Canada U23s - Olympic Hopes Fading

Photo by Cesar Gomez/Jam Media/Getty Images Ballou Tabla (right) takes on Arriaga of Honduras.What always promised to be a tall order just reached Everest proportions...

To qualify for the Tokyo Olympics Canada was always going to have to defeat one of the region’s big three, Mexico, USA or Costa Rica. They’d have preferred either of the latter two, but have pulled the toughest of the lot, Mexico... in its own Guadalajara backyard.

Mauro Biello and his merry band of men are professionals and will go into the game believing they can win, but really this is as close to unsurmountable as it gets.

The Mexicans, whose players all pretty much have been playing regular football leading up to this…