Things were supposed to be different for Canadian soccer this summer. Both the men’s and women’s teams were considered talented enough to make deep runs in their respective tournaments; the women in the World Cup, and the men in the Gold Cup. To the public, both teams projected confidence they could do so.



But in the space of just five days, both of Canada’s national teams crashed out of their tournaments in their first knockout round game. The women lost 1-0 to Sweden in the World Cup Round of 16 on Monday night, and the men surrendered a two-goal halftime lead in a shocking 3-2 loss to Haiti in the Gold Cup quarter-final Saturday night.



Both teams won two games against inferior opponents and lost one against quality sides in the group stage. And neither played to their potential in the games that got them eliminated. The sense of disappointment in these two teams is pervasive, and with good reason; they raised the collective hopes of a...