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Politics and FIFA aside, and even though it’s not the same 24 team tourney of decades ago, and a lot has changed with respect to sport and soccer as a business and players no longer playing mostly domestically as opposed to being top players in foreign leagues, it’s still the prestige of the World Cup in our own backyard.

18 year old me was at Commenwealth in 1994 to see star studded and eventual 94 champion Brazil actually choose to play Canada in a WC tuneup. It was a big deal for such a top team to play our minnow team, in our country no less. Up to that point you just have seen Brazil through all the clips from past World Cups they were shown on TV or the odd clip that may make it to TSN. They, and all WC teams, had a reverence and presence. Canada didn’t have that nor did they for most of my time growing up. Too young to appreciate 1986 when it happened, but playing soccer from 6 on and through those formative teenage year at that point appreciate how good other countries were and how challenged Canada was. Like the Olympics, the World Cup was something special, highly anticipated, something that happened once every 4 years. Scrape away all the other noise and cynicism about aspects of the business side, and it still is special.

Didn’t make it anywhere in the US for 1994 (closest games to Calgary I think were Stanford) but played in a big tournament in the US that summer as it was going on. There was a buzz about being in a country while the WC was going on. At the time it seems really cool to have these teams you’ve just seen in grainy clips, or watching previous World Cup or videos of past world cups, come to play in North America.

Now it’s back. Again, the game has globalized and the mystery and innocence and prestige and all that have somewhat diminished as soccer and sport aren’t the same as they were (toss the aura of the Olympics in there too) but it’s still a World Cup and Canada hosting as part of the world stage, and it’s really cool that I and my soccer playing daughter have the ability to drive 11h to see a World Cup game in person. Sure it helps that Canada is, after all these decades of being not a part of those World Cups for 36 years has a decent chance to make some noise, but even if they weren’t, it still a spectacle to want to be part of and engaged in when it’s in your own backyard.