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Canada fans celebrate as their team faces Qatar at the FIFA World Cup in Vancouver, on Thursday.Jesse Winter/The Globe and Mail
Vancouver, long maligned as a no-fun city, was awash with red Thursday as it celebrated Canada’s historic first win in World Cup competition.
The decisive victory over Qatar, while itself not altogether surprising, ignited the city, ending with a tally of 6-0. That is five more goals than Canada scored across all three of its games at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Jackson Willis and his brother Trent were watching from an outdoor screen with hundreds of other people at a fan festival in East Vancouver.
“This is history in the making! We are witnessing history in the making!” Jackson shouted as Canada scored for a fifth time.
“I can’t actually believe this is happening,” Trent said. “It’s insane what we are witnessing.”
Five days earlier, Vancouver’s World Cup opener saw Australia upend favoured Turkey 2-0 in a raucous match that set the tone for the city’s tournament experience. Thousands of green-and-gold-clad Aussies flooded the downtown core, chanting, setting off green and yellow smoke bombs and drinking bars dry with an infectious energy that flew in the face of Vancouver’s staid reputation.
On Thursday, the Granville Street corridor bustled with supporters clad in red and white jerseys. The downtown street, home to the city’s entertainment district, has been turned into a pedestrian zone with expanded bar and restaurant patios.
Nearby, BC Place stadium, filled to capacity with 52,497 people in attendance, was a sea of red, save for two sections of white-clad Qatari supporters. Prime Minister Mark Carney, B.C. Premier David Eby, FIFA president Gianni Infantino and CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani stood together in a VIP box.
As Cyle Larin opened the scoring with a rebound in the 16th minute, the crowd erupted in persisting cheers, the volume and duration of which grew with every subsequent goal. Any semblance of decorum fell away with the realization that Canada was minutes from its first win at the World Cup.
The energy inside the stadium remained high throughout, pausing only when Ismaël Koné suffered a gruesome leg injury. The crowd stood to applaud him as he was carried off on a stretcher, and booed as Qatar’s Assim Madibo was sent off for the foul.
At the fan festival, the crowd erupted in cheers and drinks went flying after each goal. After Canada’s third, the crowd began cheering: “One more goal! One more goal!”
Pressed against the barricades at the front of the amphitheatre were Kass Albrecht, 10, and his sister Ada, 7, flanked by their parents, Sebastian and Sophie Harrhy.
All four burst into screams when Canada scored for a third time before the half, with Kass grinning widely and calling the early score “awesome.”
Mr. Harrhy, who grew up in Vancouver, said it was a special occasion for the whole family to see Canada go from having never scored a goal in a World Cup to scoring “a whole bunch of them.” He said he was confident the game would go their way.
“It’s going to be amazing,” he said.
Earlier Thursday, hundreds of Team Canada Voyageurs supporters gathered at the pub Fionn MacCool’s to celebrate their team and the prospect of their first World Cup win. They later marched to the stadium.
Inside the pub, Brydone Dewar perfected his face paint in a mirror as people sang and chanted around him. Outside, Denton Froese adjusted his pirate costume, eyepatch and all, preparing to lead the march.
Among the crowd were Steve Cavers and his girlfriend. Like the others, they wore red and white jerseys, but the Edmonton couple went the extra step of sourcing a local artist to paint a life-size maple leaf over Mr. Cavers’s whited-out face.
Victory at last: Canada steamrolls nine-man Qatar 6-0 for historic World Cup win
Asked which of the club’s chants is his favourite, Mr. Cavers would only say that he likes a “couple of them.” His girlfriend clarified why he was reluctant to share: “There’s some profanity in them.”
Nearby stood Colin Rowsell and Josie Ferrara, from Fort McMurray, Alta., who spent $5,000 each to attend four games in Vancouver.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to host,” Ms. Ferrara said. “We wanted to be here to support the athletes.”
Shalv Mehta, general manager at Fionn MacCool’s, was heartened to greet hundreds of people as he opened the pub Thursday morning.
Mr. Mehta said he is hoping this momentum continues for the Irish pub, which has struggled because of its location far away from the Granville Street strip that has drawn thousands to watch each match downtown.
As the head of security for the Vancouver matches chatted with nearby city police officers, people continued to stream into the lineup to enter the bar.
“We’ve been popular with the locals, but that’s about it,” said Mr. Mehta, who arrived at 6 a.m. and expected to leave at midnight.
The march got under way in the early afternoon, with thousands of Voyageurs supporters heading north to the stadium. They let off smoke flares, drummed and sang O Canada as they passed by Science World, its famous dome transformed into the 2026 World Cup’s red, green and blue match ball. Mounties in red serge marched in step.
As they arrived at the stadium, organizers shouted, “Burn ’em if you’ve got ‘em!” and the crowd erupted in red and white smoke, as fans set off the smoke bombs before heading inside.