Canada ties 2-1.

So after Peru day in Toronto, Canada moved on to be the supporting act in Honduras day in Montreal.  A crowd of roughly 7500, ( This was a record for a friendly in Montreal, so in a depressing way, I suppose the CSA picked the right opponent for the game, if a big crowd was their aim)  .Once again though Canadians supporting Canada were in the minority, a fact which seemed to almost make Josh Simpson cry in his half time interview talking about needing games in Canada and wins to get Canadians on board and out to the games.

In that respect, tonight's game will definitely help, Canada putting in a decent performance against Honduras.  After a pre game ceremony for Paul Stalteri becoming the all time cap leader, they started with an attacking line up, Simeon Jackson and Josh Simpson attacking wide of Rob Friend in the middle.  Simpson had a really good game, Jackson was exciting at moments, and it seemed plausible that Canada might actually score some goals.  Eventually they did, in the 29th minutes, Simpson getting space on the left hand side of the box and getting a hard low shot on target (please take note O'Brian White).  The rebound fell to Will Johnson who had a shot pushed on to the bar,  Friend then got fouled before the ball eventually fell back to Simpson who chested (armed? Honduras certainly thought so) it in for his first international goal.

Honduras equalised from a really good simple free kick, before Canada scored again from a corner, Kevin McKenna losing his marker and getting a powerful header in, prompting Gerry Dobson to exclaim "they've equalised!" cue 5 seconds of dead air before Gerry sheepishly chuckles and corrects his error.  Congratulations Gerry, that might be your best work yet, and there's a lot of competition, as I'm sure Dwayne De Guzman would testify.

Anyway Canada carried their lead deep into the second half and through a thunderstorm until the lightning got too close and the ref took them off the pitch.  Were Canada about to be denied a much needed and long awaited win by the weather?

No.   They came back on for the last 8 minutes plus stoppage time, and it was almost 3-1 when Simpson hit the post after some delightful passing between the forwards.

In the end, a well deserved win, a result that can hopefully help Canada vault back into the top 100, and the Concacaf top 8 (currently Panama in 97th) which might be important depending on how the 2014 world cup qualifying groups are decided.  After being outscored 14-1 in their last 7 winless games over 14 months, I won't get carried away, but Simpson and Jackson looked a really good combination up front either side of friend and really give me hope we can avoid that sort of streak returning.

One bad thing, just rewatching the game now reminded me, those Sportsnet one commercials that took up almost half the screen?  really annnoying.  I appreciate anyone that's willing to show the game, but wow, I don't like Sportsnet.

Edit: How did the Toronto Star report this game?  I'd provide a link to their web coverage but there isn't one, so instead I'll just faithfully reproduce what appeared in the paper version here.  Here goes, bear with me.

Canada ends drought with win over Honduras

Josh Simpson and Kevin McKenna scored in the first half as Canada ended an eight game winless run with a rain interrupted 2-1 vistory over Honduras in a firendly match Tuesday at Saputo stadium.

That's it, literally.  pathetic.