‘Beautiful game’ now catching on
Like most Canadian kids of my generation, growing up meant two sports; hockey in the winter and road hockey in the summer. Sure there were pieces of other sports tossed in, but for most of my friends, it was 365 hockey in some format.
I vaguely recall my father taking me to a soccer game at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, due in large part because someone gave him free tickets and he wanted to see something at the games. The match was France vs. Italy and all I remember was my dad saying “this isn’t hockey” and leaving the Big O to go home and play ball hockey.
It was only when my boys were growing up and they came home announced wanted to register in soccer did I start to take interest in the sport. Subsequently, in between summer hockey school, I slowly saw through their eyes, the uniqueness of the sport.
From the national men’s side of the sport, there hasn’t been much in terms of role models for youth. Canada qualified for the World Cup in 1986 and it’s been well documented that there hasn’t been anything but heartbreak and disappointment ever since.
Upon being posted to France for several years, I quickly realized that if you didn’t follow soccer, you simply had no social life. Work, life and time simply stopped for the World Cup. It was even more quickly related to me that the name of the game is football, full stop.
Coinciding with my new found passion, the Canadian women’s national team began to strut their stuff on the pitch globally and it was an absolute pleasure to sit in an international environment and cheer for Canada. The Olympics, World Cup, tournaments and friendlies were so much more interesting when my country was playing. The pride was so immense each and every time they stood on top of the world and grew the sport back home.
I saw a simple, affordable, all-inclusive sport from a different lens. My work brought me to developing countries that tragically had so little. Yet they would always have a football, even if it meant several bags and paper taped together as a makeshift ball.
As new generations took up the sport in Canada, surpassing minor hockey registration for youth, football grew professionally with several cities country wide putting an excellent product on the field all the while continuing to grow the game. Canadians were catching on to what the world knew.
As passionate as I was about the women’s team, I was equally confused and disappointed with the men’s team. Every four years I would convince myself it would be our time, we would make it through the gruelling qualification and step onto the international stage. It seemed each step forward brought two equally painful steps back.
As much as we think major league sports in North America are huge, and they are, nothing – simply nothing – compares to the spectacle of the World Cup. Football is called the ‘beautiful game’ and a large percentage of this world live their sporting passions qualifying for, playing in, or waiting for the next World Cup opportunity.
For my generation, Canadians are the country in every World Cup that always cheered for their second favourite country, a country they travelled to, or a country they were from or had family living in. This World Cup changes everything. For the first time since 1986 and for the large majority of Canadians, there will be the opportunity to truly discover the magic of football on the biggest international stage. Our women led the way and here is hoping the men will follow.
So come the late fall, when the hockey bags are being aired out, new skates being purchased and sticks taped up, remember to also tune in to the Qatar World Cup.
Rest assured, like the rest of the world that has experienced this, you will discover a new and unique sense of Canadian national pride on the international stage.