Canada loses to Ivory Coast, but wins Canadian Shield

• Canada 0, Ivory Coast 0
• Canadians come out on wrong end of 5-4 penalty shootout loss
• Canadian men win 1st international competition since 2000

TORONTO – Talk about a tale of two completely different games.

After romping to a convincing victory over Ukraine, a Canadian men’s team that underwent wholesale personnel changes was made to suffer before doing just enough against Ivory Coast on Tuesday night to come out on top and win the inaugural Canadian Shield.

The two nations played to a 0-0 draw in 90 minutes of regulation and went straight to a penalty shootout which Canada lost 5-4 in front of an announced crowd of 18,489 at BMO Field.

But Canada still managed to win its first international tournament since hoisting the trophy at the 2000 Concacaf Gold Cup. Of course, the Canadian Shield isn’t on par with the FIFA World Cup or Gold Cup. But those tournaments had to start somehow, too. Who knows? Maybe in a few years we’ll be talking about the Canadian Shield in reverential tones.