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Soccer World Cup
Makoto Asahara
Published 2026-06-11 23.49
TORONTO. Sweden is considered a hockey nation. Canada is a hockey nation.
It is noticeable in the World Cup city of Toronto.
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– Excuse me, do you know which side they will play football on?
The question posed by a Fifa volunteer completely baffles both me and my Canadian journalist colleague.
It must be said that we have not yet had time to see how the plan at Centennial Park i Toronto’s edges actually look, as it is behind a black protective fence.
But in any case, we dare to state the issue that Bosnia should not carry out its match preparation WC training on the green area on the opposite side in any case.
No, this is not exactly a nation where the average person has an iron grip on football.
Virtually empty bus
– The dream is that a really long World Cup summer and success for the national team can lead to a football boom in the country, says Jean-Francois Teotonio, French-speaking journalist at La Presse and the same Canadian colleague mentioned above.
If Jesse Marsch’s gang doesn’t succeed? Then nothing will change.
He has gone from Montreal to Toronto to cover the Canadian national team. He is also the only journalist apart from Sportbladet’s emissary who actually uses the official media bus to get out to Bosnia’s training and mixed zone.
The bus in question picked us up and drove us back the roughly half hour on the highway as well.
Grateful and incredibly flexible for myself, absolutely.
But the feeling is that they either missed in communication or completely misjudged the pressure based on how the service was actually used.
Given that the hotel reception said “we don’t have media buses” at check-in yesterday, I almost believe the former.
After all, one could have imagined that Montreal should have been a fairly logical venue in a World Cup with Canadian organization. Quebec as well. Or, for that matter, the capital city of Ottawa. But they didn’t have the arena infrastructure in place for that. Maybe not either
So it is only in Toronto and Vancouver that Canadian World Cup football will actually be played. Or yes, if Canada doesn’t win Group B, they will actually end up on American soil instead in a possible playoff.
The same fate applies to Mexico, which as I write these lines has just kicked off this championship nearly 4,000 kilometers away in Mexico City.
No, it is not an evenly distributed three-nation arrangement in terms of number of matches and host cities. We can confirm that.
The Mats Sundin question
The Bosnian training then? Well when we found our way in there.
It only confirmed more prejudices about the actual status of soccer in Canada.
Swedish boss Benjamin Tahirovic appeared as one of the players in the mixed zone before. And was asked, among other things, by the Canadian press how he ended up in football of all sports in Mats Sundin’s hockey-crazy homeland.
– Well, my parents are Bosnians, answered Tahirovic, indirectly insinuating that ice hockey was never part of his upbringing.
How do you feel Canada’s game is affected if Moise Bombito is missing from the back line?
Stuttgart forward Ermedin Demirovic didn’t really have as much of an iron grip on the Maple Leafs’ player material as the Canadian press corps seemed to believe.
As I think back to the morning’s activities, Julian Quinones takes the ball after awkward South African defensive play and puts the first goal of the World Cup on the screens in front of me.
It is still noticeable in the hotel lobby where I sit and write these lines.
This is drinking a so-called “canadiano” on ice. Which is simply an americano, made with Canadian coffee in Canada. A name change carried out by several Canadian cafes as a mark against the customs disputes and other disagreements that have been going on between the US and Canada. Speaking of collaborations and joint arrangements…
Now I’m going to head out to Toronto Stadium in a little while for some press conferences.
Wonder how many of us will be on the bus this time.
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