Canada reached the World Cup last 16 for the first time in their history as Stephen Eustáquio's 92nd-minute volley broke South African hearts in Los Angeles, sending Jesse Marsch's side through to face either Morocco or the Netherlands in Houston on July 4.
In a match South Africa had largely controlled in terms of possession, determined to drag the game to extra time, Eustáquio found himself with the ball at the top of the penalty area following an incomplete clearance and hammered it into the bottom corner past goalkeeper Ronwen Williams. It was his fifth international goal in his 60th appearance for Canada.
Alphonso Davies made his tournament debut off the bench after missing the entire group stage with a hamstring injury, providing Canada with fresh impetus at a crucial moment.
Marsch gathered his players in a huddle at full-time and delivered a message that became the defining image of the night.
"You guys are Canadian heroes today," Marsch told his players. "Canadian heroes. Canadian heroes for the future children of this country who play this sport.
"This sport has a big future because of you guys. You should be so proud of who you are. You should be so proud of this game — you never lost belief, you went after it."
He expanded on the significance of the win for the development of the sport in the country.
"I wanted to be able to voice to them how important a moment this will prove to be for the sport in the country," Marsch said. "It is a shame we couldn't do it in Vancouver, in front of our fans, but nevertheless I think you saw the character of the team, the quality of the team, the mentality of the team and the togetherness of the team. In general my goal in this tournament, apart from inspiring our nation, was to make a run that we could get to see one of the giants of the world.
"Given Morocco's last six years they are a modern giant and given the success of the Dutch team for what feels like centuries that is a traditional giant. I feel like it is a free hit and we will go after it and do whatever we can to get a win."
Eustáquio, who had captained the team in Davies' absence before handing the armband back to his teammate on his return, was overcome by the moment.
"We worked a lot to get this victory," Eustáquio said. "We really wanted to give this win to all the Canadians. We just kept believing and kept pushing. It was an amazing goal, but when I shot I felt everyone shot with me. Everybody put a little bit of power on it and it went to the back of the net, so I'm very happy. We will try to make Morocco and Netherlands see our game and feel, if they go through, they're going to get the hardest game they're going to face in this World Cup. I think we did an amazing job and it's going to be an amazing game next week."
Canada had won their group stage against all expectations — including a 6-0 thrashing of Qatar that became the first-ever World Cup win in their history — before this knockout success. Davies said before the match he had been brought to tears by the sight of so many Canadian fans at their opening game in Toronto, and Sunday's crowd at SoFi Stadium roared them home.