Nev Judd: Online and out there

In 2006, players from Canada’s 1986 World Cup team reflected on their exploits in Mexico for a story I wrote in The Province. They were coached by Tony Waiters, who sadly passed away two years ago. Tony would have been thrilled to see the current men’s team qualify for the World Cup for only the second time in this country’s history. Tony was a talented player and coach, and exceptionally generous with his time, especially when it came to football. He moved to the Sunshine Coast in 2016 and spent many hours helping local coaches, including me. On the eve of the FIFA 2022 World Cup kicking off in Qatar, here’s a look back at Tony’s contributions to the sport and to Canada’s first appearance in the men’s tournament, as recalled by the players who were there.

Tony Waiters in his element, coaching Canada in 1983. Photo courtesy Tony Waiters

For Tony Waiters, the 1986 World Cup marked the culmination of a coaching career that’s unparalleled in Canadian soccer. A professional soccer goalie who played for England’s national team in the 1960s, Waiters coached England’s youth team to a European Championship title in 1973 before leading club side Plymouth Argyle to promotion in 1975.

In Canada, he coached the Vancouver Whitecaps to the Soccer Bowl NASL championship in 1979; led Canada’s men to the Olympic quarterfinals in 1984; and oversaw Canada’s qualification to and participation in Mexico ‘86. Waiters wrote numerous books on soccer coaching and developed World of Soccer, a company producing soccer equipment and other resources for coaches and soccer associations.  

Tony Waiters pictured at Roberts Creek Beach in 2016, helping to coach the U18 girls’ rep team.

“Of all the teams at the 1986 World Cup, we were as fit, if not fitter than any of them,” recalled Waiters. “The commitment of the Canadians was incredible. My hope was that we wouldn’t get blown out of the water, that we wouldn’t embarrass ourselves,” said Waiters. “And we didn’t.”

Canada held France 0-0 until European Player of the Year, Jean-Pierre Papin, scored the winner with 10 minutes remaining. (France went on to beat Brazil in the quarterfinals but fell in the semis to West Germany.) Canada went on to lose to Russia and Hungary, both 2-0 defeats.   

Tony Waiters in quotes

On coaching his son’s U13s team after coaching Canada at the FIFA World Cup.

“The parents were more impressed than the kids were.”

On the perils of World Cup qualifying … in Honduras.

“I actually put a ban on the team using the elevator in the hotel. Because during the previous qualification, they’d gone to the same hotel and five of the players got stuck in the elevator. On every floor was an armed guard, which is a bit intimidating.”

… and in Guatemala.

“The fans were marching around the hotel and chanting all night. We went for a morning run to the stadium, which was about a mile from the hotel. The stadium was full three hours before kickoff. We asked someone, what’s going on? And they said, they’re waiting for you.”

… and dealing with “Montezuma’s Revenge” in Mexico.

“When we got eliminated the bottom fell out of our world. When we got back to Vancouver the world fell out of our bottom.”

On coaching.

“I think you’ve got to believe in the players. And make them believe in themselves. You’ve got to encourage players and genuinely encourage them. Believe in them and believe in their potential. You’ve got to make every practice session interesting and fun. People love the game so you‘ve got to take advantage of that. Some coaches get so intense in what they’re doing, they take the fun out of the game.”

• Adapted from Coast Life magazine, Fall 2016

The greatest 79 minutes in Canadian men’s soccer

The following story first appeared in The Province in June 2006.

The narrow players’ tunnel at the Estadio Nou Camp, in Leon, Mexico, is not known for its ambience. In the summer it’s like an oven and soccer players have little choice but to rub shoulders with one another before they take to the pitch.

Yet members of Canada’s 1986 World Cup team have a hard time forgetting that tunnel: It was June 1, Canada’s opponents were France, the reigning European champions and pre-tournament favourites.

“I remember lining up in this dark tunnel next to the French players, and I remember thinking, ‘I know these guys, I watch them on TV every weekend,”‘ says Ian Bridge, who at the time was playing club soccer with Swiss side La Chaux de Fonds.

“Standing there and seeing that feared team… that was, for me, a little overwhelming,” recalls fellow defender David Norman.

Teammate Bob Lenarduzzi recalls looking down a line of French players led by midfield maestro Michel Platini and thinking, “Oh Jesus… “

For Norman at least, that tunnel was the scene of his “single greatest moment” in professional soccer. It might have been the single greatest moment for Canadian soccer itself. The 1986 tournament remains the only World Cup Canada has ever qualified for.

Tony Waiters with national team administrator, Les Wilson, relaxing at the 1986 World Cup. Photo courtesy Tony Waiters

Qualification had been clinched eight months earlier on Sept. 14, 1985, a cold, drizzly day in St. John’s, Nfld. Needing only a point, Canada got goals from Victoria’s George Pakos and Igor Vrablic of Waterloo, Ont. to clinch a dramatic 2-1 win over Honduras. Honduran players braved the cold, wearing tuques and gloves, while most of their travelling fans had mistakenly gone to Saint John, N.B., where they ended up watching the game in bars.

Bridge had to leave the game injured and couldn’t even bear to watch. “I listened to the reaction of the crowd while I was in the showers,” he laughs. “We were up till 2 a.m. having drinks with the mayor of St. John’s. “Qualifying for the World Cup, just knowing that we were going to play among the best teams in the world, that was like winning the World Cup for us.”

Coach Tony Waiters developed the core of a Canadian team that had taken Brazil to a quarter-final penalty shootout in the 1984 Olympics and thrust them into intensive training camps and tours to prepare for the World Cup.

Pitted against France, Hungary (which had beaten Brazil in a World Cup warmup months earlier) and the Soviet Union, Canada had drawn their own Group of Death. But on paper at least, it wasn’t expected to get any tougher than Game 1 versus France.

Paul Dolan, then 20, was given the nod in goal. He recalls enjoying the team’s role of underdog. “We weren’t expected to do anything and France was loaded with talent,” says Dolan. “I just felt that this was a great opportunity and I’m glad I looked at it that way because I felt how much fun it was.”

After his moment of truth in the tunnel, Norman relaxed, too. “When we ran out and got going it became just another game. It was just 11 vs. 11.” Watched by a television audience estimated at over one billion and buoyed by a sellout crowd of 36,000, Canada took the game to France.

“I don’t think they believed that we would play such a high-pressure game at altitude in the heat of the day,” says Bridge, who was marking future European Player of the Year Jean-Pierre Papin. “But we were naive enough to do that. We were an unknown quantity.”

As Canada began creating its own chances, French fans turned on their team with boos and whistles. “To hold the French would have been momentous in soccer, not just Canadian soccer,” says Norman, who still has the game on videotape but has yet to show it to his seven-year-old son. “We could have stunned the soccer world.”

It wasn’t to be. In the 79th minute substitute Yannick Stopyra connected on a long cross into the penalty box, heading the ball across Dolan’s goal to Papin, who finally escaped his marker for a simple tap-in.

“Paul Dolan, who had been brilliant, came out and was going for the cross,” recalls Lenarduzzi. “I assumed he was going to get it and stepped away. He missed it. I should have just headed it out for a corner but it was headed back across for Papin.”

Canada lost its other two games. The Soviet Union, which had thumped Hungary 6-0, took 59 minutes to break down Canada, eventually winning 2-0, the same scoreline Hungary recorded over Canada.

“I don’t have any regrets,” says Dolan. “I played in the World Cup and that was the pinnacle of my career.” Twenty years later, the ’86 team is barely mentioned on the Canadian Soccer Association’s website and players have never had a reunion.

Perhaps it’s about time.