{"id":772674,"date":"2026-07-01T05:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T05:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/772674\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T05:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T05:32:09","slug":"soccer-fans-houston-bound-for-canadas-historic-world-cup-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/772674\/","title":{"rendered":"Soccer fans Houston-bound for Canada\u2019s historic World Cup match"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Chris O\u2019Connor is one of scores of Canadians lucky enough to be travelling to Texas for the round of 16 match against Morocco.Kayla Isomura\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Chris O\u2019Connor has always been passionate about soccer. The 44-year-old has played all his life, but he\u2019s never been so excited and nervous about a match as he is about Canada\u2019s upcoming World Cup<\/a> game against Morocco this Saturday. <\/p>\n

The equity trader, who hung up his goalkeeping cleats last year in the second division of Metro Vancouver\u2019s men\u2019s league, says he can\u2019t wait to be a spectator watching Team Canada play its next knockout game against Morocco.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I\u2019m so excited to go and nervous and sweaty \u2013 and I\u2019m gonna be even sweatier in Houston,\u201d he said in a phone interview Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Mr. O\u2019Connor is one of scores of Canadians lucky enough to be travelling to Texas for the round of 16 match against the rising power from North Africa, which starts at noon on July 4. There is no official tally of how many of the Houston stadium\u2019s 68,777 seats will be filled by Canadian fans, but there has been enough demand that flights from Calgary and Toronto have been supersized to accommodate more spectators. <\/p>\n

In Morocco, Canada gets the giant it sought in World Cup knockout play<\/a><\/p>\n

WestJet spokesperson Julia Kaiser said the airline increased the size of eight of its flights to and from Calgary to Houston, the only direct flight it runs to the Texan city. The company switched out planes with 132 seats to accommodate up to 174 passengers, she said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Air Canada spokesperson Angela Mah said the company is looking at adding more seats for customers wanting to get to Houston. So far, it has replaced one jet flying there from Toronto with a bigger plane and is looking to move around more of its fleet to accommodate fans. <\/p>\n

Mr. O\u2019Connor\u2019s path to Houston will be a bit more circuitous.<\/p>\n

He and longtime friend Greg Perih will be flying to Seattle from Vancouver Thursday night and trying to sleep in the airport there before taking an early-morning flight to Houston. <\/p>\n

Mr. Perih, who works in commercial real estate, said he is already strategizing on how best to escape the throngs of people after the game. That\u2019s because he has to return to George Bush Intercontinental Airport to catch a 5:30 p.m. flight back to the Pacific Northwest so he can be there Sunday morning for his eldest daughter Avery\u2019s sixth birthday at Vancouver\u2019s Science World, which has its golf-ball dome wrapped like a FIFA-branded ball.<\/p>\n

The pair saw Canada shellack Qatar 6-0 in Vancouver two weeks ago. The march to the stadium beforehand was \u201cunbelievable,\u201d according to Mr. Perih, who says he is not the biggest soccer fan, but is \u201ca big patriot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the World Cup, Mr. Perih paid $1,000 to Soccer Canada to get special access to the organization\u2019s ticket lottery, and then paid $1,700 for two tickets to the Houston match. <\/p>\n

This week, the lowest individual tickets available were about $1,030 on FIFA\u2019s official resale marketplace and $1,200 on other sites, according to tracking by TicketData.<\/p>\n

In Calgary, Mitch Randall, a 35-year-old employee of Alberta Health Services, said he was extremely lucky to secure $88 tickets through the Voyageurs fan club and plans to spend less than 24 hours in Houston. The diehard fan also went to the last World Cup in Qatar, taking in all three of Canada\u2019s group stage games, including its 2-1 loss to Morocco.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Canadians were completely outnumbered in that stadium, and there was deafening whistling that their fans were doing,\u201d he recalled. \u201cI\u2019m hoping there\u2019s a bit more Canadian representation in the stadium. This time, there will be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. O\u2019Connor will be among those shouting from the stands. As a boy, he cheered the long-defunct Vancouver 86ers professional team play out of Swangard Stadium in neighbouring Burnaby. <\/p>\n

A day in the life of a Vancouver server on World Cup game day<\/a><\/p>\n

In 1998, Mr. O\u2019Connor began tending goal for his local men\u2019s league team Binger\u2019s Army, and played \u201cfor millions of years\u201d before aging out. Last year, he was called back to \u201cpinch hit\u201d last year for one final game, he said.<\/p>\n

Over the past four decades, Mr. O\u2019Connor has followed the national men\u2019s team\u2019s fortunes, often suffering through excruciating periods before their dramatic ascent to relevance in the soccer world. Meanwhile, his favourite professional team, the Vancouver Whitecaps, have threatened to leave the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been brutal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Now, he believes Canada, ranked 30th by FIFA, has a chance against 6th-placed Morocco.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re hungry and playing away from home makes them a little looser and they\u2019ll finish their chances,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Chris O\u2019Connor is one of scores of Canadians lucky enough to be travelling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":772675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,561,82,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-772674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772674","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=772674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/772675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}