{"id":734483,"date":"2026-06-13T18:10:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T18:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/734483\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T18:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T18:10:13","slug":"socceroos-fans-feel-right-at-home-in-vancouver-like-a-hilly-melbourne-world-cup-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/734483\/","title":{"rendered":"Socceroos fans feel right at home in Vancouver: \u2018Like a hilly Melbourne\u2019 | World Cup 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Socceroos are not alone in Vancouver ahead of their World Cup opener against Turkey. In a city that is climatically and culturally a Melbourne with mountains, Australian accents were already hard to ignore, even before thousands more streamed through the airport gates in recent days.<\/p>\n

The city has made a strong first impression on Colby List, a Socceroos<\/a> fan who is travelling North America with five friends for the tournament. \u201cIt reminds us a little bit of Australia,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were in New York for a week before this, as part of the buildup, and Vancouver feels much more like home.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Brisbane resident wore a Nestory Irankunda shirt to Vancouver\u2019s World Cup fan festival, the views from which are dominated by the city\u2019s North Shore Mountains. \u201cIt\u2019s like a hilly Melbourne,\u201d List said.<\/p>\n

Roughly 25,000 people in Canada claimed Australia as their birthplace in the 2021 census. Almost half live in British Columbia. Many of them are only here because of the mountains that crisscross Canada\u2019s westernmost province.<\/p>\n

The ski town of Whistler 120 km away is colloquially known as \u201cWhistralia\u201d. Snow-obsessed Australians make up a significant part of the region\u2019s alpine culture thanks to an uncapped visa scheme that allows working holiday stays for two years, longer than most countries. Many never leave.<\/p>\n

There are Australian-owned hospitality businesses, like the bakery Peaked Pies and the downtown pub Moose\u2019s Down Under, which has a kangaroo burger on the menu. Nearby wildlife retreat Great Bear Lodge is managed by an Australian, Marg Leehane, a software developer from Melbourne who pursued a life in the wilderness.<\/p>\n

\u2018My chiropractor did his uni just outside of Ballarat\u2019: Vancouver resident Alojz Cuk (right) with colleague Dan Pritchard. Photograph: Jack Snape\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Some are happier in the city. Melbourne-born Alojz Cuk has been in Vancouver for 12 years, having met his Canadian wife as a young snowboarder. Their second child is due around the time of the World Cup final.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost every Canadian, when I mention that I\u2019m Australian, they say they have some kind of connection to Australia, whether it\u2019s the cousin that is married to an Australian or they\u2019ve spent some time there,\u201d he said. \u201cLike my chiropractor I saw today, he did his uni just outside of Ballarat.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 10,000 Australians are expected to attend the opening match according to Football Australia, based on country of origin data supplied when tickets were bought.<\/p>\n

Many of those will be like List, temporary visitors and keen football fans. Another Australian in an Irankunda jersey was spotted talking to a friend wearing the brown and white of St Pauli.<\/p>\n

Others are likely to be expats. Cuk said he has supported Croatia at previous World Cups through his Balkan heritage, but he wore a Wallabies jersey on Friday.<\/p>\n

One Australian family at the fan festival had the father in a yellow cricket shirt, wearing an Australian Open hat. His two boys wore blue caps adorned with the logo of the Calgary Kangaroos, an Australian rules club based in neighbouring province Alberta.<\/p>\n

Young fans with their Calgary Kangaroos hats at the fan festival. Photograph: Jack Snape\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

These were just some of the hundreds of yellow shirts glimmering in Friday\u2019s bright sun, crammed in among the Canadians watching the home side\u2019s opening match against Bosnia and Herzegovina \u2013 an entertaining contest<\/a> marked by the hosts\u2019 late and deserved equaliser.<\/p>\n

List said he has noticed the numbers of Australians swell just over the past 24 hours. \u201cWe saw quite a few yesterday as we were out and about for the first two matches, but today there\u2019s a lot more,\u201d he said. The Australian takeover is only beginning.<\/p>\n

The Cat Empire, jazz-funk stalwarts from Melbourne, are playing two gigs and TikTok influencers Those Carter Boys have been flown in by the local tourism agency to pitch Vancouver to Australians on social media. A march by the Green and Gold Army is scheduled for match day down Robson Street, one of the city\u2019s shopping and dining hubs.<\/p>\n

List, who attended World Cups in Brazil and Russia but missed Qatar, said he and his friends have quickly adopted the customary greeting \u2013 and camaraderie \u2013 among travelling Australians.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always a nod of recognition and a wave,\u201d he said. \u201cWe watched the Korea game [South Korea v Czechia] at a Korean restaurant.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was good except that the TVs weren\u2019t working, so all the customers came together. Some bloke had his laptop there, and we were Chrome-casting on to the TVs from the laptop, and one of our group was up trying to fix one of the TVs. We got it going in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Socceroos are not alone in Vancouver ahead of their World Cup opener against Turkey. In a city…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-734483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}