Stephen Eustaquio, the hero of Canada’s victory, said he “felt like everyone was shooting at me” and attributed their historic 1-0 victory over South Africa in the World Cup to confidence on the field and in the country.
Eustaquio’s 92nd-minute half-volley settled the first qualifying match of the 2026 World Cup and sent the co-hosts, who played in Los Angeles instead of Canada and failed to win their group, to the round of 16.
Canada created enough chances to win their first knockout match by a much larger margin, with a special Eustaquio goal that will instantly go down in history as the most famous goal in the country’s soccer history needed to beat impressive South African goalkeeper Ronwen Williams.
It was an emotional moment for Eustaquio, who lost his father in 2024, a year after the death of his mother, and which he attributed to the determination of Jesse Marsch’s team.
“I think we worked a lot to get this victory,” Eustaquio said.
“We really wanted to give this win to all Canadians. We kept believing, we kept pushing and I couldn’t have imagined it any other way.”
“I think it was an incredible goal, but when I shot, I felt like everyone was shooting with me. They put a little bit of power into it and it went into the back of the net. So I’m really happy.”
Eustaquio hopes that Canada can surprise in the round of 16
Canada will do it face Holland or Morocco in the round of 16 next Saturday. Eustaquio accepts that Canada will not be the favourite, but is hopeful that his confidence can make the difference again.
“He [the belief] It started when we left the group stage. “I think when it comes to World Cup qualifiers, faith plays an important role,” he added.
“Now we are going to face Morocco or the Netherlands and who knows, on a good day we can make things happen. The quality probably won’t be there, but if we keep believing and working, things could go the way we want.”
South Africa boss not ready to announce decision to retire
South Africa coach Hugo Broos refused to say whether he will retire following their exit from the tournament.
Despite South Africa spending most of their first knockout match in World Cup history on the back foot, the 74-year-old insisted the defeat and the disappointing nature of their performance did not take away from their achievement of reaching the round of 32.
“We will take the [retirement] “We will make a decision in the next few days,” Broos said. “But it has been a nice World Cup.” It won’t be an easy decision. I can’t say now if I will stop or leave.
“I’m still as proud as I was two or three days ago. I think we had a good World Cup, but today, when we play against a team like this, with power and speed, we are behind. This is something we have to learn. And that’s why it was important for this team that we were here.”
When asked if this is the start of South Africa’s regular appearances in the World Cup finals, he replied: “For us it is certainly something we have to do and in the coming months I am sure that this team will be stronger than before because today we played against a team that is a little further away than us. We played a pretty good match. We could have done more.”
