In the end, all the pre-match angst and anxiety went for naught.
Canada and Honduras played a functional, unspectacular nil-nil draw in World Cup qualifying at BMO Field on Tuesday night. It was far from a dream result, but there was also no new, dreadful chapter written in Canadian soccer fans’ ongoing, recurring Honduras nightmare.
Yes, Hondurans flopped like beached sport fish on the pitch from time to time. No, the referee was not having much of a night.
But no blatant horrors ended up on the scoreboard, a relief after the blatant cheating and bad calls that have marred all recent major competitions where these two sides have clashed. Both sets of fans ultimately melted into the post-match night without major incident.
We didn’t know any of that, of course, before the match.
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Despite all the recent changes and improvements at the Canadian Soccer Association, it would not be right to call Canada oh-twelve the first post-reform Canadian national men’s soccer team. Yes, there have been some important changes, but it will be a year or two yet before the team on the field really starts to benefit.
(The CSA presently has an official fruit snack, for example, but still no technical director.)
And so, the tribe gathered in the pre-game pubs, hoping for triumph but well, well aware of the dangers of playing Honduras when it counts.
Edmonton ’04.
Montreal ’08.
It’s a little bit like showing up for the third date with a gal, after each of the first two ended with you being hurled into a dumpster by bikers. After a while, you might hope to wonder why you’re doing this.
Ah, but this is soccer. This is the tribe. The sweetest wins are the ones that avenge the bitterest defeats.
While I wouldn’t wish to confirm the rumour that there was an actual bag of urine doing the rounds at Maro, I did actually find myself explaining the context of same to a couple of concerned fan girlfriends. Something about traditional forms of greeting for visiting players in southern nations of the CONCACAF region, and how a single Canadian pee-bag would cut the overall score deficit to 10,000 to 1.
Again, I don’t wish to confirm this.
Turned out I was on celebrity watch, as well. All of a sudden, in walks Ontario Soccer Association president Ron Smale, who I’ve never before seen anywhere outside of his office in Vaughan. On the media front, there was a Seixeiro sighting, as well (Alex, I believe). Given that no one outside of the fans ever, ever comes to Maro, this was both surprising and amusing.
What I began to notice, more and more, was how surprisingly relaxed everyone was. Happy, social, excited in a muted, Canadian sort of way. It no doubt helped that Canada entered the match three points up on the Hondurans, but anti-Honduras sentiment was – like the draft beer at the old Dufferin Gate – running flat and lukewarm.
It was there in pockets, though. I’ve seen dear friends reduced to jibbering emotional non-function by these matches. No one was actually screaming for revenge, but no one was going to turn down a free helping of it, either.
At the start of the march, outside the pub, a pair of orange taxi cabs, nose-to-nose, honked loudly as they tried to pass each other. Liberty Street had suddenly been choked down to a single lane by the emerging red soccer mob, and that wasn’t going to stay open for long. Most drivers just stared straight ahead – grim, but not grim enough to invite response – and waited for the madness to pass.
In the end, a fine showing by the Canadian fans. Yes, there were lots of Hondurans in the crowd – four big flags in the half-empty north end, but the Canucks clearly outcheered the visitors all night. The crowd was announced at just over 16,000, but was actually around 13-5 if you take into account the blocked-off sections and the many completely empty rows on the east side.
Honduras didn’t offer much. Hurt and rebuilding, they lacked both the fire and treachery that have made them so utterly dangerous to Canadian soccer aspirations in the past. I found myself more concerned about Canada’s Dwayne de Rosario, and just how many times he could whoomph the ball over the south crossbar with Olivier Occean standing – onside and open – just a few yards to his right.
After the match, Canada coach Stephen Hart had warm praise for the fans, saying they “almost got us there” in a flurry of late-match crosses and corner kicks that twice just failed to produce the winning score.
And hath we slain Honduras? No. The final match of this qualifying round is Honduras, away, in October. Ghosts are always snarlier close to Hallowe’en.
But it was nice to leave a Honduras game in a mellow, reflective mood – more irritated about Canadian finishing than by Honduran flopping and refereeing fraud.
Onward!