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<\/p>\nFans appeared to hold their breath in the moments before Cyle Larin scored in the 78th minute of play, triggering delirious celebrations that knocked over the barrier between the crowd and the stage.<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
Vancouver resident Otavio Ferreira said the energy inside the venue shifted with Canada\u2019s goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt that every counter-strike that we had was an opportunity to score, so guys were chanting and screaming and getting really excited,\u201d Ferreira said.<\/p>\n
Ferreira, who has also attended World Cups in South Africa and Brazil, said the amphitheatre, covered by a soaring wooden arch, is a \u201cworld-class\u201d venue.<\/p>\n
He said he had tickets to see Canada\u2019s next two games against Qatar and Switzerland at BC Place, but he was a fan of the \u201cvibe\u201d at the fan festival and would be back.<\/p>\n
Fellow Canadian fan Lorena Navarrete said she spontaneously made the trip from Victoria on Friday to attend the fan festival.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe energy was amazing from start to finish,\u201d she said, adding that she intends to make the trip to East Vancouver a few more times throughout the tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cCanada pulled it off, and the team did amazing and I\u2019m looking forward to the next game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vancouver hosts its first game of the tournament on Saturday, between Australia and Turkey.<\/p>\n
The City of Vancouver also officially opened its World Cup pedestrian zone running down Granville Street on Friday, through the centre of the downtown core.<\/p>\n
Selfie stations, foosball tables, an art zone and a celebration of the LGBTQ+ community cover the blocks-long zone.<\/p>\n
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim said the atmosphere during the games had been \u201cabsolutely alive,\u201d and businesses in the area would reap the benefits.<\/p>\n
Kristian Jensen from Australia said he had checked out both Granville Street and the fan festival and was impressed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fever is here. We went out to the fan festival yesterday to watch the Korean game. That was a great place to be,\u201d said Jensen of watching the match that South Korea won on Thursday evening.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s getting ready to really party on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s gonna be a good day, a long day. Start early, the party\u2019s gonna go all day,\u201d said Jensen.<\/p>\n
Sim, who was also at the fan festival on Thursday, said he was confident the city had \u201csomething for almost every single fan of football.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dozens of police were walking through the Granville Street crowd, while cement safety barriers, painted pink, and white bollards were set up to block traffic. <\/p>\n
Aaron Lacey, who manages two Irish pubs on Granville Street, said the buzz has been \u201cjust phenomenal,\u201d and he expects the street to be buzzing for the next five weeks of the tournament.<\/p>\n
Back at the fan festival, Stefan Eriksson from Chilliwack, B.C., also had plans to attend the Canada-Switzerland match in person later in the tournament but for now he just wanted to be around fellow Canadian fans.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been waiting for this since I was young, especially to see a World Cup match on home soil,\u201d said Eriksson, who\u2019s a member of the Voyageurs, the Canadian supporters group.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe energy is gonna be incredible,\u201d he said ahead of Friday\u2019s match, adding, \u201cAllez les rouges!\u201d<\/p>\n
New Westminster, B.C., resident Dave Mori, who was at the amphitheatre on Friday, said there had been a \u201cclear, definite shift\u201d in the city as the tournament ramps up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you see more people bought in to Canadian soccer now,\u201d he said after Canada\u2019s match.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see less people wearing Canadian hockey jerseys. I see more wearing Canadian soccer jerseys.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 12, 2026.<\/p>\n
Brieanna Charlebois and Nono Shen, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fans appeared to hold their breath in the moments before Cyle Larin scored in the 78th minute of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":733293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-733292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}