Ismaël Koné almost passed out. Cyle Larin was almost deafened.
Seventy-eight minutes into a Friday lunchtime where 'almost' looked like becoming a Canadian curse, one decisive moment sparked an uproarious outpouring of emotion.
Until last week, Toronto Stadium was BMO Field.
In his post-match press conference, Canada coach Jesse Marsch's head was still scrambled enough that he tripped over the stadium's name: 'It doesn't feel like the same BMO … I guess … you guys didn't hear that.'
No one has heard the home of Canadian football sound like it did when Larin lashed in his late equaliser to grab a first-ever men's World Cup point for the tournament's co-hosts in their 1-1 draw with Bosnia and Herzegovina.
'Honestly, I felt like I was going to faint. It was crazy,' said Koné, the Sassuolo midfielder whose slaloming run off the left sparked the breakthrough.
'I felt like we did everything to give ourselves the chance to score.
We were on top of them, we were pushing the game, we had momentum, we hit the bar.
We deserved it. It was just a relief.'
Larin had been dropped to the bench for this long-awaited home opener. He took just two minutes to prove his point after coming on.
As the decibels soared, he wheeled away to the southwest corner and put an index finger into each ear.
'That's for the fans, the reporters, and the journalists who say I shouldn't have been where I'm supposed to be,' said Larin.
'But I've always proved them wrong. And I did it again.
Hopefully now they can shut up.'
Marsch had originally reshuffled his attack after two insipid displays in warm-up games against Uzbekistan and Ireland.
Larin and Jonathan David, Canada's record scorer, hadn't clicked, and the lack of finishing was causing the coach to get cranky.
'We're going to score more goals,' insisted Marsch. 'So I don't have to put up with any more stupid questions from you guys.'
Marsch was just 12 minutes away from a full press conference worth of questions he'd find stupid. Larin helped him avoid feeling foolish.
David's glaring early miss and otherwise ineffective performance was probably the biggest negative from an afternoon that ended with such positivity.
Tani Oluwaseyi, who replaced Larin in the starting XI, blazed an equally great opportunity over. On the hour, Marsch called David ashore and replaced him with Promise David.
That lasted only 16 minutes until Larin was unleashed and did the business, thanks in large part to a delicious flick from Promise David in the buildup.
Marsch was asked if he hoped this would be the dam-buster for his entire attack.
'On one level you can say the subs we made [had] a big impact so they were some good decisions,' he said.
'But I gotta figure a way to get more out of the starters too.'
Learning From the Tense Moments
Next, his team jet across the country to Vancouver, where they will play Qatar on Thursday. One luxury afforded the co-hosts is an extra day's break between games.
Marsch could do with it as he weighs up his options.
He admitted Jonathan David 'didn't have his best day' but argued that Larin's goal could spark a wider release.
'A home World Cup is a different occasion. It's a different feel,' added Marsch.
'I do think we'll learn from this and if you look at World Cups historically, doesn't matter if it's Argentina losing to Saudi Arabia last World Cup or different scenarios where it starts a little bit tense in the beginning stages.
Then the games come more to life and you see truer versions of teams.'
In the second half, when Canada were building momentum, Alphonso Davies sat on a cooler on the edge of the home dugout, his chin perched in his hand.
The captain needs time to recover from injury, as does defender Moïse Bombito.
Perhaps the greatest gift Larin delivered was time. The equaliser also helped give Canada its moment of belonging at its own World Cup.
'I haven't scored in a while, but I knew it was coming,' said Larin. 'I've always come up [big] when Canada needed me.'
