How much more Canadian can one get?

In one seat was Alphonso Davies, the current apogee of Canadian soccer, wearing his Edmonton Oilers jersey. In the other, was Cortlin Tonn, who buried professional history to root for his true love, the Oilers, in their quest to cap off the most dramatic NHL comeback in nearly 80 years.

“I’m such a big Oilers fan, and so is Alphonso. We got ‘invested’ in those games, man. It was unreal. We would be in the kit room, put it on a big screen, and we would be stressing out. We were both almost in tears after the (final) game. It was a fun ride. Hopefully they win the cup next year, that’s the goal.”

Nearly 20 per cent of Canada’s population watched that game. Three weeks later, it was the turn of Davies and company to captivate the nation as the men’s national team shrugged off the millstone of doubt and low expectations to make a historic Copa America run.

Tonn has a unique perspective. He was, in essence, called up from his role as equipment manager for Canadian Premier League side Vancouver FC to Canada to help the national team operations unit with their needs. Equipment managers are the glue of any locker-room; on one hand, they’re unseen, flies on the wall, yet at times close confidants and part-time therapists.

Six weeks ago, at the tail end of tulip season, Tonn was in Holland with Team Canada as they began their Copa America prep with a series of friendlies, the first of the Jesse Marsch era. First up, the Netherlands; a high-pressure and stout showing in the first half gave way to an avalanche of orange goals in the second, ending in a 4-0 loss to the world’s No. 7-ranked team. Next up: France. And once again the Reds put forth another quality defensive performance — this time for the whole game — holding the world’s No. 2 side to a scoreless draw.

“Honestly, after that France game, the confidence was through the roof,” said Tonn. “I remember in the locker room after guys were just like, ‘We can do this. Like, we just tied France.’”

Few gave Canada much chance in the tournament, despite three scoreless halves against two of the world’s best teams under their belts. Opening up against Argentina and Lionel Messi, Canada lost 2-0, but again held their opponents — this time, the world No. 1 — scoreless in the first half. The game wasn’t decided until an 88th minute insurance goal.

Canada got by Peru and tied Chile to advance to the Copa’s knockout round for the first time in history, and then beat Venezuela on kicks to make the semifinals, where Argentina once again waited.

The capacity at Willoughby Community Park, where Vancouver FC plays its games, is 6,600. It’s never quite managed to fully sell out, though the Fraser Valley Fanatics supporters group sing loud enough it can sometimes feel like it. Its temporary bleachers, food trucks and beer tents are what you’d expect from a community-oriented team. Compare that with walking into Met Life Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., capacity 82,500, with most of those in the stands wearing baby blue and white stripes and screaming for your head.

Six hours before the semifinal kickoff, Tonn and the equipment crew went through the stadium’s massive security, set up the locker room, boots out, jerseys hung, then walked out to the empty pitch. “It’s the calm before the storm. You basically hurry up and wait,” he said.

This game ended in another 2-0 score line, this time Argentina scoring 20 minutes in, and some questions as to the overall quality of the officiating performance have to be asked. The tournament wasn’t over yet, with a third-place game against 14th-ranked Uruguay. The Canadians were on the precipice of a momentous victory with Jonathan David’s 80th minute goal, but Messi’s Barca and Inter Miami teammate Luis Suarez scored in injury time to tie it, and the Reds lost on kicks

“You saw the growth of the team in that short period of time, and it would have been nice to obviously, get that third-place victory, but I think there’s so much to grow on through the whole tournament for the team leading up to 2026,” Tonn said. “Jesse pulled us all in the middle after the match, and said, ‘We need to be proud of ourselves. The country is watching us, and we outperformed a lot of things people would expect us to do.’ So there was pride, but also a bit of disappointment, for sure. It was still an incredible tournament, incredible 48 days, for us together.”

Tonn flew back into Vancouver late Monday night, and after a day to decompress, he’ll be back with VFC in their CPL playoff push. Not much changes for him, in truth. The crowds are smaller, and the planes are commercial instead of charter, but players are players, no matter the size of their contracts.

“It’s so funny. You think there’s this big gap, and what the player is gonna be like. But from my experience, a lot of players, they’re all similar,” he said. “Jonathan David likes wearing his certain pair of pants during training, where Kadin Chung has his certain pair of socks that he always likes. Yeah, one player is making a couple million more than the other, probably. But you’re human, right? You treat everyone kind of the same. It didn’t matter if it was the top, top player like Phonzie, or a lower (tier) player in the squad … it was just one big family.”

In the CPL, players help unloading the bags off the buses. With Canada, their players did too. Tonn said it could be Marsch, Davies, David or Derek Cornelius stepping up to help at any one point. On some teams, meals can be cliquey, with little knots of players insulating themselves, but with this squad, it was a mix every time.

“One thing I’ll say about this team; I’ve never seen a team, in my 10, 12 years of being in sports, so close,” said Tonn, who previously worked for the Whitecaps. Everyone was friends with everyone. We were just one big family. Didn’t matter if you’re Alphonso Davies, Jesse Marsh an assistant coach or a sub on the bench, everyone treated everyone the same. So it was really, really cool.

Fans can get tickets to VFC’s next home game against York this Saturday. Tickets can be purchased online here or in person at the gates on game day.