Alessandro Biello

[InglewoodJack]

4 minutes ago, costarg said:

Wasn't one of the Sedin's sons also a pretty good soccer player?  I think we were already discussing/dreading that dual nat drama a while ago. 

That’s right- doesn’t he play in the Whitecaps academy?

[Dominic94]

12 minutes ago, InglewoodJack said:

That’s right- doesn’t he play in the Whitecaps academy?

Valter does as does Ray Ferrari’s son.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

Ironically the highest profile example in Canada at the moment of a pro soccer playing son of a hockey player father is Matty Longstaff of TFC. Hockey's a marginal fringe sport in the UK so even his father may only have got into that after he couldn't make the grade as a footballer.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matty_Longstaff#Personal_life

[nolando]

3 minutes ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Ironically the highest profile example in Canada at the moment of a pro soccer playing son of a hockey player father is Matty Longstaff of TFC. Hockey's a marginal fringe sport in the UK so even his father may only have got into that after he couldn't make the grade as a footballer.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matty_Longstaff#Personal_life

Both Henrik Sedin and Ray Ferraro have top notch soccer prospects as sons, fwiw.

[SoccMan]

If we want to go there most of our pro Canadian soccer players seem to come from immigrant parents , even the players with British sounding last names . It’s very rare you find a Canadian pro soccer player who comes from a family who has been in Canada a few generations. However, look at the vast majority of Canadian NHL players and most come from families who have been in Canada hundreds of years . It’s just the way it is , it’s actually pretty interesting stuff actually.

[Macksam]

18 hours ago, SoccMan said:

If we want to go there most of our pro Canadian soccer players seem to come from immigrant parents , even the players with British sounding last names . It’s very rare you find a Canadian pro soccer player who comes from a family who has been in Canada a few generations. However, look at the vast majority of Canadian NHL players and most come from families who have been in Canada hundreds of years . It’s just the way it is , it’s actually pretty interesting stuff actually.

This will begin to change more and more as the MLS grows in popularity. Once peak popularity occurs, you will see all sorts of Canadians become professionals, old stock, new stock, indigenous, kids from post WW2 immigration families, etc. 

[SoccMan]

7 hours ago, Macksam said:

This will begin to change more and more as the MLS grows in popularity. Once peak popularity occurs, you will see all sorts of Canadians become professionals, old stock, new stock, indigenous, kids from post WW2 immigration families, etc. 

I was at the TFC game and these two women who were walking by one of the entrances where a mass crowd had gathered waiting to get in said wow I didn’t know soccer was so popular lol. This is 2024 TFC have been around since 2007, we have had 3 MLS Cups here , they played in two of them  , we had important Canadian World Cup qualifying games at BMO to packed houses were tickets were hard to get and people still are amazed too see big crowds for MLS or any kind of soccer  in Toronto and many places in Canada lol . So when I heard those woman make that comment I still wonder there must be still a lot of people who still think soccer has no real following in Canada lol .

[Macksam]

1 hour ago, SoccMan said:

I was at the TFC game and these two women who were walking by one of the entrances where a mass crowd had gathered waiting to get in said wow I didn’t know soccer was so popular lol. This is 2024 TFC have been around since 2007, we have had 3 MLS Cups here , they played in two of them  , we had important Canadian World Cup qualifying games at BMO to packed houses were tickets were hard to get and people still are amazed too see big crowds for MLS or any kind of soccer  in Toronto and many places in Canada lol . So when I heard those woman make that comment I still wonder there must be still a lot of people who still think soccer has no real following in Canada lol .

Exactly, MLSE, Saputo and the consortium that owns Vancouver are salivating over the growth opportunity this sport has in store for them. 

[Bertuzzi44]

On 3/30/2024 at 10:32 AM, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

If hockey fans first and foremost turn into soccer fans first and foremost great but that's a bit like having a supertanker change direction out at sea. Not going to happen quickly any time soon.

 

Or, just love both sports! ⚽🥅😍
I'm a huge footy fan AND a huge hockey fan, so it can happen

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

10 hours ago, SoccMan said:

I was at the TFC game and these two women who were walking by one of the entrances where a mass crowd had gathered waiting to get in said wow I didn’t know soccer was so popular lol...

There's plenty of "old stock" types who basically have very little social interaction with people from a more recent immigrant background and vice versa. That's part of what being a salad bowl rather than a melting pot will do and it means that in some people's experience of Canadian society soccer genuinely is a complete non-factor even if as far back as 40 years ago something like Italy winning the World Cup would have hundreds of thousands of people out celebrating in the GTA.

The problems start when the people making the decisions on what deserves mainstream media coverage or what sort of municipal infrastructure to build are in the soccer is a complete non-factor camp and are determined to try to keep it that way for everybody else as well regardless of what the rest of the population think about that. Not as bad as it used to be on that but that mentality is still there to a certain extent.

Beyond that it's all very well saying you can be both but elite athletes eventually have to make a decision on which sport to focus on and if it's not soccer first and foremost where a large segment of the population is concerned, the group stage of the World Cup finals rather than the knockout phase will likely be the natural habitat even in a 48 team format.

[Cicero]

On 3/31/2024 at 6:27 PM, SoccMan said:

If we want to go there most of our pro Canadian soccer players seem to come from immigrant parents , even the players with British sounding last names . It’s very rare you find a Canadian pro soccer player who comes from a family who has been in Canada a few generations. However, look at the vast majority of Canadian NHL players and most come from families who have been in Canada hundreds of years . It’s just the way it is , it’s actually pretty interesting stuff actually.

I went through the list of recent nats and the only players I came up with who (may) be third generation or beyond are:
Piette, Crepeau, Hiebert, Jayden Nelson, Shaffelburg, Liam Fraser, and maybe Matthieu Choiniere. Info was hard to come by for some of them, so I could be wrong on some of them.

Some others have one parent who is 'old stock', but the other is an immigrant.

Edited April 2 by Cicero

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

Remember seeing it stated reasonably recently that only one CMNT player didn't have at least one grandparent from another country that made them potentially eligble to play for another country. Think it was one of the goalkeepers from Quebec.

[narduch]

13 hours ago, SoccMan said:

I was at the TFC game and these two women who were walking by one of the entrances where a mass crowd had gathered waiting to get in said wow I didn’t know soccer was so popular lol. This is 2024 TFC have been around since 2007, we have had 3 MLS Cups here , they played in two of them  , we had important Canadian World Cup qualifying games at BMO to packed houses were tickets were hard to get and people still are amazed too see big crowds for MLS or any kind of soccer  in Toronto and many places in Canada lol . So when I heard those woman make that comment I still wonder there must be still a lot of people who still think soccer has no real following in Canada lol .

I know it's hard for us to believe because we are so obsessed, but most people don't really care about sports.

[Obinna]

15 hours ago, SoccMan said:

I was at the TFC game and these two women who were walking by one of the entrances where a mass crowd had gathered waiting to get in said wow I didn’t know soccer was so popular lol. This is 2024 TFC have been around since 2007, we have had 3 MLS Cups here , they played in two of them  , we had important Canadian World Cup qualifying games at BMO to packed houses were tickets were hard to get and people still are amazed too see big crowds for MLS or any kind of soccer  in Toronto and many places in Canada lol . So when I heard those woman make that comment I still wonder there must be still a lot of people who still think soccer has no real following in Canada lol .

I have a co-worker from Saskatoon, very much a typical Canadian Prairie guy, Gen-X fellow, who is a Sask Riders fan, and not a hardcore but a fan in the general sense, as in "yeah of course because I am from Sask".

Anyway, whenever sports comes up in chit-chat, I inevitably find a way to work soccer into the convo, and he always seems to have a "Canada has a soccer team?" attitude towards it. Not necessarily disparaging, more so genuine surprise.

And I am pretty sure he caught that Canada was in the World Cup, too. If I asked him about Canada soccer right now I bet he has already forgotten about Canada in Qatar. Then again, he probably has already forgot there was a World Cup in Qatar lol.

[maplebanana]

11 minutes ago, Obinna said:

Anyway, whenever sports comes up in chit-chat, I inevitably find a way to work soccer into the convo, and he always seems to have a "Canada has a soccer team?" attitude towards it. Not necessarily disparaging, more so genuine surprise.

I get this from nearly every Canadian I know, including some that are soccer fans and cheer for the nation of their grandparents only. It is frustrating as hell when I'm trying to drum up support for Canada games. 

[Obinna]

29 minutes ago, maplebanana said:

I get this from nearly every Canadian I know, including some that are soccer fans and cheer for the nation of their grandparents only. It is frustrating as hell when I'm trying to drum up support for Canada games. 

I feel your pain. It's changing slowly but it's very, very slow.

I think failing to get out of the group was damaging, or at least a missed opportunity. I bet those same people have already forgotten Panama and Honduras played in the world cup in recent memory, if they ever realized it even. This wouldn't apply to concacaf followers, which I assume they aren't. 

The painful truth is that countries like Panama, Honduras, and Canada are teams that collected 0 points. Therefore, they were novelties at best and are now afterthoughts at worse. I would throw Qatar in the mix, another team that posted a big fat 0, but they hosted, so that keeps them from fading out of the public conciousness somewhat.

Other teams like Cameroon have posted 0 points in recent world cups, but they are regular participants who you expect to be there and expect to fight to get out of the group. They aren't irrelavent, essentially. From this perspective I don't blame people, or at least I understand it. 

I think the key (aside from advancement) is being a regular participant, like Costa Rica. The good news is that we can and will build on our qualification by playing two World Cups in a row. And with an expanded format, we are a good bet to qualify for 2030 as well. Getting out of the group in the next two tournaments (a realistic goal) will probably cement us as an "actual soccer team", which is a ridiculous thing to type, but that's the way causals think about it, I think.

Edited April 2 by Obinna

[Soro17]

On 3/31/2024 at 12:30 AM, nolando said:

Both Henrik Sedin and Ray Ferraro have top notch soccer prospects as sons, fwiw.

Ray was a regular at Saturday morning U6-U10 matches in North Van. I asked him about soccer vs hockey for his younger sons (his oldest son is a pro hockey player), he said he let them choose and beyond taking them out to skate, never forced them to play hockey. A solid, genuine guy. Cammi Granato was the boys' team manager, also a very nice person! As I understand it, the Sedins' kids did also play hockey, but opted for soccer in the end. 

For those Canucks fans out there, Jannik Hansen's and Chris Higgins' boys are dual nats who dabbled with soccer, but are pretty good little hockey players.   

[shermanator]

I've actually found that it's easier to convert hockey fans into soccer fans than it is to convert people who support other soccer into fans of local soccer.

The best way to convert them into soccer fans is to give them a way to see the game live in their city. If they have a good time, they'll be back and will bring their wallets with them. But the key is that they have to have fun; none of this gatekeeping crap.

We're seeing that word spread in Calgary slowly but surely. And I'm a good example of someone who's been converted. Fomer diehard Flames fan who got hooked on TFC after the Dichio goal and dove into Canadian soccer while watching Whitecaps / Impact in 2011.

[Obinna]

16 minutes ago, shermanator said:

I've actually found that it's easier to convert hockey fans into soccer fans than it is to convert people who support other soccer into fans of local soccer.

The best way to convert them into soccer fans is to give them a way to see the game live in their city. If they have a good time, they'll be back and will bring their wallets with them. But the key is that they have to have fun; none of this gatekeeping crap.

We're seeing that word spread in Calgary slowly but surely. And I'm a good example of someone who's been converted. Fomer diehard Flames fan who got hooked on TFC after the Dichio goal and dove into Canadian soccer while watching Whitecaps / Impact in 2011.

I totally understand this. I have spoken to people at Cavs games and my impression is that some people are more plugged into what's going on with Cavalry and the CPL than the wider soccer world. These are probably the people who are fans of other Calgary sports but have experienced the live game and got hooked, which is awesome.

There is definitely another segment of fan, the "other soccer" fan as you put it. These are often the people I end up dragging to games. They enjoy the experience and are happy we have pro soccer, but they don't bother to follow the players or what's happening around the league like the first group. It's always up to me to set the context for them ahead of game day, where we are in the standings, where the opponent is, what the implications are, etc. 

[shermanator]

Back when Foothills was around I met people who ran Calgary Gooners and Liverpool Calgary groups. The Calgary Gooners person said they'd be happy to help out in any way, and then promptly didn't show up. And the Liverpool Calgary folks came to a match but spent the whole time trying to promote their group to us.

Now to be fair, that same Gooners person have come around to Cavalry games and have been involved in another supporters group but they are the outlier. And we've butted heads on the ways we support in the stands so we just leave them to do their thing.

What you see more often is people find out there's a club, then promptly complain it's not as good as whatever club they support.

Whereas Flames fans out for the day have a great time because the atmosphere is so different from hockey games, and it's at a fraction of the price. 

Edited April 2 by shermanator

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

14 hours ago, maplebanana said:

I get this from nearly every Canadian I know, including some that are soccer fans and cheer for the nation of their grandparents only. It is frustrating as hell when I'm trying to drum up support for Canada games. 

Well at least that sort of line isn't the sort of outright hostility you could receive 30 or 40 years ago. Once had a complete cement head hockey fan where I worked basically try to order me to stop playing soccer if I wanted to be Canadian complete with homophobic jibes about how "only ***s play soccer". Told him he was an imbecile and to get to a place rhyming with luck but not everybody feels able to do that sort of thing, so for most, soccer was something you only participated in or talked about in the context of your own ethnic community so you kept supporting your ancestral country rather than Canada when it came to soccer.

This messageboard is a weird outlier from the norm where people actively use soccer as the vehicle for their Canadian nationalism. Reading this board from around 2015 to 2018 you would get the impression there was a massive backlash against MLS and a massive thirst for an exclusively Canadian pro level alternative in the GTA and lower mainland BC. Then when York 9 launched it soon became clear what the reality was. It's not all that much of an exaggeration to suggest that most of the guys who genuinely felt passionately about that in the GTA had been posting about it on here and had been providing Paul Beirne with a sycophantic echo chamber where the launch of the league was concerned.

Edited April 3 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[CanadaFan123]

7 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

This messageboard is a weird outlier from the norm where people actively use soccer as the vehicle for their Canadian nationalism. Reading this board from around 2015 to 2018 you would get the impression there was a massive backlash against MLS and a massive thirst for an exclusively Canadian pro level alternative in the GTA and lower mainland BC. Then when York 9 launched it soon became clear what the reality was. It's not all that much of an exaggeration to suggest that most of the guys who genuinely felt passionately about that in the GTA had been posting about it on here and had been providing Paul Beirne with a sycophantic echo chamber where the launch of the league was concerned.

Ozzie, you may know this but there are leagues called League 1 in BC and Ontario. So that did come to fruition… but for some reason a national league upsets you. It didn’t become “clear” when York 9 launched - every person knew a national league was coming.

Curious what club you’re a stakeholder in? I think once that is known then we can all have a better understanding of where this half-decade partisan loner crusade has roots, because it’s clearly not objective or based on logic. 

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

^^^what on earth is that all about and how is it supposed to relate to what I wrote? Think this guy is linked to Vancouver FC in some way. Much the same story unfolded there from what I've heard on podcasts. Rob Friend & Co thought they would be attracting significantly larger crowds after talking to disaffected Whitecaps fans who were making a lot of noise on social media. Judging from the size of the fan group behind the goals at VFC games last summer said fans were speaking for noone other than themselves a bit like the scenario with the Kronenbourgs or whatever they were called on here where York 9 were concerned.  

[blueseeka]

I keep returning for a Biello updated

 

Fooled me again

[dyslexic nam]

37 minutes ago, blueseeka said:

I keep returning for a Biello updated

 

Fooled me again

I remember when this shit was at least contained within the CPL section.  Now it has spread to multiple sections of the forum.