After 30 years of lying to myself about Canadian mens soccer i finally get to watch us host a World Cup
I keep checking my calendar like its wrong, the roster gets announced May 29 and we play Uzbekistan in Edmonton June 1 and Ireland in Montreal June 5, then BMO Field on June 12 against Bosnia for our opening match of a home World Cup.
I grew up watching the 1986 Mexico World Cup replays on VHS my dad recorded, Canada lost all three group games and didnt score a single goal, that was the entire Canadian mens World Cup history until Qatar 2022, now we have Davies, Jonathan David, Eustaquio, Buchanan, St Clair in net, Marsch on the sideline, and were playing the opener at BMO with 45k people losing their minds. Group B is winnable too, Switzerland is the obvious group seed but is probably the weakest top seed in the entire tournament imo, Bosnia is dangerous but inconsistent and that 2-2 in March made me feel a lot better about how this team handles being down, if Davies is healthy and David finds his form four points out of the group is realistic, six is the dream. Pulled up the group winner odds on bet99 yesterday out of curiosity and even the books have us second behind Switzerland which I didnt expect lol.
The part I keep coming back to is the kids in this country who are 8 9 10 years old right now growing up with this. I had to lie to myself for 30 years that being a Canadian mens soccer fan was a real thing lol. These kids are getting a home World Cup, a competitive team, and the first 48 team tournament ever as their entry point. Their relationship with the national team is gonna look nothing like mine did. Anyone got tickets to BMO on the 12th or are you all just gonna lose your mind at a watch party like the rest of us. drop your plans, want to know where everyones going.