‘This has been a long time coming’: Saskatoon soaking up World Cup experience

Soccer fans in Saskatoon gathered to watch Canada’s first World Cup match on home soil. Keenan Sorokan reports.

Dozens of fans made their way to Stoked by Splitsville Bowl in Brighton to watch the first World Cup match on Canadian soil as Canada marched on to the field to face Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Some fans felt they were missing out.

“Yeah, there’s a lot of FOMO going on,” Kaylen Beaulac said. “Watching the prices as the games got closer, just checking being like, ‘Can we do it? No, we can’t.”

Other fans watching on had trouble handling their nerves.

“I’m a bundle of nerves right now. That’s why I’m drinking beer,” one fan said.

“You know, I’ve been following them for a long time, and this has been a long time coming. And we’re really hoping for our first World Cup win,” another said.

Manager Sean Boyle wasn’t sure what to expect for a Friday 1 p.m. start time, but a full house early on had him pleasantly surprised.

“I was actually surprised for a 1 p.m. game on a Friday afternoon, I was not expecting a lot to come in, so it’s nice to see this place fill up literally at 12:30 p.m. today,” he said.

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With a 27-foot TV screen and 52 others surrounding the bar, it would have been tough not to catch every moment of the game Friday. Boyle says that’s part of what makes the atmosphere at Stoked part of the World Cup fun happening all summer long.

“This will be a big focus of ours. We also have some jersey giveaways and all that kind of stuff,” Boyle said.

The match ended in a 1-1 draw. While it may not have been the result fans wanted, there’s no denying the World Cup’s arrival in Canada, as evident by the vocal support in Saskatoon.

“Certainly to see it live here is just fantastic,” one fan said.

While the World Cup is just getting started, some fans can’t help but wonder what being a co-host nation will do for the game at the local level moving forward.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for the younger kids to have the World Cup in their backyard,” one fan said. “You’re going to see a lot more kids playing soccer over the next few years.”

Fans in Saskatoon may be more than 1,700 kilometres away from the closest World Cup stadium, but that’s not stopping them from getting behind their team every step of the way.