[q12]

Sportsnet Coverage of the game by Sportsnet's John Molinaro:

Thrilling HFX Wanderers home opener a landmark moment for Halifax



HALIFAX – While serving as coach of the Canadian national team, and desperately trying to drum up fan interest ahead of a World Cup qualifier in Toronto in 2011, Stephen Hart urged local sports fans to buy tickets for the game by famously imploring them to “taste the soup.”

“Come out and see what it’s about, and sort of push the team along. If it’s truly something you want to see — [Canada qualifying for] a World Cup — you could be a big part of that and you could also probably have bragging rights to say ‘I was there from the very beginning,’ and not just jump on the bandwagon,” Hart said at the time.

Eight years later, Hart now finds himself as the head coach of HFX Wanderers FC, who earned a 2-1 win over Hamilton-based Forge FC on Saturday afternoon in their home opener of the Canadian Premier League season. Akeem Garcia wrote his name in the history books as the first goal scorer in Wanderers’ history, and Luis Perea brought the house down with his game-winning goal in the 82nd minute.

Beyond seeing his team earn its first win, Hart had to have liked what he saw, as not only did Halifax sports fans “taste the soup,” they licked their bowls clean and asked for seconds. A sellout crowd of 6,113 fans jammed into the popup stadium located on the historic Wanderers Grounds in the heart of the city, wedged between Citadel Hill and the Public Gardens, marking the return of pro soccer to Halifax for the first time since 1991 when the Nova Scotia Clippers competed in the old Canadian Soccer League.

Read more here:
https://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/thri...oment-halifax/