New Delhi, June 26 -- Forty seconds into the second half at BC Place, with fifty-three thousand Canadian voices still settling after the break, Ruben Vargas arrived at the back post and lashed Johan Manzambi's low cross into the net. The noise that had been building all evening dropped. Canada had needed a single point to top Group B. They held it for forty-five minutes and forty seconds.

but the result, built across a hard-won draw against Bosnia in Toronto and a dominant performance in Edmonton, fell apart in eleven minutes at the one stadium where everything was at stake.

Canada had controlled the first half as well as a team in their position needed to. Switzerland carried possession but not penetration: the Swiss found space in wid...