Canada's men's soccer team enjoying genuine coming of age amid World Cup qualifying success

It used to be that the Canadian men's team cowered at the feet of CONCACAF's elite nations.

Games were routinely lost before a ball was even kicked, such was the psychological advantage that Mexico, Honduras and other top teams in the region held over timid and unassuming Canada.

Those days are long gone. Canada has successfully turned the tables, and not only does it now walk among the CONCACAF giants, it towers over them.

Canada all but punched its ticket for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar by going unbeaten in the latest international window with three wins, capping things off with a 2-0 victory in El Salvador in CONCACAF qualifying on Wednesday night. Veteran Atiba Hutchinson and Jonathan David scored for Canada, who have now won six games in a row to remain in first place in the CONCACAF table with a 7-0-4 record.

The win in El Salvador, which was Canada's first since 1996, followed in the footsteps of similarly gritting victories in Honduras and at home to the United States last week. The Reds didn't officially clinch a World Cup berth on Wednesday, but qualification is within touching distance, and is a mere formality at this point. With just three more games remaining in March for the Canadians, it would take a collapse of unprecedented proportions for them not to book their spot at the World Cup.

"It's going to happen. We know it's going to happen. We have to stay humble, though. We're not there yet... We're not at our target either that this team has set for themselves. We still have a few more steps we need to take to really take it where we want to get to," coach John Herdman told reporters after Wednesday's win.

El Salvador did not make things easy for Canada on a hot night in San Salvador. It was a chippy,