I'll hold off my official World Cup predictions for a day to look ahead to the 2026 World Cup, in a nod to this morning's breaking news that the joint bid of Canada/Mexico/United States has been awarded the tournament. Now, Canada and Mexico will only be hosting 10 games each while the U.S.A. hosts 60, so this is about as much of a joint bid as Destiny's Child was a joint effort between three pop stars of equal stature, but still, yay Canada!
This means that, for all intents and purposes, Canada's hilariously inept men's national team has finally made it back into a World Cup. Technically, FIFA has yet to officially decide whether or not all three host countries will get automatic bids, but the odds are pretty good. After all, the tournament is expanding to 48 teams in 2026, so they'll have plenty of extra space for more North American teams to qualify. Heck, with a 48-team field, maybe Canada would've qualified anyway!
....er....moving on...
It's certainly a major landmark for Canadian soccer, Canadian sport, and really the nation as a whole. It should be noted that the proposed number of games and venues for our country has yet to be finalized, with no guarantees that the announced cities of Vancouver, Edmonton, and Toronto will end up with games.
In the midst of this uncertainty, I propose that my hometown of London, Ontario step into the driver's seat. We have several soccer fields in town, some of which I myself played on as a child! Oh, how I hated it! The matches were less competitive games for me than they were a necessary evil to obtain orange slices. My parents still to this day talk about how they've never seen me more miserable than when my eight-year-old was half-heartedly running up and down the pitch in the midst of a massive downpour. I guess they bring it up since moments of pure misery were pretty rare in my childhood, and thus this one really stood out....so really, strong parenting on their part!
London not only has soccer facilities, but MULTI-FIELD facilities. That's right, sports complexes with three, four, maybe five or six fields able for use at any given time. In the name of efficiency, we could play four games at once and roll through the entire group stage in maybe a week.
I can't speak for every set of fields, but the one near my parents' house (the actual site of my Roy Batty-esque "tears in rain" game) serves particularly tasty french fries in the snack booth. Just saying. If the French national team has a game scheduled in London and tries the fries, they'll definitely back me up on this.
This means that, for all intents and purposes, Canada's hilariously inept men's national team has finally made it back into a World Cup. Technically, FIFA has yet to officially decide whether or not all three host countries will get automatic bids, but the odds are pretty good. After all, the tournament is expanding to 48 teams in 2026, so they'll have plenty of extra space for more North American teams to qualify. Heck, with a 48-team field, maybe Canada would've qualified anyway!
....er....moving on...
It's certainly a major landmark for Canadian soccer, Canadian sport, and really the nation as a whole. It should be noted that the proposed number of games and venues for our country has yet to be finalized, with no guarantees that the announced cities of Vancouver, Edmonton, and Toronto will end up with games.
In the midst of this uncertainty, I propose that my hometown of London, Ontario step into the driver's seat. We have several soccer fields in town, some of which I myself played on as a child! Oh, how I hated it! The matches were less competitive games for me than they were a necessary evil to obtain orange slices. My parents still to this day talk about how they've never seen me more miserable than when my eight-year-old was half-heartedly running up and down the pitch in the midst of a massive downpour. I guess they bring it up since moments of pure misery were pretty rare in my childhood, and thus this one really stood out....so really, strong parenting on their part!
London not only has soccer facilities, but MULTI-FIELD facilities. That's right, sports complexes with three, four, maybe five or six fields able for use at any given time. In the name of efficiency, we could play four games at once and roll through the entire group stage in maybe a week.
I can't speak for every set of fields, but the one near my parents' house (the actual site of my Roy Batty-esque "tears in rain" game) serves particularly tasty french fries in the snack booth. Just saying. If the French national team has a game scheduled in London and tries the fries, they'll definitely back me up on this.
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