{"id":38492,"date":"2026-07-09T13:58:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T17:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=38492"},"modified":"2026-07-09T13:58:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T17:58:23","slug":"world-cup-comes-to-a-close-for-canadian-mens-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/world-cup-comes-to-a-close-for-canadian-mens-team\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup comes to a close for Canadian Men\u2019s Team"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All those World Cup Team Canada Watch Parties have been so much fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, there was no joy in Aurora on Saturday afternoon as Team Canada\u2019s quest for a World Cup in men\u2019s soccer ended in Houston not with a bang, but with a whimper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A 3-0 loss to powerhouse Morocco in the Round of 16 marked Team Canada\u2019s deepest progress in the FIFA event and the valiant squad\u2019s performance over five games put men\u2019s soccer on the map.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Red and White finished the tourney 2-2-1\u2014by far its best finish compared to prior forays into the World Cup in 1986 and 2022 when the national team produced records \u201cunblemished by victory\u201d \u2013 0-3 and 0-3.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With a young core and a nervy coach in tow for the next World Cup, there\u2019s much to look forward to for even the most casual of soccer fans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Perhaps the best local story that emerged from the communal experience was watching hundreds of soccer fans in Aurora take great pride in the performance of Alistair Johnston who figured prominently in Team Canada\u2019s success on the pitch as the nomadic national squad meandered through its five matches in Toronto, Vancouver, Los Angeles, and Houston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>By Jim Stewart<br \/>Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n<a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-facebook nolightbox\" data-provider=\"facebook\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newspapers-online.com%2Fauroran%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F38492&amp;t=World%20Cup%20comes%20to%20a%20close%20for%20Canadian%20Men%E2%80%99s%20Team&amp;s=100&amp;p[url]=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newspapers-online.com%2Fauroran%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F38492&amp;p[images][0]=&amp;p[title]=World%20Cup%20comes%20to%20a%20close%20for%20Canadian%20Men%E2%80%99s%20Team\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Facebook\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" 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synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/twitter.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-mail nolightbox\" data-provider=\"mail\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share by email\" href=\"mailto:?subject=World%20Cup%20comes%20to%20a%20close%20for%20Canadian%20Men%E2%80%99s%20Team&amp;body=Like%3F:%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newspapers-online.com%2Fauroran%2Fwp-json%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F38492\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"mail\" title=\"Share by email\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/mail.png\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All those World Cup Team Canada Watch Parties have been so much fun. However, there was no joy in Aurora on Saturday afternoon as Team Canada\u2019s quest for a World Cup in men\u2019s soccer ended in Houston not with a bang, but with a whimper. A 3-0 loss to powerhouse Morocco in the Round of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-a0Q","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-20 05:14:09","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38492"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38493,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38492\/revisions\/38493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}