With MLS numbers rivalling the CFL, Canadian soccer is entering a new era

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With MLS numbers rivalling the CFL, Canadian soccer is entering a new era

Sean Gordon

MONTREAL — The Globe and Mail

Published Friday, Nov. 25, 2016 9:03PM EST
Last updated Friday, Nov. 25, 2016 9:04PM EST

We live in ahistorical times. Thankfully there is photographic proof of the golden age.

It was 1979, and the downtown of a major Canadian city was choked with fans celebrating the Vancouver Whitecaps’ North American Soccer League triumph in the now-defunct Soccer Bowl.

“Five years before, we were playing in front of friends and family, then it was Giants Stadium and 100,000 people in the streets,” said Bob Lenarduzzi, a Canadian soccer great who played in that 2-1 triumph over the Tampa Bay Rowdies.

They were heady times for the beautiful game in North America, Pele and Franz Beckenbauer were winding down their careers with the New York Cosmos. The Toronto Blizzard and the Montreal Manic were filling stadiums.

Everything was great, until suddenly it wasn’t.

“Five years later, we were done,” Lenarduzzi said. “It was lightning in a bottle.”

There is contemporary evidence of a soccer resurgence in Canada. This time no one is taking anything for granted.