Technolandy

Day 175 (of 2025/26) On #WorldCup eve

I wasn’t a great soccer coach. I got voluntold to help out with the youngest teams as my kids were growing up. I like soccer. It was amazing to me when I discovered what the World Cup was (not big in my community nor family) in 1986… Kind of caught the end of it. Got more into it in 1990 and then caught the early games at an Irish pub in 1994. Never played beyond very recreationally… I liked the ‘other’ football a tad more to play and coach.

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One thing I like that I did in my coaching through was to provide some free time for the kids to practice some tricks. Not that I could do them/any, but I wanted them to think of how they could manipulate the ball in creative ways. We (fortunately I was eventually partnered with a parent who actually knew what they were doing with soccer) didn’t care much about the score of the games… the kids did, but that was fine – sometimes they even got the score almost right! But our focus and emphasis was on … the beautiful game.

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What I think we got right was that when we looked back to see who was playing on the more competitive teams in their teenage years… almost all the kids we worked with were still playing. We focused on creativity and the kids ended up enjoying it more than the control groups (the other teams) that had a much more focused and scripted practice routine. 

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I love soccer cuz all you need is a ball and something to count as a ‘goal’. Then it can be any number of players on the field. Kids hated it when I’d introduce multiple balls on the pitch… but, whatever. 

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My greatest frustration was always that Canada has not had much of a presence in the World Cup… I figured ‘unless we host it, we’re not going to, either’ – at least not until we took things seriously and our fabulous Women’s Team showed our nation how to do it… I LOVE the women’s game and tournament… amazing talent and skill. 

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But the World Cup starts this week – I used to joke that it always worked out well because in BC our teacher strikes lined up very well with the World Cup, so it was a positive distraction. I MUCH prefer us having a signed contract and the games on doing the daylight hours.

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I like this to show how sports can unite people… athletes who compete against each other in league play are suddenly teammates and suddenly teammates are blood enemies – for a month or so… (I think the Ted Lasso series showed this beautifully).

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I like to emphasize that this is where I like ‘competition’ – when it is a ‘get to’ not a ‘have to’ (so yes, everyone gets ribbons at school sports days… only one winner and a whole bunch of losers in the spelling bee). 

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I hate that Canada has scored exactly two goals in the history of the FIFA World Cup – two appearances – that 1986 year that caught my attention (not highlighted in school though…) and 2022, the year that made me notice that the boys are catching up to the girls… maybe… 

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But the oddsmakers are saying that Canada could make it two rounds deep (round robin win; one win in the round of 32… maybe the round of 16 and then losing in the quarter finals… ) so this could be a great opportunity to show the beautiful game to a new group of students and see if any of them get inspired!

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Maybe that’s what I love most about soccer. At its best, it reminds us that the world’s most popular game is still one of its simplest: a ball, a goal, a few friends, and the possibility that something beautiful might happen.