Sawt Falasteen - Canada's World Cup moment arrives at home

He was referring to his players, but for Canadian football fans coloring downtown Toronto in red jerseys on Friday morning, the same message applied.

Growing up in the capital Ottawa, 26-year-old Dakota Boal told AFP he would "always be the only one playing soccer," with hockey and baseball far more popular among his peers.

"In the last (few) years, ever since we got into the (2022) World Cup, it feels like it's exploded," he said, before dashing into an Uber to head to the match.

It was a common theme among the supporters filtering towards the stadium ahead of kickoff against Bosnia-Herzegovina: a sport whose popularity has been growing in Canada for decades, finally set for a moment on the world stage.

Erin Clement is a teacher and football coach in Guelph, about 100 kilometres west of Toronto.

As she headed towards the stadium with her sister and a friend, she told AFP all three of her daughters play soccer, and every tournament she organizes at her school is full.

"At the youth level, it's extremely popular," she said, voicing confidence that the World Cup could jolt the sport to a new level.

"We've already felt it, just being here," she said, praising a surge of football enthusiasm permeating across the city as she walked with thousands of others towards the stadium hours before kickoff.

Henri Balcazar, who planned to watch at a fan zone near the stadium, said he was raised playing football, partly due to his Peruvian father.

He and his friends with South American backgrounds have watched as the game's popularity has grown around them, but having the World Cup at home marked a new milestone.

"I never expected it to happen in Canada," he said.

Canada is hosting 13 matches in a tournament also hosted by the United States and Mexico.

X.Habash--SF-PST