First, the EuroCup soccer tournament is happening over in Europe right now -- and Italy will be playing against Croatia at 3 p.m. this afternoon (my time). Dh will be watching. He won't be alone. Have I mentioned that I just happen to live in the most Italian community in all of Canada? (Something like 45-50% of the population is of Italian descent -- and that's down from a few years ago!) Whenever Italy is playing soccer (in EuroCup, World Cup, Olympics, etc.), the local cafes are packed with fans. Cars sport large Italian flag decals and flags. And if they happen to win -- even a relatively insignificant game, but especially if they win the tournament -- chaos erupts. The streets in the downtown area of the little village that forms the core of what's now a sprawling suburban community are jam packed with people celebrating. Cars drive up & down the streets -- including the major street just outside our building -- with horns honking, sometimes for hours.
These victory celebrations have their roots in Italy's World Cup victory in July 1982. When that game ended, hundreds of thousands of deliriously proud Italian-Canadian fans packed several kilometres of St. Clair Avenue near Dufferin in Toronto, one of the traditional Italian areas of the city. Dh, his brother & some cousins were there (and actually burned out the horn on their dad's car, lol). Many Italian homes hereabouts (still!) have a photo of that team and/or that celebration on their walls -- and it's been called a seminal coming-of-age moment for the Italian-Canadian community. (This 2017 blog post -- originally published in Corriere Canadese, an Italian-Canadian community newspaper -- has some great photos, and explains the groundbreaking impact of the win very well, as does this 2023 article by an Italian-Canadian for an Italian-American online news site. If you're REALLY interested, I even found someone's master's thesis on the subject (!): "Siamo Number One: Toronto Italians, Soccer and Identity, 1982.")
Later tonight, at 8 p.m. local time, it's the Edmonton Oilers versus the Florida Panthers in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup (NHL hockey) finals. Florida won the first three games of the series; Edmonton came back to win the next three, so this game will determine the champion. The last time a team came back from losing the first 3 games in the series to win the Cup was 1942 (!) -- the Toronto Maple Leafs over the Detroit Red Wings. The last time a Canadian team won the Stanley Cup was 1993 (Montreal Canadiens over the Los Angeles Kings), and the last time the Oilers won was 1990 (versus Boston Bruins).
I guess you know who I'll be cheering for. ;) "My" team has always been the Winnipeg Jets, of course ;) but the Oilers back in the early 1980s -- the heyday of Wayne Gretzky (who is just two weeks younger than I am), Mark Messier, Paul Coffey, etc. -- were a close second. I have a genealogy webinar on Zoom that I've signed up for, but I will be keeping an eye on the TV set after that's over!
You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.
I guess my posts about rugby are as incomprehensible to you as this is to me! lol But I can understand the Italian enthusiasm. Not personally, because I'm a fifth and sixth generation NZer, and don't have that connection. But I saw it in France during the football World Cup when Senegal had a great result, and the Senegalese immigrants were delirious with pride. The same thing here (though slightly lower key because, hey, that's the Pacifica way) when Samoa or Tonga are playing, especially if they play in NZ. Enjoy your sport, and good luck!
ReplyDeleteAlso enjoy the genealogy seminar. I'm rather belatedly showing an interest in finding roots offshore (for obvious reasons).
Italy won their game in extra time, but the Oilers lost to the Panthers, 2-1. :(
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