The Canadian soccer community gnashes a lot of teeth about the ongoing struggle to achieve a true "home" crowd to support our national teams when they play on Canadian soil. But on Canada Day it's worth pointing out that the support in the stands at Canada matches really isn't related to anything beyond what's happening on the pitch. And for that we should be thankful.
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Take the recently completed Gold Cup final. As the action on the field fades slowly into memory, some of the action off of it enjoys a slightly longer shelf life. Here are two excellent reads that summarize some of the alleged "incidents" that took place between Mexico and USA fans at the Rose Bowl one week ago.
At first glance, there are eerie similarities between what is described in the above accounts and what I have personally witnessed at Canada matches over the past three years. The most striking comparisons would be with the World Cup qualifier against Honduras I attended in Montreal in 2008. Home support preposterously outnumbered and hemmed into a small, poorly policed section of the stadium; beer and other debris hurled between the two sets of supporters; and isolated fistfights breaking out at the fringes of the Canada supporters' section, especially after the match.
Not exactly a pleasant experience for those simply wanting to cheer on their country in their country. But the more I thought about what I remember from these games (and to be fair, I was pretty juiced at all of them) and the events described at the Rose Bowl, I settled upon some important differences.
The following excerpt from FBM's recount of the Gold Cup final puts the USA-Mexico rivalry in important context.
This is why I am endlessly fascinated by Mexico versus the United States on the soccer pitch. It is a contemporary and historical faultline; a serious and proper division in society being played out by 22 men and a ball. Mexico and the U.S. have a loooong mutual history, much of it rather unpleasant. The El Tri fans can talk all they want about how they are "booing the team and not the country" and that whistling and jeering during the Star-Spangled Banner is just blowing off steam, but I've got to suspect that it all goes just a little bit deeper than that.Unfortunately this latest edition of US versus Mexico played out on so many levels. Beyond the soccer pitch is the elephant in the room with the issue of immigration. In recent months several states have enacted (with many more states considering them) several tough measures regarding stemming the flow of undocumented immigrants into the United States and political candidates on both sides of the issue have continued to use the issue as a political football (whichever football you prefer). Frustrations from Mexicans, Mexican-Americans, and white Americans color the entire scene. As these tensions rise outside the lens of soccer it's not surprising that issues play out in the parking lots and stadiums of our two nations' matches.
Feel free to disagree with me in the comment section, but at recent Canada matches I don't recall any supporters in opposite colours booing O'Canada or the Canadian players, at least not on any sort of widespread and noticeable level. Mostly it was either standing in silence or polite applause. Sure, there were some punches thrown during the Peru game at BMO Field last year, but I'm choosing to see that as nothing more than drunken boisterousness.
While USA-Mexico or say, France-Algeria, highlight divisions in society, the away support at Canada matches simply highlights differences in society. For the segment of Canada's population whose ancestors trail back more than a few generations, soccer just isn't really a thing yet. Maybe it never will be. And we all know that the game is mostly ignored or ridiculed in mainstream media. I honestly believe that most people pulling on an Ecuador or Peru or whatever shirt and heading down to a stadium in Toronto or Montreal to cheer on the Old Country versus Canada don't view it remotely as an act of betrayal, but simply participating in something the vast majority of people they interact with on a daily basis aren't even aware of.
This is not some kind of morality wank about how Canadian society is superior to its American neighbour, or anywhere else. I know Canada is not utopia. Between the disastrous situation many First Nation peoples live in, the unresolved Quebec question and the fact that people immigrate to this country and then end up driving taxis are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to social divisions and injustices. There are plenty of bitter Canadians.
The Canadian soccer community's ongoing quest for sustained, widespread home support will probably be "ongoing" for quite some time. But beyond providing people such as me with a topic to flog to death in the absence of other ideas, the continuing majority support for the "other" team represents something we should perhaps curse silently but then then stop to consider. We're lucky here in Canada, that for the most part the divisions in the stands at our national team matches don't extend very far beyond them.
Photo credit: Wikipedia Commons, USA-Mexico border near Tijuana