Canada has always been an accommodating and gracious host. Maybe too gracious.
Canada 2007 is playing true to form in many ways as group play in the FIFA Under-20 World Cup comes to a head at six venues across the country -- including Saturday at Royal Athletic Park -- with the teams from other nations commandeering the show while the host nation's side is listing badly and needing a big win over Congo on Sunday and a few breaks to grab one of the four berths into the Round of 16 playoffs reserved for the best third-place teams among the six groups.
But we're used to it by now. Especially after the 1976 Summer and 1988 Winter Olympics, as Canada remains the only host country unable to win a gold medal at its own Olympic Games.
Even here in Victoria in 1994, Canadian athletes were reduced to mere bit players in their own backyard in what became a mesmerizing and dominating Australian show at the Commonwealth Games. We'll see if we can truly live up to the hype and "Own the Podium" in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. For this summer, it's back to building a reputation not by winning at home, but by again being a solid and reliable sporting host that keeps the world coming back for more.
Despite a few opening-day hitches -- and the typically parochial Victoria
whining that ensued -- the first four of the seven FIFA 2007 World Cup games scheduled for Royal Athletic have to be deemed glowing successes.
Now comes the end game for the
Victoria venue as three fixtures will close out the B.C. capital's involvement in the biggest sporting event this nation has hosted outside multi-sport events such as the Olympic, Commonwealth and Pan Am Games.
First up tomorrow at Royal Athletic is a cross-over Group B game at 2:15 p.m. between a slick Uruguay squad from a nation with a storied soccer history, albeit in the far past, and upset-minded Zambia. In exchange from Victoria, Swangard Stadium in Burnaby gets the Group F cross-over game tomorrow featuring the winless and clunky Scots against the
winless and unlucky Costa Ricans.
The first and only Group B game to be played in Victoria will feature Uruguay striker Edinson Cavani, who plays for Palermo of Italy's vaunted Serie A, and who has captained Uruguay to a win and a tie in two games in Burnaby. The fourth-place African qualifier Zambia has a loss and a tie but the Commonwealth nation could make things interesting in Group B if it manages the upset over Uruguay.
Seeing Uruguay could serve as valuable first-hand scouting for Japan and Nigeria, both 2-0, and who close out Group F play tomorrow at 5 p.m. in a battle for first place. The Group F second-place finisher will fly to Ottawa to play the Group B second-place finisher in the Round of 16 playoffs next Thursday at Frank Clair Stadium (and not the Group E champion, as reported in yesterday's edition). That Group B runner-up will likely be either European-champion Spain or Uruguay, the latter a South American nation with an obvious Mersey scouting connection as three Uruguay players are in the Liverpool system.
The Group F champion between Japan and Nigeria can keep their suitcases unpacked and sit back at the Laurel Point Inn and await the runner-up from the Ottawa-based Group E in the Round of 16 playoffs on Wednesday at Royal Athletic.
"It is better for us to remain here in Victoria, so we want to win [against Japan]," said Nigeria head coach Ladan Bosso, following Wednesday's 2-0
victory over the plodding Scottish squad.
Nigeria and Japan, both undefeated and assured of advancement, could experiment with their rosters.
"We will be advancing [to the Round of 16], so I have to look at the condition of my players [when deciding tomorrow's lineup]," said Japan head coach Yasushi Yoshida.
Make the wrong starting choices and you'll be handed your boarding passes for Ottawa.
Bosso may also tinker with his starting lineup, but added anyone who made the 21-player Nigerian roster is capable of displacing anyone else and that there's little to choose between them.
"Every one of the 21 players who came from Nigeria is a good player," said Bosso.
