Soccer, Not Football

So it’s finally hit me this week: I am not English.

It all began last week, the week of March 16th, 2009 – one of the most memorable weeks for soccer in the Cascadia.

• Vancouver, a city with 30 years of history in soccer, officially wins one of the two 2011 MLS expansion spots
• Seattle Sounders hosts their inaugural MLS home opener in front of a 32,000-strong crowd
• Portland announced as the other winner for the 2011 expansion

I was fortunate enough to have taken part in two of these historic events, namely the celebration party in Vancouver on Wednesday night, followed by the Seattle Sounders’ opener on Thursday.

To make a long story short, the Sounders’ opener, while goosebump-inducing in countless ways (can you really ask for more than a 3-0 win on your first night out in the MLS?), remained a largely “North American affair”, much to my disappointment.

What do I mean by that?

Think organic vs. engineered.

You see, the main reason behind why I love the beautiful game, soccer -  or football, as the rest of the world calls it – is because of its tribal nature. It’s all about the club you support.  The more adversity the club faces, the more it means to the true supporters to stand behind her against the rest of the world.  The true supporters know that only the club stands the test of time: players and coaches and trophies come and go, but the club you support will remain timeless.

You don’t cease to be a Vancouver Whitecap after the whistle is blown in 90 minutes.  It runs in your blood.

It’s for these reasons that you see this sort of thing around the world:

*Note the ladies taking their tops off around the 50 second mark.  Those Brazilians……Anyways.

Yet, as North Americans, most of us are accustomed to having to be entertained, having to be fed.  We are used to sitting on our fat asses at home in front of our HDTVs.  In fact, we are so used to sitting in front of the TV that for most “fans”, going to the game and watching it on TV are actually interchangeable.  And even when we do actually attend professional sporting events, most of what we get is merely artificial, engineered support. You often see the big LCD screens in the stadiums displaying messages like “CLAP YOUR HANDS”, or “STAND UP”, or “SCARVES UP”.  You often hear loud rock music played over the PA every time play stops, as if to distract you from the silence that fills the stadium.  You see mascots telling you how to chant and how to react, and if you can string 3 words together (eg. “GO CANUCKS GO!”, “LET’S GO CANUCKS, LET’S GO!”), you are considered a hardcore fan.  And then you see cheerleaders jumping around even though they have absolutely no place on the field whatsoever.

This was the case in Seattle.  And so, a debate in my head arose.  “Was that really a good night out?  Or was it just the same old North American crap masked by all the fireworks and brass band and a bunch of bandwagoners?”  Afterall, some claim the Sounders managed to fill the stadium only because their city has just lost their NBA franchise, the Seattle Sonics.

And sadly, as a natural reaction – I think overreaction is a better description – to the disaster that North American sports have become, soccer fans in North America have decided to try to emulate their counterparts over in Europe, especially in England.  We start calling soccer “football”, start yelling around English phrases like “Shut up you twat”, or “Aye you’re a right bloody wanker like”, while raising up our scarves and singing English chants.  And guess what?  A little while later, you can’t help but notice that we’ve just gone one full circle and ended up exactly where we started – engineered support that is not true of who we really are.

So it is at this point that I stand.  Right here, right now.  This very moment.

Who are we, really?

Can I feel comfortable in my own skin as a Vancouverite and not end up as either i) a boring fickle fan like the Canucks lot, or ii) an Englishman wannabe?

Can I come to accept that while Seattle got it wrong on their big night out, at least Toronto FC got it spot on 2 years ago and that hopefully the Whitecaps will get it spot on as well come 2011?

Can we relive the day of the 100,000+ parade in downtown Vancouver in 1979, when we won the NASL Soccer Bowl?

Yes, I think I can.  In fact, I am very hopeful.

Those of you from the east coast might have read about this, but TFC just got an away support of about 2,000 fans in their game against Columbus Crew down in Columbus today.  That’s a 7 hour trip, and I’m not even counting the return trip.  They got a section all to themselves at Columbus’s ground.  Isn’t that amazing?

You have probably met people who moved from coast to coast because of the person they love, or their family, or their career.

For me, I think I have just found my reason to stay in Vancouver.

This is my home.

What a day it is for Vancouver

I think this article by one of the Southsiders sums it up:

From Friends of Soccer:

http://friendsofsoccer.blogspot.com/

In 1979, a simple soccer team and a famous sportscaster’s slip of the tongue, brought Vancouver together like never before. In the buildup to ABC’s coverage of the ‘79 NASL Soccer Bowl, the legendary Jim McKay innocently referred to Vancouver as a “deserted village”. When the Whitecaps returned home as Champions of the North American Soccer League, over a hundred thousand Vancouverites took to the streets in joy and made the word “Villager” a badge of honour. Vancouver had never celebrated anything with such unity and passion before. Nor has it since.

March 18, 2009 is a great day in history for both soccer and our city. Today’s announcement that the Vancouver Whitecaps will become a member of Major League Soccer in 2011 is the fantastic result of almost seven years of hard work and vision by Greg Kerfoot, Bob Lenarduzzi, Rachel Lewis and the entire Whitecaps organization. The B.C. soccer community and the citizens of Vancouver owe them a great debt of gratitude and heartfelt congratulations for their achievement.

More than ever before, soccer has become the international language of the world, and Vancouver can now reclaim its top tier place in the game’s global community. Famous soccer clubs from the great cities of the world will once again make their way to Vancouver on a regular basis, and the Whitecaps name will become synonomous with our city throughout the globe. The soccer culture that has always existed in Vancouver & B.C. will flourish like never before, and our children will be able to grow up knowing that the soccer they play is much more than a “foreign” game.

The news that Vancouver is once again back at the top level of North American soccer will also bring tremendous benefits to our city for generations to come. The culture of traveling support that exists in MLS will fill thousands of hotel rooms, and bring new jobs and millions of dollars into our local economy at a time when we need it most. The tens of thousands of new patrons that will descend into the City Centre will help relieve some of the pressures felt by small businesses in Downtown, Chinatown, and Gastown. Vancouver can expect to reap the economic benefits of MLS for decades to come.

But more important is soccer’s ability to unite people from all different walks of life. Today, the Whitecaps are giving Vancouver one of its first truly multicultural institutions that’s inclusive, accessible and comfortable for people of all cultures, races and backgrounds. It’s a fine legacy for an organization that has given so much of its time, effort and resources to communities throughout B.C. & Western Canada.

Soccer in Vancouver, B.C. and all of Canada is stronger today than it was yesterday. But it is still a work in progress. For Canada to continue its progress, we need more solid clubs. We need fewer petty territorial squabbles. We need to accept a soccer culture that builds professional excellence. And we need real soccer infrastructure in our country, such as stadiums.

But today is for celebrating the deserved achievements of the Vancouver Whitecaps. It’s a chance to look back on all of the good a simple soccer club has done for this city over almost 35 years. And it’s a dare to dream about what might be possible in the years ahead.

Today, Vancouver is a “Village” once again.

Yours in Sport,
Bill Currie
Friends of Soccer

Olympics Mess

What a mess this stupid Winter Olympics is turning out to be.  So now our municipal government has turned into a condo business.  Great.

How does it work, that us taxpayers have to pay for this stupid mess that the government made?

The Olympics is stupid enough to start with.  Every sport  that is worthy to be called a sport has its own form of a World Cup anyways, what the heck is the point of Olympics existing these days?

Worst of all, we’re talking about the Winter Olympics here!  Watching some dude cross country skiing and then firing his rifle at some targets is not exactly what gets me off my armchair in excitement.  The most exciting thing is probably figure skating where you’ll get to see some pretty Russian girl or something like that.

Maybe it’s ’cause I semi-work for the government.  And I get to find out everyday how the government’s job is really to screw us common folks over.  A new way everyday.

It’s almost like the King Deals at Burger King.  A new combo everyday.

Brilliant.

What a day!

What a day!  What a day!

Where do I even begin!

So last night, on the 23rd, we had a mini-Halifax Project ‘07 (and ‘08) reunion, where I got the chance to see my one and only Brazilian friend again.

There’s something about them Brazilians.  Be it their futebol, their music, their samba……they’re just that bit sexier.

Anyways.

The dinner was at Cambie and King Edward, and if you know Cambie you’d know that anywhere on that fricking road is a big bloody mess.  So I decided that I would just park my car in some office building parking lot across from the restaurant, where it was nice and warm and underground.  And after the dinner was over, I went back to the parking lot.

Closed.

It was closed.  Gates and everything.

I had no access to the car.

We are talking about the 2-week old Rabbit here.

Locked up in this evil stranger’s nest.

Sickening.

So I cried myself home on the bus.  It was good that at least I had Johnson accompanying me.

I then decided that I would go back to the parking lot first thing the next morning, on the day of Christmas Eve, to see if I can pick up the car before anyone tows it away or anything.

So I went to bed around midnight, got up at 5AM, and took the 5:36AM B-Line, made a transfer, and got there around 6:30AM.

Still locked up.  I waited in the cold until 7AM: no luck.

So I thought bleh, I had to work at 8AM in downtown, so I just bused down. It was snowing and snowing and snowing.  I was getting more and more worried.

A coworker was telling us how it took her 2 hours just to get from Surrey to downtown, because the Skytrain she was on was stuck for an hour.

Nasty, nasty weather.  The transit here is simply not prepared for such conditions.  We are noobs, really.

So the boss at work let us off half an hour early (how nice of him), so I rushed to the B-Line station, only to see the Chinese bus driver (albeit a white-washed one) yell at this Chinese couple who took forever to put money into the box on the bus.

Man, I felt so guilty. It’s like we think we have every right to treat our own race in the worst manner.  I can’t picture him yelling at, say, a white couple like that.

Anyways, turns out the driver was also a real wimp!  When we got to Granville and 5th, he just stopped along the side of the road and said we were going to sit there for hours to wait for the snow-removal/salt trucks to arrive to clear the hilly roads for us……while at the same time we watched all the other buses drive by us, giving their best shot at conquering the hills.

People started complaining, and talking amongst each other.  The bus driver started getting all riled up and shouting back at some of the more vocal passengers.  It was like a scene taken from some movie like Speed.  It was really a big gong show.  It felt a bit like it was Armageddon or something, the way some people were reacting.  What a bloody mess eh!

So a good load of us got off, ran onto another B-Line, which turned out to have a woman bus driver who was courageous as heck and really entertaining.  She kept updating us via the mic and the whole bus cheered when she successfully conquered the steepest hill on Granville and 16th.  What a day.

This Filipino lady behind me kept shouting “Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord!”.  It was a nice touch.

Turns out at the bus stop on King Edward, one of the people waiting was actually the relief bus driver for the next 25.  He started telling us all about the horrible stories he had gathered about the crazies in the crazy weather.  The people he almost hit, the routes that were the most difficult, the millions of buses that got stuck, etc., etc.

It’s strange, ain’t it.  The messiness of this whole thing really brings people together!  Or maybe it’s the Christmas spirit.  But I can’t say I have ever seen so many strangers gather to converse with each other; not here in Vancouver.

So, long story short: by 3:30PM I finally got to the parking lot that I had lost my car in, about 20 hours after I had left him there.  All alone by himself on Christmas Eve.

I ran off the bus, and ran into the parking lot.

I still can’t get the image out of my head: the way the Rabbit smiled at me the very moment I saw him right there safely in the same spot I had left him, totally unscathed.

I gave him a big hug, comforted him, told him everything was alright.

And he helped me to connect with him on a level I had never been to: I just realized how much easier it is to sense the clutch when I just leave my heel on the floor.  Somehow that had never occurred to me before.  How stupid.

So that’s that.  A long arse day that started from 5AM and didn’t end until I got home around 5PM, when I still had to shovel snow with my cousin in order to open up a path for the car to get into my garage.

Anyhow, Merry Christmas to you all!  It was a great day.

I love Vancouver: the people, the food, the places, and even the sucky, sucky public transit.

Man, does it suck.

Snowed in

For the past couple of days, I have been seeing a lot of “I’m snowed in” status updates on Facebook and I thought to myself, “What a buncha wimps!  It’s not like we are in Winnipeg or something!”

So I got inside the Rabbit, and decided to drive out, only to have it stuck in snow for a total of 4, 5 times in the whole of yesterday.  Sad, I know.

But what I found out was how kind some of these Vancouverites are!  I had one stranger who helped to push my car after I got stuck leaving the Starbucks on MacDonald (and 16th, nice little neighborhood there).  Oh and before we leave this topic I have to say, the baristas there at that store were very, *ahem*, friendly, if you know what I mean *wink wink*.

And then, after work at the Ballroom, the accountant suggested that we would make sure we saw each other leave the parking lot okay before we actually left, and somehow I got stuck and he didn’t and so he helped to push my car, yet again.

I was quite touched.

And I wished I could rent a Jeep Wrangler just for the winter.

And I don’t think I did so hot at the Border Services interview.  Oh well.

Vancouverite

At first I was very disappointed – even depressed – when I found out that even after having ventured all the way out to downtown Vancouver for my current (relatively new) job, most of my coworkers were still Asian. 

But having gotten the chance to hangout with them a bit more, especially after our work Christmas party last night, I think they are more “Vancouverites” than Asians, so it’s all good.  In fact, if anything, I am the most Asian, as my alcohol tolerance does not go beyond one beer.

Before the party I took an hour to go for a walk by the waterfront.  Looking out at the north shore, listening to the engines of the Cessnas out on the water – something clicked in my heart.

After having lived in this place for 12 years, I think I can finally call Vancouver (as in the GVRD) my home.

I don’t think I have ever felt that way before.

It was a liberating moment, an epiphany that made sense of how the Message of the Cross does indeed free me up from my guilt (guilt from not being a good son who calls Hong Kong his home and lives with his mom). An epiphany that affirms the fact that I am indeed an image-bearer of the Creator of the universe, so that I don’t have to be white to be able to call this place my home.

I then checked my e-mail and received the Holiday package offer from the Whitecaps – $50 for 4 Bronze tickets for the ‘09/10 season plus the ‘09 Championship winners t-shirt (which I already have, but I could always give it to a friend or something).  I think I am going to buy it as a celebration.

Now I just need to spend sometime cruising around Stanley Park in the new car arriving tomorrow.

I don’t know though.

Maybe next week I won’t feel this way anymore. 

Afterall, I’m sure that if you give me a few lady friends with some sort of posh Londoner accent, I’d gladly call England my home, too………