Canada’s Alistair Johnston has spoken out about the team’s “unbelievably high” morale ahead of their World Cup clash against Croatia.
The Canadians find themselves in a hole at the bottom of Group F after their 1-0 loss Wednesday to Belgium. Another defeat will end their chance of advancing to the knockout round.
“We know wherever we play here, we’re going to have an unbelievable Canadian crowd,” he said after training Friday.
“We know that we can play at this level. We know that the moment’s not too big. I think having that now in kind of our back pocket after playing against Belgium in that opening game has only helped the group.
“I mean the morale is unbelievably high. I’ve never seen that after a loss before. The guys are still, obviously, frustrated that we didn’t find a way to get something out of that game, but at the same time we went toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in the world.”
“Look we know it’s a massive game. This is a team that finished runners-up in the last World Cup. It’s an unbelievably talented group. They don’t need any extra motivation. So I bet they were looking at it like ‘OK, who’s this team that we probably never heard of until a couple of months ago and talking a big game?’
“But we believe in ourselves. We believe that we can back it up. And at the end of the day, no matter what’s said, no matter what pictures are posted in tabloids, it’s all going to come down to what happens in those 90 minutes on the field. We understand that and we feel really good about that.”
