Columnist image

Analyst, TSN Radio 690 Montreal

Archive

Last Sunday afternoon we all got a reminder of footballing contrasts in style when, during the Belgium versus Hungary Round of 16 match, Marc Wilmots dragged Eden Hazard off the pitch and replaced his 25-year-old captain, who was at his mesmerising best, with Marouane “Mind-Your-Elbows” Fellaini.

I experienced the stark contrasts in Euro 2016 fortunes from the supporter’s perspective on Monday in Montreal while taking in the Spain versus Italy and England versus Iceland Round of 16 matches.

Destination for the noon hour rematch of the Euro 2012 final was Little Italy, an urban oasis that truly reflects the majesty of Italian life and culture, located just a little north of Montreal’s downtown core.

We set up the TSN 690 broadcast for the Round of 16 match in Evangelista Sports; a soccer megastore that’s not ever lost its deep family roots and connection to the immediate area it serves since opening its doors back in 1985. As you can imagine, those gathered around the TV screens were mainly of Italian descent.

They shared their stories over trays of freshly baked Italian fare, top-notch coffees and fresh fruit platters. This particular footballing occasion had bought out three generations of Azzurri supporters.

Watching Italy play in a crucial knockout stage match with a room packed with passionate fans is like nothing else in world football. Outwardly all Italians project complete confidence towards their national team, but during the match a deepening anxiety prevails. Every missed opportunity from the Azzurri was met with howls of despair, while when Spain attacked the Catenaccio in everyone bled through. The deeper in Italian territory Spain played the wilder the fans gesticulated at the TV screens.  

With time running out for Spain as Italy were nursing the 1-0 lead from just after the 30-minute mark, Spain fashioned their best opportunity to level the score. As Gerard Pique connected with the ball it seemed like the entire crowd inside the store, which had gradually increased in number and voice as the match wore on, were resigned to a Spanish equalizer and extra time.

Then Gianluigi Buffon, a player who most certainly is in the debate for the greatest goalkeeper of all time, came to the Azzurri’s rescue. The emotions released, the noise was deafening just as Italy marched down the pitch for Graziano Pellè to put the game beyond Spain and seal Italy’s place in the quarter-finals.

This was the signal for the celebration to begin as people literally poured out onto the street to join with their fellow Italians to savour once more a crucial knockout stage victory. Car horns blaring, flags hung from the windows an impromptu parade kicked off. The sound of police sirens only added extra football flavour. I simply marveled at it all.

With our broadcast finished, I headed toward my car a few blocks away for the 30-minute journey  across the city, south towards the water to take in the England versus Iceland match from the official home of England in Montreal, the Burgundy Lion Pub.

At least that’s what I thought I was doing, until getting to my car. A celebrating human wall and the fact that someone at city hall had thought it a good idea to dig up the street on such a Monday afternoon made my departure impossible. I waited in my car and turned on the TSN 690 radio broadcast of the very last Round of 16 match-up.

I was finally able to begin the drive just as proceedings were getting underway in Nice. Rooney’s early opener for England was written in the script. The one where Iceland has to come out of their defensive shape in search of the equalizer only for England to catch them on the counter attack to slam the door shut on Euro 2016’s Cinderella story. The only problem was that Ragnar Sigurdsson and Kolbeinn Sigthorsson refused to go along with Roy Hodgson’s perfect script.

I eventually arrived at the Burgundy Lion shortly before half time. The entire pub was packed to the rafters. In one corner toward the rear I witnessed over 30 adults gathered around the very smallest of flat panels. Many were on their tiptoes as they jostled amongst each other to get proper sight of the action. There was so much English pageantry and fervour on display it would not have looked out of place down the Mall a few weeks back as the Queen celebrated her 90th birthday.

I detected the entire crowd was resigned to the fact there would be no way back, and yet one more enormous let down was going to play itself out for the second half. The sombre mood intensified as England played powerless against a team that did not rely on destiny, but instead on a strengthening determination and belief that was rapidly gaining admirers on a global basis. As the final whistle sounded, heads bowed and shoulders slumped. Roy’s Montreal Army headed for the exits.

In one Euro 2016 Monday afternoon I had experienced Azzurri euphoria and the very latest English footballing malaise. Over a 50-year period England has invented new ways to lose knockout stage matches, coming more often than not at the hands of so-called inferior football nations.

On Sunday afternoon we get to find out if this particular Scandinavian football fable has at least one more chapter to unfold. Iceland’s quarter-final against France will play itself out as the centrepiece during Montreal’s annual all-day soccer charity event, GOAL MTL. It’s a fun-filled football day for the entire family that takes place at Molson Stadium.

I said during our Euro 2016 preview the morning before action get underway at the tournament back on June 10th that Iceland would experience a baby boom around March 2017. If much more of what we have been so very fortunate to witness over these three weeks continues, that boom might indeed turn out to be a doubling of the Icelandic population.

In Portugal, Montreal is already guaranteed one semi-finalist who will bring out the masses. Over the next three quarter-final days we’ll get to see who joins the real dark horse at Euro 2016 – a team that has managed to gain a place in the final four without winning a single match in regulation.

It’s a tournament first in the history of the Euro’s, and one that has not disappointed ever since Dimitri Payet opened proceedings with that memorable winning goal for France. Les Bleus truly believe they can go all the way, just as they did the last time the nation played host back in 1984.