Eustaquio proud despite Canada’s historic World Cup run ends against Morocco

Stephen Eustaquio left Canada’s 3-0 loss to Morocco in Houston proud of a run that carried the men’s national team farther than it had ever gone at a World Cup. Canada was eliminated in the Round of 16 on July 4, 2026, but the defeat did not erase the landmark that had already been set.

Eustaquio had become the face of that breakthrough a week earlier in Los Angeles, where he scored the winning goal in the second minute of stoppage time in a 1-0 victory over South Africa on June 28. After that last-gasp finish, he said, “I felt that everybody shot with me.” The goal sent Canada into the knockout stage for the first time in a men’s World Cup and set off celebrations among roughly 25,000 Canadian fans in the stadium.

The scale of the moment mattered because Canada had reached the tournament only three times before 2026, in 1986, 2022 and 2026, and had never previously advanced beyond the group stage. Even before the Morocco match, FIFA framed Canada’s fifth game as uncharted territory. That was the backdrop for a team that had already rewritten its own record book simply by getting to Houston.

Jesse Marsch defended the performance after the loss, saying Canada had been the better team in the match even if it could not finish its chances against Morocco. He also said Eustaquio was especially deserving of a moment like the one he produced against South Africa, a fitting reward for a player who had been described as quiet, steady and unheralded.

Morocco, one of the teams that had shaped the tournament’s later rounds, scored three times in Houston and moved on to the quarterfinals. Canada went home without a win on the scoreboard against Morocco, but with a first knockout appearance, a decisive goal from Eustaquio and a crowd of Canadian supporters large enough in Los Angeles to make the country’s football moment feel bigger than a one-off surge.