Liam Millar is set to start for Canada against Bosnia and Herzegovina on Friday night in Toronto, giving the home side one of its biggest nights in football history a familiar face from the front line. Canada will open its World Cup campaign at Toronto Stadium, where 45,000 fans are expected to watch a team still chasing a first result on the sport’s biggest stage.
That is why Millar is the name drawing attention now. The 26-year-old winger said the growth of football in Canada would have sounded impossible when he was a kid and people told him he was crazy for choosing the game over hockey or baseball. He said the sport has changed so much that it is becoming massive, and he cannot wait to see what the country does after this moment.
For Millar, the match is about more than a result. He said Canada have yet to win a game or even draw a game at a World Cup, even after scoring their first goal in Qatar last time, and that the players’ job is to set the right example for the next generation. He said children watching on Friday could see Canada in the World Cup and decide they want to play soccer too, and maybe one day play for the national team.
That is the friction inside all the optimism around Toronto. Canada is being talked about as if this is a turning point, but the record remains blank where it matters most, and Bosnia and Herzegovina will have a say in whether the night becomes a launch point or just another hopeful step. Millar’s performance may help define how the home crowd remembers it, but the first answer will come on the pitch.
