World Cup 2026

[Calgarian]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Wow, first ever world cup game win.

I'll never get over how Qatar (a country with only 313,000 citizens....yes there are 8 times that number of non-citizens) could be awarded the World Cup. It's like awarding the Summer Olympics to Barbados.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$


Great to see Canada completely dominate Qatar, was almost like we were playing them in hockey it was so one sided! We have fully announced ourselves in this world cup, the world is definitely paying attention. Kudos to Vancouver for showing up, lots of friends in the city were saying the atmosphere is just unreal.

[niwell]

Originally Posted by shappy

The first red looked questionable but maybe I missed something? Kone with the broken leg was rough to see. Then David with the hat trick and tied with Messi for goals so far. Wild game.

Yeah I thought the first red card wasn't necessary too even though it was technically the correct call. They often overlook stuff like that. Qatar fell apart afterwards but we already had it in the bag. Absolutely a wild game.

Very sad about Kone for what could be a career-ending injury. The Qatari player did look pretty devastated afterwards too so I don't think it was intentional but rather dumb mistakes when they were getting desperate. If that first red card wasn't issued it may not have happened but that's just idle speculation.

[MonctonRad]

Tib-fib fractures can be finicky. Internal fixation is mandatory. Healing is often slow. Non union is not unheard of. The fixation works fine in most cases in average people, but can act as a point of stress in high performance athletes.

Kone's season is over and this injury could be career ending. At the least, it will likely take at least 12-18 months for recovery. He may never be the same.

[SignalHillHiker]

Watched the game with an Ethiopian friend and had a laugh.

Me: I haven't watched football in years.
TV: This is Canada's first win in a World Cup match.
Him: Sounds like here you didn't miss much.

[SpongeG]

I don't think Canadians understand just how big football is outside of Canada and the USA. I keep reading comments like I didn't know Vancouver had so many Turks living there or Toronto had so many people from Panama etc. they seem to think the games are set up for locals to watch; they don't seem to understand that people are flying in in the thousands to attend these games. I've watched numerous things and people are telling how much they spent to come here, like one couple from Scotland said they have spend 27,000 GBP for this trip or some Aussies who have spent $30,000 AUD etc. Fans are willing to pay to attend World Cup Games. How can so many in Canada not understand that lol.

[James Bond Agent 007]

Are thirsty soccer fans drinking all the beer in World Cup host cities?

It's happening in Boston and Vancouver, in Dallas and Toronto, and they're stocking up in Seattle to prepare for the inevitable.

People are blaming the Australians, the British and the Scottish, although the locals aren't exactly teetotalling, either. But while the details may be blurry, one thing is certain: soccer fans are drinking a whole lot of beer during World Cup games.

"Beer sales, since the kickoff of the World Cup, have at least doubled," Rocco Mastrangelo, co-owner of Cafe Diplomatico in Toronto, told CBC News.

[Chocolite]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

I don't think Canadians understand just how big football is outside of Canada and the USA. I keep reading comments like I didn't know Vancouver had so many Turks living there or Toronto had so many people from Panama etc. they seem to think the games are set up for locals to watch; they don't seem to understand that people are flying in in the thousands to attend these games. I've watched numerous things and people are telling how much they spent to come here, like one couple from Scotland said they have spend 27,000 GBP for this trip or some Aussies who have spent $30,000 AUD etc. Fans are willing to pay to attend World Cup Games. How can so many in Canada not understand that lol.

Bingo. The sport is massive, and people will spend money to travel to the world cup. It's by far the biggest sporting event on the globe, and it only happens every 4 years. Also for many countries, it's the only sport that matters. I'm not surprised at how many people travel here for it, but yeah, it's a different mentality. Canadians and Americans don't tend to travel for sporting events near as much as people in other countries.

[niwell]

Yes good points above. There was lots of talk about how Toronto hotels are actually at lower capacity than normal for this time of year once FIFA cancelled a bunch of block bookings. But I would not be surprised if a ton of people came and are staying with family/friends. Even accounting for airbnbs. That’s one area the diversity comes into play.

[SpongeG]

I watched a story on instagram, this guy came in from England and had booked a 6 week stay in Toronto at an AirBNB and his first video he was giving a walk through of the place and there was some other people already staying in it, like a full house, and they were out at the time but he had gotten into the place and could not get a hold of the host and was able to get something done with AirBnb, he had stayed in a hotel and was eventually given another house, which was even nicer and better so he was happy. But he had a whole crew of people coming and needed multiple rooms etc. and a hotel would not suffice.

[SpongeG]

Nearly 12 million Canadians watched match

20 Jun 2026 #ctvnews #ctvnationalnews #canadiannews
Canada's 6-0 victory over Qatar has people taking notice around the world.

• Video Link

[mousquet]

Originally Posted by Hackslack

Gotta say, admittedly I’m not much of a soccer fan, and I’m constantly reminded of that every time I see so much diving, and rolling around like they’ve been shot, all to sell the call, then get up and run away.

Do you think that Canadian player dove and pretended to be dying too?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9CSvLlbUSE

Broken leg. It hurts just watching. I'm surprised by the guy's reaction.
A lot of players would be in tears. Not due to the pain, but because it means the tournament would be over for them.

Sometimes, you may think they fall on purpose to fool the ref, if you tried to run a sprint on a professional football field with an opponent defender to make you lose balance, you'd fall too.
That's probably why it's not that easy for a ref to give a pretender a yellow card like they're supposed to. I think most often, they do not pretend.

[cjones2451]

Originally Posted by mousquet

Do you think that Canadian player dove and pretended to be dying too?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9CSvLlbUSE

Broken leg. It hurts just watching. I'm surprised by the guy's reaction.
A lot of players would be in tears. Not due to the pain, but because it means the tournament would be over for them.

Sometimes, you may think they fall on purpose to fool the ref, if you tried to run a sprint on a professional football field with an opponent defender to make you lose balance, you'd fall too.
That's probably why it's not that easy for a ref to give a pretender a yellow card like they're supposed to. I think most often, they do not pretend.

Kone's injury was brutal and many of the players knew right away and rushed to help him and get trainers out there ASAP.

I will say the new rules are helping curb this. Refs are not buying it as much and if a guy is down on the ground rolling around too long they have to go off the field for a minute (even if they are legit injured) so the fake stuff us being reduced. If you look at some they look like embellishment, they them they slow it down on the replay and they are legit getting stepped on, or kicked in the leg / ankle / foot and as a guy who has played some rec soccer, getting stepped on with studs f*cking hurts

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

Originally Posted by BlackDog204

This is just not true. The percentage of Canadians who are immigrants has been rising slowly since WWII. From 14.7% in 1951 to 23% in the last census. However, Canada only became competitive enough to compete for a World Cup spot in the 80s, and for roughly 20 years (late 90s to late 2010s), it's soccer program was awful. If immigrants were mainly responsible for Canada doing well in soccer, Canada would have never had a 20 year period of decline.



When Canada's immigrant population were mainly from Europe up until the beginning of this century. where soccer is huge. Additionally, the two largest immigrant groups in the past decade (Indians and Filipinos) produce literally no soccer players, as the sport is not popular in those countries.


IMHO, it has everything to do with soccer being affordable for nearly all Canadians to play, unlike hockey, football, golf, tennis, skiing, etc). Finally, when is the last time a non-traditional soccer powerhouse won a World Cup? If anything, the United States, with similar demographics as us, and 8.7x the population would have won at least 2 World Cup's if what you are saying is true. However, the USA has never even come remotely close to winning a cup. Ironically, the USA best result in the World Cup, was finishing 3rd in 1930 (the first World Cup). Their best result in the modern period, was a Quarter Final appearance in 2002.

I think there’s a pretty direct correlation between Canada’s national soccer team having wayyy more success and the roster having way more players of African heritage, specifically West African heritage. Africa is a huge, diverse continent with over 56 countries almost all of which could be described as “football crazy”.

We’ve seen more immigrants from sub Saharan Africa and North Africa come to Canada in the last few decades, than ever before, and I think it’s no surprise that some of their children have risen to the top of Canadian soccer, and even into the top flights of European football. As you point out, a huge percentage of people immigrating to Canada are from countries like India, Philippines, and other Asian countries that don’t have much of a football culture like is found in Europe, Africa, and Latin America.

A big part of North and West Africa is Francophone and that means Canada will continue to see more immigrants coming from these locations. Ivory Coast almost beat Germany yesterday, and Morocco is a legitimate contender to actually win the World Cup.

I think Canada could have far better academy systems than the MLS, and a far better league system too. Soccer will always be fourth or fifth fiddle in the US because of the dominance of football, baseball, and basketball, but in Canada, soccer could legitimately become our second most popular sport (if it isn’t even already). I’d be surprised if soccer was not, by far, the most popular sport among newcomer Canadians (ahead of hockey, basketball, cricket, etc) and it’s only going to get more popular in the decades to come.

Soccer is already exponentially more accessible and affordable than hockey is for Canadians to play in recreational leagues… its the competitive side of the game, and the professional side of the game where we have a problem, and the biggest problem with soccer in Canada is the MLS! Fans and owners of the three Canadian MLS teams might not want to see their teams leave a “better” league and system in the MLS, but doing so (joining a Canadian domestic league) that decision could actually give Canada a fighting chance in the footballing world, since it would lay the foundation for our country to follow in the footsteps of the countries that have actually won the World Cup, all of which have large domestic leagues with systems of relegation and promotion.

It’s pretty hard to grow “soccer culture” across the country if we have our three biggest “football clubs” in our three biggest cities competing in an American league called Major League Soccer, instead of a domestic league like would be the case in Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina, Uruguay, France, or Spain (countries that have actually won the World Cup). If Canada had a domestic league system with 40 teams across the top two flights (like the English Football League) that would fundamentally change how soccer was part of Canadian culture, and it would make relegation and promotion battles something of national importance and interest. Soccer has never succeeded in the US because Americans are obsessed with their own professional sports leagues like the NFL, MLB, NBA, and to some extent, the NHL (as well as golf, nascar and a bunch of other crap that basically only the US cares about).

Soccer is succeeding in Canada, despite the three Canadian MLS teams holding back professional soccer, as it makes it difficult for domestic leagues to compete for supporters when the three biggest cities in Canada have teams in a US soccer league. If the MLS owners could ever see the forest through the trees, they could not only make a lot of money by selling their franchises to relocate to American cities, they could change the landscape of Canadian soccer for generations to come.

This discussion topic reminded of a post MolsonExport made in the statistics thread the other day:

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Africa's population is projected to reach approximately 2.5 billion by 2050 and surpass 3.8 billion by the year 2100 (United Nations projections). While the overall global population is expected to level off, this massive demographic surge will make Africa home to roughly 40% of humanity by the end of the century. The future of immigration in Canada will be largely an African story.

Africa remains the world's youngest continent with a median age of around 19.5 years.
By 2050, 1 in 3 workers globally will be African, and 40% of all global births will occur on the continent.
The urban population is set to triple, adding hundreds of millions of people to towns and cities

Not sure why you don’t think Canada will ever rise to the top of the footballing world if you also think the future of immigration in Canada will largely be an African story. I think Canada will win the World Cup by 2100, but hopefully we could see the game grow and development enough to see Canada win the World Cup by 2050. Before then, I think we will see an African country win… and if Canada can’t win it all this year, I’m very much pulling for an African country to win it all!

[EnvisionSaintJohn]

I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again, I hope Canada never co hosts another World Cup with the United States.

If we’re ever going to co host another World Cup, we should do it with the likes of Australia, Ireland, Scotland, and New Zealand, since we have many historical ties, but none of our countries have enough stadiums on our own to host the tournament… it would be the most global World Cup in history, and Canada would actually have a shot at hosting the final match.

Also, it makes me think, how the hell hasn’t England (or the UK as a whole) hosted another World Cup since 1966? They have the most popular football league on earth, and there’s more than enough stadiums across the UK… so what gives? 🤔

[MolsonExport]

well, because Qatar is such an important country, with so many citizens, they couldn't award the World Cup to such a middling power like England.

[SpongeG]

Some of the foreign casters and media are surprised by Canada's performance and are saying everyone overlooked them and they are quite surprised by their performance.

"HISTORY!" - ESPN FC "STUNNED" Canada destroys Qatar 6-0 with Jonathan David's hat-trick

• Video Link

Big March by the Egyptian fans today in Vancouver, haven't seen the NZ footage yet. But NZ will be here for a week as their next game will also be here in Vancouver.

NZ fans are playing some games around Vancouver, nice idea

• Video Link

[Nite]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

I think there’s a pretty direct correlation between Canada’s national soccer team having wayyy more success and the roster having way more players of African heritage, specifically West African heritage. Africa is a huge, diverse continent with over 56 countries almost all of which could be described as “football crazy”.

We’ve seen more immigrants from sub Saharan Africa and North Africa come to Canada in the last few decades, than ever before, and I think it’s no surprise that some of their children have risen to the top of Canadian soccer, and even into the top flights of European football. As you point out, a huge percentage of people immigrating to Canada are from countries like India, Philippines, and other Asian countries that don’t have much of a football culture like is found in Europe, Africa, and Latin America.

A big part of North and West Africa is Francophone and that means Canada will continue to see more immigrants coming from these locations. Ivory Coast almost beat Germany yesterday, and Morocco is a legitimate contender to actually win the World Cup.

I think Canada could have far better academy systems than the MLS, and a far better league system too. Soccer will always be fourth or fifth fiddle in the US because of the dominance of football, baseball, and basketball, but in Canada, soccer could legitimately become our second most popular sport (if it isn’t even already). I’d be surprised if soccer was not, by far, the most popular sport among newcomer Canadians (ahead of hockey, basketball, cricket, etc) and it’s only going to get more popular in the decades to come.

Soccer is already exponentially more accessible and affordable than hockey is for Canadians to play in recreational leagues… its the competitive side of the game, and the professional side of the game where we have a problem, and the biggest problem with soccer in Canada is the MLS! Fans and owners of the three Canadian MLS teams might not want to see their teams leave a “better” league and system in the MLS, but doing so (joining a Canadian domestic league) that decision could actually give Canada a fighting chance in the footballing world, since it would lay the foundation for our country to follow in the footsteps of the countries that have actually won the World Cup, all of which have large domestic leagues with systems of relegation and promotion.

It’s pretty hard to grow “soccer culture” across the country if we have our three biggest “football clubs” in our three biggest cities competing in an American league called Major League Soccer, instead of a domestic league like would be the case in Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina, Uruguay, France, or Spain (countries that have actually won the World Cup). If Canada had a domestic league system with 40 teams across the top two flights (like the English Football League) that would fundamentally change how soccer was part of Canadian culture, and it would make relegation and promotion battles something of national importance and interest. Soccer has never succeeded in the US because Americans are obsessed with their own professional sports leagues like the NFL, MLB, NBA, and to some extent, the NHL (as well as golf, nascar and a bunch of other crap that basically only the US cares about).

Soccer is succeeding in Canada, despite the three Canadian MLS teams holding back professional soccer, as it makes it difficult for domestic leagues to compete for supporters when the three biggest cities in Canada have teams in a US soccer league. If the MLS owners could ever see the forest through the trees, they could not only make a lot of money by selling their franchises to relocate to American cities, they could change the landscape of Canadian soccer for generations to come.

This discussion topic reminded of a post MolsonExport made in the statistics thread the other day:



Not sure why you don’t think Canada will ever rise to the top of the footballing world if you also think the future of immigration in Canada will largely be an African story. I think Canada will win the World Cup by 2100, but hopefully we could see the game grow and development enough to see Canada win the World Cup by 2050. Before then, I think we will see an African country win… and if Canada can’t win it all this year, I’m very much pulling for an African country to win it all!

MLS is why Canada has a competitive team now, nearly all the players came through MLS clubs including the coach.
Toronto FC Alone has 150 players from U-14 to the senior teams, the vast majority of which are Canadians.
and in total all the Canadian MLS teams have between 450 to 500 players at all levels.
The CPL has no such developmental pathway and half the amount of players overall compared to the 3 MLS clubs
They develop for years in the MLS Teams academy systems with the very best make it into MLS and beyond.
Before MLS Canada could have only dream of suck academies.

[BlackDog204]

Originally Posted by EnvisionSaintJohn

I think there’s a pretty direct correlation between Canada’s national soccer team having wayyy more success and the roster having way more players of African heritage, specifically West African heritage. Africa is a huge, diverse continent with over 56 countries almost all of which could be described as “football crazy”.
and Latin America.

African nations have never done well in the World Cup, especially sub saharian ones. Excluding Morocco's 2022 run, only 3 African clubs have made it to the Quarter Finals, in World Cup history.

I think Canada could have far better academy systems than the MLS, and a far better league system too. Soccer will always be fourth or fifth fiddle in the US because of the dominance of football, baseball, and basketball, but in Canada, soccer could legitimately become our second most popular sport (if it isn’t even already). I’d be surprised if soccer was not, by far, the most popular sport among newcomer Canadians (ahead of hockey, basketball, cricket, etc) and it’s only going to get more popular in the decades to come.

Soccer is already exponentially more accessible and affordable than hockey is for Canadians to play in recreational leagues… its the competitive side of the game, and the professional side of the game where we have a problem, and the biggest problem with soccer in Canada is the MLS! Fans and owners of the three Canadian MLS teams might not want to see their teams leave a “better” league and system in the MLS, but doing so (joining a Canadian domestic league) that decision could actually give Canada a fighting chance in the footballing world, since it would lay the foundation for our country to follow in the footsteps of the countries that have actually won the World Cup, all of which have large domestic leagues with systems of relegation and promotion.

I don't understand the thought process of MLS impeding the popularity and development of Canadian soccer. Has the NBA impeded the development of Canadian basketball players, or the MLB impeded on developing Canadian baseball players? I'm old enough to remember the days before MLS, and to say it's been a deterrent to growing the game in Canada, is ridiculous. Soccer popularity has been on an upward trajectory since the early 90s at the earliest. Even when Canada did not qualify for World Cups. the interest in the sport grew with every decade.

It’s pretty hard to grow “soccer culture” across the country if we have our three biggest “football clubs” in our three biggest cities competing in an American league called Major League Soccer, instead of a domestic league like would be the case in Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina, Uruguay, France, or Spain (countries that have actually won the World Cup). If Canada had a domestic league system with 40 teams across the top two flights (like the English Football League) that would fundamentally change how soccer was part of Canadian culture, and it would make relegation and promotion battles something of national importance and interest. Soccer has never succeeded in the US because Americans are obsessed with their own professional sports leagues like the NFL, MLB, NBA, and to some extent, the NHL.


Soccer is succeeding in Canada, despite the three Canadian MLS teams holding back professional soccer, as it makes it difficult for domestic leagues to compete for supporters when the three biggest cities in Canada have teams in a US soccer league. If the MLS owners could ever see the forest through the trees, they could not only make a lot of money by selling their franchises to relocate to American cities, they could change the landscape of Canadian soccer for generations to come.

Again, why would soccer culture be any different than baseball or basketball culture. When Canadian programs thrived despite only one or two Canadian cities being home to MLB or NBA teams.

Contrary to popular held beliefs, soccer actually did well in America in the 1920s. The ASL (American Soccer League 1921-33) was very popular, more so than the NHL and NFL (two league born during the same period), and second only to Major League Baseball. This would explain the United States coming fairly close to winning the World Cup, the first year the tournament was held. Soccer politics and the Great Depression killed off soccer popularity in North America for half a century, until Pele was signed to the New York Cosmos. And since the birth of the MLS, the US soccer team has performed better than at any time since 1930.

Not sure why you don’t think Canada will ever rise to the top of the footballing world if you also think the future of immigration in Canada will largely be an African story. I think Canada will win the World Cup by 2100, but hopefully we could see the game grow and development enough to see Canada win the World Cup by 2050. Before then, I think we will see an African country win… and if Canada can’t win it all this year, I’m very much pulling for an African country to win it all!

Canada will never win the World Cup in my lifetime. It would have to eclipse hockey in popularity as a spectator sport. There is also the issue with people not being able to play the game outdoors for half the year. There is also the issue of our relatively small population. Russia has four times the population as Canada, and soccer is more popular there in a similar climate, yet Russia has never done well in the World Cup.

It's not impossible, but when Mexico, USA, Russia, China, and other nations with much larger populations don't compete for the World cup, I think it's safe to say that Canada definitely will not for the foreseeable future.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

I watched a story on instagram, this guy came in from England and had booked a 6 week stay in Toronto at an AirBNB and his first video he was giving a walk through of the place and there was some other people already staying in it, like a full house, and they were out at the time but he had gotten into the place and could not get a hold of the host and was able to get something done with AirBnb, he had stayed in a hotel and was eventually given another house, which was even nicer and better so he was happy. But he had a whole crew of people coming and needed multiple rooms etc. and a hotel would not suffice.

It would be interesting to find out exactly how many tourists came for these vs local expats. There are a large amount of Australian expats living/on work permits in the Lower Mainland. You just don’t often see them all in one place. On the other hand it was clear most of the Qatar fans were flown in.

[Calgarian]

Originally Posted by mousquet

Do you think that Canadian player dove and pretended to be dying too?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9CSvLlbUSE

Broken leg. It hurts just watching. I'm surprised by the guy's reaction.
A lot of players would be in tears. Not due to the pain, but because it means the tournament would be over for them.

Sometimes, you may think they fall on purpose to fool the ref, if you tried to run a sprint on a professional football field with an opponent defender to make you lose balance, you'd fall too.
That's probably why it's not that easy for a ref to give a pretender a yellow card like they're supposed to. I think most often, they do not pretend.

The thing I hate most about the diving is it trivializes the real injuries. When a guy is rolling around in "pain" after a very minor bump, then gets back up and is fine, the next time you see someone go down you are going to think they are faking it too. Nobody is saying there aren't real injuries, just that there are so many more fake ones that it's completely ridiculous!