for so many different nations to be here in North America and in Canada, and to be playing with some of the greatest players in the world and some of the greatest coaches, I think that there's real excitement behind what this will be.
"For us as a team, we just want to put our best performances together, stay calm, show our quality, our character, our togetherness. In the toughest moments, we will be at our best; that's our goal."
Even Marsch's most headline-grabbing moments in his MD-1 press conference were words in reverence of his team. He glowed when he spoke about the diversity of backgrounds in this Canada group — and in Canadian soccer more broadly — and spoke about how, no matter where each player has come from, they will feel the power of the moment when they walk out of the tunnel on Friday.
"Every one of these boys is incredibly Canadian, and the pride they have in putting on the jersey, representing the country, hearing the national anthem, you will never see in the U.S.," Marsch said.
"Sometimes we had to beg players to sing the national anthem. These guys sing the national anthem, belt it out at the top of their lungs, because they want to show the country how proud they are to be here, to be Canadians, and to represent what Canada is."
Once the game begins, Canada's World Cup will be fully underway, and the individual moments and points and Group B permutations will take over in importance. In the lead-up to that, it's important to reflect on how long the road to this point has been.
Finally: Marsch was asked to comment on recent reports about the legion of travelling Bosnian fans, who could make up a heavy contingent of the crowd.
"The stadium is going to be red," he asserted. "Not blue."
