Canada coach John Herdman used to tell his kids the legend of how West Auckland rather than Uruguay were the first winners of the World Cup.
It’s an incredible story that the 47-year-old is likely to revisit when he tries to convince his players that they aren’t going to Qatar just to make up the numbers after being drawn into a group that includes Belgium, Croatia and Morocco.
The Maple Leafs have qualified for football’s biggest tournament since Herdman was an 11-year-old growing up in the town of Consett in County Durham. And Herdman’s belief that they have everything to gain and nothing to lose might prompt him to tell the tale of West Auckland and their odyssey to Turin to play in the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy in 1909.
