The 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup holds a special place in the hearts of Canadian soccer fans.
Apart from an Olympic Gold medal in 1904, it remains the lone triumph on the international stage for Canada.
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Not only was the tournament important for the country and the sport, it was important for the members of the team as well. The squad was in the midst of a personnel turnover, with many veterans nearing retirement and new rookies emerging to take their place.
The championship was the fruits of the labor for years of national team service for Paul Fenwick, Pat Onstad and Craig Forrest – a total of 30 years of international experience between those three alone! Meanwhile, youngsters such as Paul Stalteri, Richard Hastings and a 21-year-old Dwayne De Rosario saw first hand what it meant to represent your country.
Paul Stalteri (Midfielder, 84 national team caps, seven goals): We had a good mix of veteran players with lots of experience and young players who were just trying to crack into the system. You have to take every opportunity to learn from the older players. I did that on a daily basis with my club as well as with the national team.
Davide Xausa (Midfielder, 32 caps, two goals): I was just a young guy at the time, but to see Craig Forrest, who had done so much in the game be so excited was a pretty cool feeling.
Pat Onstad (Goalkeeper, 57 caps): I was an older player. We had some young guys who were not playing, so it was important to make sure those guys were training, taking care of themselves and ready when they got the opportunity.
Elvis Thomas (Striker, 3 caps) to sharenews.com in 2014: There were no cliques and I was readily accepted by the senior players, who were the true leaders. The camaraderie was also great throughout and that helped set the stage for the incredible wave we rode.
Onstad: Our group gelled together; I think that’s one thing about Canadian teams, we get together.
The Canadian Soccer Association had brought in German coach Holger Osieck, who had been an assistant with Canada in the late 70’s, to lead the national team into a new century. In less than a year and a half, the new coach had to get a feel for his squad and name an 18-man roster.
Xausa: He had been pretty active in getting players out to camps and that sort of thing. I probably found out officially a month or so in advance .
Jeff Clarke (Midfielder, 19 caps, one goal): I picked up an injury in November. It was an abdominal tear and I was out for two to three months. Holger had originally dropped me from the squad, which was devastating, but understandable. I rehabbed like crazy over Christmas and returned three weeks sooner than first expected. I put myself back into contention for the team, but wasn’t on the original list. Then Jason Bent and Nick Dasovic both got ankle injuries and had to be dropped from the tournament. I didn’t find out I was going until probably a week before.
Robbie Aristodemo (Defender, six caps): I only got called into the final as I injured my knee in Mexico with the Olympic team and couldn’t go.
Stalteri: I had a good idea I would be a part of the squad heading in.
Thomas: I was in the Cayman Islands trying to secure a teaching position and trying to get a soccer tryout in Europe when I got the call to join the national team.
Onstad: I pretty much knew . At that stage, myself and Craig Forrest were the two goalies. Clearly I wasn’t going to play with Craig’s performances. I obviously wanted to play, but for me, it was the next best thing to be a part of that group.
Carlo Corazzin (Striker, 59 caps, 11 goals): There wasn’t a huge group of players that Holger could draw from. As soon as we qualified, they told us to keep those dates for the Gold Cup open.
Since they were the lowest ranked country in North America (at 81st in the world) Canada would have to playoff against the Caribbean nations of Haiti, Cuba and El Salvador to qualify for the Gold Cup.
Stalteri: A lot of people tend to forget that we had to qualify.
Corazzin: It was the first time we ever had to qualify for . It was like, have we dropped that far that we have to qualify for the Gold Cup? It was a bunch of guys who were determined to show that we were better than our ranking and it was just unfortunate that we had to qualify.
Xausa: I remember playing and there was nobody there. It was a very surreal experience.
Stalteri: It seemed like a friendly game in a neutral venue.
Clarke: That’s where I got hurt. I tore my ab that time around.
Canada dispatched their lower-level competition quite easily, only dropping points in a scoreless draw to the Cubans. Just making the tournament was a big step in the right direction for the team, since they actually withdrew from the competition two years prior.
Xausa: With a new manager, everyone was trying to prove something. In qualifying, you want to make sure you do enough to establish yourself so you are selected.
Stalteri: We played very well in all three matches and were quite superior.
Once qualified, the Canadians were drawn into Group D, with Costa Rica and South Korea. The Koreans, along with Peru and Colombia, were special ‘invited guests’ for the tournament. From 1996 to 2003, CONCACAF invited other nations from outside the region (Brazil, Ecuador, South Africa, in addition to the teams mentioned above) to participate in the tournament.
In 2000, the tournament was being held in the southern United States, more specifically in the Los Angeles Coliseum, Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego and the Orange Bowl in Miami. Thankfully – for all involved – the competition took place in February, so the temperatures were comfortable.
Clarke: From a Canadian team perspective, really down to two words, Craig Forrest. We got severely out-shot and out-played. Craig put forth the best performance I had ever seen. He made saves that were just unworldly and showed why he was a world class goalkeeper.
Onstad: Korea was pretty good. They were a fast group, certainly speed that we hadn’t seen in a long time. Between the three of us, everyone had their own qualities. It was a pretty evenly matched group.
Corazzin: Every game that I replay in my mind was so tight. I never thought that a team put us on our seats in any of those three games, nor did we put them on their seats. We were tactically even and it was just up to who would take advantage of the half chance that we got.
Xausa: Costa Rica had a very strong side. That was a great game. South Korea was putting a lot of time, effort and money behind their squad because the World Cup was going to be in South Korea. We’d met them a few times before and for whatever reason, we always matched up well with them.
Corazzin: The best goal I scored was probably against Costa Rica. It was an overhead bike to tie it up.
At the end of group play, the group was all level on two points each, with all the teams drawing both their matches. Two of the three nations would be put through to the knockout round. Costa Rica was put through, having scored four goals, but the Canadians and Koreans were in a dead heat.
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Stalteri: There wasn’t much to separate any of the teams in the group and that made it difficult to go through.
Clarke: There was some uncertainty. We were at the Costa Rica-South Korea game and Costa Rica tied it with ten minutes to go. That knotted everybody.
What is the tie breaker you may ask?
Clarke: Everyone was hovering around this media room, trying to figure out what the next tiebreaker was going to be, because they only list five tie breakers. Everyone was still tied, so CONCACAF officials got together and had the unanimous decision to flip a coin.
Yes, in a scene out of Friday Night Lights, it would come down to a literal coin toss. In a tent surrounded by media, executives, and representatives from both teams, a CONCACAF dignitary flipped the coin.
Stalteri: If you have four teams in every group and three games played, you prevent these draws from happening. Back then, when it was three teams, it happened a couple of times.
In 2005, CONCACAF permanently changed the format to a four team per group system.
Corazzin: It was under a little portable tent because it had rained quite hard.
Onstad: Osieck was definitely paranoid a bit about corruption. They wanted to do it behind closed doors and he said “absolutely not.” He wanted to do it in the press tent, in front of all the press and it was probably a good idea. It was a good move by Holger, an experienced one.
Clarke: They asked Holger and the Korean coach to come up to witness it. All the players were pushing, trying to get closer.
Xausa: I do remember the coin toss. We were all standing in the tunnel, waiting.
Onstad: We were all at the back of the room, looking over shoulders.
Corazzin: So we all waited for the officials to come in and both teams were there. All the dignitaries were together up at the front. I remember them flipping it and a lot of us were sitting there thinking ‘knowing our luck…’
A simple thumbs up from coach Osieck let the Canadian squad, who were watching from the rear of the tent, know the coin had fallen in their favor. Wouldn’t it have been terrible if the South Koreans, who were invited to the tournament, ended up knocking out a CONCACAF squad via a coin flip? They were moving on, barely.
Xausa: came bounding out of the room saying that we were in, we were in. For you to see a German coach who was fairly new to all of us reacting like that, it was pretty cool.
Stalteri: It was a matter of luck. We were fortunate enough to win it and it’s unfortunate for the other country to be out of the tournament like that. For us, we took advantage of it.
Corazzin: Sure enough, Holger called the right name and we were through. We were all elated. All the Canadian players, coaches and staff were jumping for joy. We finally made it through and it had been a long road to that stage.
Clarke: I couldn’t see the actual toss, because there was so much commotion, but we saw Holger put his thumb up, meaning that we won. We all cheered and it was a pretty awesome feeling.
Onstad: By that stage, it felt like we had a little bit of destiny in our hands.
Xausa: From that point forward, it felt kind of like a lottery in a sense – everything we were going to do from that point forward was a bonus. It gives you a boost when you come through on something like that, it gets a smile on your face.
Clarke: It was very spontaneous. No one knew what the heck was going on, and then we were all cheering like we had just won a game. Incredible.
Xausa: Going on from that coin toss, it was just getting better and better. We kept enjoying every moment of it.
Next: Cuban Striker Defects Before Gold Cup Opener
While the coin toss ended up in Canada’s favor, their draw for the knockout round did not. They would be matched up with the Group C winners and three-time defending tournament champions, Mexico. At the time, the Mexicans were ranked tenth in the world and the match-up was a mismatch on paper. In the locker room though, it was anything but.
Xausa: We were young players and sometimes age is ignorance. None of us went into that game not expecting to get a result.
Corazzin: was something we wanted because we knew for whatever reason, we weren’t ranked where we felt we should be and this was our real chance to show everybody that this team we have here in Canada can hang in there.
Stalteri: Whenever we played Mexico in a neutral venue or at home, we did relatively well against them. Going into the game, we were massive underdogs. We had nothing to lose and went in there with that attitude.
Onstad: We played them in qualifying, we’ve played them in Gold Cup, so it’s not like there were a ton of secrets.
Xausa: The challenge with Canada is that we’re never the deepest team in the world. You look at a Mexican team and they can go one hundred players deep and still be competitive, while we can’t do that. I was forced to play as a wing midfielder, instead of my natural striker position.
Clarke: We were very respectful to some of their players. We really just wanted to keep things close for the Canadian fans. It was being broadcast on TSN and we wanted to show, hey, we can play with these guys. There were thousands of fans outside and it was very intimidating. It was full of Mexican fans.
Stalteri: We had our tactical game plan set up and knew exactly how we were going to play them. Craig Forrest was a wall for us.
Corazzin: We had Osieck who set us up tactically, but we had Bruce Twamley who had scouted Mexico over a number of years. He knew exactly where their strength was and he told us everything to be aware of.
Clarke: We didn’t want the game to open up, because as soon as it did, they would just crush us.
Next: 2015 Gold Cup Team Preview: Mexico
The match ended in a one-all draw and a 30 minute extra time period was needed. Back in 2000, the sudden death, Golden Goal rule was in effect.
Clarke: Some of the odds makers were putting them four goals better than us, so the fact that after 30 minutes, after 40 minutes, after half-time, it was still a close game, there was a lot of nervousness built up.
Xausa: We played to our strengths. We had Carlo up front who was a great, in form target man. It was an all-around team performance.
Clarke: You go into the Golden Goal setting and we were preparing for penalties and all of a sudden, boom.
Only two minutes into extra time, Martin Nash took advantage of a Canadian counter attack and put unheralded left-back Richard Hastings through on goal.
Stalteri: I was on the pitch. Richard Hastings made a good run and before you knew it, he was free. He had a great left foot, got a hold of it and before you knew it, he had his shirt off.
Clarke: I was centre of the field, chasing him down the field. I think I played the ball to Nash, who played the ball to Rich. As soon as he hit that ball, I knew it stood a chance of going in and I was one of the first ones that grabbed him. I’ll never forget that.
Corazzin: There was a corner we were defending and I was the lone guy left advanced. It was cleared to me and I kept possession. I played to Martin Nash, who then played it through to Hastings on the counter, so I was right in there.
Onstad: I was on the bench. As he broke in, you could tell there was an opportunity. Everyone was up on their feet. I used to be quick back then, so I was one of the first guys on the field to tackle him.
Stalteri: Richie came through with a great goal and gave us all the momentum in that world after that.
Xausa: The way Richie scored that goal was a dream come true. I had come off five or ten minutes earlier. I was standing on the sidelines with the guys in a bit of disbelief. Richard was not known for scoring goals. I was just a young guy at the time, but to see Craig Forrest, who had done so much in the game be so excited was a pretty cool feeling.
Clarke: I don’t know if I’ll ever feel such a shock, a good shock, again.
Corazzin: Was there ever a better moment? I don’t know.
After the dream that was the upset of Mexico, Canada was slated to play Trinidad and Tobago in the semi-finals. Mark Watson scored the lone goal of the match and Canada came away with a 1-0 victory, but perhaps didn’t deserve to.
Stalteri: We probably played our worst game in the tournament against Trinidad. Forrest; I don’t know how many point blank saves he had to make to help us to that win, because we were not at our best in that game. We were coming off a high against Mexico and I thought we struggled. At any moment they could have scored. We got through that and those are signs that there’s something special going on.
Off to the final Canada went. Their opponent would be another invited guest – Colombia. In 2000, Los Cafeteros were a team on the raise. They had ascended from the 34th team in the world in 1998 to 15th at the start of the Gold Cup. By 2001, they would be the 5th best team in the world.
Stalteri: We’re in the final playing Colombia now and – not to say the same thing – we have nothing to lose. What an opportunity it was for us to win the a major trophy for Canada.
Clarke: We kind of captured lightning in a bottle. We were getting all these media requests because it was on TSN again. It was a big deal. We went into that game way more confident than we did the Mexico game. Once you get into finals, anything can happen. Some of the leaders like Peschi and Forrest kept the locker room really relaxed. Our staff were more nervous than the players! What was the worst that could happen?
Canada came away victorious. Captain Jason De Vos headed home a corner at the back post and Carlo Corazzin scored a penalty to put the match out of reach.
Corazzin: We knew we had already won the CONCACAF because Colombia was an invited team. It was like the pressure was taken off and we just went and played freely. Tactically, that was the best game we played in the tournament – it all came together.
Xausa: I dislocated my shoulder in the game against Trinidad. I had a great view of that game. Looking back on that now, it was one of the great performances a Canadian team put together.
Stalteri: That was our best game of the tournament, without a doubt. When you look at that final, we were definitely the better team on the day. We stunned Colombia and I don’t think they were ready for that final. During the game, you got the sense that this could really happen for us.
Clarke: We were protecting a lead the whole game, then we score a second with 15-20 to go. We kind of felt it coming.
The Canadians swept the awards – Corazzin won the scoring championship with four goals, Forrest was voted Most Valuable Player, Hastings was the Rookie of the Tournament and De Vos won the Fair Play Award. In addition, Corazzin, Forrest and De Vos were selected to the tournament’s Best XI.
Corazzin: Was it the best form of my career? I would say yes
Xausa: Craig Forrest had the best performance of his life in that tournament, which carried us a long way. A lot of guys performed at a level that they probably haven’t again. It gave us the belief that we could compete at the highest level.
Onstad: Craig makes a penalty save against Trinidad, a penalty save against Colombia and it was just one of those things where everyone believed we had an opportunity to win the whole thing once we got past Mexico.
Corazzin: Craig Forrest was the MVP of the tournament for good reason. For all Canadian teams, if you don’t have a good goaltender, you’re probably not going far.
Stalteri: It was three and a half weeks of hard work and pressure and it all came to an end in a great moment for us.
Clarke: We didn’t want that feeling to come to an end and we were very happy for all the Canadian fans who travelled down. It was pretty awesome flying back and some of the guys that flew into Pearson said that there were hundreds of people there.
The 2000 Gold Cup is without a doubt the biggest accomplishment in recent memory by a Canadian soccer team, at the club or national level. What do the players think their performances meant for the sport in Canada?
Clarke: It showed that, on any given day – even on a national level – anything can happen in the match. Hopefully it showed some young kids that, whether it be the U.S. or Brazil or Mexico, Canadians can, on the day, compete.
Xausa: To be fair, it didn’t do as much as it should have. We won a tournament that is the equivalent of the Euro Championship. The CSA wasn’t in a position at that time to take advantage of it. Leadership at the time wasn’t that good.
Onstad: I’ve read enough articles recently that make it seem less than it felt like, but at the time, it was good for that group of players. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t ride the momentum.
Clarke: It is a nice legacy seeing some of the younger players coming into the national team, saying “I remember where I was sitting when you guys won.”
Stalteri: It’s a major trophy that Canada has. At that time, we were thinking many more to come. It’s only us, the U.S. and Mexico who have won it, so it shows you just how difficult it is to win it.
Xausa: You should ask the players on the team now what it meant. I bet you half of them don’t even know, which is kind of sad.
Corazzin: When you think about all the stars aligning, it was phenomenal how it all came together.
It was truly a perfect storm for the Canucks.
Since the 2000 championship, Canada has made it to the semi-finals twice (2002 and 2007). The national team hasn’t progressed beyond the group stage or scored a goal at the competition since 2009.
Richard Hastings never scored another international goal.
The Golden Goal was removed from the Laws of the Game following the 2004 Euro Cup.
As of the end of the 2015 Gold Cup, the Canadian senior men’s national team has never again beaten the Mexican national team.
Special thanks to: Chantal (Velofix Group of Companies), Tim Miller and Ryan Schwepfinger (Columbus Crew Communications Dept.), Richard Scott (Canadian Soccer Association) and all the players who made themselves available to contribute to this article.