Canada about to take its place on world stage

These are heady times for soccer in Canada.

Long consigned to BYOB status at the world game’s biggest parties, a rare confluence is almost at hand: the world is coming to our house like never before.

Monday in Vancouver, Canada’s 23-woman roster was announced for the upcoming World Cup, showcase global event of the year. There was no one among the names who could be called a huge surprise, and that, along with the national TV show around the unveiling, demonstrates just how far this women’s game and in particular this generation of players have come since emerging 13 summers ago in Edmonton, teenagers who captivated the country and started setting the stage for this moment.

Christine Sinclair won the Golden Shoe at that under-19 world championships, and current teammates Erin McLeod, Carmelina Moscato and Robyn Gayle were integral parts alongside.

Much of the credit has gone to John Herdman for the revival of a program that seemed broken just four years ago, but left somewhat understated in that narrative is the collective statement or purpose made by this cohort of eight 30somethings on this year’s team, along with the 29-year-old Gayle, some of whom were ready to pull the plug on their international careers after the desolation of Germany in 2011. Don’t worry about them. They’ve stuck it out and will light the path for the likes of future foundational players Jesse Fleming and Kadeisha Buchanan. It’s how the country responds that is the question, and 35-year-old Karina LeBlanc addressed that on Monday with a call to Canadians, most of whom, frankly, haven’t the faintest idea just how deep the water is in international soccer. We make a big deal out of hockey tournaments — the only deal we make as a nation, really — but next to the World Cup’s arduous process and enormous reach, pucks are strictly a regional phenomenon.

Such holdings are part of the national DNA and will never fade. But the pull of a flag, and community, can be powerful stuff too.

Part of the appeal behind Toronto FC when they arrived here was that, fuelled by MLSE’s marketing money, young people who’d grown up watching the world’s top leagues on TV went out to BMO Field to be a part of that more global football community.

MLS is not a perfect example — its nearly incomprehensible roster rules are most clear in not encouraging its Canadian teams to develop Canadian talent ahead of Americans, and TFC have pretty much squandered that initial goodwill — but it’s the best we have here to keep that link alive on a week-to-week basis.

Meanwhile, much as it may pain the playoff-starved here, the Montreal Impact has a CONCACAF club championship to play for Wednesday night at Olympic Stadium. Last week’s 1-1 draw in their first leg against Mexico’s Club America showed off the kit and caboodle of big-time international ties — dodgy refereeing, hometown edge (lasers!), nous, tradition. Azteca full of 105,000 in full voice inevitably conjures up memories of Maradona taking on all of England to oldtimers. Now Montreal gets its chance to write its own fable in response.

Perennially downtrodden but underdogs with a possible sting in this scenario is the Canadian men’s team, breaking in a number of promising young players and playing quite well under second-year coach Benito Floro. They’ll get a measure of their progress in this summer’s Gold Cup, including a tournament date at BMO Field, the same place where their next round of World Cup qualifying begins in June.

These big global events, and especially any success at them, can be transformative. And it’s way too much to ask that this summer of plenty can solve long-term questions, chief among them national player development — who drives that train, and how it’s fuelled, is as vexing a question as ever.

But in the short term, at least, we’re heading into a rare time — the world game, now our game too.