The final score after one day of the World Cup in Toronto: The city 2, Team Canada 1, Bosnia and Herzegovina 1.
We did something neither of the teams playing could match. We were hot, Toronto was. We were on fire. We started hours before the game began and ended hours after it.
This was a Toronto we’ve never seen before, never known before. All dressed up in Canadian red. All sounding like a Jack White theme song, with the people of Toronto later chanting Ole Ole Ole, the theme verses of the hated Montreal Canadiens, like it was somehow part of us.
There was no place for hate on this World Cup Friday. Unless you were attempting to manipulate the traffic downtown in the early afternoon. There was a place to be nervous, a place to worry about Team Canada, a team not matching its home audience on the first men’s World Cup game played in this country.
Team Canada didn’t win or lose its opening match. That’s something, by itself, that has never happened before. Before Friday afternoon, Canada was a clear oh-and-six at the World Cup. Now it’s on to Vancouver at 0-6-1.
The point mattered because of possible playoff implications. And the point mattered because in the second half of a game that didn’t resemble the first half, Team Canada began to match the energy, the excitement, and the verve of the 43,002 who packed into an expanded BMO Field which has never sounded like this before.
In truth, Toronto never felt like this before.
We’ve seen the World Series in this city three times. We’ve seen an NBA Finals in this city. We’ve seen some MLS Cups. We’ve seen moments of believing the Maple Leafs hope was real. And we’ve seen the 100th Grey Cup, won by the Argos in their own building. We’ve had no shortage of great moments and great celebrations.
But nothing felt like this before the game even began. Nothing looked like the downtown streets as fans of Canada, and fans of Bosnia and Herzegovina, paraded their way to the stadium. It was either red everywhere or blue everywhere, depending on who you were walking with. With the clueless Mayor of our town saying they were ready for the World Cup, ready for everything. And then streets began being shut down by police because there was no place for cars or buses and people all on the same roadway.
But we got through it, no help of hers. Before the first ball was kicked Friday, the World Cup looked big and felt big all across downtown. Big events have a way of looking big and feeling big. The pageantry was in the stadium early. The Canadian crowd started early but the Canadian team, more athletic, less robotic than the Bosnians, did not. Team Canada finished fast in a 1-1 draw that should have been, could have been a Canadian victory.
The victory came in the pre-game concert with Alessia Cara from Brampton singing, with Michael Buble from Vancouver and friends doing a brilliant version of Sam Cooke’s Bring It On Home to Me — and what a Canadian treasure he is — with Ottawa’s Alanis Morissette twanging the national anthem as only she can twang.
The celebrities were introduced throughout the afternoon on the stadium scoreboard. Christine Sinclair was there. Connor McDavid was there. Ryan Reynolds was there. Ed Robertson was there. A lot of Canadian royalty made the trip home for this. And Scarborough’s Mike Myers was there.
“Mike Myers was here?” said Canadian coach Jesse Marsch. “Sweet.”
This was sweet. It started too early on the streets and ended too soon at night. This is real what big events, world class events feel like. You can’t always invent hype and hope. It happens on its own. But the almost sold out Canadian crowd and those just making their way to FanFest had a feel of occasion from the moment they woke up Friday. The feeling that took the Canadian team an entire half to catch up with.
When Canada plays next in the World Cup, in Vancouver, coach Marsch wants to see more confidence from his team, more sell, more belief. “I told them after the match, if we play like we did in the second half in the first half, we win, right?” Said Marsch.
Winning is what needs to be next on the Team Canada agenda.
Team Canada has played at its Toronto lakeside venue before. Just not this version of the stadium. Just not this sound of the crowd. “The stadium felt different,” said Marsch.
“We talked about it (starting fast). We have to be more aware of it. I do think we’ll learn from this.”
Marsch wanted the home crowd to create what he called an historical environment. The crowd did its part. The players didn’t match the excitement and the noise until it was almost too late.
And so a win became a tie and Team Canada leaves Toronto now after this brief dance — and anyone who was rich enough or fortunate enough to be there will remember this forever.
