My brother and I are becoming diehard supporters of the Canadian national soccer team. To cheer for them is like producing a lousy modern dance show–no one comes, it fails and nobody cares. Despite the fact that soccer is the most popular sport for children (PDF) in Canada, we have no professional league and all of our quality players play abroad. We are victims of our own apathy.
That’s my brother on the left with the soccer ball (and me on the right). He takes the losses harder than me. I’m not sure who that girl (I think that’s a girl) in the centre is:
On Wednesday, along with our sisters, my brother Kevin and I went to watch Canada play Costa Rica in a World Cup qualifiying game.
Watching these games is like visiting a foreign country for two hours. Inevitably, there are more people cheering for the away team than for Canada. Additionally, they fans tend to be far more passionate about the game–they’re mostly from Central American countries. They bring noisemakers, big flags, signs (one said Juan 3:16). They stand for every rush down the field, and strip their shirts off when their team scores. The Canadians applaud politely and wave tiny, paper flags.
While walking to the game, I talked to a Costa Rican guy who had flown to Canada to see the game. It was his first time here, and he loved the country, but he came specifically for the game. This is typical soccer loyalty, and something we don’t have much of in Canada (though I’m sure the Voyageurs get to the occasional away game). And he wasn’t disappointed. As usual, we were trounced 3-1. The team is now officially eliminated from the World Cup finals, and so must wait four more years to try again.
We grew up with one of the national team players, and I always feel kind of sorry for them. Sure, they make decent money playing elsewhere, but they lead a national career of quiet suffering. I admirable how some stick with it for as long as they do.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
I meant to mention this last night at the meetup when the soccer game came up. If you’ve never experienced a World Cup outside of North America, you owe it to yourself to do so. I’m not talking about going to the actual games, just being in a country where soccer is a national religion (i.e. most of them outside of Canada & the US). Sheer madness.
And I thought we got worked up about Olympic/Stanley Cup hockey!
BTW, love the 70s photo, especially the rounded corners (oh dear god that takes me back…not necessarily in a good way).
I have indeed experienced the World Cup abroad, in Spain, France and Ireland during 2002, and in France in 1986. I was only 12, but I could sense the passion and excitement.
The frustrating thing for me (I attended our 2-0 loss to Guatemala a couple of months back – I’d say there more people there cheering for Canada than Guatemala but the Guatemalans are much more noticeable on a per person basis) is just that the national team never seems to play up to the level of the talent that we have available in this country.
I realize that how you look depends on the caliber of your opponents which is quite high in these games, but even simple things like following your man when he plays the ball to prevent a return pass seemed to be beyond them, this time around.
Still, I would almost (OK, not quite) feel bad to have Canada make it to the World Cup at the expense of one of the Central American countries since they obviously care about it so much more than we do.
As an aside, I never understand why the Canadian team plays home games in Vancouver and not in Whitehorse, St. Johns (where we played the last time we qualified in 1986) or at the very least Edmonton. Ideally somewhere cold, rainy and hard to get to for anyone who might cheer for our opponents.
As another aside, Costa Rica had really tough luck in the last World Cup. They beat China 2-0, tied Turkey 1-1 and then lost to Brazil 5-2 and were eliminated on goal differential.
The team they lost to, Brazil went on to win the tournament, with Costa Rica being the only team to manage 2 goals against them (in what was one of the best matches of the tournament).
The team they tied, Turkey, finished 3rd place, with their only loss coming in the semi-finals – to Brazil. So, arguably, Costa Rica was drawn into a group with the two best teams at the tournament and still almost made the second round.
You were really blonde as a kid, weren’t you?
Sure tons more could be done to improve the depth of our national soccer team, the question is whether we want to or not.
The Canadian team’s best time was in the 2000 Gold Cup tourney (like the Euros, but for CONCACAF)…Canadian soccer doesn’t have any organizational structure or money behind it and is playing catch-up with the Nike-fueled Americans right now. We don’t even have a proper league up here and it’s sad to see. I think we could make it to 2010 but it’d depend on how much faster we develop and if the Guatemalas and Trinidads of our region peak out or not.
For our population count it’s kind of sad that we’ve only made one WC before but everyone here is into watching giant toothless men clatter each other on ice skates so that’s life here.
For my money, the leagues are where the passion’s really at anyway.
Better a European World Cup game than a Sunday game in a Latin American country. Deaths in Latin America are common (trampling, car accidents, etc), as people pour out of the stadium and their homes and onto the streets to party or bemoan a victory or loss. There’s being into it then there’s that. I remember being very frightened of the street noise on a childhood trip.
I was in Ireland on the day that they left the 2002 WC (later on the same day, County Kerry was playing County Cork in the town that I was in – insanity I tell you), and I have never seen a more gracious acceptance of loss. A few days later in London, I saw many Koreans lining the street and medians of Oxford street still celebrating their participation in the WC. Such sportsmanship!