IF there's one thing that North Vancouver's Alex Comsia learned during his team's amazing run through the CONCACAF U17 men's soccer championships last week it's that no game is ever over until that final whistle blows.
Comsia, 16, played every minute of the tournament in central defence for Team Canada as they pulled off a pair of incredible victories to earn bronze medals at the tournament and, more importantly, a berth in this fall's U17 FIFA World Cup to be held in the United Arab Emirates.
"When I was a kid you dream about going to the World Cup," Comsia, who got his start in the Lynn Valley Soccer Association and now plays in the Vancouver Whitecaps youth system, told the North Shore News after returning home from Panama where the pressure-packed regional championships were held. "Now that it's a reality, it still hasn't sunk in, to be honest."
Canada opened the tournament with a 1-1 draw against Costa Rica and a 2-0 win over Trinidad and Tobago, earning a berth in the quarterfinals and one shot at glory - with four World Cup berths on the line each quarterfinal became a fierce battle for a spot in the big show. Canada drew Jamaica and it didn't look good early. The Jamaicans went up 1-0 just five minutes into the game and held a 2-1 advantage at halftime. The Canadian boys, however, remained confident.
"We never stopped thinking that we could get a result," said Comsia. "We kept pushing and pushing and eventually we got the goal and the momentum. We tied the game and from then I thought that we weren't going to lose."
Canada evened the score in the 60th minute, then ripped in two more goals in a five-minute stretch to take a commanding 4-2 lead with 10 minutes left. From there it was all defence until that glorious final whistle.
"As soon as the final whistle blew I fell to the ground," said Comsia. "We've been preparing for this for a year. Since (last) April, our first camp in Italy, that's the moment we've been preparing for. That was just amazing to finally achieve it. . . . That was an amazing second half. The front guys, credit to them, they put the ball in the back of the net. The whole team defended. This was the one game where you have no second chance, the one game you have to win to go to the World Cup."
The main job was now accomplished but there was still a tournament to finish and the Canadians found themselves matched up against the host Panamanians - and their vocal home crowd - in the semifinals. It was a taste of Central American soccer madness that most youth players from Canada couldn't even dream of.
"We were up against a hostile crowd of 10,000-plus people," said Comsia. "I've never experienced something like that before. We couldn't even hear ourselves on the field. Our coach was yelling at us, we were yelling at each other but it didn't work. We couldn't hear each other, we couldn't communicate which, in a way, I think limited us in our organization. It was the same for (Panama), they couldn't hear each other as well, so there's no excuses."
Panama prevailed 2-1 but Comsia came away from the game with memories he'll never forget.
"It was an amazing experience," he said. "There's nothing better than playing in front of a crowd like that."
The loss dropped Canada into the third-place game against Honduras. It wasn't the championship final but there was still a medal at stake.
"We treated it as if it was our final," said Comsia. Canada fell behind early, however, and as the minutes ticked by with no reply it looked as though they would finish fourth. The answer finally came on basically the last kick of regulation time with Jordan Hamilton scoring to make it 1-1 in the fourth minute of stoppage time in the second half. Canada again fell behind in overtime but again conjured last-minute magic with Jordan Haynes thumping a goal home in the 119th minute to send it to a shootout. The Canadians would go on to win the shootout 4-2, completing a comeback that Comsia always believed in.
"When Jordan scored that goal in the 90th minute, we were full of confidence that we would get the result," he said. "When they scored again 2-1, again we never stopped, we kept going until the final whistle."
Comsia was an assistant captain for the team throughout the tournament, his status as a leader cemented just one year after he made his national team debut in a 1-1 draw against Mexico in April of 2012. He still vividly remembers what it was like the first time he hit the pitch in a Maple Leaf jersey.
"I felt so privileged to make the team first of all," he said. "I went on to the field and I said, 'This is my chance. I have to show them enough to impress the coaches and earn my spot.' And I did very well."
Comsia plays a game that is decidedly defence-focused. "My first goal is to defend the net, organize the back line and give it to the distributors, our midfielders and attacking players, so we can go and score," he said. That stout attitude helped Canada secure a second consecutive berth in the U17 World Cup. Comsia believes the strong results being put up by youth teams bode well for the future of the sport in Canada.
"I think we have a good generation - not only us but the older kids, the kids younger than us, we have a good generation coming up," he said. "We have Vancouver Whitecaps, Edmonton FC, Toronto FC, Montreal - the big clubs are making efforts to grow the game, grow the youth systems, focusing on making us professionals. I think we have a very good opportunity to become very good players and eventually the national team will benefit from that. . . . I want to become a professional, I want to make the senior national team. That's what I aspire to do. The whole goal of this U17 program is to lift us up into the men's national team. I hope I get the chance to do that."
First, however, there's the significant matter of the U17 FIFA World Cup which will run Oct. 17-Nov. 8 in UAE. Com-sia said the Canadians are going to take a simple approach when they show up to play against the best youth players in the world.
"We take one game at a time, we don't get ahead of ourselves," he said. "That was one thing we did very well at CONCACAF. We just took one game at a time, we said to ourselves the only team in the tournament is the next team that we face. Whoever we play first will have our total focus and we'll look to win every game."
Whatever happens in the World Cup, the battle-hardened Canadians will bring with them confidence and experience gained from their success in Panama.
"It just shows our character, it shows that we are determined, passionate to play for Canada, to showcase our abilities - a never-say-die attitude," said Comsia. "Now we know that the game isn't over until the final whistle. We learned that, twice."
