MONTREAL

Four years before the Americans’ Miracle on Ice, more than a decade before anyone knew women played soccer, a Canadian team fell just short in its bid to produce its own miracle of sorts.

Thirty-nine years prior to Monday night’s Canada-Netherlands Women’s World Cup clash, this country’s men suited up in the only other senior international match played here at the Olympic Stadium, a narrow 2-1 loss to the Soviet Union at the 1976 Games.

For a nation not exactly littered with football folklore, Canadian footy fans typically invoke 1986 — Canada’s only appearance at a men’s World Cup — as this country’s high point in soccer achievement, the launch pad for everything to come (which hasn’t been much).

But a decade before Mexico ’86, an amateur group of Canadians — mostly in their early 20s — laid the groundwork for what was the first major international soccer match played in this country.

Everything else — a men’s World Cup appearance, Olympic bronze medals, hosting the women’s tournament this summer — came later.

“I think of (that game) when I think about being Canadian,” said Jack Brand, who started in goal that day against the Soviets here in Montreal. “When I walked out, when the anthems were played, I had never experienced that. That I can see now … I had tears.”

For Brand’s teammate, Kevin Grant, the moments leading up to Canada’s near-miracle are ingrained in his mind. They’re reflections that provoke chills, moments that will be replicated Monday night for Canada’s women.

“I remember warming up and people starting to fill the stands,” Grant, a 23-year-old defender during those Games, told the Toronto Sun. “You march out together. The minute you come into view, the stadium erupts. The fans got behind us very solidly that day.

“The atmosphere was absolutely electric. When the national anthem was sung, it sent goosebumps through me.”

There were close to 35,000 fans at the Olympic Stadium for that 1976 opener. There will be more than that for Monday night’s do-or-die tilt, one Canada must win if it hopes to progress to the quarterfinals and beyond.

The Dutch women, though, aren’t the powerhouse squad the Russian men were during the 1970s.

The Soviets showed up in ’76 with a stacked roster of professionals who were competing at the highest levels in Europe, including the reigning World Player of the Year, Oleh Blokhin.

Across from the Communists were the Canadians, who trained in split squads prior to the Olympics due to “funding” issues. Players from B.C., trained out west. The Ontario boys trained in the east prior to the Games.

“We wanted to do as (Canadian women’s coach) John Herdman has for the Women’s World Cup, which was keep the team together prior to the Olympics,” Grant said. “We’d get together for an occasional tour. Preparation wasn’t the best.”

That lack of preparedness manifested itself within the first quarter-hour against the heavily favoured Soviets, who found themselves comfortably in front inside a quarter-hour courtesy two goals from Volodymyr Onyshchenko.

“They were very methodical,” Grant remembered. “Fit as can be. Run all day … Not only did they have a well-drilled, typically Russian kind of team, they also had some individual players.”

WASN'T SLOWED

Like Blokhin, whose pace wasn’t slowed by his six-foot frame. The left-footer was making top European defenders look like pylons at the time.

“That was probably the most memorable thing, when he would attack the fullback,” Brand said. “He’d run at the player, push the ball past and run past the defender like a train.”

With the Soviets up a pair, Blokhin threatened to put the match out of reach until Canadian Soccer Hall of Famer Jimmy Douglas pulled one back in the 88th minute.

“It was the perfect underdog feeling,” Brand recalled upon seeing Douglas cut the lead in half. “We didn’t believe we could beat them, but then we smelled blood. The attitude is you never give up. Jimmy Douglas was a great example of that attitude. I think the upset was close.”

With the backing of a pro-Canada crowd — the largest ever to watch a Canadian men’s international at the time — the players on the pitch remember feeling lost in the moment, a kind of surreal experience with noise levels reaching deafening decibels.

“With it being a bowl, it captures the noise,” Grant said of the game’s final moments. “You get carried along. The crowd is so behind you that you find energy you never had before.”

Sensing a miracle, the crowd grew in support of the home side in the waning moments of what was a Miracle on Ice-like David vs. Goliath matchup.

“When they sensed the sensation in the second half, when we were almost tying the game, the crowd got even more behind us,” Brand added.

The would-be miracle, however, never materialized in a narrow loss, a defeat that buried the 1976 side in obscurity.

Now, Canadian soccer buffs largely ignore them. The 1986 World Cup squad — despite failing to score a goal — receives most, if not all of the plaudits.

“It (1986) was a good year because they made it to the World Cup,” Brand stated. “But the players in 1976 were of the same quality.”

After being brought in “at the last minute,” Canada’s head coach Colin Morris called the ’76 team’s performance “magnificent” and a “wonderful display of what we can do” despite failing to advance beyond group play.

“He tried to mould us into a team,” Grant said of Morris. “He did a good job organizing us.

“We could defend, but we couldn’t attack very well.”

In that sense, not much has changed. Close to 40 years after Brand and Grant helped open Olympic Stadium, Canada’s women haven’t conceded in three straight matches heading into Monday night. During that time, though, they’ve scored just once from the run of play.

“The women are carrying the torch for Canadian soccer right now,” Brand explained.

Despite expectations being ratcheted up by Herdman, media and fans across this country, Canada is still very much an underdog to reach the World Cup final.

Against the Netherlands, though, they’re expected to win — pressure that wasn’t thrust upon the previous senior Canadian team to play here at Olympic Stadium.

“A good piece of advice (for the women) in a special moment is you have nothing to lose,” Brant said. “Don’t dwell with your thoughts on what may go wrong. This is your chance and just give it your best shot.

“You have the privilege of being there. You’re alive. Now give it your best shot and enjoy it. Women’s soccer, in my opinion, is big for the game in this country.”

If the 1976 squad helped ignite the torch, it’s very much up to Herdman’s side to help carry it forward — especially when you consider the lacklustre state of Canada’s embattled men’s team.

Although today’s Big Owe barely resembles the pristine venue it was four decades ago, the game day experiences between the ’76 men’s team and the 2015 women’s team will be similar.

“It will be fantastic for the girls,” Grant said. “It will be one where they have to take it all in.

“You need to feed off the energy but don’t get overly excited.”

LESSON LEARNED?

Herdman told the assembled media prior to last week’s match against New Zealand that Canada was better.

Then they drew the Football Ferns.

Herdman was less excited to make big statements ahead of Monday’s game against the Dutch.

When asked by the Toronto Sun if he thinks Canada is better than the Dutch, Herdman seemed far more measured.

“Different team, different approach, different press conference,” he answered.

“Tactically, on and off the pitch, a different approach. (The Netherlands is) a very good team with a world-class striker.

“We’re going to have to be right at our best to take three points off this team.”

Herdman added during Sunday’s pre-match press conference that his girls are eager to bring excitement back to Montreal — something this venue, in terms of Team Canada results, hasn’t had in quite some time.

A win here Monday wouldn’t be the miracle nearly achieved by the men who came long before them. But it would go a long way in potentially setting one up down the road.

MONTREAL — Maybe it’s for the best that former Canadian international Jack Brand hasn’t been inside the Olympic Stadium since opening the 1976 Games against the Soviet Union.

All of those good memories would likely die instantly.

“It was beautiful,” Brand recalled. “It was magnificent. For the opening ceremony, the stadium was great.”

Back then, the big white lid atop current-day Olympic Stadium hadn’t yet suffocated the once open-air venue. More notably, real grass covered the track-surrounded infield until the Montreal Expos moved in a year after the Olympics wrapped up.

“The grass was excellent,” Brand added. “It was fantastic.”

Don’t tell that to U.S. international Abby Wambach. She ranted over the weekend that the American team would have more goals if this Women’s World Cup were being played on natural surfaces — something she and others sued FIFA and the Canadian Soccer Association over last year. All six venues for this summer’s Women’s World Cup feature field turf.

“I think I score if we’re on grass,” Wambach told ESPN’s Jeff Carlisle, noting a few of the header attempts she has failed to convert the past few games. “The ball, as it comes off my head against Sweden, hits a dry turf and bounces higher. If it hits grass, it’s harder for a goalkeeper to react. So if the ball bounces higher, the goalkeeper has more time to react off the turf.”

U.S. soccer legend Landon Donovan also threw his support behind Wambach’s anti-turf sentiment.

“Well said, Abby Wambach,” Donovan tweeted Sunday. “Hard for casual fans to understand how much turf changes the game, especially for attackers.”

Organizers have done their best to fix up the plastic pitch here at Olympic Stadium by using more padding. In the end, though, it won’t make much of a difference. This stadium is a crumbling mess compared to the venue Brand and his buddies played in close to 40 years ago.

“Say hello to that stadium for me,” Brand laughed.

At this point, though, it’s unlikely they’d recognize each other.