Sleeping with the elephant
Justin’s dad once said that living beside the USA was a bit like sleeping with an elephant.
To be exact, it was "Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt."
Beyond illustrating that he had so very much more substance than his offspring, Pierre arguably explained our relationship with the United States as well as anyone has before or since when he uttered those words.
We are most certainly affected by every twitch and grunt that the beast (and I will call it that) makes. To deny this reality is to be either be deluded or deliberately obtuse.
It seems unlikely that P.E.T was thinking about soccer then — for one thing Canada was stronger than the USA in the 70s — but the analogy works quite well with our favourite sport.
We are tied at the hip with them in in so many ways. It makes it difficult to step out of their shadow. And even when we do, our success will get framed through the lens of their success or failure.
This summer, that’s very much been the former. And, among the US soccer commentary elite, Canada’s success is being painted as a further illustration of their failure rather than anything we are doing on our own — we have an American coach, players from an American league and we are even playing the “American way,” after all.
Some of that framing is just grandstanding, of course. However, there is an underlying belief in what they are saying. Despite topping the hex and qualifying for our first World Cup since 1986 there still very much is a reluctance to take Canada seriously.
I appreciate that irritates many of you. It shouldn’t. That’s because they’re not entirely wrong. Canada has not earned default belief yet. This tournament will certainly help that in the future, but a good run in qualifying and a penalty shoot-out win against Venezuela is not enough to erase 30 years of blah — especially if you played against that blah, as most of the Americans commenting have.
Ultimately it doesn’t matter, either. Although we are tied to the US in many ways we do still have enough room to make our own stands and to define our own narratives. This tournament is already starting to do that. The memories this group is creating will live on and will become part of a lore that is separate from our relationship with the oversized peanut eater to our south.
Hopefully, they can add to those memories with something tonight. Even a third-place finish in the tournament could galvanize the program, similar to how this moment thrust the US program into the mainstream 14 years ago.
If that happens then maybe we won’t have to worry so much about the beast.
Allez Les Rouges. Enjoy the game.