VANCOUVER, B.C. -- The confidence may have been brimming from the Canadian camp in the build-up to Friday night's World Cup qualifier against Mexico, but the stark reality was that getting anything from the match was always going to be a tall order.
And so it proved to be. Two first-half goals set Mexico on their way, and they added a third in the second half for a 3-0 victory in front of a record-breaking 54,798 crowd at BC Place in Vancouver.
It would be hard to honestly say that things could have been much different, but Canada had their chances in the first half, and they were almost immediately punished by Mexican goals.
"I feel that we let ourselves down," midfielder Will Johnson told reporters after the game. "We showed that we weren't as sharp as we needed to be and then also our structure wasn't very good either.
"When you get in front of goal, you've got to score. When the other team gets in front of goal, you've got to make more plays defensively. That obviously is obvious. So we didn't do very well in either [kind of] moment. We lost the big moments of the game and we lost the game."
Junior Hoilett had a couple of gilt-edged chances that he would probably like back, and Cyle Larin and Atiba Hutchinson had one apiece that were squandered.
"I should have done better with the opportunity that I had," Hoilett admitted. "We just have to stay positive. We still have another chance to go back there and rectify our mistakes.
"Mexico have class all round the pitch. They've been on the world stage. They have experience. Canada's growing. We just need to learn from the mistakes we made today. We still have a strong squad. We still believe in ourselves. We're still confident that we'll get through to the next stage."
While Canada matched Mexico's speed and enthusiasm in the early going, the gulf in class between the two sides was clear as the match went on. Working on team chemistry and systems is one thing, but raising the Canadian footballing intellect to a top international level is not an overnight process. It is something, however, that Canadian head coach Benito Floro is keen to work on.
"The real spirit that Mexico exhibited today was very clear," Floro mused after the match. "What matters in this moment is to analyze not only the result, but the performance. We need to extract what is positive because the rest depends on the other team and at this moment, they are better than us.
"For us, it was a good experience this game. Mexico demonstrated that we need to increase our tactical level."
