Cyle Larin is back on a big stage Friday, when Canada opens World Cup play against Bosnia and Herzegovina at 3 p.m. ET in Toronto. For UConn fans who watched him rise from recruiting Class of 2013 prospect to college standout, it is a chance to see a familiar name in the sport’s biggest tournament.
Larin arrived at UConn as part of the school’s recruiting Class of 2013 and quickly made himself impossible to miss. He started 22 of 23 games that fall and scored 14 goals, including five game-winners, with three assists. A year later, he led the Huskies with 21 points and nine goals in 16 games, added three more assists and finished as the AAC Offensive Player of the Year after pacing the conference in game-winning goals, goals per game and points per game.
Those two seasons built the resume that pushed him to No. 1 overall in the 2015 MLS SuperDraft, when Orlando City SC made him the third Huskies player taken first overall. UConn’s run of top picks included Andre Blake in 2014 and Larin the next year, a rare stretch that still stands as one of the program’s clearest links to the professional game.
Canada’s opener matters beyond the showcase. The team is in Group B with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Qatar and Switzerland, and it has to get through pool play to reach the knockout round. The tournament is being staged across North America, with games in Canada, Mexico and the United States, and Friday’s match will air nationally on FOX in the United States, with Spanish-language coverage on Peacock.
For Larin, that puts the spotlight on more than a single kickoff. Canada still has Qatar on Thursday, June 18, and Switzerland on Wednesday, June 24, and each result will shape whether the former Husky keeps playing into the later stages of a 48-country tournament that starts with 12 groups and ends in a 32-team knockout bracket.
