You could hear the roar across the entire city when Sidney Crosby scored the golden goal at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. I remember it wasn’t so much a sound, but a pressure wave that rolled across the city like a mushroom cloud. It was palpable. To say you could feel it in your bones wasn’t an exaggeration.
It was the biggest sporting moment in the country’s history.
But this summer, as the World Cup touches down in Canada, the moment feels bigger. It’s not just a winter-sports competition.
This is the Beautiful Game, and with it, comes the universal attention of the entire globe.
The 2010 hockey final got around 114 million viewers around the world.
The 2022 World Cup final between France and Argentina? 1.5 billion. Games averaged 175 million each, with more than 5.6 billion watching the tournament as a whole,
Now our little slice of this year’s tournament will see 13 of the 104 total games played in this World Cup in Canada — seven in Vancouver, six in Toronto — but that’s still a spotlight brighter than anything that’s shone before.
And Canada, as one of the hosts, will feel the glare. This will be the third World Cup for our country, and we’ve yet to win a game. Of our six games, we’ve scored twice — one of them an own goal.
But Jesse Marsch’s squad comes into this year brimming with confidence that they won’t just win a game, they can make an impact.
“We want to win the World Cup,” the Canadian coach, who just signed an extension, said in 2025.
“That may sound ridiculous, but why would we go into any tournament at any time and think, 'Yeah, let’s see how we do, and maybe we get one win. Or can we score a goal?'”
Canada doesn't have the momentum of the magical run to Qatar, which started with an 11-game unbeaten streak, but what they do have is experience.
Jonathan David. Alphonso Davies. Stephen Eustáquio. Alistair Johnston. Ismaël Koné. They were all in Qatar and know what to expect.
With myself and Patrick Johnston in Vancouver, and Rob Longley in Toronto, we'll follow the squad from their June 12 opener against Bosnia and Herzegovina at BMO Field to their June 24 clash with Switzerland at B.C. Place, which could shape up to be the group-stage decider.
Reality says Canada won't win the Cup, but it's baby steps. A goal. A victory. A group stage game.
Postmedia will have the tournament covered top to bottom with our journalists offering game previews prior to each match and all the action from inside the stadium with game analysis and post-game reactions from the mixed zone.
