This is the second in a series of posts dedicated to sharing stories from fans of Canadian soccer about how they came to follow their country and/or local club, and what it means to them. We're told soccer is wildly popular in Canada -- but too often, that means people who play but don't watch, or those who exclusively follow foreign clubs or national teams. While that's all well and good, it's not the same as being a Canadian soccer fan.
To find out how you can be a part of this series and add your voice to the Support Local Soccer movement, see the end of this post. But in this edition, we hear from a fan who had a strong response to the first edition of this series, and took me up on the offer to make his own unique story heard.
"I can't tell you when I first became interested or passionate about soccer; for me, it has always been a part of my life, and an integral part of my family's heritage."
Normally, hearing a Canadian describe the game in this way evokes images or stories from "the old country," wherever in the world that may be. But for Devon, a 28-year-old from Victoria, B.C., it's a bit different.
"When I say my family's heritage, I don't mean, 'descended from x ethnic group and therefore I like soccer' -- I mean a family history of being involved in Canadian soccer that goes back four generations."
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
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One of my most cherished and cool possessions is my Great Grandfather's
gold (I'm going to assume plated) pocket watch. On the back the
inscription reads “*Powell River Dist Football Assn* Moose FC -Winners-
McMaster League Falconers Shield Bell-Irving Cup 1929-30” and then the
initials and last name of my great grandfather. For a soccer nut like
myself, I don't think there's a better heirloom to have.
I know my grandfather played soccer, but to what capacity I don't know. My
dad was a high school star in the mid 60's, he played for team BC during a
national tournament and was even offered a pro contract by then Div2
Sheffield Wednesday. Seeing as early 70's div 2 teams paid poorly, my dad
decided to go to university instead of accepting Sheffield's offer; a
really good decision, but sometimes I still can't believe dad turned down
a chance to play pro soccer.
As for me, I grew up playing soccer. I spent most of my weekends at the
park playing with kids while our dad's played league games. When I was 13
my family moved to Chile for a job opportunity. You may have heard of
Chile? They play a bit of soccer down there.
If I played soccer before going to Chile, I became immersed in it down
there. All of my new friends at school were U. Catolica fans. I'm not
Catholic, but when you're 13, why would you cheer for any team other than
the ones your new friends cheer for? So I became a big Catolica fan, and
went to their games whenever they played teams in the southern Chile
(where I lived), or whenever we would go to Santiago. I was also in Chile
for the World Cup 98 qualification campaign and tournament, and got to
experience first hand a country going crazy as their team participated in
the World Cup. While in Chile soccer was life. During school hours we
played soccer every break and every PE class. My summer holidays in Chile
consisted of 8 hours of soccer a day, as all the neighbourhood kids would
gather at the dust field (it was used too much to ever have grass) and
would play all morning, break for lunch, and then play all afternoon
again. It was an awesome time, and I returned to Canada a much better
player than when I left.
I returned to Canada in '99, and began following/supporting the CMNT with
the same gusto that I had seen my Chilean friends do with their national
team. In 2000 there was a little tournament called the Gold Cup, and for
the final I gathered as may of my high school friends as possible to watch
the game and me go ballistic when we won. None of them really understood
why the win was such a big deal, but I tried to make them understand.
Since 2000 without specifically trying to I've gone to every CMNT
in/around BC including the 2004 game against Guatemala at Swanguard and
the 2008 friendly against Brazil in Seattle, which was
maybe the best game of soccer I have ever seen.
Of course I am a big Whitecaps fan, I've been so for the past 6 or so
years... alot of webcast watching in that time.
Having talked about my soccer history, I should probably mention soccer
present. I think the CMNT having all of its games in Toronto sucks. I
could use alot more verbose and offensive expressions to replace 'sucks'
but lets leave it as is.
It's great that your friend Miriam has recenly been exposed to the
national team and how “"Caring about every single game the national teams
play has become very much a part of [her] life." I've been that way for
the past 10 years, buying CMNT merch, travelling to what games I could,
getting up at 4am to watch shitty web-streams of friendly's being played
god-knows where. So if Miriam and I are equally big fans, why should only
one of us get to go to games? You might not know the feeling since you get
to go to CMNT games every couple of months, but being a massive of fan of
the CMNT, it's really sad/rage educing to never, ever, get to see CMNT
games live.
Canada is a massive country, and the CMNT belongs to all of us. The games
should be, and have to be moved around the country in order for the game
to grow. One region should not have a monopoly on a national entity. Being
Canadians we're already accused of having socialized everything, so why
not a socialized national soccer program as well; where we all share and
get along, rather than dragging out regional divisions every qualifying
cycle? Yes this would involve more travel for players, sometimes, but it
would also allow people from outside southern Onterrible to become
passionate CMNT fans, just as your friend Miriam did.
I was going to leave things here, but I just want to add one more thing,
because I know the response to any idea of playing CMNT games outside of
Toronto brings with it the issue of real vs turf fields... Get over the
turf field issue, it's not a real issue. If turf is the major issue
preventing the team from playing elsewhere, then the 2008 qualifier should
have never been played on the (questionable) turf at BMO field. And until
the CSA, the players, and whoever else comes out and retroactively says
that playing the 2008 qual in Toronto on the turf was a massive mistake,
then it can't be said about anywhere else.
How's that for passion / semi-coherent ramblings? I was going to put in
reasons for why games shouldn’t be in Toronto and my compromise idea for a
National Stadium in Ottawa, but none of that is exactly relevant to me and
my passion for the CMNT, so I'm leaving it as is.