Canada's victory over Qatar was a game-changer; nothing will ever be the same for men's World Cup team

It was a night that will take years for any of us to understand. The morning after, the unpacking had just begun.

Most, but not all, of Canada’s men’s soccer team showed up for training on Friday, another in a string of gorgeous mornings in Vancouver, only hours after the most surreal, most consequential game of their lives.

Canada midfielder Ismaël Koné undergoes surgery to repair broken leg

Gruesome injury to Ismaël Koné in victory over Qatar dampens Canadian men's joy of historic 1st World Cup win

Many of them were red-eyed and puffy faced, but they were committed to their routines and the familiar comforts they provide. They jogged, and they stretched, and they passed the ball to each other and bantered, the way they have so many times before.

But it all felt a little different, to everyone, in a way that was hard for anyone to express.

Thursday’s 6-0 victory over Qatar — the first for Canada in men’s World Cup history, in front of a deafening crowd at B.C. Place — was unbelievable in the truest sense of the word. It was one of those games that seems destined to separate before from after. 

Head coach Jesse Marsch looked exhausted but sounded upbeat. After he’d held up six fingers to the delirious crowd, he’d gone to Vancouver General Hospital to sit with Ismaël Koné, whose broken leg, suffered early in the second half, also felt like a kind of inflection point.

Canada earns historic first-ever World Cup win by beating Qatar 6-0

One Canada scored three goals before he’d gone down. A different Canada scored three goals after.

“I hold these guys in such high regard already,” Marsch said. “But every time that something happens, they continue to surprise me with how amazing they are, and how committed and connected they