If there was one phrase to sum up Canadian sports teams playing in America’s major professional sports leagues in 2025, it would be ‘So close, and yet, so far.’
Ever since the 1993 season, which saw the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Blue Jays win the Stanley Cup and the World Series, respectively, Canadian teams have had to deal with far more heartbreak and trauma than happiness.
The start of the 21st century was marked with plenty of disappointments for Canadian sports fans, with the Vancouver Grizzlies moving to Memphis in 2001 after six years in British Columbia. After an unsuccessful attempt to launch the Canadian Baseball League that saw the league fold midway through the its maiden 2003 season, 2004 would see the Montreal Expos lose its MLB franchise after 35 years, leaving the Toronto Blue Jays as the lone Canadian Major League ballclub.
The Blue Jays returned to the postseason in 2015 after a 22-year drought, losing in the ALCS in back-to-back years, before losing in the wild-card series in 2020, 2022 and 2023. After finishing bottom of the division with a dismal 74-88 record last year, Toronto bounced back in style in 2025 by winning their first AL East pennant in a decade before brushing past reigning AL champions New York Yankees in five games.
Despite losing their first two (both at home), the Blue Jays would win four of their next five vs. the Seattle Mariners to secure their spot in the World Series against reigning champions Los Angeles Dodgers. For the first time in 32 years, the Jays were headed back to the Fall Classic. They came close, mounting a 3-2 lead before losing 3-1 in Game 6 at home. Game 7 would see Toronto establish a healthy lead with a three-run third inning, one that they enjoyed until the eighth inning when Max Muncy halved the deficit with a solo home run.
Toronto found themselves one out away from their first championship since 1993 when Miguel Rojas stepped up to the plate. Having not made a single hit since the Wild Card Series a month ago, all signs pointed to Jeff Hoffman striking out Rojas and sending Toronto into delirium. Instead, Rojas smashed in the tying run to force extra innings, where Will Smith’s 11th-minute dinger saw LA prevail with a ninth title.
Unlike the Blue Jays, the Toronto Raptors’ sole championship came in the post-smartphone era, with the basketball franchise making it to their first-ever NBA Finals and taking down all-conquering powerhouse Golden State Warriors in seven games and denying them a third-straight ring. However, since losing Kawhi Leonard that same summer, the Raptors have lost in the Eastern Conference semifinals, missed out on the playoffs entirely, and lost in the first round, before failing to reach the playoffs in 2023, 2024, and 2025.
With just one Canadian team in the NBA and MLB, there are seven in the NHL. And yet, despite this proliferation of teams, silverware has been preciously lacking over the past three decades. It hasn’t been for a lack of trying: the Edmonton Oilers lost in seven games to the Florida Panthers in the 2024 Stanley Cup Final before returning in 2025, where they lost in six to the Panthers.
As far as their three MLS teams go, it has been a mixed bag. CF Montréal became the first Canadian team to reach the CONCACAF Champions Cup Final and the second MLS side in 2015, but so far, they have failed to win a single trophy in American soccer or reach an MLS Cup Final, missing out on the MLS Cup Playoffs in 2025 with a dismal 13th-place finish in the East (28th overall).
Toronto FC became the first, and so far, the only Canadian team to win a major trophy in the modern era of American soccer when they claimed the 2017 Supporters’ Shield title, before going on to win MLS Cup that same year. TFC returned to the final two years later, losing 3-1 to Seattle, before finishing second overall in the MLS regular season in 2020, only to lose in the first round. Fast-forward five years, and they have yet to return to the postseason.
Related Read: Toronto FC bracing for ‘imperfect’ early 9-game homestand in ‘outlier’ 2026 schedule
The Vancouver Whitecaps enjoyed their greatest year in club history after reaching the 2025 CONCACAF Champions League Final and winning their fourth straight Canadian Championship (fifth overall). Bolstered by the midseason arrival of Thomas Müller, Vancouver enjoyed a stellar end to the campaign and finished with the second-best record in the Western Conference, trailing only first-placed San Diego FC on head-to-head.
After making it past FC Dallas, LAFC and San Diego FC to reach their first-ever MLS Cup Final, Vancouver would fall behind early on via an own goal vs. Inter Miami before roaring back and imposing themselves on the game, forcing the Herons deep into their own half and stinging the crossbar on multiple occasions. Eventually, this pressure paid off as Ali Ahmed slotted home the equalizer at the hour-mark. This proved to be the wake-up call that Miami desperately needed, with Lionel Messi remembering that, even at 38 years of age, he’s still one of the best players in the entire sport, and conjuring up Rodrigo De Paul’s go-ahead goal in the 71st minute before setting up Tadeo Allende’s last-second goal to secure Miami’s first-ever MLS Cup title.
Unless the Raptors (currently third in the East) can win their second title, or if a Canadian team ends their Stanley Cup drought, then Canada will be entering next summer without having win a single major international trophy in North America this decade. It’s why the Canadian national soccer team has a perfect chance to deliver their beleaguered fanbase a much-needed source of ecstasy in next summer’s FIFA World Cup.
Having lost all three matches in their first-ever trip to the World Cup in 1986, Canada returned to the world’s biggest tournament in 2022, where they once again lost all three. Two years later, Canada appointed Jesse Marsch as their new head coach on the precipice of their maiden Copa América, with Marsch guiding them all the way to the semifinals, where they lost 2-0 to eventual champions Argentina.
They came within inches of the bronze medal after taking a 2-1 lead in the 80th minute via Jonathan David, only for Luis Suárez to equalize in the 92nd minute. The match went to penalties, where Uruguay prevailed 4-3 to come away victorious in the third-placed match.
“We’re clearly more advanced as a team than we were at [the Copa],” Marsch told R.Org after Friday’s 2026 FIFA World Cup draw. “We also caught some teams by surprise a little bit because they didn’t know everything that we were going to be about. But I think we’ve matured a lot and grown a lot, and I think we’ve used the last 17-18 months to benefit the overall player pool. When you look at the performances from match to match, I think there’s a real clarity in the identity of who we are and how we want to play in the best games. We have a lot of confidence and excitement, and I think that’s led us to believe that we’ll be prepared in our home World Cup.”
After that penalty shootout defeat in Charlotte, Canada would win six of their next nine matches (including a 2-1 win vs. USA in the Concacaf Nations League), before heading to the Gold Cup. Canada kicked things off in style with a 6-0 demolition of Honduras before drawing 1-1 to Curaçao and beating 9-man El Salvador 2-0. However, they came up short in the quarterfinal, relinquishing an early lead and losing 6-5 on penalties to Guatemala.
Whereas other nations have had to scrap it out for their spot, Canada have known that they will be participating in the 2026 World Cup since 2018 and as such have only contested friendly matches this year. They bounced back from their Gold Cup defeat with wins vs. Romania and Wales before losing 1-0 to Australia, followed by goalless stalemates vs. Colombia and Ecuador, whilst their final match of 2025 would see them beat Venezuela 2-0 in Fort Lauderdale.
There are undeniably certain things that Canada’s players need to improve on, like discipline, having fallen to 10 men in their last two matches as well as in their last competitive match, and efficiency in the final third, and concentration in defending counter-attacks. But overall, Canada is more than capable of ending their nightmare form in the world’s biggest sporting tournament and securing their first-ever point (and victory) in the World Cup.
Canada will host Switzerland and Qatar before facing off against the winner of Italy / Northern Ireland vs. Wales / Bosnia & Herzegovina, and they have the player pool to cause a major shock by topping their group. Promise David has emerged as a revelation in attack for Belgian side Union Saint-Gilloise this season, Tajon Buchanan and Tani Oluwaseyi are following in the footsteps of Dani Parejo, Samu Chukwueze, Guillermo Amor and Gerard Moreno as the latest players to make their mark at Villarreal, whilst Ismaël Koné has gone from surplus to requirements in France to shining in Italy with Sassuolo, scoring in their recent win vs. Fiorentina.
If Alphonso Davies can make a seamless return to full fitness, and if Jonathan David can finally start banging in the goals for Juventus, then Canada could very well be looking at its best-ever player selection pool going into a World Cup. They have the players, and now, the local fan support to make their presence known on the world’s biggest stage. There’s no more excuses: it’s time for Canada to give their fans something to cheer about and deliver a memorable FIFA World Cup performance.