Canada's historic run at World Cup fuels players' hunger for future tournaments

It took small clip for Luc de Fougerolles to turn over the bite of licking into motivation for the future.

Just over an hour after Canada was ousted from the FIFA World Cup on Saturday, the 20-year-old defender was already looking ahead to the nation's next run.

"I just can't wait for four years time," he said on Saturday. "I think as a team, we just need to be there. I just want to have another run like this and go further and do even more for the country."

It was a historic tournament for the Canadians, who earned their first point and first win in a men's World Cup, and made it into the knockout round for the first time. Once there, they topped South Africa 1-0 to earn a spot in the Round of 16.

The magical run ended on Saturday with a 3-0 loss to Morocco.

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"The fact that we experienced this stage, the fact that we experienced this game, the best 16, the best 32, I think in the future that's going to help us to really score this type of chances that we have," said vice-captain Stephen Eustaquio.

"I think overall it was a very good experience. And in the future, we're going to use this as fuel and hopefully we're going to be at a better level."

The stakes have been raised for a Canadian program that came into the tournament sitting at No. 30 in FIFA's official rankings.

"Next World Cup, everyone's going to say that anything less than the Round of 16 is a failure, right?" said head coach Jesse Marsch.

Even in Saturday's defeat, the team showed it can compete with the best teams in the world, he added.

Canada out chanced the Moroccans 4-1 across the first half before the game turned on a goal off a freekick in the 50th minute.

"Nobody's more disappointed in the fact that we lost a game that we were very much in control of than ourselves. And so we have to swallow that pride," Marsch said. "We have to continue to think about how to get better, be humble to the fact that we have a lot more to work to do, and commit ourselves to it every time we're together. And that's what we will do."

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Many of the athletes who played for Canada this summer could challenge for a spot on the national squad that vies for a spot in the 2030 World Cup in Morocco, Portugal and Spain.

The 26-man roster Marsch named at the end of May had an average age of 25.3 and included 13 players who hadn't yet made their World Cup debuts.

Getting a taste of the tournament has only made those players hungrier, said 25-year-old midfielder Ali Ahmed.

Even the difficult moments will help them grow, he added.

"You need moments like this, as much as it hurts to say right now. You need moments like this to learn from experience," Ahmed said. "This game has such a big mental part. And for us to go through what we've gone through today is massive."

There are a lot of incredible memories to be taken from the tournament, too, said right back Alistair Johnston.

Eustaquio's stoppage-time goal against South Africa will long live in his mind. So will the images of Canadians shutting down streets for pre-game matches in Vancouver and Toronto, and videos of fans celebrating across the country.

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"We really proved to everyone what a footballing country Canada is. Not just when we were playing there, but when other teams came, you could see the amount of passion that was there for the sport in Canada," Johnston said.

"That's something that I've always known was there, but I don't think the rest of the world truly knew, and I'm not sure all of Canada truly knew the true level of fandom that we have. So that was something I'm really proud of."

He hopes that momentum captures the attention of a new generation of athletes, and that some of the 17- and 18-year-old soccer players who were part of those celebrations will now push themselves to make the 2030 national squad.

"We need to continue to build the top-end talent and the depth of this program," Johnston said. "There's a lot of important matches to play over these next four years to continue to test us. But I do think that we're in a really good place mentally, physically, where we really feel like we can go and attack this next couple years and be ready for 2030."

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