INGLEWOOD, Calif. — They waited for 91 minutes, and it sure seemed they would be waiting longer.
The game was going to extra time.
South Africa was playing for extra time.
Canada was offering little resistance.
It had been a dull 90 minutes, all the excitement of two teams playing their first knockout game at a World Cup evaporating in back passes and passivity.
This was the sort of 0-0 knockout game to inspire takes that the tournament’s expansion to 48 teams was ill-conceived.
And then, and then, and then, South Africa defended a cross poorly, and the ball was at Stephen Eustáquio’s chest atop the 18-yard box.
All afternoon, Canada lacked a finishing touch.
Twice, South Africa defenders had come from nowhere to stop what looked like sure goals.
Not this time.
Not this moment.
Some of Eustáquio’s teammates, Dayne St. Clair said, have been urging him to shoot and try to break a scoring drought that had stretched on since Feb. 28.
He did, swinging his right foot and, Alistair Johnston would say later, “it’s one of those moments that you’ll never forget where you were.”
At least Canada won’t.
At its second-ever World Cup, Canada is off to the Round of 16 for the first time in its history, Eustáquio’s strike having pulled the nation into nirvana.
Canada manager Jesse Marsch, at the full-time whistle that confirmed a 1-0 victory, implored his team: “You are Canadian heroes.”
“It can change the perspective of our country forever,” midfielder Liam Millar said.
Eustáquio, who chose to play for Canada over Portugal, and who was playing Sunday within miles of his temporary club home — he’s on loan at LAFC from FC Porto in Portugal — will be a household name in a country of 41 million that has never had a moment like this in soccer.
“We feel like we’re brothers,” Eustáquio said. “And at the same time, when we fight for each other, when we play for each other, special things like this can happen.”
The group, built around superstar Alphonso Davies — whose first World Cup minutes Sunday, returning from a hamstring injury, helped change the game — along with Jonathan David and Moïse Bombito, is by far Canada’s best-ever national team.
If the sport has been second fiddle in the U.S., it’s been off the radar in Canada, at least until largely the same core qualified for the Qatar World Cup four years ago.
It crashed out with three defeats then.
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Its failure to beat Switzerland in the last group-stage game this year prevented Canada from getting a knockout path with games in Canada, but handed it a winnable game against a South African side that upset South Korea to make it this far.
Both teams, though, played nervously. South Africa dominated possession, but over 50 percent of its passes were between its center backs and keeper Ronwen Williams, leading the crowd to boo whenever Williams was on the ball in the second half.
Hugo Broos’ side dared Canada to press high and open up passing lanes over the top.
Canada never took the bait, and the result was a standoffish game with exceedingly little adventurism to speak of.
None of that will matter.
All that does is the moment, the joy and the highlight playing over and over again.
“Something just comes over your body and you see Steph sprinting away and the whole team sprinting,” Johnston said. “I think for Canadian sports history, it’s gonna be a moment where you kind of know where you were when that moment happened. So that’s something that is not lost on us.
“We know that not only is this writing history in Canadian soccer, but in Canadian sport. And that’s something that, really, it’s a magical, magical thing.”
