VANCOUVER \u2014 Stephen Eust\u00e1quio had never felt the way he did after Canada thrashed Qatar 6-0 to win the country’s first-ever men’s World Cup match.<\/p>\n
“Feeling kinda empty,” he told reporters.<\/p>\n
Liam Millar, 72 hours later, said it “was the first time in his life” that he wasn’t beaming after an emphatic win. While the CanMNT picked up a landmark victory, the mood was somber as key midfielder Isma\u00ebl Kon\u00e9 left the match and was rushed to the hospital for surgery to repair a broken leg.<\/p>\n
In that moment, an assistant coach had to pull a distraught Nathan Saliba away from Kon\u00e9, a friend from his teenage years at CF Montr\u00e9al, before thrusting him into his World Cup debut, one in which he scored an incredible free kick. He said he didn’t feel ready for the moment.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Kon\u00e9 rejoined the group after undergoing surgery to repair a broken tibia and fibula under the care of three top surgeons who had rushed to the hospital while watching the match. Stepping out of the van at the hotel, Canada’s squad greeted Kon\u00e9 with hugs and chants, while the 24-year-old midfield maestro held back tears.<\/p>\n
“He was in really good spirits, and he was adamant that he’s going to be fine and that he loves all the support,” head coach Jesse Marsch said after visiting the hospital, having developed a particularly close relationship with Kon\u00e9 outside of national team camps.<\/p>\n
“This group continues to surprise me with how amazing they are, how committed and connected they are to each other. It’s a soothing moment when you feel the pain of the situation and know that everybody here cares and looks after each other so well.”<\/p>\n
As with any tournament, the team marches on. Kon\u00e9, as crucial as he has become to the lineup and locker room, including as the team’s lead DJ, is no longer part of the plans on the field. It’s next man up, as hard as that can be, even with Kon\u00e9 remaining with the team for the rest of the tournament.<\/p>\n
Canada face Switzerland on Wednesday, needing at least a draw to secure first place in Group B and earn hosting rights for the Round of 32 and Round of 16, along with an easier path. A loss likely means a clash with South Korea in front of a heavily pro-Korea crowd in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VANCOUVER \u2014 Stephen Eust\u00e1quio had never felt the way he did after Canada thrashed Qatar 6-0 to win…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98912,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[21537,21539,17,432,31253,8134,31251,25123,36231,3543],"class_list":["post-98911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-a-davies","tag-c-larin","tag-canada","tag-features","tag-i-kone","tag-j-marsch","tag-l-millar","tag-m-bombito","tag-n-saliba","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}