The wait is over! For the first time time since 1986, Canada's men's national soccer team is going to the World Cup.
The Canadians booked their spot for Qatar 2022 on Sunday following their match against Jamaica at Toronto's BMO Field on Matchday 13 of CONCACAF's final round of World Cup qualification. John Herdman's squad started the current three-match window atop the eight-team group, which includes perennial World Cup participants Mexico and the United States, along with Costa Rica, Panama, Jamaica, Honduras and El Salvador.
Sunday's result sees the Canadians become the first CONCACAF nation to clinch a berth for Qatar, with a minimum of two more still to join them.
Canada's qualification ends a 36-year wait for the country's return to soccer's biggest stage, after a goalless group-stage exit at Mexico 1986. Only one player on the current side, 39-year-old midfielder Atiba Hutchinson, was alive the last time Canada took part in the quadrennial tournament.
If the ending of the near-four decade drought wasn't a big enough story, the manner in which the Canadians qualified certainly is. Herdman's side didn't merely squeak through the qualification process, it dominated nearly every step of the way. Before the current round, the Canucks stormed through two previous rounds with a 6-0-0 record and 31 goals scored (and just one goal allowed). They followed that up with seven wins and four draws through the first 11 matches of the current final qualification round before finally losing in Costa Rica, 1-0, on Thursday.
Canada closes out its qualifying schedule in Panama on March 30, and on April 1 the team will learn its Qatar 2022 opponents in the World Cup draw.