Page 5 - Sports Energy News, Cornwall, Issue No 69

www.sportsenergynews.com Issue #69 August 2018 5

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The 2018 FIFA Soccer World Cup was recently held in Russia.

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What are your thoughts on the tournament?

Gilles Gaudet - Sports Enthusiast - There are a lot of ways to describe the sport of soccer. First of all only we, the unenlightened
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North Americans, call it soccer. To the rest of the world it’s Football, or the Beautiful Game, or it’s often also referred to as, The World
Game. Whatever you want to call it, it’s growing in popularity in Canada, and children playing soccer in Canada now far outnumber
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children playing hockey. That being said, we’re still a long way from being a soccer power. In fact while 32 countries watched their
teams represent them in the World Cup, Canada didn’t make the cut. Our women’s team is excellent, they’re ranked 5th in the world,
and are well recognized on the international scene. The men’s team however is ranked 79th; yes 79th and that seems improbable given
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the popularity of soccer in Canada. You only have to look at soccer power Iceland to realize how far we have to go to be considered a
soccer leader. Yes, tiny Iceland with a population of 350,000, is ranked 22nd in the world. You know Iceland that tiny Nordic country
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in the North Atlantic. The biggest problem that they have is that the ball keeps going in the ocean. Realistically we have until 2026,
when we co-host the FIFA World Cup to get our act together and prove that we are a soccer, I mean football nation!
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Jake Lapierre - Conditioning Coach - Despite what many North Americans may think about soccer, the game is undoubtedly without
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question the world’s most popular sport. Russia’s 2018 World Cup Tournament was classic; the tournaments gruelling 64-game month-long
display of soccer’s best athletes in the world giving it their all to be named world champions. Yes there were tears, jeers, and whistles along
with excitement, elation, and celebration when teams won or lost. In the end it came down to one incredible final with France crowned World
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Champions; bravo! What were my thoughts about the tournament? I would easily rate the tournament as the best sporting event this past
decade.
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Jim Riddell - Seaway Karate Club - The FIFA World Cup is held every fourth year and is the most widely followed sporting event in the
world, exceeding even the Olympics — 3.2 billion viewed the tournament with more than one billion fans watching France defeat Croatia in
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the final. This event provides the host country(ies) with an opportunity to showcase themselves and creates a large economic spinoff. The
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revenue that this tournament generates has not gone unnoticed by FIFA and it will be expanding from 32 to 48 teams in the future. Just like
the Olympics, the World Cup takes several years of careful planning by the host nation(s) to make this event a safe and successful one. Canada
will be on the world stage in 2026 as FIFA has announced that the World Cup will be held in North America, and hosted jointly by Canada,
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the USA, and Mexico.
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