Jonathan Osorio winning race for fitness ahead of Qatar World Cup

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Jonathan Osorio is no stranger to tackling history head on.

Back in 2016, he bagged the winning goal as Toronto FC won a playoff game for the first time, helping to sweep away a decade of ineptitude. Last October, he ended an even longer spell of futility, scoring the equalizer in Mexico City as Canada found the net at the Azteca Stadium for the first time since 1980, earning his country a first World Cup qualifying point at the legendary venue in 41 years.

So, on paper, the prospect of heading to Qatar and ending a 36-year wait for a goal in the World Cup finals would seem right up Osorio’s alley. However, it’s the least of his – or his teammates’ – concerns, particularly with European heavyweights Belgium and Croatia, along with the Atlas Lions of Morocco, lying in wait in the round robin.

“We’re not so much talking about that specifically,” the 30-year-old midfielder said. “I think the team more talks about being successful at the World Cup and winning a game at the World Cup and finding our way out of the group.

“That’s what we speak about because I feel that we have much bigger ambitions than just to score one goal at the World Cup. We’re aware of the history of Canada at the World Cup, we want to change that and we want to make new history for the country.”

Scoring goals was something that had been coming more naturally for the Toronto native this season, with Osorio well on his way to a career high after scoring nine goals in his first 20 appearances in Major League Soccer. His previous best of 10 was set over 30 games in 2018.

However, an elbow to the head from Chicago Fire forward Xherdan Shaqiri in July left Osorio with concussion-like symptoms, including frequent headaches and vision problems. After initially claiming it was a “neurological dysfunction,” that diagnosis was eventually changed to postconcussion syndrome, limiting Osorio to just 18 minutes of play in the final seven games as TFC missed the playoffs for the second consecutive season.

Following initial worries that the symptoms could linger and throw his World Cup into doubt, Osorio is happy to confirm that he’s been ramping up his workload for the past couple of weeks – with no repercussions – at TFC’s training facility. As a result, nqata.

“Luckily for me, it’s gone well,” he said of his recovery. “A little bit of a slow process, but you know, there was enough time for me to get better from injury and then also get fit enough to be ready to help at the World Cup.”

The friendly in Bahrain is one of two remaining tests for the Canadian men ahead of their opening game against Belgium on Nov. 23, the other being an exhibition against Japan on Nov. 17. The timing is especially beneficial for Osorio, who has been able to work on his fitness, but has been unable to see how he measures up to the pace of a competitive game.

However, he doesn’t see any reason why he shouldn’t be able to regain the form he was displaying earlier this year.

“I feel that the way my mind is thinking the game and everything has not slowed down,” he said. “I’m still seeing the openings and spaces the same way that I was during the season, so that’s good. It’s just about getting my body now to the same speed as what my brain is thinking.”

Speed of thought was one of the things that set Osorio’s idol – Zinedine Zidane – apart from his peers, and the Canadian recalls his first World Cup memories of living with his grandparents and watching Zizou lead France to its first world championship with a comprehensive 3-0 victory over Brazil in the 1998 final.

With Canada set to make its first appearance in the tournament since 1986, though, Osorio says that he grew up supporting the country of his parents’ birth, Colombia.

“My family, they’re all from Columbia,” he said. “So I’m actually a first-generation Canadian and so we – I mean Canada – at that moment the sport was not big in the country, and we weren’t very competitive. And so for us we would always follow Colombia.”

In a twist of fate, Osorio had to relocate to South America to launch his career, joining the academy of Uruguayan powerhouse Club Nacional de Football in 2010 alongside fellow national-team regular Lucas Cavallini. The pair, who both played for Clarkson Sheridan Soccer Club in Mississauga before the move, shared an apartment in Montevideo for two years before their paths went separate ways.

Along with giving him exposure to the same kind of training that produced Uruguayan superstar Luis Suarez, Osorio credits the country’s fighting spirit for getting him to where he is today. That spirit, known as garra charrua, has been integral to much of the country’s success on the soccer field, with Uruguay, and its population of just 3.5 million, easily the smallest country to win the World Cup once, let alone the two successes that it has to its name.

“I will say a big part of the player that I am today was developed down there,” Osorio said. “Moreso I think than anything was the mentality of being a professional and fighting for your spot and earning everything that you get.”

That mentality has served him well as he’s recovered from his postconcussion syndrome, just as it served him well as he helped turned Toronto FC from league doormat to MLS champion when the team won it all in 2017.

While he’s out of contract at year’s end, Osorio understandably refuses to be drawn on his future, even though TFC president Bill Manning said after the season that the club would make him an offer that would ensure he could retire as a Red.

But having been through the good times and the bad, for both club and country, Osorio is well positioned to spot the similarities between the two as both teams have risen to contention.

“I think in all successful teams, there’s certain factors that are that are similar, like the culture and the environment of your workplace and things like that,” he said. “And that was really similar between what I experienced in Toronto and now what I’m experiencing in Canada.”