What 'anti-ambassador' Richie Laryea brings to Canada's World Cup lineup

Richie Laryea’s mouth is not the only weapon in his arsenal, but it is the most barbed one: Over years of devotion to soccer’s dark arts, he has developed an uncanny ability to whisper opponents into acts of self-defeat.

Before Thursday’s must-win against Qatar in Vancouver, Canada’s anti-ambassador was asked whether his effectiveness as a tormentor is muted at a World Cup.

Is it harder to do what he does when his targets are strangers rather than familiar foes, who might not speak English? Or is trash talk a universal language?

“It’s universal,” he said with a wide smile that belied his more malevolent capabilities. “I won’t repeat them, but there’s stuff you definitely can say. Nothing that crosses the line, but enough to piss someone off in the game.”

At the 2022 World Cup, Laryea went to early work on Yannick Carrasco in Canada’s opener against Belgium.

Most of the time, Laryea begins his torments with low-level physical affronts, a little pushing, a little tugging, a little extra sharpness in his elbows. He put Carrasco to the ground in the seventh minute, and the Belgian was already raising his hands in frustration to the uninterested referee.

In the ninth minute, Carrasco committed the hand ball that led to a penalty for Canada. Alphonso Davies failed to convert it, but now Carrasco had a yellow card, and Laryea nodded to himself: Time to get down to business. He elevated his bedeviling campaign, ratcheting up the tension with a relentless verbal barrage.

“He gets really touchy, he’ll try to push a little bit,” fellow defender Moise Bombito said. “And then he starts talking. And if he starts talking, and the opponent starts talking back, we know he’s got him. He can crack whoever he wants.”

Carrasco talked back.