Holding out hope for the Beautiful Game

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/01/2022 (1713 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Happy New Year?

Yeah, so we may need to change that early-January greeting, at least this time around. The exclamation mark certainly needs to go, and the “Happy” part also seems rather off. “Good luck out there” is apropos, what with Omicron ripping through the population, workers sacrificing life and limb for the economy, and once-model democracies losing their way.

Oh yeah — and the planet is on fire, or in flood, depending on the extreme. It may be a new year, but it’s difficult to find happiness in the spectre of it, nevermind hope.

It feels almost foolish to hope. Hope in what, exactly?

Well, that’s where sport can come in and perhaps help us out a bit. That’s its job, after all — to provide something to anticipate, to be invested in, to hope on. Even beyond the appreciation of physical expression, sporting events are possibilities, future potentials of enjoyment, even signposts of a time much different than the present.

And so, it’s with a fool’s hope that we look forward to what sport, and soccer for our purposes, has in store for 2022. These are just a few things to hope on, to maybe get excited about, but they may get us through the bleakness between now and then.

World Cup

All of a sudden it’s a World Cup year. (Okay, let’s try that again.) All of a sudden it’s a World Cup Year! And it’s a very open field. There are no obvious favourites, but rather a competitive group including Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, England, France and Spain from which the winners will likely emerge. Italy and Portugal are also contenders. The thing is, only one can advance to Qatar — what with the last two European champions on a collision course in European qualifying.

Canada’s quest for Qatar

It’s still fun to look at the World Cup qualification table for the CONCACAF region. Yep, that’s Canada up there. Right at the top. And, on merit, right where they — where we — belong. With six matches to play, the men’s national team is on course for a first World Cup since 1986. They — we — are going to be in Qatar, and not just “be” there. This team, starring Alphonso Davies, Jonathan David, Cyle Larin, Stephen Eustaquio and Tajon Buchanan, could potentially cause an upset or two next fall. But they — we — shouldn’t get too far ahead of themselves — ourselves — just yet.

Women’s Tournaments

Canada’s women’s national team, named the Canadian Press Team of the Year, won Olympic Gold in August, and regional supremacy is next on the line. The 2022 CONCACAF W Championship will take place in August, serving as the qualification path for both the next Olympics and 2023 World Cup. It’ll be exciting to watch young stars such as Julia Grosso, Jessie Fleming, Deanne Rose and Jordyn Huitema continue to shape the next generation of the team. In Europe, EURO 2022 will see The Netherlands looking to defend their title, with hosts England, France, Germany, Spain and Sweden also contending.

Africa Cup of Nations

Former Arsenal forward Ian Wright was spot on when he recently opined that the Africa Cup of Nations is a largely disrespected tournament. It shouldn’t be. It’s absolutely beautiful. Starting Jan. 9, 24 teams will gather in Cameroon, with holders and recently-crowned Arab Cup champions Algeria the consensus favourites. Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Senegal will also vie for a place in the Feb. 6 final. Naturally, star players from the major European leagues will take part, leaving their club teams mid-season. But the competition should not be viewed through a European lens. In the context of international football, no one league is “bigger” than another, and no one region determines the international calendar. It’s simply not feasible to do a tournament in Cameroon in June and July, and calls for Eurocentric conformity reek of football colonialism.

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

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Return of Christian Eriksen

Here’s a hopeful story for the New Year. Back in June, Denmark midfielder Christian Eriksen suffered cardiac arrest during a EURO 2020 match against Finland. He has since been released from his contract with Inter Milan and had an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator inserted in his chest. Now, after training at Odense, his boyhood club, he is set to make a return to professional football with FC Chiasso in Switzerland’s third tier. From there, he hopes to work his way back to a top European league. But even if he doesn’t, his story is nevertheless inspiring. Here is someone who, after a brush with death, has chosen to fight rather than quit. It’s a resilience from which we can all take heart as we brace for the challenges the New Year will inevitably bring.

Thank you for reading in 2021. And Good Luck Out There in 2022!

jerradpeters@gmail.com

Twitter @JerradPeters