LOS ANGELES – Years from now, when people bring up Stephen Eustaquio’s name and Canada’s heroic first World Cup knockout win, they might forget what happened just 16 minutes before the midfielder banged home his thrilling stoppage-time goal to beat South Africa.Eustaquio’s teammate, Alphonso Davies, finally walked on the pitch for Canada for the first time in 15 months. Eustaquio was named captain to start the game, as he had been in 2023 before Jesse Marsch took over as Canada head coach.Eustaquio was captain in eight previous games under Marsch while Davies was dealing with various injuries. Anyone who has spent more than a few minutes with the 29-year-old understands that his rock-solid demeanour, constant professionalism and impassioned way of speaking makes him the definition of a leader.And as Davies walked onto the field as a substitute, Eustaquio did as he always does: he led. He took off the captain’s armband and gave it to Davies.Alphonso Davies is given the captain’s armband by Stephen Eustaquio (Fran Santiago/Getty Images)Eustaquio did not have to do that. He was in the middle of another performance dripping with determination, the kind that has defined his Canada career.But he gave Davies the armband because he likely knew how monumental a moment this was for his teammate, stepping onto the same pitch where he last played for Canada in March 2025. Davies tore his anterior cruciate ligament at SoFi Stadium almost a year and a half ago, and if Eustaquio could fill Davies with confidence on his return, that’s what he would do.“I’m over the moon,” Eustaquio said of Canada beating South Africa. “But at the same time, I don’t want to say that the job’s finished.”Canada's fairytale continues and South Korean misery | World Cup BriefingMegan Feringa and Amitai WinehouseEustaquio is the emotional heartbeat of this team. And so it was fitting he scored one of the biggest goals in Canadian sports history, because it epitomized all that he is about: a fighter who can will his team forward with effort and pressing. Canada’s win over South Africa was not always a Picasso, but it does take a lot of resilience to keep grinding away before scoring in stoppage time. It would have been easy to lose hope in their World Cup future against a testy side that just would not go away.But Eustaquio moved — likely exhausted — in union with his team towards South Africa’s box. After an errant header, he used his smarts to corral the ball with his chest. And he used his leadership to take the game into his own hands.Canada had looked tentative with their chances at times but Eustaquio stepped up: he hardly looked tentative as he smashed the ball past goalkeeper Ronwen Williams and into Canadian folklore.And even after scoring the biggest goal in the country’s men’s soccer history, the Los Angeles FC man wanted to talk about others. He wanted his team to move forward as a collective.“I felt that everybody on the team shot that ball with me,” Eustaquio said.Stephen Eustaquio has a quiet moment in the locker room after the game (Jared C. Tilton / FIFA via Getty Images)In 2025, I asked him what was going to make him important at the World Cup. He didn’t want to talk about how he could attack different parts of the pitch with the ball or his strong set-piece delivery. He wanted to talk about the thing he brings when Canada needs it.“I think what’s going to make me important at the World Cup is the leadership I try to bring to the team,” he said, before detailing where he thinks Canada would need to improve at different points during a game.Eustaquio deserved to have this moment not because of the technical quality he showed on the day, but because of how he has led this team for so long.“He’s very proud of his work,” goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau told me of Eustaquio in 2025.When you consider this Canadian core, Eustaquio was arguably the first true important dual-national player on a team full of them. Born in Canada, he moved to Portugal when he was seven. His parents are Portuguese. He developed through various Portuguese club academies. In 2017, he played for Portugal Under-21s and was on the verge of playing in the country’s top division. Given his trajectory, few would have been surprised if he had eventually played for that country’s senior team.But in 2019 he joined Canada — who were ranked a lowly 79th in the world at the time — because he wanted to lead the country to new places.“I have big dreams when it comes to playing for Canada,” Eustaquio said as part of an announcement video.And through his six-and-a-half years with the program, he has realized those dreams by always leading.He is never afraid to speak his mind. He does so with emotion and purpose when his teammates need to hear it.“We need to score goals, guys,” Eustaquio shouted at them at halftime of Canada’s first World Cup game against Bosnia and Herzegovina, when they were down 1-0. “We have two chances and we need to put them in the back of the net.”“He demands high standards of people in training,” Liam Millar said of Eustaquio. “In everyday life, he demands high standards of himself.”Eutaquio is comfortable leading Canada in public and in private.He did not start against Switzerland because of a minor injury. But there he was during the first hydration break, keeping Jonathan David from immediately returning to the field as Eustaquio gave him detailed and emphatic instructions. The forward nodded along intently. David likely felt what people close to Eustaquio felt when they described him in 2021 as “a coach on the field and he’s only 24 years old.”He leads quietly, too. In the October 2025 international window, Canada trained with grey toques that supported the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada. Eustaquio lost his mother to brain cancer in 2023 and he brought the team the toques to raise awareness of the foundation. The team posed for a photo with them.“Maybe it’s a good thing that I can use my platform to spread awareness because of what I went through with my mother,” Eustaquio told me during that international window.Both of Eustaquio’s parents died within the span of 13 months. Esmeralda and Armando were Stephen’s leaders.After their deaths, he learned how to be a different kind of leader himself. He learned he had to savour the moments, because they are fleeting.“If you asked me at 20 years old if, in every training session and every game, I was thinking about it being the last game of my life?” Eustaquio told The Athletic in 2024. “No, I was a kid, I was naive. But now, I have to take into consideration: ‘OK, what am I here for?’.”On Sunday, he provided an answer: the goal he deserved to score created a lifetime of memories for Canadians and changed the sport in the process by doing as he’s always done.“We have a special group,” Eustaquio said after his goal. “We feel like we’re all brothers. And at the same time, when we fight for each other, when we play for each other, special things like this can happen.”