Canada could cause an upset at the Qatar World Cup, with Chicago Bears kicker Cairo Santos suggesting they will "fly under the radar" in a similar fashion to Croatia.
The Maple Leafs secured a long-awaited return to the biggest tournament in world football with a 4-0 victory over Jamaica in Toronto on Sunday.
It ends a 36-year exodus from the World Cup, since Canada's only previous appearance was at Mexico 1986, where they lost all three group-stage matches without scoring against France, Hungary and the Soviet Union.
But Santos – the NFL's first Brazilian player and a keen footballer as a child – feels Canada will have nothing to prove to themselves when they step out onto the pitch later this year looking to make history, drawing comparisons with 2018 finalists Croatia.
"They're certainly a team that are going to be flying under the radar," Santos told Stats Perform. "They haven't been to the World Cup.
"The World Cup is part of some history that comes with a team, and when you step on the field, the history plays a big part, too.
"If they can be that story that we saw... Croatia kind of did that at the last World Cup. So, why not Canada? They've got some exciting players, too.
"I'll be following them. Maybe we'll see a US-Canada rivalry at some time in the World Cup, too. What a time that will be."
The United States will join Canada in the finals if they avoid a heavy defeat away to Costa Rica in their final CONCACAF qualifier.
USA and Canada, along with Mexico, are hosts of the 2026 World Cup, with their sides building towards that tournament in recent years.
Led by English coach John Herdman, Canada made the semi-finals of the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup in their best result in 14 years.
Silverware no definition of successful career for Willian
Willian believes success in football does not necessarily equate to a cabinet full of silverware, highlighting Harry Kane as an example.
The Fulham attacker was a two-time Premier League winner during his time with Chelsea, and collected medals in the FA Cup, EFL Cup and Europa League.
In addition, the 34-year-old won the 2019 Copa America with Brazil and was a member of his nation's squad when they came fourth at home in the 2014 World Cup.
But when asked what defines success in football, he suggested that trophies do not solely define the legacy of a player's career.
"I think it's a mix of several factors," he told Stats Perform. "It is to win titles, [it] is to be playing at a high level.
"Sometimes there are players who don't win titles, but play at a high level and are always playing well, always scoring goals. Harry Kane, for example, for me, is a great player
"[He] is always at a high level at Tottenham, playing very well and scoring goals, but I don't think he has any career titles as a professional. Can you say that he was not successful in football?
"It depends. It is a mixture of things. It depends a lot on what it means to be successful in football. For me, the most important thing is for the player to be playing well, and the title becomes a consequence of the work."
Despite his success, Willian acknowledged there are two major honours that have eluded him, at club and international level, but he adds their absence from his collection does not detract from his other successes.
"One is the Champions League and the other is the World Cup," he noted. "Every player has that dream.
"Those are the two titles I'd really like to win, but if I don't win them, I'm satisfied with my career and the titles I've already won."
Willian has spent nine seasons in the Premier League, more than he has in any domestic top-flight competition, and he maintains it remains the strongest he has played in.
"The Premier League is the best league in the world," he added. "You'll never have an easy match.
"It might get easier during the game, and you might beat the other team, but you're never going to go into the match thinking it's going to be easy, thinking you're going to win 4-0.
"It is a very difficult league. The last one can take points from the first one, and it is very competitive and that is why it becomes the best in the world."
'Bunny' Shaw is Manchester City Women's Player of the Season, misses out on WSL Golden Boot
Reggae Girlz captain, Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw has won the award for Manchester City Women’s Player of the Season, having come out on top in a fan vote.
Shaw, in her second season for Manchester City Women, scored 31 goals in all competitions, surpassing the record for the most goals by a Women’s player across a single season. She also claimed the WSL Player of the Month awards in November and March and received the Goal of the Season prize for her strike against Arsenal in April 2023.
Shaw, who scored twice in Manchester City Women's 3-2 win over Everton on Saturday's final day of the season, did miss out on the Women’s Super League Golden Boot having bagged 20 league goals, two shy of Aston Villa’s Rachel Daley’s 22. Daley scored in Aston Villa's 2-0 win over Arsenal.
Manchester City Women finished fourth in the WSL on 47 points behind winners Chelsea Women who amassed 58 points from their 22 games. Manchester United Women finished second with 56 points. Arsenal Women were third on 47 points, the same as Manchester City Women, who lost their first two games of the season before going on a 16-game unbeaten run.
However, the Cityzens lost three of their last six games and fell out of the running for the title. They finished with a record of 15 wins, two draws and five losses.
Ange Postecoglou knows all about the expectation at Celtic
Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou believes his players have become conditioned to the constant demands for success.
Captain Callum McGregor lifted the cinch Premiership trophy on Saturday after a 5-0 win over Aberdeen rounded off a season in which Celtic collected 99 points and scored a post-war club-record 114 league goals.
Postecoglou has now claimed four of five domestic trophies available since arriving from Japan in the summer of 2021 and he can follow in the footsteps of Jock Stein, Martin O’Neill, Brendan Rodgers and Neil Lennon by clinching the treble with Scottish Cup victory over Inverness on Saturday.
“From the moment I arrived, I think I have said many times, coming off a trophyless season, we could not go another year without winning something,” he said.
“From the first day I arrived, irrespective of what happened at the start of the season, I made it clear to the boys that expectation is always there.
“That will never change. Whether you are winning or not winning, expectation at this football club is you have success every year.
“I think the players have become conditioned to that. They train like that every day, they behave like that. Callum is pushing them like that every day. You can’t have an off day. You can’t have an off season.”
Postecoglou is already thinking about how he can improve Celtic next season.
“You can’t stand still in this game,” he said. “It changes very quickly. It’s fine margins between having success again and not being successful.
“And more than that, this team’s going to improve. Most of the key players in this team, you can see them improving.
“All the the ones who joined last year have had better years this year than last year, and the ones who stayed, Callum and Greg Taylor and Tony Ralston, all those guys, have all come on, and had better years this year.
“That tells me there’s more improvement. There has to be.”
Aberdeen manager Barry Robson will try to make sure his side compete better with Celtic next season but he sensed Saturday’s game would be difficult given the occasion and the fact his side had achieved their goal of finishing third in the league three days earlier.
Robson, whose side will be guaranteed European group stage football if Celtic win the cup, said: “We’re going to try our best in every department and be as good as we can possibly be.
“We know the differences in finance between teams in the league.
“I’ve played for teams challenging the Old Firm and I’ve played for the Old Firm myself, so I know how difficult it is.
“But we need to be as good an Aberdeen team as we can be, which we’ve done, and also perform well in Europe.
“We need Celtic to do us a turn at Hampden next week.
“That wasn’t our fight. Our fight was getting to third. But we want to make it a fight.”
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