Nothing is preordained in soccer, but if there was anything like a certainty before the Canadian men faced Suriname in Toronto on Tuesday night, it was that Jonathan David would score.
He did, of course, in the 23rd minute, the start of a decisive 3-0 victory for Canada in the second leg of its CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal, good for a 4-0 aggregate win.
Canada will now play the semifinal in Los Angeles in March and the Gold Cup in June.
“I don’t know that he has any real weaknesses,” head coach Jesse Marsch said of David after. “He’s the most quietly confident person. If you ever sit down and talk with him, it’s amazing how he’s just himself. What a beautiful, beautiful thing.”
The 24-year-old David has felt inevitable over the last several months, a run of form that has seen him emerge as one of the top young forwards in the world.
WATCH | Shaffelburg’s scores twice to lead Canada past Suriname:
Canada defeated Suriname 3-0 Tuesday night in Toronto which advanced the home side with the win past the CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinals.
“It’s just that sharpness that you feel when you get into the game, that first couple of minutes, that first couple of actions, you just feel good, confident, and after the rest comes,” he said, when asked to describe his current, elevated state.
At Lille, his French club side, David is employed as a pure striker, a classic No. 9. He’s claimed seven goals in 11 games in Ligue 1 and torn through this season’s Champions League, scoring against the likes of Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, and Juventus.
With the national side, he plays a little deeper, as more of a No. 10, a playmaker as well as a goal scorer, the heart of the team’s attack.
That has given him a different perspective of the game, and Canadian soccer fans a different perspective of him.
With Lille, because he’s so far in front of the play, he’s constantly looking over his shoulder or sideways. His Canadian role makes him more forward-facing: There is usually someone higher than him, and so he has more decisions to make.
Lately, he’s almost always made the right one.
Entering Tuesday’s home leg, David had scored or assisted on seven of the nine goals tallied since Marsch became head coach in May, and he forced the turnover that led to an eighth.
That included a crucial assist in last week’s away-leg win against Suriname, when his perfect pass to Junior Hoilett proved the decisive moment in an otherwise tight, physical game.
The return was different from the start.
The Canadians cut through the Surinamese in front of a thin but engaged crowd on a blustery night, with David joined in his first-half breakthrough by a similarly emergent Jacob Shaffelburg.
The Nova Scotian scored another midway through the second half for good measure.
“It was honestly a really bad year club-level for me, so the national team has been a bit of a spark,” said a beaming Shaffelburg, who scored as many goals on the night as he did all season for Nashville SC.
David’s dominance has been uninterrupted no matter what jersey he’s wearing.
Marsch has called him “the smartest player I’ve ever coached.” His calm, cerebral approach to finding and exploiting space, even as he’s been man-marked by increasingly wary opposition, is like watching a chess grandmaster find a surprising avenue to checkmate.
“I’m not the biggest, fastest guy in the world,” David said before Tuesday’s game. “I have to use my intelligence in ways to get in smart positions.”
His spectacular sense of place has led to a grander assertion within Canada’s ranks especially.
At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, he was overshadowed by Alphonso Davies, coming a distant second in the scrutiny and support he received.
David, who was supposedly Canada’s designated penalty taker under previous head coach John Herdman, even saw three different players — Lucas Cavallini, Davies, and Cyle Larin — take successive penalties instead of him. Davies and Larin missed.
“He’s too nice,” Herdman said of David at the time.
Such deference would never happen now.
David is still soft-spoken, almost reticent seeming when the hot light of attention turns to him.
But with Davies choosing not to join Canada for this window, David has been able to find a new supremacy on the pitch — and insist upon a deeper inquiry off it.
He hasn’t been a revelation, exactly. He’s demanded something closer to a reconsideration.
The more Canadian soccer fans watch him play, the more they might start to wonder why they ever looked to anyone else.
