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  • And the real winner is......


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    Soccer in Canada.

    Vancouver fans can certainly enjoy their day in the sun, but looking at the greater picture, this is an historic, positive day for Canadian soccer. A national broadcast of an all-Canadian match-up in the top flight of North American soccer has not happened at this level in at least 27 years. With a lot of attention brought to this game to those people that might not otherwise have paid attention (ie. regular viewers of TSN), a high-scoring affair to shut up the cynical, negative, nail-biting "soccer is boring because nobody scores" miserablists is the best thing that could have happened.

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    It will be interesting to see what the ratings are like. On the downside, the match was (partially) up against Hockey Night in Canada. However, TSN is generally a higher-profile network than Sportsnet (generally will get higher ratings) and for the first time there are two Canadian markets for an MLS match-up to draw the ratings from.

    And this is not just a case of two Canadian-based teams made up entirely of foreign players. A total of 7 Canucks eligible to represent Canada played in the match - De Rosario, Cann, Attakora, Zavarise, Makabuya, Dunfield and Teibert - and all still with some degree of a future in playing for Canada. This number will only likely increase in future match-ups between the two teams (and Montreal) as the academies begin to churn out more and more players (the number of Canadian youth coming out of TFC being a refreshingly positive sign). The next time Canada actually gets close to qualifying for a World Cup (never mind actually doing so), we may be able to point back to this game as another positive signpost in the road that led us there.



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