Cyle Larin says he is heading into Canada’s first World Cup match on home soil with the kind of confidence that has been hard to find at points over the past six months. The forward, who is in the mix to start Friday afternoon’s opener against Bosnia-Herzegovina, said a productive loan spell at Southampton has left him focused on scoring and in form when Canada needs it most.
That matters because Canada’s attack has been searching for goals, and Larin remains one of the players expected to supply them. Canada is ranked 30th in the world by FIFA, and Larin has scored 30 goals in 90 appearances for his country, but he has found the net only once in his last 17 starts for Canada.
Larin said Wednesday that the club season that took him from Feyenoord to Southampton was a roller coaster, but one he believes ended on the right note. He struggled in the Netherlands before agreeing to the January loan move to England’s second-tier Championship division, then scored nine goals in 22 matches in all competitions for Southampton. “It’s been a crazy last six months,” he said, adding that the main thing was to play games, score goals and arrive at the World Cup in form.
He also pointed to the numbers that shaped his argument. Larin said he had shown throughout his career that when he plays, he scores, and he said he put up 14 goals for Canada in 2021 alone. He described his time at Southampton as special and said the difficult aftermath of the club’s season did not change what he believed had been accomplished on the pitch.
Southampton were later kicked out of a lucrative playoff after admitting to unauthorized filming of other teams’ practices, a punishment tied to a possible future windfall worth at least $370 million. Larin said the situation was hard for everyone connected to the club, but he also said he did not lose a game while he was there and that the team had the quality to do the same again next season.
That is the backdrop as Canada prepares for Friday afternoon. The team has had trouble finding the range from open play in the buildup to the tournament, and coach and teammates are leaning on Larin and Jonathan David to help change that. Larin said he does not want the moment to get too emotional. He said it would be a fight, but added that Canada has put in the work and will score when the chances come. For a team about to play its first-ever World Cup match on home soil, that belief may matter as much as the finish.
