Quote:
Originally Posted by M*A*S*H 4077
GAME DAY!
Enjoy this week. This is the week we’re going to remember for the rest of our lives. The week everything changed. Some of us have been around a long time, some a short time. Enjoy it. Every stinging loss, all the heart break over the decades, this week will make it all worth it. It’s going to happen, be it tonight, Sunday, or next Wednesday. We’re going to Qatar.
Do it for Atiba
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Agreed. Which is why I wanted to get my rant over with, above, last night.
"Historic” gets thrown around as a cliche far too often in sports, but this will be a historic occasion for sport in this country when they qualify.
I started playing at 7, which is the earliest they had community soccer in Calgary in 1983. Obviously by the time 86 came around, Canada was in that first World Cup since I started playing and thus as a kid you then expected Canada to be in the World Cup everytime after that, not knowing any different. Especially as you grew older you realized Canada was a country that was overall a "have" country, and given hockey dominance etc, soccer at a high level should be the same when playing minnow countries like El Salvador, Honduras etc.
I went to play to 16 years before serious injury derailed things, going to Nationals 5 times, playing to a AMSL major league level, had some of my schooling paid for from soccer and countless lifetime friendships because of my participation...but having our county crash out of qualifying was embarassing cycle after cycle as a soccer player (who also played hockey).
1993 was the closest, heartbreak in Toronto after going up 1 to Mexico, then losing in the Intercontinental playoff. And it hasn't been close since.
And hopefully tonight is the night, where the once assumed rightful regular spot for this country in the world's tournament, comes to bear for 2022, and going forward.
Hosting the next and with an expanded tournament, I hope my 12 year who plays soccer, all my soccer buddies, and the general public in Canada, never has to ask or reconcile why Canada isn't in the World Cup again.
Ps. Thanks Covid for hitting the reset button on the previous qualifying process and making this an (almost) reality.