Good Monday morning Caps fans. Hope you all had a lovely weekend and that your workweek is kicking into gear.

It was another historic night for Canada on Sunday, when Stephen Eustaquio scored the biggest goal in national team history to fire the Canadians through to the round of 16.

It was a resolute display from South Africa but there was little doubt that Canada deserved their goal. The Canadians once again struggled to find goals from open play, though they were unlucky not to get a first-half penalty. But Eustaqiuo’s stoppage time strike from range erased all of those problems in the blink of an eye. It was a masterful game from the midfielder, who made a good argument for working his way back into the plans of his club team, Porto. If he doesn’t, boy, wouldn’t he be a nice Sebastian Berhalter replacement?

It was too bad that the dramatic finish didn’t happen on Canadian soil. But the response after a disappointing end to the group stage was encouraging, and the rapturous scenes at watch parties in Vancouver and Toronto showed that the impact of the moment was well and truly felt nationwide.

Their reward will be a difficult round of 16 match against either Netherlands or Morocco, both of whom are better teams on paper. But I wasn’t overly impressed with either side’s end to the group stage. And a matchup with Morocco would help exorcise some demons from Qatar 2022. No matter what, Canadian football should be energized, and supporters should be basking in the glow of this win. When we look back, this could be the Landon Donovan versus Algeria in 2010 moment that minted a whole new generation of fans in Canada.

Shameless Self Promotion

We run down the three takeaways from the dramatic winner in Los Angeles.

Best of the Rest

The Whitecaps 2 side fell to the Colorado Rapids 2 1-0 over the weekend.

More on Eustaquio’s heroics and how he got to this moment on the world’s stage.

Polish superstar Robert Lewandowski is reportedly set to sign for the Chicago Fire.

AFC Toronto used a second half surge to beat Vancouver Rise 3-1 on Sunday at Swangard.