Jonathan David‘s hat trick propelled Canada to a historic 6-0 rout of Qatar in Vancouver on Thursday to go top of their World Cup group.
It was not only Canada’s first-ever victory at a World Cup but equaled the record margin of victory for a tournament host, matching the the six-goal wins for Italy in 1934, Brazil in 1950 and Argentina in 1978.
Canada’s tally against Qatar also doubled the number of goals they had in their entire World Cup history coming into the game.
A dream occasion for Canadian soccer was only marred by what appeared to be a serious injury suffered by midfielder Ismaël Koné in the second half.
Koné received treatment for several minutes before being stretchered off following a hard foul by Qatar’s Assim Madibo. Madibo was shown a red card as Qatar finished with nine men following a first-half red card for Homam Ahmed.
Cyle Larin opened the scoring for Canada, with their other goals coming from Nathan Saliba and an own goal from Mohamed Manai.
