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Global passions surge for world’s biggest tourney

Followers of the world’s biggest sporting event are waking at sunrise to watch Argentina’s forward Lionel Messi and Portugal’s midfielder Cristiano Ronaldo try and score for their country.
SoccerFans
Gustavo Moreno

Followers of the world’s biggest sporting event are waking at sunrise to watch Argentina’s forward Lionel Messi and Portugal’s midfielder Cristiano Ronaldo try and score for their country.

They’re gathering in homes, and in at least one garage, to see which of the 32 football teams will win the trophy, following a month-long tournament in South Africa, the first African country to host.

In Gustavo Moreno’s native Columbia, people play soccer in the streets, sometimes in their bare feet.

“We need four bricks (for goal posts) and a ball — that’s all we need,” said Moreno, 46. “It’s part of our culture.”

At age six, he saw Pelé, considered the world’s greatest footballer of all time, play in Columbia. A year later, he took the bus by himself to see a stadium game.

As he got older, Moreno played three games on weekends and he’d watch professional teams when he wasn’t on the field. His wife was pregnant with their son Juan, now 15, when she started having labour pains inside the stadium. She didn’t have the heart to tell Moreno as he watched the game.

“I said, ‘why didn’t you tell me?’ and she said, ‘I didn’t want you to miss the game’,” said Moreno.

Moreno went on to receive a professional soccer coach degree from Argentina.

“I think the best thing about the World Cup is how it brings all the world together to watch 22 guys going after a ball,” said Moreno, member of a Red Deer men’s team and a development coach for the Red Deer City Soccer Association.

Juan loves the rollercoaster of emotions he feels while watching the Cup.

“You feel happy, then you feel angry when they didn’t score a goal,” said Juan, who will train under Columbian soccer coaches this summer. “You feel excited when they get close to the net and then you lose all that excitement because they didn’t score. And when they do score, it’s just awesome.”

Some soccer fans are so enthused about the World Cup, they take time off work. Jerry Gerling and Jack Wilson, staffers at the Red Deer Advocate, and Edmonton Journal copy editor Calvin Caldwell spend eight hours a day holed up in their “man cave”, or Gerling’s dimly lit, poster-clad garage. Seated in big chairs, they watch the games on a jumbo screen measuring nearly three metres wide.

“We judge the uniforms of all the best teams, the most articulate goal,” said Wilson, chuckling. “It’s like we’re putting in a full shift here.”

Taped along one side of the garage wall are nearly 170 labels from every beer they have had over the past 12 years — from Japan, Belgium, Spain, Fiji, you name it.

Caldwell gets up at 2:30 a.m. so he can drive down in time for the first live game at 5:30 a.m.

“It’s the best game in the world,” said Caldwell.

It’s not like a NHL hockey playoff round where teams have several chances, he said. Every World Cup soccer game means everything.

“Even if it ends up as 0-0 or it’s a draw, it’s just as exciting as a 5-0 win,” Caldwell said.

The three men joined 55,000 other fans at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium in 1994 to see Brazil tie with Canada 1-1.

“Of all the games that I’ve been to in Canada, it was the most exciting game ever,” said Wilson, who unfortunately missed Canada score because he was buying a beer. “It was probably Canada’s most crowning achievement in international soccer.”

Gerling said he’s “very anti-nationalistic” because he thinks it’s unhealthy and yet this attitude goes against the grain of what World Cup soccer is all about.

“The dilemma I have is that I love the sport even though I know it’s a very nationalistic sport,” he said.

“It’s more nationalistic than the Olympics even though countries say they are funding and sending their athletes. But when they’re not competing, they’re probably competing for some college in the States and getting scholarships.”

Most of the World Cup soccer players are from their team country or have learned their soccer skills in that country. And that’s why, Gerling said, countries love to say, “we produce better players than you do.”

Canada’s only participation in the World Cup was at Mexico in 1986 when it lost all three games.

But Carlos Gardella said he’s dreaming of the day when Canada defeats the United States in a World Cup match.

“We’re going to be the winners and we’ll be celebrating in the streets!,” said Gardella.

Gardella grew up in Chile before immigrating to Canada four years ago. As volunteer programs assistant for Central Alberta Refugee Effort, he encourages males between 10 to 15 years old to play soccer and be a part of the Youth Immigrant Program. He also invites anyone to seek him out for a fun game of soccer.

“I was never a professional player and was never really good at it, but I have always been very passionate about it,” Gardella said. “And also soccer is very interesting because in front of the ball, we are equals. There’s no distinction, if you were born in Africa, Alaska, Chile or Red Deer.”

It’s a beautiful and fantastic sport with an opportunity for integration, Gardella said.

“And it shows you how to be a part of a team, so there are a lot of values that come out of this sport.”

Moses Bornyi, 38, played in Division 1, the highest division of soccer, in Sudan before moving to Canada. He now believes his nine-year-old son Kaidri has the talent to make it to the World Cup.

“He really wants to be like me because he saw me when he was a child, playing soccer,” Bornyi said. “So I see Canada in the World Cup because the way these youth can play and the support that they have from their coaches.”

Bornyi would like to see soccer mandatory in elementary and middle schools because that will help build a solid foundation of young players. As a settlement counsellor for Catholic Social Services, Bornyi said he also sees how a number of immigrant children don’t engage in soccer because of their parents’ financial and time constraints.

“They could be potentially professional players for Canada,” Bornyi said. “If Canada is going to be one of the pioneers in the World Cup one day, then our government must invest in soccer.”

Bornyi recently began playing soccer again. He’s a big fan of Argentina, Brazil and Ghana in this international tournament.

Also watching the World Cup closely is Central Alberta’s African community.

Asher Shiringinyai, project co-ordinator for Central Alberta African Centre in Red Deer, said he’s OK with one South African tradition that’s been attracting a lot of attention, the incessant buzz of vuvuzela horns blown throughout every soccer match.

Aside from the controversy surrounding them, Shiringinyai sees several good things that will come out of the World Cup.

There’s the revenue that will come from the new and upgraded world-class stadiums.

The soccer spectacle is raising the positive profile of Africa, too.

“When people see propaganda in the West, Africa is all about war, hunger and drugs,” said Shiringinyai, formerly of Zimbabwe. “But now there’s a different side of Africa being exposed. It’s half modern and half of it’s developing.”

ltester@www.reddeeradvocate.com