Chris O’Connor is one of scores of Canadians lucky enough to be travelling to Texas for the round of 16 match against Morocco.Kayla Isomura/The Globe and Mail
Chris O’Connor has always been passionate about soccer. The 44-year-old has played all his life, but he’s never been so excited and nervous about a match as he is about Canada’s upcoming World Cup game against Morocco this Saturday.
The equity trader, who hung up his goalkeeping cleats last year in the second division of Metro Vancouver’s men’s league, says he can’t wait to be a spectator watching Team Canada play its next knockout game against Morocco.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I’m so excited to go and nervous and sweaty – and I’m gonna be even sweatier in Houston,” he said in a phone interview Tuesday.
Mr. O’Connor is one of scores of Canadians lucky enough to be travelling to Texas for the round of 16 match against the rising power from North Africa, which starts at noon on July 4. There is no official tally of how many of the Houston stadium’s 68,777 seats will be filled by Canadian fans, but there has been enough demand that flights from Calgary and Toronto have been supersized to accommodate more spectators.
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WestJet spokesperson Julia Kaiser said the airline increased the size of eight of its flights to and from Calgary to Houston, the only direct flight it runs to the Texan city. The company switched out planes with 132 seats to accommodate up to 174 passengers, she said in a statement.
Air Canada spokesperson Angela Mah said the company is looking at adding more seats for customers wanting to get to Houston. So far, it has replaced one jet flying there from Toronto with a bigger plane and is looking to move around more of its fleet to accommodate fans.
Mr. O’Connor’s path to Houston will be a bit more circuitous.
He and longtime friend Greg Perih will be flying to Seattle from Vancouver Thursday night and trying to sleep in the airport there before taking an early-morning flight to Houston.
Mr. Perih, who works in commercial real estate, said he is already strategizing on how best to escape the throngs of people after the game. That’s because he has to return to George Bush Intercontinental Airport to catch a 5:30 p.m. flight back to the Pacific Northwest so he can be there Sunday morning for his eldest daughter Avery’s sixth birthday at Vancouver’s Science World, which has its golf-ball dome wrapped like a FIFA-branded ball.
The pair saw Canada shellack Qatar 6-0 in Vancouver two weeks ago. The march to the stadium beforehand was “unbelievable,” according to Mr. Perih, who says he is not the biggest soccer fan, but is “a big patriot.”
Before the World Cup, Mr. Perih paid $1,000 to Soccer Canada to get special access to the organization’s ticket lottery, and then paid $1,700 for two tickets to the Houston match.
This week, the lowest individual tickets available were about $1,030 on FIFA’s official resale marketplace and $1,200 on other sites, according to tracking by TicketData.
In Calgary, Mitch Randall, a 35-year-old employee of Alberta Health Services, said he was extremely lucky to secure $88 tickets through the Voyageurs fan club and plans to spend less than 24 hours in Houston. The diehard fan also went to the last World Cup in Qatar, taking in all three of Canada’s group stage games, including its 2-1 loss to Morocco.
“The Canadians were completely outnumbered in that stadium, and there was deafening whistling that their fans were doing,” he recalled. “I’m hoping there’s a bit more Canadian representation in the stadium. This time, there will be.”
Mr. O’Connor will be among those shouting from the stands. As a boy, he cheered the long-defunct Vancouver 86ers professional team play out of Swangard Stadium in neighbouring Burnaby.
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In 1998, Mr. O’Connor began tending goal for his local men’s league team Binger’s Army, and played “for millions of years” before aging out. Last year, he was called back to “pinch hit” last year for one final game, he said.
Over the past four decades, Mr. O’Connor has followed the national men’s team’s fortunes, often suffering through excruciating periods before their dramatic ascent to relevance in the soccer world. Meanwhile, his favourite professional team, the Vancouver Whitecaps, have threatened to leave the city.
“It’s been brutal,” he said.
Now, he believes Canada, ranked 30th by FIFA, has a chance against 6th-placed Morocco.
“They’re hungry and playing away from home makes them a little looser and they’ll finish their chances,” he said.
