Obviously I'm no expert in soccer but just based on Canada's performance so far, don't they seem good enough to potentially be a dark horse (unlikely, but something along the lines of Iceland at Euro some years back) or at least be a spoiler by winning a match?

The way they have handled qualifiers makes me think they have what it takes to be more than an also ran getting blanked in every game like in 1986.

I have never really paid attention to a World Cup before but I will definitely be watching Team Canada this fall.

Ha. The civic pride element is part of the fun in my view, so I can understand. I mean, I will be for Winnipeg in every sport, every league until I die (dramatic enough?) so even if I lived the next 50 years in, say, Dallas I don't think I'd ever get behind the teams there. But I realize that others might look at it differently. At least your buddy has a legitimate connection to Oklahoma.

If Canada can beat Mexico and the US then we can beat all but the top 10 in the world, theoretically. But Mexico is underachieving like crazy under Tata and the Americans never reach potential. Who knows what happens if we play our best possible game against Argentina or Belgium, but those teams would certainly exploit our weakpoints.

Definitely. Really depends on the group we (potentially) get.

Welcome. :cool:

I watched some mens World Cup games on TV the last time around and I found them quite entertaining.

I also took in Women's World Cup action live at the Moncton Stadium back in 2015, and, although we didn't get the "big" games, I found it a fantastic live experience.

https://i.cbc.ca/1.3122826.143498714...fa-moncton.jpg

I will certainly be rooting for Canada in Qatar this time around! :tup:

We haven't qualified yet, but if we do it would depend on the draw. Only 32 teams so not many slouches this time around. Every game will be tough, but I am hopeful we could score a couple goals and scare someone instead of being an asterisk as a team to make multiple world cups without scoring a goal.

Hopefully we play well tomorrow and seal our ticket to the World Cup sooner than later. I don't want to have to play Costa Rica and Panama when they are still capable of qualifying.

That's the thing - you're associating being a fan of a team to being a fan of (or having a connection to) the city. For many, the city has nothing to do with it.

Many people are fans of certain teams because of something as simple as the team's nickname, or logo, or because they were impressed with a player on the team or the team's success. That becomes their team and they stick with it.

I'm a Steelers fan, not a city of Pittsburgh fan (although I hold nothing against the city). I hate the Penguins, and don't give the Pirates any thought. The Steelers became my team because they were located in the steel capital of the US where I lived in the steel capital of Canada. Tough as nails team from a lunch pail city who won 2 Super Bowls (I started watching football 2 years after their first 2 SBs).

These are the same reasons there are a shit-ton of hockey fans in Ontario and Toronto who are NOT Leafs fans.

Yeah, every NFL fan I know is basically in this boat. They pick their favourite team seemingly at random and depending on level of loyalty, change it every 3-10 years. A few even keep the same favourite team for life. Without the local connection though, I just can't get into it myself.

I feel this.

I am a fair weather Jays fan, but at least I cheer for the same team consistently.

When people ask me about my favourite NFL team, I really don’t know what to answer, other than ‘none’. There is not even a ‘lovable loser’ team I can jokingly throw support behind like people used to do with the Chicago Cubs in baseball.

Shoutout to my former colleague who was from Hamilton and who was both simultaneously a Buffalo Sabres and a Cleveland Browns fan. I hope he's doing well.

As a gridiron football fan I definitely watch the NFL. Especially in the playoffs.

But I typically pick which team I'd like to win for each individual game.

I don't even have "my team" for the season, or the playoffs.

I'll probably be favouring the Bengals in the Super Bowl.

And depending on their future success may not think much of them again for 20 years after that.

For myself I have always been a Germany fan due to my father being from Germany and strong family roots there so its hard for me to turn on a switch a become a Canada fan all of a sudden when for most of my life they were trash.

Tv ratings for the Olympics down 50% in the u.s. compared to 4 years ago in Korea. Limited ratings for Canada but Toronto star reports opening ceremonies down 25 % for Canadian ratings this year no update on what ratings have been like since the ceremony. Not sure this was a wise investment for cbc as they lost 35 million on the 2016 Rio games the Tokyo and Beijing ones must be even far worse.

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Globe and mail reporting olympic ratings down 48 % compared to the games of 4 years ago for cbc. Ratings are 25% lower than what cbc was budgeting for.

I'm surprised they're down that much. Given that many of us are still spending more time at home than in the past I would have expected there to be fairly healthy ratings.

I think lack of nhl players, Tokyo summer games just a few months ago and people really pissed off with China due to what they have done the past couple of years and the usual Olympic corruption people are turned off. Also at this point every Olympics feels the same as the previous one now. I haven't really followed it at all as most of these athletes I will never hear of again.

I'm surprised they're not down more than that.
There's just too much competition for the entertainment dollar. People spending more time at home have a mountain of movies and shows to watch and videogames to play.

Plus I think people had their fill with the Olympics.
Anecdotally, no one I know is watching it - and not even talking about any results. I haven't watched a single second of it.

I was wondering about the impact of the summer games having taken place not all that long ago, but on the other hand we used to have winter and summer Olympics in the same year all the time until the 90s and no one really seemed to mind it then.

Like I said before, the China factor is a buzzkill but is it really enough to get people to turn it off in huge numbers? Apparently it is. I guess for Canada the lack of NHL players is going to be a major turnoff too as you pointed out.

CBC is still averaging 1.0M+ each night during primetime. Seems fine.

• Third consecutive Olympics in East Asia.
• Worst possible timezone for North America.
• Tokyo 2020 was six months ago.

Once the Summer and Winter Games return to Europe and more manageable timezones in 2024 and 2026 things will be fine. China is likely a minimal buzzkill - it's really tough getting into an event that mostly takes place through the middle of the night! Great for that part of the world and not so great for us. It happens.

Maybe not for CBC ;)

I guess the time zone issue doesn't help, but I suspect most people must just watch prime time/late night coverage regardless of what time zone the Olympics are actually in.