The person who got him was the goalie.
Milan Borjan didused John Herdman with champagne during a TV interview. It was a small miracle that he had stayed dry for so long. Canada secured its place in the World Cup for the first time in 26 years with a win over Jamaica on March 27.
Borjan wore a "WE CAN" T-shirt and ski goggles to protect against champagne and said that he deserved the award. The man did everything.
Not all of it.
Even though he has no experience as a high-level professional player, he has done everything else. The first manager to qualify both a women's and a men's national team in the same World Cup is John Herdman.
Over the course of his career, the 46-year-old has worked with academy players, maintained a career as a lecturer in sports science and sought wisdom from across disciplines.
Two years ago it felt impossible, but by this March it seemed like he would be at the center of those celebrations. The qualification formats for the World Cup put Canada in a difficult position. Canada is the first side from the region to confirm it's World Cup spot after it dispatched the likes of the Cayman Islands and Aruba. They won 11 and drew three to open, with 50 goals scored and just six conceded, but lost two of their final three games.
The first Canadian sporting scene that comes to mind is a kid hitting a slap shot on a frozen pond. Sam Adekugbe, who plays club football in Turkey and was born in London and eligible to play for Nigeria, leaped into a snow bank after Cyle Larin scored for Canada. Canada took four points off El Tri in the final round after a 2-2 draw in Mexico. In Nashville, Tennessee, and Hamilton, Ontario, the United States lost four points.
At times it feels like he can do anything. He's going to coach a Canadian men's team at the World Cup, something he's never done before.
With good results in recent years and a number of players standing out in European leagues, Canada didn't miss out on the chance to qualify. Without a lot of recent history, the Reds had to take the long way.
Without a bye into the final phase of the qualification process, Canada played four matches in the first round, then had a two-legged series with Haiti.
That approach made sense to Herdman. When he's fit, the Englishman uses Davies' flexibility to modify the game plan. Davies might play as a left-back in a back four against a team with a winger. Davies might push up the wing against a small team. He was a perfect wing-back, a player no defender wanted to see run at them, but who also got back to make life difficult for their attackers.
Although he respects the U.S. and Mexico, he believes his upbringing gave him an advantage.
I know people who are very detailed. "I think the edge for me is that I'm from the backstreets of Consett, County Durham, so I've had some amazing experiences, but I think the edge for me is that I'm from there," he said. I have never been given anything easy. I have never been in that profession. I had to fight for everything and you had to fight for it.
I tried to make that fight happen in the environments I work in. That's the beginning of it. The core of what the players have understood about working with us is that there is a human will to go on and get better.
The players used to have a vacation vibe when they were at national team camps. He became the men's team's coach in January of last year.
Junior said in January that it was completely different. There are no self-agendas and what John Herdman put in place is a real "brother culture". Everyone knows why they're here, they're on the right path.
You can see that everyone is on board. Everyone is trying to get the best for the team and the country. There is an exciting time for Canada.
He is an education teacher. He remembers running from coaching sessions to his job as a teacher. It's easy to believe that he's leading Canada now that he was obsessed with honing his craft.
He never would have reached this level if he hadn't left home. The doors to elite coaching in England seem to be closed for those who haven't played top-level soccer, so he took the chance to go to Oceania and forge a path there. He found his craft in New Zealand thanks to the multi-disciplinary exchange programs set up by the country's Olympic committee and other organizations. He took over the women's national teams after a few years working in the FA and led them to the World Cup and the Olympics.
He said that heading into New Zealand was the best decision he'd ever made because he broke away from the British coaching system.
Rebecca "Bex" Smith, a defender who served as Herdman's captain, saw the young coach workshopping several of the leadership techniques he'd later end up applying to his work in Canada.
For a long time there we were punching above our weight in the sense that we had a young squad, fairly inexperienced, but just the amount of research that John and his staff used to do. The self- improvement slogan was always there.
There were good times.
She said that John was intense. I was his captain for a long time. He's a good speaker and we sometimes butted heads. He motivates people because of his intensity. He focused a lot on the emotional side of leadership.
Canada was interested in the consistent results of New Zealand at the Olympics and World Cup. As Canada prepared to host its own World Cup in 2015, Herdman became the national team coach.
It was a bit of a gamble for Canada to give the reigns of the national team to an inexperienced coach. Christine Sinclair had more international goals than anyone else. New talent was coming through the middle of Diana Matheson's team.
In his first major tournament, Herdman leaned on the experience of winning the Pan American Games to encourage more competition for spots in an effort to make everyone better.
He was part of the women's squad that won two Olympic bronze medals and made the quarterfinals in the World Cup. He became the men's national team coach, as well as the men's national director and take charge of the youth programs, after Octavio Zambrano left. It was a surprise shift, but one that has worked well for a country that is still in its infancy.
People have said that if you haven't played the game, you won't make it as a coach. The next thing is that you won't make it as a men's coach because you are a women's coach. "Internally, there is that motivation, but at the end of the day, this transition from coaching women to men was motivated by knowing if you qualified for a World Cup with a men's team, you could change the game in a country."
Canada has a soccer team. The reigning Olympic gold-medal winner is the senior women's team, led by Consett native and former Herdman player Beverly Priestman. When he was named, they were ninth, but reached a high of fourth. The men are going to the World Cup and are ranked 38th in the world.
Borjan, who has 63 caps for Canada, said it was amazing to make something new for the country. They want to be better than us. There isn't anything going up. Canada is a well-known country. It has to keep going.
For that to happen, the country needs both teams to continue setting the example, getting neutrals to look at what's happening with the national team and showing kids the power of soccer.
We will be the first to things. In my 20s, I adopted that mentality. I'm going to be first in a lot of things. "Over time, it becomes part of this team's identity that we want to be the first team to qualify out of CONCACAF, we want to be the first team to go unscathed, and we want to be top at the Christmas period."
The dream of remaining perfect in the qualification tournament came to an end in March when Costa Rica beat them in a game that boosted their World Cup chances. Canada needs to adjust its goals after achieving so many firsts, as it looks toward an intimidating group in Qatar.
We aren't going to show up just to show up. We want to change people's minds.
Canada fans were reminded of the potential speedbumps this week when a dispute between players and the federation resulted in the cancellation of a friendly against Panama. The Canada goal is the first ever at the World Cup. It was the first victory. It was the first time that I got out of a group.
Perhaps he'll feel the cold comfort of a fresh bottle of champagne being poured over his head again, as he works on the plan to make those firsts happen.
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