Cyle Larin is back on a World Cup stage, and Canada opens its tournament Friday, June 12 at 3 p.m. ET against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Toronto. The former UConn forward is part of Team Canada as the World Cup begins Thursday across North America.
For UConn fans, the search is simple: Larin is there, and the opener is now. Canada is in Group B, with matches against Qatar on Thursday, June 18 at 6 p.m. ET in Vancouver and Switzerland on Wednesday, June 24 at 3 p.m. ET in Vancouver, as the field of 48 countries settles into 12 groups of four teams.
Larin’s presence gives the tournament a familiar Connecticut thread. He started 22 of 23 games in his 2013 season at UConn, scored 14 goals, added five game-winning goals and three assists, and won the American Athletic Conference’s Rookie of the Year award. He followed that with 21 points and nine goals in 16 games in 2014, plus three assists and the AAC Offensive Player of the Year honor, before finishing his two-year Huskies career with 38 games, 23 goals, six assists and 52 points.
That college run carried him to the top of the next level. Orlando City SC took Larin No. 1 overall in the 2015 MLS SuperDraft, making him the third Huskies player to go first overall and continuing a run of consecutive No. 1 picks for UConn after Andre Blake in 2014 and before him Chris Gbandi in 2002.
Canada’s road is not simple, even before the first whistle. The top two teams in each group advance, and eight third-place teams also move on, so every result in Group B carries weight under a format that awards two points for a win and one for a draw.
The stakes stretch well beyond Toronto. The World Cup is being played in Canada, Mexico and the United States, and the final is set for July 19 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. For Larin, Friday is the first chance to turn a familiar college name into a national-team moment, with Bosnia and Herzegovina standing in the way and Qatar and Switzerland waiting behind it.
