Randy Samuel - International Career

International Career

Samuel earned his first cap for Canada in a 3–1 loss to Honduras in San Pedro Sula on 11 November 1983. After a further ten appearances in friendly games, the only victory coming against his birth nation Trinidad and Tobago, he played seven of Canada's eight games at the 1985 CONCACAF Championship; they finished above Honduras and Costa Rica in the final round to claim the nation's first major honour in the sport since the 1904 Olympics. Their success won them a place at the 1986 World Cup finals - thus far the country's only appearance at the World Cup finals. Samuel played all three of Canada's games in Mexico; a 1–0 defeat to France and 2–0 defeats to Hungary and the Soviet Union.

Canada missed out on qualification to the 1989 CONCACAF Championship after losing to Guatemala on away goals. Samuel continued to feature regularly though, and appeared in the 1990 North American Nations Cup, which Canada won. He went on to play two of Canada's three games at the 1991 CONCACAF Gold Cup.

He played five of Canada's six group games in the First Round of 1994 World Cup qualification, as they finished ahead of Jamaica and Bermuda to qualify for the final round of group games. He played each of the two games against Mexico, El Salvador and Honduras; they finished second behind the Mexicans, meaning they had to beat Australia in a CONCACAF – OFC play-off in order to qualify. Before this game was the 1993 CONCACAF Gold Cup; Samuels played all three of Canada's games, including the 8–0 capitulation to Mexico in front of 70,000 Mexicans at the Estadio Azteca – the biggest defeat in Canada's history was their last game before the all important match with Australia. Samuel did not feature in the 2–1 win at the Commonwealth Stadium, but did play in the second leg at the Sydney Football Stadium. The Aussies won 2–1 to take the game to a penalty shoot-out, which the "Canucks" lost 4–1.

Samuel won the final fourteen caps of his thirteen year international career in qualification for the 1998 World Cup. He played all six of the initial group stage games, as Canada finished ahead of El Salvador, Panama and Cuba. He then played eight of Canada's ten games in the final round of qualifying, as they finished bottom of the group behind Mexico, the United States, Jamaica, Costa Rica and El Salvador. He made his final appearance for his nation in the 3–1 defeat to the Costa Ricans in San José on 16 November 1997.

His 82 international caps were a Canadian national team record until he was surpassed by Paul Stalteri in September 2010. Samuel was inducted into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame in 2006.