Viva Azzurri: Memories Of World Cup 1982

Soccer has always existed on the periphery of athletic life in Canada, perhaps a little more noticeable here than in the United States because of our closer relationship with Britain. We had varsity soccer teams in primary and secondary schools more often then we would have baseball teams.

Of course hockey was the sport that almost everyone played as a kid, but we all played enough soccer to learn some of the more arcane rules, like offsides and what was supposed to merit a penalty or not. But not even the arrival of the first wave of European immigrants did little too change the priorities of Canadians when it came to sport.

I remember during the seventies there was an attempt made to start a professional soccer league in Canada, but I don't think it survived for very long. International matches were few and far between, and when the Canadian team did play any games in Toronto, immigrants from their opposition's country usually outnumbered their fans and the players would complain about never having home field advantage.

Even initial success of the North American Soccer League, which featured Pele as a star attraction, faded after his retirement in 1977. Soccer still had not captured the public's imagination in North America unlike the rest of the world where it reigned supreme.

Even the World Cup failed to make that much of an impression on Canadians for the longest time. Most Canadians used to the fast pace of hockey just couldn't find anything exciting about watching two teams of eleven men wander around a field seemingly kicking a ball about at random. The occasional burst of action would be followed by fifteen minutes of what appeared to be unsurpassed tedium.

Not having been nurtured on it as we had been on hockey, or even baseball and football, the whole thing seemed meaningless. If you don't play a sport on a regular basis, or have continual exposure to it, it is much harder to understand and appreciate it without any outside motivation. I'm sure that if Canada had been more competitive internationally, more Canadians would have made the effort to learn about the game.

Like a lot of major metropolitan centres across North America, Toronto, Ontario experienced a boom of European immigration in the post-World War Two period. As the city was going through a massive building boom, and the subway system was being constructed and expanded, there was a great demand for skilled masons and other labourers who we just didn't have.

Article Author: Richard Marcus

Richard Marcus is the author of the What Will Happen In Eragon IV? and The Unofficial Heroes Of Olympus Companion, both published by Ulysses Press. He has had his work published in print and online all over the world including the German edition of Rolling Stone Magazine and www.Qantara.de. …

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