What a homecoming for Milan Borjan, as Canada stuns U.S. 2-0 before frenzied crowd in Hamilton

It was a thing of beauty. Absolute beauty.

It was also a Happy Birthday from Team Canada to their goalkeeper's dad.

It was the perfect present for him," Milan Borjan said of his father, Bosko, who brought the Borjan family to Canada from Serbia more than two decades ago and, soon thereafter, to Hamilton.

Borjan was the firm anchor of Canada's gripping 2-0 victory over Team USA at Tim Hortons Field Sunday afternoon, making a stunning save just before halftime to keep Canada up 1-0 and allowing his teammates to continue to ride defensive concentration. He was also the first man on the scene when it appeared that emotions might get the better of one of his younger teammates.

As the sun set - but not on Canada's World Cup qualifying chances - there was a spectacular tableau that five years ago Canadian, and Hamilton, soccer fans could only have dreamed of, with 12,000 red-and-white-draped crazies, screaming like thrice that many, and writhing as if they'd been possessed.

Below them, Team Canada mobbed Samuel Adekugbe on the east sidelines after his pinch-us-this-can't-be-happening goal in injury time clinched the final result.

Scattered around the rest of the pitch, frustrated American soccer players hung their heads in defeated acceptance.

And moments later, there was Borjan, playing his first game in 17 years here, flat on his back in celebration, arms and legs splayed like he was preparing to carve a snow angel.

For the third straight game he had made the enormous save which preserved a Canadian win, reacting quickly to knock away Weston McKinnie's header.

I don't know what to say," Borjan said after the game. There's too many emotions with me. It's been a long time for this and we deserve it.

It's just unbelievable. These guys don't know how to stop. It's not just my save, it's the whole team."

Canada remains undefeated and atop the North American region qualifying round for November's men's World Cup in Qatar, with six wins and four draws and one more game, Wednesday night in El Salvador, in this window" of games.

Qualifying resumes with the final three games in March, and Canada is on the cusp of mathematically clinching a spot. But Borjan and head coach John Herdman won't go there, at all. The only thing they see ahead is one game in San Salvador.

Sunday's win was the first for Canada over the U.S. in men's World Cup qualifying since 1980, and if they do manage to finish in the top three of the eight-team regional tournament, would gain the country's first berth in the global soccer extravaganza in 37 years.

Cyle Larin, the all-time Canadian men's international goals, muscled his way past a very strong American backfield off a feed from Jonathan David to give Canada a lead in the seventh minute. That allowed Herdman to make a tactical switch and allow the Americans more possession time, but few good chances. On the best of those, Borjan made his memorable save.

I have no words for the performances he has put up for us," Adekugbe said. Huge, huge saves for us at bg moments. We know going into games that he's going to have to come up big for us a couple of times and he does."

Herdman added that Borjan, wasn't massively busy but he had to pull out that one big save and he did. When Milan Borjan is dialed in, he's one of the best around."

He was dialed in, and so was the rest of the team and now Qatar is so close you can taste it, as this team continues to grab the hearts of a nation: even in the midst of the hockey season. Over the weekend, both the New York Times and Washington Post wrote big features previewing the Hamilton game and Canada's seemingly-meteoric rise in international soccer.

And Tim Hortons Field, despite capacity being limited to half the normal 24,000, was the perfect stage for it. As Team Canada's bus drew close to the stadium before the game, it was surrounded by adoring fans and the wafting red smoke from celebratory flares. Those fans weren't all from Hamilton, because people arrived from around the country just to be part of something they can feel growing by the minute.

But this is where it happened.

I've seen nothing like it," Herdman said afterward. It's what we've dreamed of. It's the first time I've really felt like I'm living in a soccer country. It was like Liverpool arriving for a Champions League game, no exaggeration. The flares going off, the people in the mosh pit, the bus could hardly get through it.

The boys feel it, they just absorb it."

Adekugbe concurred: I've seen it before but never quite like that. It helped a lot. The fans were tremendous, before the game and all through the game."

Afterwards, Borjan gathered his team together on the field to remind them that they had not climbed the whole ladder, just another step, although one step much nearer the top.

I told them the job wasn't done yet, we can't celebrate," he said. We want to get to that World Cup."

That Sunday of beauty has brought them so much closer to that.

Steve Milton is a Hamilton-based sports columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: smilton@thespec.com