When John Herdman stepped down from coaching Canada's women's national team to take over the men's team, most people saw it as a step backward in his career.

The English coach seemed to be trading the elite for a second-tier team: a team with which he had won two Olympic medals, and was aiming for gold, for a team languishing at 94th in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. 

Even the label of second-tier side was perhaps too big for a Canadian men's team that had not even really contested qualification in the preliminary round of recent FIFA™ World Cups. It had been more than twenty years since they had reached the Hexagonal, CONCACAF's final qualifying round, and no one in the United States, Mexico or any other country in the region went into the Qatar 2022 qualifiers fearing their northernmost representative.

So how is it possible that the Canucks not only made it through, but did so as the top team in CONCACAF, with one game to spare? Veteran goalkeeper Milan Borjan was quick to explain. "I'm just saying two words: John Herdman. That's all," he said. 

Herdman is, as Borjan pointed out, the architect of the Canadian miracle. He has also proved shrewd and daring enough to see an opportunity and stake his entire reputation on it, even with the high risk involved. That bold move to coach Christine Sinclair and Co. was based, he explained, on the conviction that putting the men's team in a World Cup "could change soccer". And, to his delight, it has proved absolutely true.

But with that first monumental mission accomplished, Herdman faces a dilemma. His strategy so far has been based on ambition, lots of it, and Canada's spectacular success in winning the qualifiers is no less than he had demanded before the ball started rolling. Will he dare to take the same approach at the country's first World Cup in 36 years, with Croatia and Belgium - both medalists at the last edition - among the heavyweights awaiting the Americans?

Source.