One gets the sense, listening to the social media chatter or the more hardcore fan-tilted fan podcasts, that the possibility Canada fans will be outnumbered in their own stadium on Friday reflects a massive failure for the nation’s soccer culture. The worry flitting just below the surface of these tweets and posts seems to be that we’re not patriotic enough. That somehow we’re not doing something right as a country when Canadians flock to a stadium to cheer for the other team. Why does it always happen to us, and only to us? My friend and former podcast co-host Daniel Squizzato, appearing on the Two Solitudes podcast this week, referenced an oft-repeated line from Canadian soccer hero Jason de Vos lamenting how Canada is the only country that never gets a true home game.
The thing is, in terms of Friday's game, legitimate concern about tepid Canadian fan support and attendance for the men’s team is being conflated with a different phenomenon: the massive support the Mexican national team enjoys across the U.S. Vice Sports called El Tri the ‘most popular team in America.’ Every major Canadian city is a few hours’ shot from the U.S. border, so when we play Mexico at home thousands of Mexican-Americans are going to buy tickets and show up -- there’s no getting around that.
But beyond that, the fretting about away fans at Canada games fails to take into account the globalized world we live in. Contrary to what de Vos said, Canada is decidedly not the only country that sees divided support in its own stadia when playing at home. We already know what happens when the U.S. men’s team plays Mexico anywhere but rustbelt cities where ticket sales are strictly controlled.
But how about the home of football. You don’t have to spend much time on Google to learn Wembley isn’t the impenetrable fortress of English support of popular imagination. How about Poland at home? Or maybe Ghana?
Current World Cup champions Germany certainly can’t always count on 85,000 pro-German souls screaming on their home team in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, at least not when the play Turkey. And to peek at an even darker place, read a little bit about Algerian fans in Paris.
And this phenomenon isn't exclusive to world soccer. Let's imagine a stereotypical setting for trumped up displays of Australian pride. Personally, I picture Paul Hogan on a kangaroo guzzling Fosters Lager and yelling ‘What’s the good word mate?’ while Land Down Under plays in the background. Less ridiculous people, however, might imagine Australia playing in a World Cup of Cricket semifinal in Sydney. No chance Australia fans would be outnumbered in that stadium, right? Well, when it happened last year and they were -- yup, more Indian blue in the stands than Australian yellow.Yet Australian cricket, and, wait for it, Australia itself, continue to thrive.
Essentially, in 2016, if you’re hosting a big match in a globalized sport and you don’t have a significant number of fans present rooting for the away team, as a country, you’re probably doing something wrong. Canadian soccer fans should feel fortunate enough to live in a prosperous, (relatively) tolerant country that hundreds of thousands of people choose to move to on a permanent basis each year.
Yes, some people might be annoyed at seeing Canadians go to a Canadian stadium and actively cheer against Canada in favour of their birth country, or the birth country of their parents. Upset even. That’s understandable and a fascinating discussion about the human condition, but only in the abstract. In the real world, this is something that happens in every single multicultural, modern Western nation. And it would happen in countries like Japan and South Korea too if the populations weren’t homogeneous. Just because we see strong away support at Canada home games, it doesn’t mean Canadian soccer fans have somehow failed in rallying support to their cause. And it certainly doesn’t mean Canada as a country has failed to ‘integrate’ people who move here, whatever that even means.
However the crowd looks when the game kicks off on Friday, Canada fans should concentrate on being loud, on being organized and on making sure the Canadian players are acutely aware that thousands of fanatics are living and dying by their success. Short of all that, we can also be stereotypically helpful in directing as many Mexican fans as possible to the stadium, in Vancouver, Washington.