Price is Right: BC Place should be hosting Canada's final World Cup qualifying match
It was quintessentially Canadian of me. Canada Soccer, including the soccer ops people, decided Vancouver was simply too far out of the way to play host during this World Cup qualifying period. And instead of complaining, I complied.
The team is enjoying unparalleled success right now. I didn’t want to rock the boat.
The thing is, they were wrong. They were wrong this window. And they were wrong in previous windows too. Seven home matches, and not a single game in the loudest atmosphere available to them.
This window alone, Canada would have had the full capacity of the dome at their disposal. Imagine over 50,000 fans reverberating the concrete of BC Place, as they officially clinch their first World Cup berth since 1986?
Hey, on the sports science side and of longitude and latitudes, yes, it’s a slightly longer jaunt from Central America to Vancouver and back, than it is to Toronto.
But the match in Costa Rica started at 7 pm Pacific Time. They would effectively be staying on their body clock by coming to Vancouver. Not to mention, forcing Jamaica to cross time zones and adjust. And, getting away from the Jamaican fans that often populate BMO Field in Toronto.
And did we mention the 50,000 rabid fans!??
Finally, can we talk about the pitch? I really hope this is the last time we talk about the pitch at BC Place for some time. It’s a brand new artificial pitch. A surface that would be a heck of a lot more true to form than the one we saw in Costa Rica, or in Jamaica, and certainly better than Hamilton and Edmonton. And hey, the pitch at BMO Field did not winter well either, and may not be any better than the one we saw on Thursday that was decimated by of all things, Coldplay.
Chris Martin may have cost Canada as much as Mark-Anthony Kaye.
So in the end, great that Canada will likely clinch on home soil, but I am bitter that it wasn’t our home soil. Soccer Canada owes us, and it owes us big.
And I think they know it. If there aren’t at least two World Cup tune up matches here this summer or fall, then something is seriously being missed by those in the positions that matter.
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