Whitecaps to honour Island-heavy 1986 Canadian World Cup team

It was the World Cup of Diego Maradona, Gary Lineker, Michel Platini and, yes, Canada.

The Vancouver Whitecaps will honour 15 members of Canada’s 1986 World Cup team during Sunday’s MLS game against the Colorado Rapids. George Pakos, the City of Victoria water-metre technician and amateur VISL player who scored two of the four goals in the final round of CONCACAF qualifying that earned Canada a spot in the World Cup, will lead the Southsiders cheering section March to the Match from Victory Square into B.C. Place Stadium.

“We were the only team to qualify out of CONCACAF in 1986 – Mexico was in as host – so it really was a remarkable achievement,” said Bruce Wilson, captain of the Canadian World Cup team.

“Our rise actually started when we made it out of the first round in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and then only just lost in the quarter-finals on penalty kicks to Brazil,” added Wilson, who this fall is entering his 31st season of coaching the University of Victoria Vikes team.

Also on the Canadian World Cup team were Pakos, starting defender Ian Bridge of Victoria and Jamie Lowery of Port Alberni, the latter a Vic West player assigned to shadow the great Platini in the surprisingly tight opening 1-0 loss to European-champion France.

“It was very much a B.C. dominated team,” noted Wilson.

“Part of that were those two huge goals George [Pakos] scored in qualifying. If we didn’t get those, we would not have gone through to qualify.”

Pakos is still involved in Island soccer as a referee.

“I was Georgie on the spot and the rest is history,” he said in a TSN documentary.

“[Pakos’ goals] changed the lives of many of us Canadians [in soccer],” said World Cup head coach Tony Waiters, in the documentary.

Bridge is assistant coach in the NCAA with the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers women’s team. Lowery is a B.C. Transit driver in Victoria.

Canada scored no goals in the 1986 World Cup and never made it back to the tournament. But all that changes in 2026 when Canada will co-host with the U.S. and Mexico.

“The game is getting bigger and stronger at all levels in Canada and 2026 will really accelerate the growth,” Wilson said.

That’s upcoming in 2026. But on Sunday at B.C. Place, it will be 1986 all over again.