[Zoom]

It's been very entertaining to watch! The best part is that if Canada qualifies, they should be a threat to potentially win a few games at the WC. Will be interesting to see where FIFA will rank Canada if they win tomorrow.

They'll be more of threat than they were in 1986, but competition will be stiff. To be honest, I'll be happy if they come away with a win, or a couple of draws. Other teams who have already qualifies are all strong teams, except Qatar who's there because they are hosts.

Qatar
Argentina
Belgium
Brazil
Croatia
Denmark
England
France
Germany
Iran
The Netherlands
Serbia
South Korea
Spain
Switzerland

 

[adamyyc]

One of the strangest goals I’ve ever seen tonight, but we’ll take it.

 

[Surrealplaces]

Huge win last night, and a huge loss for Panama. Canada can finish no lower than 4th, and can book their ticket to the world cup with a win or a Panama loss. A draw against Panama in the final game would also put them through.

I don't want to jinx anything here, but it's almost certain they'll be in the world Cup.

 

[Surrealplaces]

As most probably already know, we are going to the World Cup 2022. Very exciting for people who follow football, and even for casual followers,.

The groups were picked today and Canada is in with Belgium, Morocco and Croatia. Not the easiest group, but could be worse, like group D or E. Basically there are no easy groups, but some are weaker, like Group A or B.

 

[ThujaPlicata]

As most probably already know, we are going to the World Cup 2022. Very exciting for people who follow football, and even for casual followers,.

The groups were picked today and Canada is in with Belgium, Morocco and Croatia. Not the easiest group, but could be worse, like group D or E. Basically there are no easy groups, but some are weaker, like Group A or B.

View attachment 389607

Group H is going to be great to watch

But this huge for Canada no doubt

 

[adamyyc]

Too bad Edmonton didn't get selected for the World Cup. I get why Edmonton wasn't selected, but it's still annoying that Vancouver dropped out years ago only to swoop in last minute with the rise of the men's team and popularity of the sport in the last year.

 

[ByeByeBaby]

Too bad Edmonton didn't get selected for the World Cup. I get why Edmonton wasn't selected, but it's still annoying that Vancouver dropped out years ago only to swoop in last minute with the rise of the men's team and popularity of the sport in the last year.

My understanding is that Vancouver was encouraged to step in at the last minute after our provincial government made some demands of FIFA.

With rumours swirling about Vancouver wanting back in, the Alberta provincial government took bold action in March when it committed $110 million in public money to the city of Edmonton to help cover the cost of hosting games in 2026. However, the funding was contingent on Edmonton getting to host five of the 10 games that will take place in Canada in 2026, including two matches in the knockout round.


That proved to be a miscalculation that hurt Edmonton’s bid. FIFA is like the mafia — it isn’t used to having cities make demands of it like that. You don't hold them up at knife point and try to dictate terms to them, which is essentially what the Alberta government did. The fact that the financial support from the province came with strings attached hurt Edmonton’s chances, even though it won political points.

Telling FIFA "it's either us or Vancouver" is a great way to get soccer games in Vancouver.

 

[adamyyc]

My understanding is that Vancouver was encouraged to step in at the last minute after our provincial government made some demands of FIFA.



Telling FIFA "it's either us or Vancouver" is a great way to get soccer games in Vancouver.

Totally get that. Vancouver also makes way more sense than Edmonton, but it it doesn’t take the sting out of the fact that Van was not committed all this time when Edmonton was.

 

[Mountain Man]

So you guys are saying Kenny fucked Edmonton out of this? same as he did for X games here (though the latter was blatant). Is he gone yet? lol

Commonwealth Stadium is a bit of a shit hole too, everyone in Edmonton thinks its on the same level as Sofi stadium in LA, but it's more on the level of McMahon. It has the bones to be renovated into a pretty nice stadium, but I'm guessing that would require a 9 figure investment!

 

[MichaelS]

I don't follow soccer, not a huge fan even, but $110 million in public funds to host only 5 games? Is that accurate? Does it really cost $22 million to hold a soccer match?

 

[ByeByeBaby]

One thing that needed to be done was to replace the surface from turf to grass, which I'm sure is one cost driver -- especially since I'm sure it would be converted back to turf afterwards, since it has to be able to host an Elks game in November. (FIFA lets women play World Cup games on turf, but not men. For some reason.) I'm, also sure there are other upgrades needed to bring the stadium up to FIFA standards (there's an entire book of technical specs down to how many lumens per square metre the field is lit to) -- the Toronto stadium is getting over 10K extra temporary seats. Not sure how much of these would be upgrades that would remain; Commonwealth could potentially benefit from some of them. These sort of infrastructure costs would be the same whether the stadium held one game or ten.

But a lot of the cost I'm sure is operational; there would be media from dozens of countries, so you need temporary media space. There needs to be a bunch of security involved. FIFA's sportocrats I'm sure get their cut as well with various VIP perks.

 

[Surrealplaces]

I don't follow soccer, not a huge fan even, but $110 million in public funds to host only 5 games? Is that accurate? Does it really cost $22 million to hold a soccer match?

That's a lot of money, and if it's straight cost to us it wouldn't make sense to host the 5 games unless we could get something in return. I would have thought that Edmonton would have received some TV revenue money, but I don't have any idea if that's the case.

So you guys are saying Kenny fucked Edmonton out of this? same as he did for X games here (though the latter was blatant). Is he gone yet? lol

Commonwealth Stadium is a bit of a shit hole too, everyone in Edmonton thinks its on the same level as Sofi stadium in LA, but it's more on the level of McMahon. It has the bones to be renovated into a pretty nice stadium, but I'm guessing that would require a 9 figure investment!

That is a good point also. Commonwealth is not much of a step above McMahon, and is actually kind of a crappy stadium. It pales compared to BC Place, which is obviously why they wanted it in the first place.

 

[Mountain Man]

The boys played really well, even dominant against #2 Belgium! Disappointed they lost but what a good showing for our first World Cup game in nearly 40 years!

 

[Surrealplaces]

The boys played really well, even dominant against #2 Belgium! Disappointed they lost but what a good showing for our first World Cup game in nearly 40 years!

Disappointed with the result, but not the game or effort. They were in this game enough that they could have easily gotten a draw, or even a win. These guys are definitely much better than the team from 40 years back.

 

[Alex_YYC]

Canada deserved better today, not just a draw, but I feel like they should’ve won the game. Either way, gutsy performance from Les Rouges.