Concacaf Gold Cup matches can be an absolute grind, which means tournament management becomes vital for any nation that hopes to win it all.

This was a valuable lesson that the Canadian men’s team learned in its second outing of the continental competition.

After rampaging to an easy 6-0 win over Honduras in its opening game earlier this week, Canada looked to be well on its way to another victory after jumping out to an early 1-0 lead over Curaçao on Saturday night.

But the Canadians wilted under the hot sun that blanketed Houston’s Shell Energy Stadium, conceding deep into injury time and settling for a disappointing 1-1 draw against their lower-ranked Concacaf rivals.

With a victory on Saturday, Les Rouges could have clinched a spot in the quarterfinals with one game to spare in the group stage. As it stands, Canada will now have to wait until its Group B finale against El Salvador in Houston next Tuesday in order to book its spot in the knockout round.

It could have been so different for Canada, ranked No. 30 in the world, a full 60 spots above a Curaçao side that it has outscored 9-2 in their four all-time meetings dating back to 2017. Canada failed to build upon its early advantage on Saturday and uninspiringly plodded its way through the rest of the game. 

“I think it’s about managing the game. You’ve got to size up the situation. We’ve got to do that better. And we were under a little bit of pressure. And for us, we got a little bit stretched in moments. This is a (Canadian) team that’s front-footed, that they want to go after. But there’s moments that we have to understand that we have to be more compact and be difficult to break down,” assistant coach Mauro Biello told reporters after the match.

It was 31 degrees Celsius when things in Houston kicked off, which contributed to a laboured performance from Canada in the first half. The Canadians carried the play for most of the opening 45 minutes, while at the same time struggling to create chances after opening the scoring in the ninth minute. 

Curaçao failed to properly deal with Jayden Nelson’s dangerous free kick into the box. Before the ball hit the ground off a headed clearance from Curaçao, an unmarked Nathan Saliba hit a first-time shot that skipped along the ground and beat goalkeeper Eloy Room, nestling inside the bottom left corner of the net. It was Saliba’s second goal in as many games for the CF Montreal midfielder, who netted his first international goal in the win over Honduras.

Curaçao grew into the game after conceding. Leandro Bacuna’s header off a dangerous cross deep inside the box forced a reflex save from Canada’s Dayne St. Clair. At the other end of the pitch, forward Tani Oluwaseyi latched onto a defence-splitting pass from defender Joel Waterman into the penalty area only to see his low angled shot saved by Room. Jürgen Locadia nearly equalized for Curaçao late in the half when he dragged his shot wide of the far post after slipping in behind Canada’s defence.

The beginning of the second half was a start-and-stop affair due to a series of fouls from Curaçao that continuously halted play and prevented it from getting into any kind of rhythm.

Curaçao appeared to equalize in the 66th minute when Locadia took a back-heeled pass from Sherel Floranus, swivelled inside the penalty area while surrounded by three Canadian defenders and curled a gorgeous shot inside the far post past a diving St. Clair. But Locadia’s wonder-goal was overturned for offside following a lengthy VAR review.

In the dying minutes of regulation, Curaçao had a penalty appeal denied, and Roshon van Eijmas’ header that beat St. Clair was disallowed as he was offside. But Curaçao didn’t give up and tied things up deep into injury time when substitute Jeremy Antonisse capitalized on a mistake by Canada’s Alistair Johnston and fired a low shot that deflected off defender Zorhan Bassong and beat St. Clair.

“We’ve got to learn from these types of games. That’s an experienced team over there (in Curaçao). And for us, it’s about taking the lessons from this game,” Biello offered.

“We let it get a little bit too wide open. We gave away silly fouls, and they were just pumping balls into the box, and we had a hard time dealing with second balls (and) set pieces. So, these are things that we have to continue to work on and be prepared to do better in the next game.”

Had Oluwaseyi converted his scoring opportunity in the first half, Canada would have taken a 2-0 advantage that probably would have been too insurmountable for Curaçao. 

But Canada allowed their Concacaf rivals to stay in the game for far too long, lacking the ruthlessness in front of goal that earmarked their barnstorming win over Honduras. That ended up costing the Canadians dearly on this night, leaving them with some work to do against El Salvador next week

“If you look at the first half, we did create and had chances to go up (2-0). And that’s another lesson there — to be able to close these games off. Because the longer you go without closing them off, they grow in confidence. Those are guys (on Curaçao) that are experienced, and then you’ve got a game on your hands,” Biello said.