Written by Spencer Davidson, Shiv Gidumal, and Harrison Kalt in 2015
Official FIFA logo for the 2015 Women’s World Cup
With the 2015 Women’s World Cup approaching, spectators have started to wonder about the host country. As seen in Brazil, aspects of the host country’s culture, such as its soccer history, economic standing, and geographic layout, can dramatically impact the World Cup.
Below, we examine a few parts of Canadian culture and their connection to soccer to help us better understand the coming tournament.
Background
In 1986, the Canadian Soccer Association launched a women’s national program and participated in its first international game against the United States in Blaine, Minnesota.
Nearly 3 decades later, the Canadian Women’s team has experienced immense success that has enabled them to become one of the world’s most distinguished soccer programs.
To read more about Canadian women’s soccer history, click here.
To read about Canada’s All-Time XI, click here.
Popularization of Soccer In Canada
Over those 3 decades, soccer has grown into one of the nation’s most popular sports.
For both boys and girls, a variety of factors have contributed to soccer’s swift rise in Canada.
To read more about the growth of soccer in Canada, click here.
Economic Impact of Hosting
Unlike the Men’s World Cup, countries aren’t necessarily falling over themselves to host the Women’s World Cup. In 2011, Canada, the only remaining bid, became the host of the 2015 World Cup by default.
The economic merits of hosting both men’s and women’s World Cups have been widely debated.
To read more about the impact of the 2015 World Cup on the Canadian economy, click here.
Stadium Guide
The 2015 Women’s World Cup is unique because it will be hosted from coast to coast, with matches being in Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montréal, and Moncton. The locations of competition span five different time zones.
To learn more about each venue and the logistics of this massive undertaking, click here.
How to cite this page: “Why Canada?” Written By Spencer Davidson, Shiv Gidumal, and Harrison Kalt (2015), World Cup 2015, Soccer Politics Blog, Duke University, http://sites.duke.edu/wcwp/world-cup-guides/world-cup-2015-guide/why-canada/ (accessed on (date)).
Really excellent work here: I love the way the opening page really lays out what you are exploring in the sub-pages, and the incorporating of visuals, as well as the strategic spacing and use of bold fonts for the text, makes this all extremely easy and compelling to read and navigate. Your use of images follows the guidelines wonderfully, and your referencing is really good. Really a model set of pages all around!
For our assignment where we had to look into a soccer blog, I did my assignment on this super quirky yet informative blog that looks deeply into the grassroots of soccer in Canada and I think it would be an interesting perspective and background information for this page. It was a little confusing at first to navigate because it’s kind of strange, but the main parts are really detailed about Canadian soccer.
http://nukesoccer.com/